Creating conflict with instructors
A former employee, who requested anonymity, started to grow wary when Epstein put multiple cohorts in the same classes without hiring more instructors.
The employee has also faced tax return complications since 2021. When her home state couldn’t verify Dogwhistle as a business, she needed Epstein to sign a letter that said she was employed by the company. He claimed tax collectors were “just confused” by Dogwhistle doing business as Chicago Portfolio School. She submitted a W-2 in January 2022, but the revenue agent was again unable to verify the withheld amount and couldn’t process the return until June 2022, which was after she resigned. In January 2023, she didn’t receive a W-2 at all.
I didn’t agree with what Jeff was doing. … I wanted to stay for the students.
Former CPS instructor
Another source, a CPS alum, was asked to mentor a student in summer of 2020 and, later, asked to teach a class. “Getting Jeff to pay me was a struggle,” the source said about her experience. Epstein stopped using direct deposit during the winter 2022 term and claimed to have sent her a check that she never received. After “ignoring text messages for a few weeks,” she was finally compensated a month later via Zelle without any response or acknowledgment from Epstein.
“I wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for portfolio school, and even though I didn’t agree with what Jeff was doing, he was having a hard time finding teachers and I wanted to stay for the students,” she said. “Putting their confidence into this program and having been treated this way was so disrespectful.”
Reviewing the value of portfolio school
Once seen as indispensable resume boosters, portfolio schools have more recently stirred debate. Some graduates credit portfolio schools for helping them build a body of work that mirrors actual industry deliverables, while critics point to the additional years of schooling and high price tags that can box talent out of recruitment conversations.
A former CPS student, who chose to be referred to as SC, attended CPS until the school went silent in January.
“I wanted to do something that would give me the foundational skills that I needed without also continuing to break the bank,” said SC, who held down a full-time job while working at CPS. “Everything just seemed to fall apart. It just all seems like it was for nothing.”
Former students Adweek spoke with said CPS was an affordable option. They were also motivated by having conversations with graduates who held positions at top agencies, as well as the school’s claim in promotional materials that 94% of grads get jobs within six months of graduation in their preferred field.
Chicago Portfolio School’s apparent closure accompanies the shutdown of Atlanta-based Creative Circus, which ceased new enrollment last spring and will close at the end of this year. The Watford Course in the U.K. also shut down in 2021, and The School of Communication Arts in London has also been candid about its financial struggles.