Digitally documenting our work is a big deal at my university. It is a significant part of our grade for each project, and they absolutely are draconian (in a good way) about making sure you have good digital images in a place where they can be viewed by the professors. If your kid isn’t already good at this, it’s an important skill to develop.
Here’s a good youtube video about how to document your work:
Great youtube - lots of helpful info. Using a tripod and cropping are easy details that will help your image look neat and professional.
Good luck!
Thank you very much for letting me know about MCAD online critique. I did not know about it. Thank you also about the youtube link about how to document your work!
We sat down today, analyzing how many hours are available for him to use for his preparation of portfolio, how many more hours he would need to spend on each missed amount of work, and he was stressed, but he is ready to work on some more projects.
Thank you MotherofDragons, for warning us about how important it is to document one’s work. I will keep it in my mind. He already has one drawing done. (All other works are digital art, so we already have files.) And maybe… we will test and see how documentation will come out with it, so we learn how long it may take to do a VERY GOOD documentation.
Thank you!!!
Yosemite–Don’t know what schools you are applying to but try to stay away from drawing from photographs.
Good luck!
@lsichitiu yes, CalArts has slideroom… that was the killer. 16 drawings from life (from models, interior spaces, perspective outside dwellings, etc) then 20 -25 work samples, character sketches and story ideas (this was specific to character animation). Taking pictures of everything, then deciding what to put in, and then editing, and then the video essay… I think it was (not kidding) 15 hours of work. If you count all the work of her sketchbook and the actua drawings… hundreds. She’s doing her last “big” school right now. SVA… then she will be able to breath a little and focus on the secondary schools.
I wonder how soon will my D hear from the school she applied EA ? I see all the posts in the forum of kids going to non-art schools and it makes me so anxious! I wish we would know soon!
@Isichitiu - if memory serves me correctly, Pratt should release their EA decisions in the next week or so and will include any merit aid awarded in the packet.
@Isichitiu sorry forgot about MCAD. My D15 submitted right before Thanksgiving and got a response pretty quickly by e-mail. At that time there were rolling admissions up to the EA deadline. The packet followed about 2 weeks later and included merit aid and laptop scholarship.
@JBStillFlying2 Thank you for the info. I am stressing. I saw online that KCAI status said admitted, but no letter or email from them. The other schools say that they do not post online their decisions, so we have to wait. She ended up not applying to MCAD, she feels it would not be a good fit. Her dream school is SAIC. I would not mind Pratt , VCU, or Cooper either. She applied RD for Cooper, so that app is not even finished yet, so I should not get anxious, but the wait is so hard!
@Isichitiu our friends with kids going to regular colleges couldn’t believe the art school deadlines. Suffice to say if you are going that route you are just on a different application schedule. But it all comes together in the end and everyone has the same 5/1 enrollment date.
Isichitiu, good luck. D attends VCUARTS is in AFO and loves it. Prior she spent a year during high school attending
Coopers prestigious outreach and summer intensive. All I can say is she is SO SO happy she did not attend cooper.
VCUARTS couldn’t have worked out better. Good luck.
My daughter got accepted by Pratt, VCU, and KCAI. Still waiting to hear from SAIC, MICA, CALARTS, CCA, and Cooper but these last 3 she did not apply EA. There was no mention of scholarship in the letters so I wonder if she didn’t get any, or if any scholarship or financial aid will arrive latter ?
This thread has been great reading. Thanks for everyone’s feedback. My son is interested in animation/illustration and applied (or is applying) to the following schools:
CalArts
Ringling
Sheridan
MICA
SCAD
University of the Arts
RISD
So far we heard from UArts and SAIC, which both gave very generous scholarships. He had done a summer program at SCAD, and was also accepted there. No $ yet. Has anyone heard from RISD or MICA yet? CalArts was pretty tough at Portfolio Day. The guy we had needs to work on his bedside manner. It was pretty rude. The other schools were very complimentary.
Sheridan and CalArts undoubtedly have the most extensive portfolio requirements. It’s brutal!
My daughter heard from SAIC today with generous scholarship. She is elated since this is her favorite school. We have not hard from MICA yet.
Just curious what level scholarships folks are talking about for SAIC? What is considered generous?
3 acceptances in 2 days!! SVA (with the Chancellors Merit Scholarship) and SAIC (with the Creative Honors Scholarship). She is over the moon, and we had no idea she would be offered so much money so early. SCAD called yesterday and said her packet is in the mail, and just wanted her to know before Christmas LOL. She has not stopped smiling
@mtmom2014 SAIC was $71,400 and SVA was &50,000… i feel very good about that (even spread over 4 years, it’s awesome)
Thank you for the info moonpie and congrats, that is amazing! It seems like these schools all accept a lot of students. Does anyone know the acceptance rates of some of the more well regarded programs? I am used to musical theater as my name indicates, where they took about 12 to 20 kids per school!
@mtmom2014, I wondered about this as well when our daughter was applying. I think we have all been trained to believe that lower acceptance rates equate to more desirable schools. My guess is that at least part of the reason for the relatively high rates of acceptance at these art schools is because the applicant pool is significantly smaller than for mainstream liberal arts schools. LA schools are generalists and allow for some trial and error when it comes to academic direction. Dedicated art schools are much less forgiving. Yes, one can move around design programs and dabble in photography and illustration, but it’s a pretty small universe. Tough to commit. Tough to always get parental support. And yet just as expensive if not more than typical undergrads. Also, schools are very good at projecting how many they need to accept to get the class size they want. Art schools have apparently found they need to accept a high percentage to narrow down to their desired entry level.
My daughter is mostly interested in Animation, so her schools were tailored to that… she knows the rest will not notify until after February. But having some early acceptances with scholarships is making her feel a bit better. CalArts is still number 1, but she knows its a long shot! But she LOVED SVA, and they have a great program for animation, so she knows she has one with a scholarship!