Barbizon Modeling School
Reviews and Complaints

I came in for an interview and the lady told me straight of she liked me because my mom supported me then she went of on politics only stopping every once in a while to ask me my height weight etc. then she said ok so we have 3 payment options because she wanted to enroll me in a class (the cost was about $1834).

me and my mom were so confused me just came in for an interview. But my mom was like ok so I am ok with her taking a class but can we go home and think it over before we pay and the lady had the nerve to say she's "old" so we can't think about it because she will forget. So my mom was all like ok we will do it. (At that point I was a little worried it was feeling like a scam.

plus I live 2 hours away from the school.) then the lady said you know they just started a new class today I will place you in it so then she pulled me out of my chair and walked me up stairs and said ok sweetie this is your class it over a 4:39pm (it was about 11:30am then). I mean I wanted to take go there for modeling jobs and stuff but really it just a beauty school.

Personal I enjoyed the class we learned how to put on make up, how to runway walk, we said acting scripts, and learned poses for photo shot's it was a blast I am just not sure its worth all that money. I am excited for the next class were suppose to do facials.

I'm an aspiring model & I went to barbizon in Ardmore PA because I knew of a girl who went there in my high school. She got work so I figured I'd try to go to them.

When I got there they made me sit in a room full of ppl and we had to do a cold read. Then they made us all walk, whether we were there for modeling or acting. After seeing me walk one of the lady's that worked there told me she wanted me to meet with the director because she saw so much potential in me and my walk. Then I walked for the director as well and she acted as if she liked me too.

So that took my mom and I in a separate office and told us how great I was and that's why they wanted me to stay over everyone else. They seemed very manipulative to me for some reason. Then they asked me if I could sign a contract with then and pay about 2 or 3 grand in total to join the school and pay for a few classes. I was also paying for an imta model convention that they absolutely wanted me to go to.

I wasn't too sure about all of it because of the price so I told her I would call her so that I could think about it. She then told me that I won't be able to get the "scholarship" if I didn't put at least 20% down. So then I came to the decision that I didn't want to do it then they lowered the price and said that I could just pay for my photoshoot and comp cards instead and I could still have time to think about the scholarship they were offering. So me and my mom agreed to that since as an aspiring model I thought I would need that anyway.

Then when I came back for the photoshoot they asked if I would pay for the scholarship and I told them I didn't have the money so the director pulled me to the side and whispered that she would lower the price by a few hundred just for me. I told her I didn't have that type of money and she said it was fine and that I could still do my photoshoot since I paid for that. The clothes were terrible they tried to act like that what all the top agencies were looking for, the makup artist did a horrible job, and 6 months later I still haven't received my pictures and they never answer my calls.

BARBIZON IS A SCAM! And I'm taking them to court!

I had a very bad experience also when I told them I wasn't going to let my daughter attend they drop the price to 135.75 a month and demand the money right then. I'm confused someone please help should I continue to let her attend. I feel its a scam.

I responded to a job offer from Barbizon school.They were looking for a teacher and being a graduate of a prestigious Acting school and having had lots of experience teaching kids 6 to 18 years old I thought I fit the bill.Firstly I had a phone interview with someone in Hawaii which I thought was a little weird but the person I talked tot ended up being very nice and explained the job duties and told me she was going to set up an interview for me with the director of the school here in L.A.She emailed me days later with the phone number and the name of the person I had to set up the interview with.I called several times but the secretary kept says the director was either out of town or off for the day.Finally,several weeks later I was able to set up an interview with this person and when I arrived at my appointment I had to wait 45 minutes because they didn't even know I was coming(despite the fact that I had an appointment set up)and then I was told the person I had the appointment with was out of town and I was going to speak to someone else.At that point I would have walked away but I had already wasted so much time I decided to go through with it.The person I talked to introduced herself as "one of the directors" of the school and after looking briefly at my resume she announced she thought I was the right person for the job and I just had to pass one test.The test was walking the runway.Seriously.they have a runway set up for students and she asked me to walk it.I mean,I applied to be a teacher,an acting teacher not a runway coach and I really didn't see the point but I did it anyway just to get out of there.After I walked she started introducing me to every staff member we would encounter and assured me the job was mine.She told me about the pay and working days,holidays,everything.So I left thinking I could give this a try,after all I was only gonna be there 3 days a week according to the schedule.They gave me another name to contact to set up the signing of the contract and we said goodbye.

Well,not only when I called to set up an appointment they were extremely rude but they didn't even know what I was talking about.They even told me they weren't hiring at that moment!I tried emailing the hawaiian person who I firstly talked to but she never replied and I never heard from them again.

now seeing all these bad reviews and complaints I see that it was a blessing in disguise bt they did waste weeks of my time.

I want to do barbizon modeling school and they called me back after my online quiz I just don't want what these people here say it is

I attended there back in the early 80's. It was costly, but my mother was very happy with the outcome, and never once complained that it was a waste of my parent's time or money.

The reason is because she didn't go into anything blindfolded. There were no promises made to either her or myself. The classes did a great deal for my self-esteem as a pre-teen, and I went on to obtain local modeling jobs. There just isn't much of a market for high fashion in the Midwest.

I do believe that some parents have big dreams for their children. Unfortunately in today's world, some classes of people and businesses will say or do nearly anything to make fast money. Most of the sales-persons in the modeling school industry are paid solely on commission, which negatively affects the "high hoping" consumer. If you choose to pay for your children to take such classes, be prepared for alot of criticism, which many children aren't prepared to endure.

Don't allow your children to be thrown to the wolves. Modeling is a cut-throat industry.

I attended Barbizon once back in 2000something. They took $800 deposit, and when I asked for a refund, the director ( who I remember was a really rude lady) said "You signed a contract which shows there can be no refund."

At the time, I was young and left it there.

But now I realized they scammed me.

On top of the overpriced lessons and auditions that cost people ( really?) , they do whatever they can to get your deposit up front in case you change your mind and give you contracts that limits your refund on it and the time limits of it.

It's a disgusting company who hide behind the values of the ones who started Barbizon back in 1900 which back in those days were much different that the scammers who are running it now.

If you go to their website, you will see that they put up pictures of celebrities that are famous now who once were barbizon graduates. I can assure you that going to barbizon was not their break in. Barbizon feeds on their success and gets false credit for their success.

Anyone who wants their child to get in to the industry, go to talent and modeling agencies. Their open calls and auditions are free, and if they find your child has the talent, they will pay for training and shoots themselves!

I know barbizon is a "school" thus they can ask you to pay for shoots and auditions and lessons, but cmon its just a front for lesson and shoots and auditions that are not worth thousands of dollars.

Barbizon, get some sense out of all these reviews. Stop feeding off of childrens and parents' dreams.

Don't be naive people. My review might be harsh, but at least I am honest to you and not feeding you wrong information to get into your wallet.

I am writing this to raise red flags for anyone out there considering signing up for classes with this company. I have 3 daughters, the oldest 15 and the youngest almost 10.

These two in particular have aspirations for acting/music and fashion design, respectively. My oldest daughter and wife were approached at a local shopping mall by a woman claiming to be a talent scout, falling all over herself about my daughter's appearance and carriage, stating that she has what it takes to be discovered. Of course, this playing right into her aspirations, she jumped at the opportunity to go to a " tryout" the following day, and my youngest daughter wanted to just go along and see what would happen. Of course the talent scout also latched on to my younger daughter, saying she had perfect features for child modeling.

Then they laid out their classroom plan over the next several months and of course the financial commitment. Just to register each child was $495, $150 of which was a nonrefundable registration fee. There was also a contract to sign committing to either a lump sum upfront payment or monthly payments through credit card, totalling a few thousand dollars for the two of them. The talent scout said that my daughters could show up at the first orientation, and if they decided it was not for them, then we would be out nothing but the $150 registration fee for each.

Both of my daughters went to the orientation, which was the Saturday after the registration was done the prior Sunday. My youngest girl ascertained immediately that this was not for her, only went to the orientation, and then went home. The older one went to the orientation and on the same day the first class, then also ascertained that this was not something she felt was taking her in the direction that she wanted to go, as it was seemingly much more oriented towards appearance and modeling and did not have a focus on acting skills and other talent development. We did as was instructed, sending a certified letter to the local Barbizon stating our decision, the reasons, and asking to cancel the contract, the monthly payments, and refund everything except the nonrefundable registration fee.

Come to find out that our credit card got charged the following month and the month after that, and nothing showed up on the credit card statement suggesting we were getting a refund. It was exceedingly difficult to get anyone to answer the phone at Barbizon, and only after several messages were left and several weeks went by degree finally get a call. It took a call to my credit card vendor dispute Center to finally get the business office for Barbizon on the line ( which is apparently in the San Fran area). We are now 4 months down the road from the original contact, and just now the credit card has resolved the dispute with Barbizon.

We did get the monthly automatic debits refunded, and of the original $495 fee paid for each daughter, they refunded $245. So essentially we paid $500 for 2 girls to be built up and told that they could be stars, sucked into the idea that Barbizon had the tools to make them stars, and the extra $200 we paid beyond the nonrefundable $150 registration fee for each was basically for them to attend an orientation, get a canvas bag probably worth $5 with the Barbizon logo, containing paperwork as to the schedule of classes and the itinerary. Incidentally, in another somewhat dirty trick, the fine print of the contract it said that cancellations had to be made within 5 business days of the time of the original registration. As noted above, the registration was on Sunday, and the orientation was the following Saturday, so already we were over the contractual time limit and lost additional money beyond the original $150 registration fee.

It all seemed quite contrived.

All in all, a thoroughly distasteful experience which left my daughters and wife feeling like they had been completely taken, and making me feel like there must be an awful lot of other people who have been highway robbed by this business venture. Bottom line, I would not trust any agency that requires that you put money down before you can investigate, have time to carefully consider your options, and always be skeptical when somebody else is approaching you out of the blue, saying that they want to help you get discovered.

I was a student of Barbizon for Six months. After the class was over I was promised Headshots And a meeting With casting agents. After going to the meeting I had my headshots And then Auditioned For the casting agent. I was told To come back the following day To review My photos. My mom Reviewed That package They gave us And read That There was a required Deposit of 1500.00 to view

The pictures. And my mom Literally Fell out of her chair After reading this. Isn't It *** Wow Casting Agents

are not what I thought they would be like. I am so disappointed.

Please beware!

They call themselves school now in fear of being called scams by real agencies and real industry people.

If you believe you or your kids have talent that needs to be recognized, be aware of schools like this and money grabbing artists alike. Always research a lot of about the establishments before you give any cent to them.

There are so many reviews on this site that should be acknowledged by future victims.

I advise you guys to write your reviews on their yelp site and their original site to gain the attention of a wider audience to the scam of this school.

Okay. I've went to Barbizon and yes, I agree with the amount it cost was a bit extreme but its price included a lot that most are too quick to judge negatively before considering.

-the instructor isn't teaching for free

-make up

-books (yes, we received updated and useful books)

-knowledge on things that you would still pay your child to go through if you needed see fit such as:

--correct posture

--how to dress properly for occasion (formal, casual, interviews)

--properly apply make up for occasions

--proper skin care

--two weeks of efficient exercise and good health

--modeling stances(yes you must stand a certain way), different poses(oh wow, a way your eyes look can actually throw a picture off) and even how to walk down the runway

--learn the difference types of modeling and what to do (lets see you walk in a skin tight formal gown with stilletos and hold balance along with posture and do it with ease)

--to read a script without sounding like your bored or being forced

--gain confidence that honesty, most of your kids lack because of other peers and cold hearted people

--after graduation and the fashion show, a list of modeling/acting companies are given with phone numbers, adresses, email and direct numbers to call fot jobs (you didn't think we just leave your child out in the rain now, would we?)

Now unless you were once a model or actor in your past life or actually have knowledge on everything above and more, then please pass it down and continue on.

I was once a student and now an instructor. I myself model in magazines and have been im a few commercials.

Don't listen to angry people because either they failed at being support for their children or their children didn't grasp was taught and pursue further from what we have given them.

Either sit down and consider what is all given and even do a pros and cons. Just dont be ignorant

honestly barbizon is a huge waste of money , i went and i was all excited to "be a model" and become "famous" i went the first couple of weeks and i absolutey HATED it , dont bother wasting your money for something so *** . and they used to blow up my phone asking for more moneh cause i stopped going to class cause i couldnt take listening to those ignorant people and theres no point of going anyways its pointless.

plus the people there are really rude. finally, the girl who told us we were gonna be famous and super models tried to say i owned another bill and was trying to charge me more money for no reason.

- a girl who attend barbizon schooling

I signed up with them calling all the time after I met with a director and everyone is a director, there. I went to three class all the same, dates information present did not meet up to what was presented.

I am uncomfortable being there so I expressed that for the service I paid I am not receiving any information that is applicable to me. Never I received a call to why I was not attending when I called for cancelation they always said speak with you director.

I did and all I wanted was a refund even said keep the portion I attended if this is a school they should check attendence. When I called the office they referred me to the manger of registrar she was very condescending after speaking to her kris she did not want to give the name who she reports to.

So then I called corperate to ask for the owner I was given the wrong person. Basically this person knew I was in the Hollywood location without me saying anything. It's like he knew I was going to call when I asked if this is the owner he said I am one of the directors.

It is very weird and how can they do this to people. I kept says over and over this is more for younger and again was brushed off and he hung up the phone.who am I able to contact.

I know a person that was an interviewer some years ago for Barbizon Model Agency in Maryland. Funny thing he wasn't all he said he was, and was hired as some type of interviewer.

His name was Andrew T. Hawkins, and was a total FRAUD, and used it to put the make on women. As far as I know, he may of even made that up about being an interviewer for the Barbizone Modeling Agency in Maryland.

BEWARE ! Check things out !!!

Especially people proclaiming to be this person with all these credentials. I learned the hard way.

Barbizon is definitely a rip off. If you took theatre in school then you already learned everything there is to know about acting.

They taught me all the basics i already knew since middle school. And at the end for the photshoot omg dont get ne started the manager rushed the make up artists and they didnt do a good job one of the make up ladies wasnt even a professional she was a teacher at barbizon!my mom paid them 895 for the whole class including hair and makeup. They didnt even do my hair -_- i got so pissed i left and rescheduled. Do not go to barbizon.

Everything you learn can already be taught at school its a waste of money and time and the people there don't care about you all they care about is the money theyre making. I would never recommended it.

Trust me everything they promised were lies and the success rate is like 5% for confidence. You wont go anywhere with this agency.