Is the SAE Institute a serious organization?

[e-crooner]

A friend of mine and aspiring home producer of house music visited that institute today and they told him his demos were already great. So he is thinking about enrolling in spring. Since those courses are pretty expensive and I don't want him to waste his money and time, I would like to know if they are telling potential applicants the truth or just want them to get enrolled so they can cash in.

I am always very careful with private, for-profit institutions. Where there is money involved, there is fraud.

I did a quick search on Google, found this little thread which doesn't sound very inspiring:
https://www.thelayoff.com/t/UlNL6Pc

"Forging hours, changing grades to keep student paying when they failed the whole system is rotten..I feel bad for all the kids that get screwed by SAE and the for profit system in general. Profit simply means we don't care about the students all we care about is $$$."

What's your view and experience?

[Spencer Maddox]

This is the first time I’ve seen of this...I was considering looking at this school myself. Anyone have any more information on this??

[Forgotten]

Stamped addressed envelope institute? I would have thought that would be gone now that people don't send letters anymore.

[werp]

I attended the School of Audio Engineering in Brisbane Australia in 1984/85.
There were several schools worldwide at that time including another in Sydney.

The SAE was started by a guy called Tom Meisner who, at the age of 18, was assisting on the engineering of an album that goes by the name of Dark Side of the Moon. You might have heard of it.

Yes the SAE is the real deal. Tom Meisner sold out about fifteen years ago from memory. at that time, World headquarters was in Byron Bay, Northern New South Wales.

SAE certificates/degrees and Ton Meister courses have been recognised world wide since SAE started.

[werp]

It’s a shame if it’s being scaled down or sold off...I hope that isn’t true.
To the best of my knowledge, there’s still a studio in Brisbane. I’ll take a quick look for it.

[werp]

The Brisbane campus is still active and advertising courses starting next February.
SAE should have a pretty huge facebook page.

[KenjiDeVries]

In Europe SAE is actually still a thing and not bad. Expensive yes, but not really a cashgrab due to failing students. Quite the opposite from what I've experienced: even total n00bs will get their degree more likely sooner than later to keep the "success rate" of such institutes high. That's the same for Deutsche Pop or HOFA. Because it is quite expensive the principal himself tried to help me get a scholarship. Didn't work out in the end so I've eventuelly just started to work in the studio of a successful SAE graduate. Learned a lot there instead

[werp]

If SAE starts granting bits of paper to people who aren’t worthy of holding said piece of paper, its reputation will go down the gurgler. That’s not desireable for any institute of learning.
SAE will fail students if they don’t come upto scratch.
Another interesting option for learning this stuff is via Berkely. God knows how much that costs though. Rich kids only I guess.
Why is SAE expensive? because :it spends the money on the gear required to learn how to do the job(s) properly; Real Estate is expensive; Decent teaching and support staff is expensive:

[an-electric-heart]

There's one in New Zealand (where I am). Yes, it's legit. https://auckland.sae.edu/

I just don't know if I'd bother to go to school for sound engineering/production in this day and age... especially for electronic music. Everything you could possibly need to know is freely available on the internet.

[lwj]

I've heard mixed stories. Really good, really bad. They're probably all true.. to the people telling them. That's the thing with this creative educations, it's all stuff that you need to have some talent for. If you don't, an education like this becomes an excercise in self-torture. The art academy I went to was no different, and that wasn't private... some people hate it, or will feel they've been taught nothing of value. Other people will have had the time of their lives and really developed something. I don't think any of these institution thrive by handing out degrees to idiots...the creative world is very small, people talk and that's a reputation you can't shake.

Never sign up on reputation alone. Go there, hang out, talk to the teachers.. see if the vibe fits you.

Me, I wouldn't sign up because I'm not the least bit interested in 'proper engineering'

[e-crooner]

Thanks for your replies.

At my friend's location they only offer the audio engineering course.
Yes, the equipment is expensive which might explain the high course fees, but I wonder what being able to operate the hardware in a studio will help him with his completely software-based home studio. He doesn't seem to have any interest in working in a studio later on, he just wants to improve his productions skills, i.e. his own music.

[Tj Shredder]

Those I know who attended, thought they didn‘t learn too much, but it helped them to contact the industry who would hire them later. But this was is about 20 years ago.
I would not spend the money if you don‘t want to get into a professional career.
It certainly will give you a good environment to stay focused on what you are about to learn. In the end its you who has to learn, no matter how good the teachers are... Its also good to hang out with friends on the same path...

[Benedict]

I was advised not to go there by the guys who worked in a TV station's Audio Production studio when I was there on Work Experience in mid-1986 - the very week Dire Straits came on the Brothers In Arms Tour here to Brisbane Oz.

Now I don't know if that was good advice or bad. Back then the usual way in was to blag your way in as a tea boy. The guys said, please come back next year when you are done with school (I lived in the country). By the time I did, the studio had been shut down and a while later the whole production house was canned as TV had started to die even back then.

I put my head in at SAE Milton (their core location at that time I think). I felt odd about them. I had already done some time in a one-man AM Radio studio so I had core mixing skills. ~$5,000 required was beyond me at the time either way. Later I met several ex-students, who were not exactly skilled.

The upside tho may be making connections as the whole industry works so much on who knows & trusts (or maybe more accurately likes) who.