GOsh, sorry you had to find out by actually attending. IIt's ridiculous that they can take your money and hire tutors who have no intention of actually tutoring you. This place has always been over-rated and should be exposed for its bad policy.

Well that's the way of the world I guess, you will never learn without having experienced (an experience which cost me £900...) The strange thing is I still get drawn to the need to be represented by such status. Kinda like a moth going towards a lightbulb...

But there are some far better schools that are lesser known. CSm is saturated with grads already, so it's hardley a standout coming from there.

Im applying for the foundation course an csm! Ive been to the open day, met some student etc and it seems amazing-regardless of reputation. Whats their teaching like? x

well here is a litle insight what goes on behind the surface...I know this girl who did her degree at SCM. She told about an unsympathetic and overly competative student communety, where people had to be secrative about ideas- so that their peers wouldn´t "nick" their consept...for her final graduation exam, she was making a light installation, involving a load of expencive equipment, which she had to finance completly with her own hard earned cash. the day before her examination, anyones worst nightmare came true. due to having everything set up and prepared in advance, so all she had to worry about was her verbal presentation, she got proper burnt. arriving in the morning, she found that all the most valuable props had been nicked. In pure desperation, she announced what had happened, and asked for a delay on her examination, due to her misfortune, but no could do. so she basically had to through with the whole thing with soly the remains of her setup left. Not only was she completely marginalised, and ended up with a unsattisfactory final grade. What happened a few days post examination, is the most horrendous. She recieved a phonecall from this guy, claiming he had all her stuff and there was nothing she could do about it...she recognised the guy, as some rich persons pontsy son, also a SCM student, and said she knew who he was and would rerport him etc. He just hung up. She went to the staff and told them about the incident. They told her simply this; if you take this any further (eg. the police), you will not leave this school with a final degree. They were already aware of who had her stuff, intended to let it be brushed under the carpet, and just forget about it. The psycho who had taken her stuff, was the son of one of SCM most influential and well to do funders ( e.g. giving the collega an annual botch of cash).
in pure disbelief of what she had just experienced, and scared of also loosing three years worth of a degree, kept her from doing what she should- report the incident. So perhaps this will open a few eyes- i don´t know- but surely it is not the kind of place I´d like to pay to go...

:0 thats absolutely ridiculous i can't believe they'd let something like that happen, and right under their noses aswell! my god! well thanks i guess, i have heard unpleasant things bout csm but i kind of took a blind eye, ill rethink the application now! :s i mean im sure theres pleasant stories also from csm but if things go on like that they need to sort it out!

I have some stories, they're from a friend of mine who attended CSM for one semester, and let me tell you why...

She had applied to CSM for an exchange with intention of staying there to complete her degree. She got accepted, they also told her that they would allow it if she chose to stay after one semester. So she quit her registration at the current school, and went to CSM. Also, the thing is, she was coming to CSM from overseas, so it's a big deal to go there. After the semester, they told her that she was no longer welcome to continue her studies, but was welcome to re-applu as a completely start from bottom student. Meaning she would have to start from foundation year. The thing is that she had already completely two yrs from the other school. They told her to re-apply and so she did. When it came to the portfolio/interview, her application was rejected, despite the fact they had allowed her to attend in the first place. They had completely gone back on their word.

SOme other odds and ends about CSM. I had considered going for their MA program, but later decided that it was not something I would want to do. I noticed, all the attention is given to MA students, not BA, so get a BA is not a big deal. I was told to beware of a crazy drawing instructor that would phusically hit ppl, or push them around, literally. Tutors, are smoking and drinking champagne during "class" (if that is what you call it). Tutors have no regard for its students, they don't intend for you to suceed, if they don't feel your work is any good, they will ignore you, tell you to leave without even looking at what progress you've made. The students are over-zealous, an odd bunch, overly competitive, you have no friends because they are over-protective of themselves. Some of the other students work was pure crap and my friend wondered like HOW did they get in? Note this is a generalisation, I don't know many people who have gone to that school, but really, my friend told me she has no friends from CSM. As well, there is no such ting as classes, they call them workshops and those are optional for attendence. And even then, those workshops were not helpful. They feel that you should all be natural geniuses, so no need to teach.

As well, you'd expect that you have a good chance to get a really good internship, but it's not true, the school doesn;t help at all.

So anyways, that's all know from a friend, and I knoew she would not be exagerating all this. But pretty insane how much they get away with. The stuff the above poster wrote is pretty crazy, but I don't think it's hard to believe. These people running the school are insane and money hungry. Normally I would be diplomatic about these things, but a school taking student's money like this is just wrong. They sound like those bad stories about conrupt institutions that yo might see on 20/20.

Bloody hell! There goes my dream of attending csm. hehe. Its diesgraceful they let things like that happen. It shouldn't be allowed! x

*They sound like those bad stories about conrupt institutions that yo might see on 20/20*

One thing possible is writing a polite and professional letter to the top people at Saint Martins and telling them your horror stories and how you may have no recourse but to take your stories to the London media. They won't like that. I'd also imagine there's liason groups of people from industry and people from schools that form committees to ensure the needs of both groups are being met.

But the thing is, major organizations are not stupid. They know how to cover their ass.

Almost every student has a horror story about the incompetence of their school. And honestly, most of the time it's the shocking realization that they're not there to babysit you. Smartens you up to the real world very fast. On the other hand there are truly bad teachers out there (I'm not saying at Saint Martin's, I really know nothing about them) who are cynical, incompetent and have ivory-tower tunnel-vision and know they don't have to be bothered because they're protected. WHen you're young, poor and paying top dollar for your future it really is an unjust slap in the face.