<p>I am new to this website, so please excuse me if this post isn't in the correct section, but I selected the University of Cincinnati for the forum, so hopefully...</p>
<p>Anyway, I am currently a high school senior at a competitive high school, and I'm really interested in pursuing graphic design/illustration as a career. I heard about the DAAP program at the University of Cincinnati, and am really interested in applying there. My question is what are my chances of being accepted into DAAP, as I've heard it's pretty competitive, getting more so every year. Here are some of my stats to provide a rough account of my high school experience:</p>
<p>Unweighted GPA: 4.0
AP Classes: Art, Physics, Calculus, Government, Literature
Service: Member of National Honor Society (2 years), Spanish Honor Society (2 years), Key Club (3 years)
Other clubs/honor societies: National Art Honor Society (3 years), Art Club(1 year)
ACT score: 28
SAT score: 1890</p>
<p>I also will be graduating with the STEM endorsement my high school offers, having completed an internship over the summer at a local architecture firm. I'm unsure as to whether or not this will help in an art-related field.</p>
<p>Finally, I doubt it'll make much of a difference, but I've received an art award every year I've been in high school, last year getting the top art award. </p>
<p>Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated. I'm also open to other undergraduate school suggestions so long as they have decent graphic design and art programs. </p>
<p>Oh, I forgot to mention that I’m currently in the top 10% of my class.</p>
<p>From what I can tell from their website, the University of Cincinnati doesn’t accept portfolios, which I think is a little strange considering their art program is supposedly highly regarded. Is it true that they don’t take artistic skill into consideration?</p>
<p>You fit the DAAP statistics for entering freshman, fitting well into their middle 50% of entering freshman profile. Your GPA is great, the fact that you have a design-related extracurricular will be noted. While your artistic abilities are not evaluated for purposes of admission, they will serve you well in DAAP. The reason they are not is that DAAP realizes that dependingon the high school, art may not be as readily available as it is in others, and they don’t want that to rule out less fortunate, but otherwise top notch students. Their program is set up to develop and evaluate your artistic talents, once admitted. The first year is not a picnic. You’re expected to get to work immediately, crank out projects that involve a lot of time after class in the studio (with like-minded fellow DAAPers), and at the same time complete your general educational requirements of the university. But here’s the great thing about DAAP…it uniquely exists as a very specialized college within a beautiful, urban university. Your ability to meet all types of people seeking very different degrees cannot be matched at the likes of Pratt, RISD, SCAD, or any other Art-specific institution. That’s a big plus. Second, and even more important, is that you’ll graduate with about 1.5 years of Co-op experience under your belt putting you far ahead of anyone else looking for a post-college art-related position. Lastly, your ACT might not be high enough to qualify you for Cincinnatus, their main form of merit-based aid, but that 4.0 UW GPA will go a long way towards making up for that. Good luck.</p>
<p>you fit perfectly for DAAP. my daughter is a freshman this year in DAAP industrial design. She has spent every waking moment not in a class working in the studio on her projects. she said she has very little time to meet people other then a few people that are at the studio when she is. She was in the top 16% of her class. she had a 3.87 unweighted GPA and got an 1800 on her SATs. with her AP test scores she was able to waive the 2 required english and 1 math course that are required of DAAP students. the first semester for all DAAP students are required course for every major in the DAAP program. art history, 2D design class, 3D design class, drawing class and english (since she was waived from taking english due to her AP scores, she is taking an introduction to public speaking class to help prepare her for interviewing for co-ops). good luck to you</p>
<p>I know this is after the fact but your stats and experience are on point, I can’t imagine you wouldn’t get in. And speaking of which, did you? I got my acceptance letter a couple weeks ago. </p>
<p>That’s weird. I have a friend who said they “misplaced” a piece of her application, so maybe you should call the admissions office to double check. They also have a “Check My Status” on the website, which is how I found out 4 days before I actually got the letter. Maybe the letter is lost in the mail? I do agree that you definitely should have heard back by now. What program are you applying for?</p>
<p>I applied in early November by the way and I had been accepted 2 or 3 days after. So again, I don’t know what’s going on with yours. Keep me posted! :)</p>
I applied later than I had initially intended too (but hopefully still early enough to be considered for scholarships), so I’m still waiting to hear back. I’ll be sure to post whether or not I got in here once I find out.
Until then, do any of you know about other art schools, specifically MCAD and SCAD? I recently go admitted to both schools, MCAD offering me significantly more scholarship money than SCAD (a few thousand a year more along with a free computer). I’d love to hear more about these 2 schools compared to the DAAP program, particularly about their illustration programs.
Finally, random question: Is it normal for SCAD to offer little scholarship money? I had been anticipating to get a higher scholarship offer from SCAD (not exactly sure why), and was therefore a little disappointed when I learned what they were offering me to attend their school. I’m grateful for the money they did offer me, I just wish art schools (and colleges in general) weren’t so expensive.
My daughter attended a summer camp at SCAD and was impressed with their facilities and instructors, but while they gave her a decent amount of merit aid, they were still $10K more per year than DAAP which is on par with them. Plus DAAP offers Co-op, and SCAD doesn’t. DAAP is part of a traditional university, read that as being much more diverse than SCAD, and with the full college experience that you won’t get at only an art/design school. Savannah is beautiful, but SCAD is located in a somewhat seedy area, not that UC is much better. But at UC, you’re living on campus. Nothing is more than a 10 minute on-campus walk away. At SCAD, you’ll be bused to the classrooms in most cases. Think about working late at studio to complete a project…you’ll be doing a lot of that by the way, and then having to wait for a bus back to the dorm…just sayin.
So the good news is I was accepted!!! Unfortunately, I most likely won’t be getting a scholarship, so while I’ll still be considering it, University of Cincinatti has moved to the bottom of my college list. Even though it is cheaper than most art schools, without a scholarship I would struggle to pay the tuition, never mind room and board, food, books and supplies, etc.
@krogile my D was accepted to MCAD and will likely major in Graphic Design wherever she ends up. We live in the Twin Cities Metro area so are pretty familiar with the school. It has a great reputation for graphic design (US News places it top 15 for the GD MFA) and I’ve been continually impressed with the art and design work coming out of the school. The current president is the former provost of RISD and has helped build up a national presence that a school of that size typically wouldn’t have. The campus is small but it IS a real campus, and the main building is wonderfully spacious. I think everyone gets their own studio by sophomore year. Finally, they just completed a brand new 13,000 sf space for film/video/animation/multimedia/web-design called M/Lab which looks really cool.
The res halls are actually apartments rather than dorms, which is nice. And it’s in a great location just a couple miles south of Downtown Minneapolis with plenty of public transportation, near the Walker Art Museum, and located in the same complex as the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Children’s Theatre Company. It’s a fun, college-y, artsy neighborhood.
MCAD’s curriculum really emphasizes professional development of the artist/designer. An internship is a mandatory component for graduation as are professional practice seminars and projects. So you would get lots of practical experience in addition to rigorous studio and liberal arts classes.
It’s wonderful that you got a great scholarship and the laptop scholarship as well. MCAD has a lot going for it at a great price.
I have the impression that the graphic design major there is very computer-y but that’s the nature of the major pretty much everywhere. I would say that MCAD seems to be on top of the rapid technological changes happening in the arts and design industries. The fact that they require everyone to have the same Mac-based computer platform is a good sign of cohesiveness among the various departments and allows for easy movement to other studios outside the specific major. The only other nationally ranked school I know of requiring a Mac-based platform is SAIC (which of course is a very interdisciplinary program).
Not sure where D is going - she’s still waiting to hear back from one more college. She has already gotten into a couple of great east coast art schools, but she really clicked with MCAD and it would be a good fit for her should she decide to attend.
@krogile another thing I just thought of: @Redbug119 has a daughter who just graduated from MCAD and majored in illustration so perhaps this poster can be of assistance to you as well?
Thank you Mamelot for all of the great info! I’ve actually been really looking into MCAD more as of late and have been very impressed by what I’ve come across. If all works out, I will be attending the accepted student day at MCAD coming up relatively soon, so I’m really looking forward to seeing more of the school and possibly getting to know some other potential students. I also can’t wait to see the surrounding area, as I’ve only passed through Minneapolis and St. Paul a few times. I’m still considering SVA and SCAD, but I’m starting to think MCAD will be the best fit. I guess we will see.
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Unfortunately, I most likely won’t be getting a scholarship, so while I’ll still be considering it, University of Cincinatti has moved to the bottom of my college list. Even though it is cheaper than most art schools, without a scholarship I would struggle to pay the tuition, never mind room and board, food, books and supplies, etc.