Art School admission 2017

I am so saddened by the fact that two members decided to hijack my thread for their personal vendetta. This thread was meant for the seniors and their parents to share their plans for college. I thank the members that shared their experiences with art school applications. Thank you @JBStillFlying and @spoonyi

to be clear Isichitiu. I provided real accurate information and answered a question directly regarding one of the top schools . One that my D attends . The rest is unfortunate nonsense facilitated by posters on going misinformation campaign. Wish the OP all the best and as always available via PM if any questions about the terrific program at VCUARTS.

Ok… So not jumping on the VCUARTS train. But I do have a daughter applying to art schools. We have visited SCAD, SAIC, Columbia Chicago, RISD/Brown, Pratt, SVA, Parsons, and Pratt. We have visited state school -Memphis College of Art- as a sophomore. She’s also applying to USC, CalArts, Laguna, and Ohio State (her focus in Animation programs). Her number 1 choice is CalArts, but will wait to visit if accepted only. So far of visited schools, she likes SVA the best. The process is quite daunting, and time consuming!!! So much harder than my older girls who went the academic route! She attended NPD a couple of weeks ago and SAIC accepted her portfolio for admission (I have no idea if this is even a big deal, but nice to get that letter in the mail!) so that was nice to have that feedback. LOTS of work to do in the next few weeks!!! Looking forward to seeing where people end up and advice from people who’ve “been there done that!”

@moonpie The SAIC letter is a nice feather in the cap, but it’s not all that uncommon for them to offer admission at NPD. More telling will be the merit money they offer later on. Still, the letter is an encouraging sign. Your daughter will have a lot of choices, no doubt. Did you give any thought to Ringling? It’s one of the best computer animation programs in the nation.

Our son did the precollege at SVA in 3D Animation. If you have any questions about the school or the area, please feel free. We were also told by the profs during the summer that there is a lot of cool animation production going on in the NY Tristate and that they have a lot of students pulled from SVA. Good luck!

@spoonyj oops!! I forgot to mention she toured Ringling! She felt it was not for her, because their focus is on 3D and she is more interested in 2D. She talked very frankly to several people there about what she could do, and they suggested a combination major of illustration and animation. That kind of turned her off. She truly is gifted at 2-d, story boards and characters! But she has also won some traditional (local) competitions for oils, and felt that her love for traditional art may not be fostered there… I did not get that feeling, but she was completely turned off be the feel of the school. Also she hates hot weather, lol (I am still making her apply because her grandparents live 30 minutes away, lol). @BrooklynRye she LOVED SVA and feels that is is a top choice. She got around NYC like a pro, was not afraid of the subways, crowds, or area at all. In fact, she loved it. My best friend of 36 years lives 7 stops and 7 blocks away, so that’s very helpful. I am so anxious about this whole process!!!

I’ve heard that lack of merit aid can be an issue at SVA but maybe that’s changed in recent years? It’s an excellent animation program. Rebecca Sugar (my D16 is a BIG fan) studied there (not sure undergrad or grad) - we also know a family with an animator daughter who is there now and loves it.

SVA is priced in line with most elite private schools which means $50k+. A bit less room for them on the scholarship front both as a dedicated art school (smaller endowment) and, more, with fixed astronomical housing and other costs being based in NYC. That said, they offered my daughter a 25% scholarship. This was ostensibly across the board, for both artistic as well as academic merit, although we were not high on SVA’s ‘academic’ side. Cost is personal, but if the money is there, evaluate as an investment both in your child’s passion as well as in her opportunities post-graduate. As I posted earlier, we were impressed with the placement particularly in the film and animation industries. NYC speaks for itself and if your daughter is already comfortable and in love it only gets better and better!

good luck . You might also consider MICA.

@moonpie the process is so much more work than a typical college admission but this site helped me out immensely so you’re definitely going about things in the best way! My daughter also hates the hot weather so Ringling was scratched off her list (even though my aunt and uncle live in Sarasota so I was hopeful!) but their merit aid was half of Pratt’s offer so it wouldn’t have made sense financially. Now that she’s in college and only 1 1/2 hours away, I’m glad she made the decision she did.

My best advice is to keep an open mind and wait for the merit aid and full financial aid letters/awards. Then go to the admitted students days. My D was undecided until she attended those and that sealed the deal.

Best of luck! And definitely post when she makes her decision!

Agree wholeheartedly with @veehee! Wait on merit aid and financial aid letters. Believe it or not, these can sometimes increase with a little parental visit depending on how commitments are going for the particular school. There were a couple of high profile schools that actually increased their initial merit aid offers as the process neared the May 1st deadline for student commitments.

Also, totally concur that admitted student days were key. We actually did 3 of these back-to-back to give my daughter immediate perspective on the differences among her finalists. It was eye opening in some cases. For instance, at one of her final choices she was immediately turned off by cliques already forming among students who were fully committed to go there. She was also very impressed with comments from other attendee students regarding the schools from among which she was choosing. All in all a very worthwhile experience.

Good luck!

Thank you ALL for replying!! Her grades good… she has a 4.3 weighted, 4.0 unweighted, 30 ACT and a good amount of AP credits. She worked her ASS off academically, hoping that she could get academic scholarships as well as art. I have no idea if that will happen because it seems there’s not much wiggle room for academic scholarship? That’s why SVA appeals some, and CalArts (if she got in at SVA she was told by the counselor when we visited she would get some automatic scholarship based on grades, and at CalArts, her AP credits would get her out of the most classes). This weekend is BIG weekend for finishing up a bunch of stuff! Thank you for the comments on admitted student days, and waiting for final letters of scholarship! It sounds like we are going to have to have a lot of patience waiting till the very end! We did have a bit of good news this weekend, my parents got a very large inheritance when my grandfather died last year. They told my girl, that if finances were the only reason she would not go to a school that we all felt was the best for her, they would make up the difference (up to a certain amount LOL) but still, it helps knowing we have a bit of a cushion we hadn’t planned on! I was utterly taken by surprise! So I have one more question (for now : ) My D is also a very talented musician (first chair cello, top 10% of vocalists in state since sophomore year). These things are listed in her apps, but wondering for schools like Brown, USC, CalArts, that also have music programs, if she should add a separate slide room/audition selection? @JBStillFlying you mentioned Rebecca Sugar… she is my girl’s idol. She wants to animate, write the songs, sing, play her guitar/cello, etc. But art… that is her passion! She just finished the illustrations for a book for a friend of the family ( dealing with memory care/Alzheimer patient issues). The author shared the pictures with the main character’s family before sending off to publisher to get their “OK”. She was told the family cried when they saw the pictures. They said my D captured her spirit somehow by only seeing pictures of her and hearing stories. The look on her face when they described how much it meant to them was priceless. She said “nothing feels as good as that right there”

@moonpie your D stats are fantastic! Any school would be happy to have her! Actually with such great academics has she considered Carnegie Mellon? It’s a great school, in a great city and I think they have a good animation program. Not to add to your workload but I believe they offer merit aid and their academics are excellent. SVA is a great art school but it’s not at the same level academically. That might not matter to her (or to you) but it’s something to consider.

@moonpie - The synergy for which you are looking, i.e., among art, music, and academics, can be challenging. Since art is your daughter’s passion, by all means start with the top art schools. For the other disciplines, look for schools affiliated/linked to musical and academic resources. Per @veehee, Carnegie Mellon offers a great combination of art resources with top notch academics. Btw, CMU cross-pollinates a lot with Pitt. Perhaps not up to your daughter’s academic standards, but a ton of resources AND a music program including a top marching band.

In this vein RISD/Brown is at the top of many lists. You may also want to look into MICA/John Hopkins. Tyler/Temple offers a ton of resources as well. @JBStillFlying can offer you the best insights when it comes to Pratt and SCAD, and is generally knowledgeable about the undergraduate art community.

This is all good! Enjoy!

My D16 was kind of frustrated last year with how restrictive some of this portfolio submission rules were for the dedicated art schools (i.e. non-uni’s). She had creative writing, musical compositions and visual pieces that she wanted to include as part of her application; however, even the more broad programs like SCAD restricted the number of genres you could submit (you could choose visual and music OR writing, but not both). I’m sure they wanted to keep the applicant focused on their BEST work (and not throw in the kitchen sink) but for someone who is kind of a “big picture” creative like my kid, the best work ran across a number of different areas. No doubt that’s true for a lot of talented kids.

@moonpie your D will do great things, from the sound of things - can’t wait to find out what her options are! If there is room in Slideroom for the musical component and it’s ok to submit several genres, then by all means encourage her to submit those because it gives them a better picture of who she is and the kind of professional artist that she can become. The strong stats will definitely help not only with admission but also scholarships. My D15 wowed a couple of schools with a pretty high ACT and her AP courses (including B/C calculus) and that definitely helped her get good money at both Pratt and MICA. SCAD’s NPC separates their scholarships into “academic” and “creative” so that you can get a good idea of how your scholarship package will shake out. Colleges of art and design, like all colleges, know that strong academics and stats going into college lead to better outcomes (retention, grad rate, job placement, etc.).

When the FA packages arrive, be sure to consider that as a “first step” in the process. As mentioned earlier, sometimes you can go back negotiate for a bit more if needed. Use the gift your parents offered as a last resort to bridge the gap (if needed) or arrange to have it tucked away for grad school, if that’s possible (and how nice is that to have another resource!). One word of advice is to be knowledgable about how gifs from g-parents factor into the EFC. For instance, if your parents place the money in a 529 (or especially in a trust fund!), that distribution is going to be counted differently than distributions from parental assets.

Good luck to her!

I have a question for parents of admitted students. Tomorrow is the due date for SAIC early action and I thought my daughter is all ready to push the submit button. But, yesterday, an admission rep from SAIC called my daughter and told her that they are so excited for her to apply and that they will give her an extension so she can create more pieces andthat she does not need to submit her application on November the 15. The rep said that they will put a note in her file that sid she will be considered for the same scholarships. My D got all excited because she has 2 pieces in the works and she wants to finish them and add them to the portfolio but I am stressed. She needs scholarship and I do not want her to miss the deadline. Are you familiar with the "extension " offers? SAIC saw my daughter portfolio at NPD and they liked it. I am realy sterssed now, because My daughter’s favorite school so far is SAIC

@isichitiu - I am not familiar with such an extension. According to the SAIC website, your daughter would not be disqualified from consideration for merit awards, but could potentially lose “priority” consideration by not applying Early Action. If the school is offering your daughter an extension on the EA deadline, and you/she believe the time can be used to enhance her application to in turn increase her chances of a greater merit award, you should seriously consider it. However, personally, I would not rely on an oral commitment to “put a note in her file” and would ask for written confirmation expressly stating that the school is granting her an extension to file her EA application, including priority merit scholarship consideration.

@lsichitiu They could be granting her a “courtesy extension” due to the fact that she hasn’t submitted anything yet (or did she already submit the application?). My advice: have her send the application and fee w/o the slide room component if that’s possible (for most schools it is). That way they know she’s applying. Then get on the horn with your daughter’s admission counselor and ask for an e-mail confirmation so that she is assured there is no penalty. You can explain being nervous due to the need for scholarship money from wherever she attends - let them know how much she likes SAIC as well! If they agree and send along an e-mail confirmation of the conversation and an assurance - you should be good! (for offers and/or binding agreements, E-mails are as good as regular mail).

My D’s never applied to SAIC but I’ve learned that the art schools do make exceptions (formal, informal and everything in between) in order to attract the talent. They clearly like your D’s work. This is most likely an attempt to spur her interest in them given that they haven’t heard from her (yet). One call should do it all.

Good luck to her!

Thank you @BrooklynRye and @JBStillFlying . I agree with JBStillFlying, I think that the rep probably called because they did not hear from her yet. I told my daughter the same thing and she calmed down a little and hopefully she will push that “Submit” button tonight. The rep call made my daughter feel good, but I am upset because that call made my daughter reconsider applying for the early action deadline. I am the one writing the check , so I am very upset. I cannot pay without scholarship.

Unless you have that extension offer in writing, I would not trust it and I would get your stuff in now. One or two more pieces is not going to make or break your portfolio.