We visited California College of the Arts (CCA) in late August when the school wasn’t in session.
We started off on the Oakland campus and took an hour and a half tour. Then we went to the San Francisco campus for another hour and a half tour. We learned that the Oakland campus is slated to close over the next two to three years as CCA transitions to an expanded San Francisco campus.
That’s a shame because while it will be more efficient for students who have to travel back and forth, the Oakland campus has a rustic “sleepaway art camp” vibe that is very appealing. It was my first time to Oakland, and my husband who grew up in Monterey, was wary of the location. His impression was that it was unsafe. It turns out that Oakland has been in the process of gentrifying over the last five years. Single home prices have shot up from $85k to $400k, pricing out our Uber driver for example. 
The benefit is that the area has changed and feels quite safe. Once you are on the CCA Oakland campus though, it does feel like you are not in a city at all. You feel like you are in a safe and woodsy cocoon. The students we met were both ethnically diverse and friendly.
The way CCA is set up now is that freshman are housed in Oakland in apartments or dorms. They take most of their classes in Oakland. The dorms do not have a cafeteria, so students either shop at the local supermarket which is very close to the school, or use a Zip car to make a weekly run to Costco. They tend to form small groups who shop and cook together; often prepping and making food for the week at one time. The Oakland campus currently is where Animation, Ceramics, Glass, Jewelry and other fine arts are located. The San Francisco campus has Industrial Design. Industrial Design and Animation are the school’s two largest majors.
The San Francisco campus is polar opposite to the Oakland one. Housed in a warehouse-type of building, it’s a sleek but cozy space that is much larger than it appears. Tucked away inside on different floors are studio spaces, administrative offices, and other areas of design including architecture.
There are dormitories near the San Francisco campus that are new and sleek. The expansion is to occur on the back of the building where the parking lot currently resides. CCA on one location or two won’t seem to diminish the school in any way, though many alum will mourn the old Oakland campus which will be turned into an art school for younger kids so will retain it’s artistic roots.
Here are two videos that I shot of both campuses. Overall, I was surprised by how much I liked CCA and I was impressed with the quality of students, student work, and the program itself. It’s easy to have a great experience here.
p.s. More about Art Colleges from our college tours:
Visiting School of Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)
Visiting California Institute of the Arts (CalArts)
Visiting Emily Carr Art + Design University in Canada
Applying to Art School: School of Visual Arts
Applying to RISD: Advice from Antonio Peters in Admissions
Tips for National Portfolio Day
Visiting West Coast Art Schools with Foodie Stops Along the Way
Xtreme Week at Mass College of Art
and some fun stuff …
If you are visiting New York City, here are our cheap foodie finds.
45 Art Gifts for Seriously Arty Kids (by my arty daughter)
Art Competitions for Kids and Teens
Our Art Gift Kits for Arty Kids
10 Inspirational Art Books for Arty Kids
Please check out my art board in which I save art ideas for my arty daughter.
Follow PragmaticMom’s board Art with Kids on Pinterest.
My books:
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
- Selected as one of 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023 by dPICTUS and featured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
- Starred review from School Library Journal
- Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
- 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist
- Green Earth Book Award longlist
- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Scholastic / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Oakland has changed a lot even since I was an undergrad! An art school for younger kids does sound pretty cool, though.
Yes, apparently the real estate prices in Oakland have gone up 400% over the last few years!
That’s cool! I’ve gotten to the point where I am starting to consider colleges (At least I guess so – judging from all of the colleges that are emailing me 😉 ).
CCA sounds like a neat college! 🙂
Hi Erik,
Let me know if you come to Boston to visit colleges! We have quite a few in our state!
This seems a great college for aspiring artists – really cool!
It’s a great art school!
Current student* an update on cca this is the old campus which was shut down because cca is a money mongering, and mismanaging shit school.
They sold this beautiful campus abs fired all the teachers along with it. When I started cca in 2021 they were still trying to milk off the old campus telling us to pay a bus fair see it. We were also promised limited time classes there before they cancelled it too. Now CCA is on hooper street infront of a loud ass train crossing plus theres a ton of wondering homeless. I’d like to call them my neighbors I mean Ive seen a rotation of tents and deranged activity on campus. Ive seen man steal a bike at 10am, idk where he got a saw but he cut through a metal lock.
The worst part of 2021-2025 CCA the quality of education is fcking awful and it doesnt help professors keeps quitting since the school doesnt pay them an honest wage.
I’ve had unqualified professors teach a 3-6hr class and they didnt even know how to speak english. One professors hated questions would tell us to youtube answers or join a bootcamp if we need extra help.
Sometimes they were late to class and we’d wait for an hour without any notice. Complaining gets you another teacher but it doesnt change the quality of class so morales are low. We all had to fend for ourselves to learn programs (they dont teach technical programs) and read the minds of our professors after the critique. I slept very little stressing to resolve problems and didnt have anyone to ask for help.
They fired everyone at the career center for 2years straight we had no job fair and this year its kinda back but again the ppl hired are not competent nor helpful.
The facilities suck ass my tuition keeps them open but students are not allowed to use all of them unless we pay more to attent a class in order to obtain access. The machines themselves are low quality theres streaks when you print and they break constantly since theres only 6 plotters for 200 students!!
I’ve witnessed 3 major on campus protests from facualty to students and it hasnt done much. The current president howes hes a puppet btw Ive read his interviews lying about the new campus ans student treatment. His last interview with artform: cca wouldnt raise tuition so wed grad on time, but they still raise tuition randomly per semester. CCA today is a sad excuse, an institution milking off their past credible prestige.
DONT GO HERE!! On average students still accumulate 100k+ in debt depending how much they randomly spike tuition throughout the year. Admission does nothing but lie their worse then faculty. Overall most of the faculty here are old and do not care for the future of their students. I recommend attending long workshops or low acceptance rate schools because at least theres quality in your education