Academy of Arts, Careers and Technology, Reno | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

Best four years I’ve had! This school was my saving grace. Most people who are like me tend to complain about their high school experience to no ends because they didn’t fit in, they were bullied, or they didn’t have enough help to make it through their high school year. But I can safely say, as someone who didn’t fit in at all in middle school, that the people here are the least judgemental I’ve seen around Reno. You really can be yourself here with no consequences. I had terrible teachers, some of which wanted me to fail because I had a learning disability, and the teachers here are some of the best I’ve had. They’re easy to talk to and care about teaching a lot more than some of the other teachers I’ve met. I got lots of help from my special education teacher during my time, as well as a lot of my other teachers, and have done so much better than I think I would have at any other high school.

The students here know what they want to do with their life and have a passion that they work towards every day in the academy they choose. They aren’t necessarily known for their brute strength and would rather battle it out over a friendly race than a fight (true story, possibly one of the best out of my high school experience). There are still popular kids because when it comes down to it, we’re still high school kids. But don’t think of it as Mean Girls, because it’s definitely the furthest from Mean Girls you’ll ever get. Freshman year was a rocky start, and sure, there were a few teachers I’d rather have not had, but as of right now, most if not all of the teachers here care about their students and care about teaching their subject right. This school isn’t a very sports-centric school, so if you’re a sporty person, you might not like it here. But if you’re like me and hate sports, or you’re more of a nerd than a jock, it’s a dream come true.

It’s definitely not the “rich” school most people think it is, though. I’m in the CommArts Academy in the film department. We’re community-funded, so our equipment isn’t the highest quality you’ll ever find, like at Spanish Springs. But it’s not the worst, either. It’s functional and works for what we’ve got. And to be honest, I’d rather have spent 4 years here with average equipment and the best friends and acquaintances I’ve ever made than 4 years anywhere else with the best equipment and the worst social situation you could think of. I found my voice and my passion through AACT, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

All that glistens isn’t gold. At one point in time AACT was the most fantastic school I could have ever dreamed of, but sadly it fell out of touch after being declared “The Best School in the State”… or whatever prestigious title they were given back in around 2012. Did they earn that title? Oh yeah, no doubt. But it sure did change them. It also amplified the existing problems of overly zealous and biased teachers and a quickly crumbling infrastructure of actual career education. In my years attending this school I quickly learned that if a teacher liked you, you were set. You could do whatever you want. Download viruses onto a computer because you wanted to play a video game on it instead of doing school work using the teachers pass-code? Easily just a slap on the wrist if you were one of the lucky elites in the school. You barely stood a chance at that school of being anything if the teachers didn’t support you and recognize your talents. In most normal high schools that’s also how it works, but man oh man is it much more damaging in such a highly competitive atmosphere where new drama brews every second. Not to mention the spastic and random rule changes and shakeups they’d implement at random to remove random student’s rights, which they’d backpedal on in a couple of weeks. As for the crumbling infrastructure of the career technical education? They lost the in-house bank program, the animation program, the vending machine program, the day-care program, all while I was there. This school became more and more about just test grades and academics than actual career preparedness. I’ve seen countless of it’s graduates struggle to make it through college or a career because that’s not what they were taught here. Honestly they never taught me anything about how college works, what I need to do to get in, what I needed to be doing then, nothing. It’s sad seeing so many of my friends drop out of college because they weren’t prepared enough. Would I say don’t go here? No… not quite… but know that you’re taking a gamble on your education based on what academy you choose, who your teachers are, and if they like you. In my time at AACT only one teacher actually believed in me, my potential, my education, my feelings, and honestly that just wasn’t enough for me as he only taught one class. Overall, be wary of the school that’s too good to be true.

Brother told me about his teacher making a comment about a student speaking to low. “Why don’t you speak louder” that in itself is not that crazy but afterwards apparently a faculty member came and talked to him about it. He then proceed to tell the students stuff like who told them and I have ways have making sure you repeat this class. This is completely unacceptable. I don’t know the teachers name or any more details.