<p>Syracuse pre college acceptance came already. We have 3 weeks untill put down deposit to keep spot.
Which class was it your daughter took few years back and you are not so keen about?
Was it bussing factor you did not like, or the instruction?
He will be taking two weeks non-credit. This means he wont be assimilated with 6weeks brainy kids at all?</p>
<p>sorry to bother you. It went out from page 1 already.
I have to ask again so could be seen on top of the pile.
Anyone with any feedback appriciated, and you, taxguy</p>
<p>Bears and dogs, My daughter attended Syracuse's Pre college art program and was NOT impressed. In fact,the director of the summer program felt that they needed changes. I don't know if they changed the program,but I certainly wouldn't recommend it as it was.</p>
<p>She also spent a summer takes courses at the Corcoran,which wasn't that good either. For some reason, these schools treated pre-summer very gingerly and didn't want to give the kids a real taste of what their art programs were really like: Tight time guns and heavy time commitments weren't required. </p>
<p>We wanted a program that would focus on developing portfolio quality material,which was NOT really the case with either program. With Syracuse, for example, they might spend a day or so on different topics and then move on without requiring the kids to complete their projects so that the projects would be portfolio quality. The same can be said of the Corcoran.</p>
<p>I guess we liked some of the work coming out of Syracuse a bit better than Corcoran,but we still didn't love Syracuse. If I had to do it again, I would have picked a school that my daughter would have been interested in such as RISD or even Pratt. However, in all fairness, Syracuse might have improved their program.</p>
<p>Bears and dogs, I don't know if my post #3 was clear enough. Both I and my daughter wanted a program that would be intense and would give a good number of portfolio pieces. Syracuse advertised that this program would accomplish our goals. However, the program really was designed to be both an art program and camp. They wanted the program to attract kids to their normal university art program. If a program required too many hours or was too intense , it might not have attracted them to apply. Thus, it wasn't that intensive to my daughter's dismay. She wasn't there just to have fun . She wanted a number of portfolio pieces.</p>
<p>She did get a few pieces but only a few. She had to work like a dog during her junior and senior year preparing a porfolio that should have been created in the Syracuse and Corcoran programs.</p>
<p>It sort of confirmed my suspicion. There is the reason for relatively cheep price, supply provided etc.
Their schedule is perfect being in state, he won’t have to miss school day to attend.
How about campus/ dorm life/ food?
Works need for portfolio is on going process for him and I am more interesting in life in university sort of thing.
Do you think attending Syracuse helped your daughter to choose Cincinnati over stand alone art school?
It must be your busiest days in the year. If you can squeeze two cents, great.
Any other students/ parents? Any opinion?</p>
<p>bears and dogs asks,"Do you think attending Syracuse helped your daughter to choose Cincinnati over stand alone art school?"</p>
<p>Response: Not really, She found that she didn't feel that safe at Syracuse. There was an unsafe incident where one of the townies chased her into her dorms.</p>
<p>She wouldn't have wanted a stand alone art school anyway. She wanted to associate with non-artists. She felt that solely dealing with art kids would drive her crazy. Also, she wanted a school with a marching band since she is very musically oriented.</p>
<p>We've been looking for a strong summer pre-college program for our D. Here's what we've found:</p>
<p>If you want a rigorous, real-taste-of art-school program (in the East, at any rate) consider RISD, MICA, and Massachusetts College of Art and Design. All three are apparently the real thing, offer a good selection of courses, and put an emphasis on fundamentals and portfolio development. </p>
<p>A half-step down from those schools is the College of the Arts in Philadelphia. It has an interesting program, but it seems to be less demanding then the three I listed above. You may also want to consider Moore College of Art and Design in Philly. The program looks OK, and they do emphasize fundamentals and portfolio development. I'm just not sure how rigorous the program is. Note: Moore is woman's college. </p>
<p>Other schools with pre-college programs you might want to look at depending on your S's interests include The Art Institute at Lesley University in Boston, Montserrat, Carnegie-Mellon, and SCAD.</p>
<p>Some other schools, such as SVA, Parsons, and NYU, also have pre-college programs, but after looking at them, we felt they were skimpy - generally, you could only take one course - and did not offer the kind of oversight that we felt was necessary to keep 16 and 17 year olds out of trouble.</p>
<p>Also, I left Pratt off of the list because my son did Pratt pre-college two years ago and wasn't impressed. True, his drawing improved, and he did add a few pieces to his portfolio, but the teaching quality was real hit or miss. He took four classes and only liked one. Too many adjunct faculty and grad students teaching classes.</p>
<p>amptron2x</p>
<p>Thank you for your input.
heard from Maine, SAIC and Syracuse so far. Waiting on MICA, KCAI (end of month) RISD ( whenever but no hope in scholarship$)
Pratt looked OK but I did not want him to commute to 14th street building or reside in Brooklyn campus across the bridge, besides they ask $250 deposit no matter what, so is U of art in Philly. Money is tight, I had to forgo any schools that demand non-refundable deposit for scholarship applicants.
Boston schools are left out because he did music last year there and again, I wanted him to go somewhere new.</p>
<p>Taxguy</p>
<p>why did not do MICA? Do you hate its location that much?</p>
<p>Bears and Dogs, I will give you a very unfullfilling answer: We didn't know that MICA had a summer, pre-college program. In fact, we didn't even know about RISD. This all happened during my daughter's sophomore year. I was very naive at the time.</p>
<p>We received literature from Syracuse, and it seemed to match what we wanted: portfolio development. Had I known then what I know now, I would have sent her to either MICA, Pratt, or RISD. OH well.</p>
<p>Wow.
I am wowing because I can not believe you become sort of guru of eh, I don't quite figure out what- in just these short years!?
Why, and how then your daughter ever interested in doing art? What was her childhood dream?
Wait, isn't your wife designer? And you do tax?
Do not worry I am not stalker or anything, just curious.</p>
<p>Hey, just to offer my two cents--
I attended the Parsons summer program last year and would highly recommend it, esp if you can get a scholarship. Their Drawing and Painting program helped me develop my entire portfolio, and I had the most amazing teacher (a RISD grad actually) and the most amazing time. As long as you're responsible, mature, and serious about art, you'll get a lot out of this program. </p>
<p>P.S. My portfolio I developed there + the rec letter I got from my teacher helped me get into RISD this year :) so I think it's definitely worth it if you're looking for college prep! My roommate also got into RISD. On the other hand, I know people who went to RISD's own precollege program who didn't get in.</p>
<p>That's not really a fair assessment, kalonity. I think the statistic is something like 1/4 of risd's freshman class did risd's precollege. I did it the last two summers, and everyone who /should have/ (in my mind) gotten in, got in. The only students I know who were not accepted (which is really quite a small number) were not, some by their own admission and others by my opinion, ready for art school. They simply did not invest enough of themselves in their work to show admissions folks that they wanted to go to art school (i.e. they approached the program as a summer-getaway rather than a mature artistic experience, and it was reflected in their portfolio). </p>
<p>In my opinion, art school admissions is one of the last strongholds of the idea that hard work pays off. I am really convinced that any summer program is great - and I know students who have done all the major ones - but it depends almost solely on the student: not on innate ability and amazing talent (those only get you interested enough to take on a challenging summer program), but the willingness to face and accept challenges. Simply, to grow as artists.</p>
<p>Bears and Dogs, my daughter was in a top high school and in a humanities magnet program. She liked history and writing. During her early sophomore year, she was doodling some designs which we got to see and realized that she had some strong talent. In fact, she had a number of drawings that she did,which we didn't previously know about. My wife is a published commercial interior designer;thus, I think those skills run in the family. My wife also felt that my daughter had a lot of talent and a "good eye" whatever that is.</p>
<p>We then thought that my daughter should try a pre-college art program experience,but the only one who sent us literature was Syracuse.</p>
<p>My daughter liked the program ,and they liked her,but she wanted a more intense experience and so did we.</p>
<p>We then hired a private tutor who is well-known in our area. My daughter took private lessons to help her develop her portfolio from the beginning of her junior year through her senior year, taking a break in the summer to go to the Corcoran in order to take some figure drawing.</p>
<p>All in all, she is VERY happy with her choice: digital design. However, it wasn't her childhood dream. She really didn't show any real talent or interest until high school, although she did show a lot of arts and crafts types of interests such as carving pumpkins during Halloween etc.</p>
<p>Does this answer your questions?</p>
<p>By the way, I am a tax lawyer and writer. I don't have ANY artistic talent other than by use of the written word; and I can't even type correctly if my life depended on it. Thus, I am not really what I call a "guru." However, I am a very good researcher and become obsessive/compulsive with projects that I research. Thus, I read up on a lot of programs that might have interested my kids.</p>
<p>Now this is getting interesting considering boring start of the thread.
Kalonity
I was dying to ask, how in the world did you pull off full ride for Parsons pre college?
I have impression from your other posts that your parents are not dart poor.</p>
<p>RyanMac
What summer job did you do even to be able to pay half of RISD x twice price tag? Or did you commute?</p>
<p>I am not obsessed with $ but it is the most big deciding factor for pre-college or college.
Like you said, if students are driven, want to work hard, almost any course would be beneficial. I do not even mind fun summer gateaway sort of art class for the kid almost never get to go anywhere but NYC. Parsons, SVA, Cooper, they are here in walking distance. How many inner city kids who have talent and can actually draw even care to look at what they offer if only they would know better. Then again, what’s better is different for everyone. My son’s first hero was Basquiat, now Kostabi; go figure.</p>
<p>Taxguy
Thank you for your reply but you did not answer my question. What did she wanted to be when she was little; before GPA SAT what-not kicked in?</p>
<p>bears and dogs asks,Thank you for your reply but you did not answer my question. What did she wanted to be when she was little; before GPA SAT what-not kicked in?"</p>
<p>Response: She didn't have a clue before 9th grade. In fact, she didn't have a clue in 9th grade either. Probably if someone asked her, she might have said "Archaeology."</p>
<p>It seems she had many option.
Science, music, history, language, then art, and you seems to have enough resource for whatever she choose to pursuer.
Now thanks to this site I know much better how important academics are for even getting accepted to decent art schools let alone getting aid money.Who gets in seems gets in everywhere they applied (yes, I am talking about you, Kalonity) and even just one of those schools is the dream reach for some whom academically and financially challenged. You can say, FIT does not look at SAT or go to SCAD, but you know what I mean. I am worried and maybe regretting for putting limited fund and time to something he loved and excelled but not promising good living in general (fine art).</p>
<p>bears and dogs, this is a good lesson to learn. Many of the better art schools and art programs want the kids to have decent academic credentials. In addition, many merit scholarships from art schools are usually academically based.</p>
<p>I was talking to a RISD admission officer who noted that most rejections arising from RISD occur due to academic qualifications. Many kids who are interested in art and design don't understand how important it is to have a strong academic background until it's too late.</p>
<p>I've never understood students dedicating themselves solely to visual art with almost no regard for their academic standing. It doesn't make any sense, but it seems like a problem attacking the art world specifically. In my opinion, a well rounded education is the most important part of developing coherent and overall INTERESTING ideas. Art schools want people who can think; with time, anyone can learn how to draw. Not everyone has the intellectual drive to attack ideas and find solutions - for the time being, that is best measured in grades, recommendations, and sadly SAT scores. </p>
<p>I wish 4 years of math, english, science, history, and philosophy were required at every high school. To anyone currently choosing a courseload for next year, don't only load up on the subjects you're good at. You'd be shooting yourself in the foot.</p>
<p>first off, I didn't get a full ride to Parsons-- just full-tuition, which was awarded based on my essay application (which was more merit than need based). I still had to pay about 3k for housing/food/art supplies, since NYC isn't cheap! We're not dirt poor, but neither are we rich. I assume you're referring to my posts about RISD, but I'm going because it's my dream school and the perfect place for me, not because we can afford it easily (rather the opposite).</p>
<p>Also, RyanMac, while I didn't know about that statistic, I wasn't assessing anything, but rather just stating facts about who I knew had gotten into risd or not. I have an extremely talented friend who went to RISD's precollege and didn't get in, so I don't exactly agree with your assessment either. </p>
<p>Then again, RISD's acceptance rate this year was unusually low, so who knows what was up with the acceptances/rejections?</p>
<p>regarding academics-- yeah, I think they definitely helped me get into the schools I did. I attend a nationally-ranked science and tech hs and never intended to go to art school until nearly junior year. So the art side of applications was much more challenging for me to prepare, and less of a overall focus for me over the years.</p>