As a Savannah-SCAD grad:
This is absolutely true. SCAD will happily accept your money whether you're at a level to benefit from their classes or not, and instead uses the "you'll be drowning in work" model to weed out people rather than screening for quality of work beforehand. And it seems possible to just Do All The Assignments --not necessarily do them well -- and make it through.
I always felt like I loved the professors and my fellow students and the classes, but we all saw the administration of the place as just in it for the money.
I was a student in 2005-2009, and this wasn't my experience at the time. I knew folks in the Illustration major who felt they weren't learning anything and transferred to Sequential because it would teach them more art skills -- I also knew SEQA majors who switched out because "I love comics, but I can't handle the pace and the workload of this major." If you didn't work quickly, it could be overwhelming. SCAD tended not to punish you for being bad at art, or for never improving -- you can graduate even if you're not truly at a professional level -- but unless things have changed a lot, they will absolutely ask a lot of you.
While the idea that folks are like "oh it's from SCAD, that's why it's not pro-level" doesn't surprise me -- again, my impression has always been that most folks can graduate if they do the work -- but I've also been hired by one writer who found "graduated from SCAD" to be a big plus. So, YMMV; ultimately, your portfolio is gonna say more about you than your degree.
I was about 7 and a half hours away from SCAD and I mean... you only make that drive a few times a year. My first day there I just cried a lot, because I had never been so far away from home in my life and I honestly never wanted to leave my family. But in the end I was really glad I got the opportunity to be so far away and make a new identity in a new place, and that sort of Getting Far Away From Home is something I would recommend to anyone who has the opportunity to do it!
ALL OF THAT SAID, please do remember that a fancy art school isn't necessary to be an artist!! Make sure you can afford it -- I knew so many folks from school struggling to survive the student debt they'd accumulated despite getting work. SCAD was an amazing experience, but I'd really encourage everyone to think hard on that choice. This is a good article with some thoughts and alternative options! My closest friend and crit buddy went to a basic state school when she couldn't afford art school, while I went to SCAD, and yet she's easily equal to me as far as artistic skill and professional work, so it's definitely not the determining factor.