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| Barbizon Modeling School refers clients to International Modeling and Talent Association (IMTA) Convention ("IMTA Convention") Alley Wagner, 16, drove from Bluff City, in the Tri-Cities area, to attend classes at Barbizon, a national modeling school and agency with a franchise in Farragut. Modeling classes, according to Barbizon and most industry insiders, are mainly used to bolster confidence and are not necessary for all potential models. Barbizon took Wagner to an open call for the scout company International Modeling and Talent Association (IMTA), which selected Wagner to attend a convention. Unwilling to wait months for a Southern convention, she paid $4,000 to fly to Los Angeles and meet with agents there. One week later, an agency named Christian Jacques called. They wanted her in Italy in a week. So the Wagners paid $600 to rent Alley a flat and $500 to upgrade her portfolio. Friends and family pooled frequent flyer miles to pay for her flight. After spending about four weeks in Milan and attending 60 to 70 open calls, Wagner was offered only one job, for a hair show that will pay about 500 Euros ($435).1 A former Barbizon model described how she'd spent thousands of dollars on her training and got absolutely nothing in return. After finishing a modeling program in Toronto, the Barbizon staff convinced her to go to an International Modeling and Talent Association (IMTA) convention, a popular gathering for graduates from schools like Barbizon. At the convention, IMTA showcases models to talent scouts from all over the world. Just as with the modeling schools, there's a huge fee to participate in the IMTA convention. "It's nothing but one big money-grab after another," said the former model during the CBC exposé. "After I went through the whole thing and spent thousands of dollars, I only got one audition and no job."2 Barbizon School of Modeling in the News One father laments wasting his hard-earned cash on the program. He tells a disgruntled mom nearby that as soon as his daughter gets her hands on her diploma, he's calling his credit-card company to stop payment to the school. The two talk bitterly about the sales pitch that convinced them to fork over $1,495 for a few months' training (meeting once every other week) and a "lifetime membership" that doesn't seem likely to pay off anytime soon, if ever. These jabs don't surprise me. Modeling schools are notorious for preying on the dreams of young women and others who want so badly to be the virtually impossible ideal on magazine covers. No matter that most of them don't fit the rigid mold of fashion model and never will; their money spends the same. |
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| Barbizon Modeling School I used to worked for a Barbizon school and it was my experience there that finally convinced me that it is a total scam. Until then my only experience had been with the classes I took. When you work for the company, however, you see a whole new side. When I was working as an instructor they refused to pay for ANYTHING. I was required to put on a fashion show and a graduation with NO budget. I was told to get money from the students. I couldn't believe that. My students were already paying $2,000 to attend the school and now they were being told that they would have to pay for the fashion show and graduation as well. I just couldn't bear to do that to the students. I had 75 students who were paying $2,000, and I only got paid $500 per class for six classes. Barbizon was taking in an astounding $150,000 in tuition (for just my class) and paying only $3,000 to me to teach them. Now, keep in mind that this Barbizon has about 30 classes going at any given time. That makes for $4,500,000 every six months or $9,000,000 per year in tuition. That also means that they are taking advantage of 4,500 students per year. Now maybe you are thinking that it is worth the $2,000 to get lessons from an experienced instructor. Think again. I was an exception. Most modeling instructors at Barbizon are former students that couldn't make the grade. That's right, they are former students that weren't able to get any work as models so they teach. They are told to lie so that the students and parents won't figure out that they are clueless. Also, this particular Barbizon does not even have a complete curriculum to give the instructors so many of the teachers just make up the classes as they go along. I also worked on the recruiting end of Barbizon (once again the recruiters are people who couldn't get any real work as models). When I did the recruiting shows, the "talent scouts" would make up jobs that they had done in the industry. They would claim to have walked the runway in Milan, etc. This was all crap. (No model who has ever been successful enough to walk a runway in Milan is going to come back to be a "talent scout" for Barbizon at a Holiday Inn.) Plus, the recruiters get a bonus for each student that enrolls in their courses - $100 for each student they enroll. So basically, the more students that sign up, the more money they make. So everyone gets in to the school. The whole "audition" process is really a sales pitch to get you to pay for the classes. There is no audition - if you can pay, you are in. I could go on and give more examples, but hopefully, this has already gotten through to the readers. These people do NOT care about the students. It is a total scam. All they want to do is make more money and I am sorry that I didn't see through it faster. |