I’m a freshman in Mason Gross and I want to try and transfer to an art school by junior year. I’ve been considering graphic design or animation to be my major, and I was only able to concentrate on the animation program in SVA. I looked through their website and wondered if it’s worth attending SVA considering I hear the tuition is a lot especially for an out of state student. Are there any other schools anyone can recommend for animation?
And is there a way to get some scholarships whether it is from SVA (or other art schools) or contests anyone knows of?
Thanks so much!
“especially for an out of state student”
SVA is a for-profit private art school–the tuition is the same whether in-state or OOS.
Where are you in-state?
@MischaK there are many schools. Montclair State University offers Animation as a major if you’d like to stay in NJ. In NYC you have SVA as you stated, Pratt, FIT, NYU and I think Parsons (The New School).
Also I don’t mean this to dissuade or panic you, but you can’t really transfer into an art school as a junior. At an art school (and within art departments at colleges and universities) you’ll be getting a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts). They have a much different course credit requirement. Generally with a BFA 70% of your classes are in the arts with the other 30% being in liberals. So you can’t easily transfer into a program as a junior since the coursework doesn’t directly match up.
Generally the first year at an art school is the foundation year with a specific set of classes that set you up for your art concentration or major which you then take more classes in from sophomore to senior year.
So if you haven’t had ANY art foundation classes yet, chances are you’d still be entered transferred in as a freshman at most art schools. Any liberals you have would come in and you may be able to finish sooner, but you’d only have that 30% out of the way. For most art fields pursued at an art school, they’re gonna want to make sure you’ve completed the foundation courses before moving into your major. Your ‘major’ starts sophomore year and there’s usually a set track of classes you take to build up your skills.
Does your current college offer any of these art majors? You could get a BA (Bachelor of Arts) at a university /non-art school. That would be a more even mix of liberals and art classes. I know of many successful graphic designers who’ve done that. They basically double majored in graphic design and paired it with things like business or marketing as preparation for doing commercial design work.