@AskExperts thank you for your response. I was just worried when I saw @pastelrain posted that she already got accepted at Ringling for illustration 2018 and I wonder she got the acceptance letter early since she attended pre college or she applied for early decision. My S is anxious everyday. . .so am I.
Ringling has rolling admissions for all other majors EXCEPT CA. Crossed fingers for your son! I know it’s hard! Been there, done that! Good luck!
I think D’s acceptance to Ringling was in last part of March. Give it a couple more weeks at least.
@Killerbees18 it’s rolling admissions, and also illustration is not nearly as competitive as CA, so that department will take a bit longer. Good luck!
lllustration is rolling admissions but CA is not.
Thank you @pastelrain and @gouf78 . Now we have big decision to make: will it be wise for S to go to Ringling for illustration if he is not accepted to CA. He is accepted to CA for the following 3 colleges for the following scholarships and will b for 4 yrs.
Otis (merit schorlship awared $15k/yr)
KCAI (merit scholarship $22500/yr plus half of dormitory paid for 1st yr)
SCAD (merit scholarship $14500/yr)
I personally Don’t like KCAI (KANSAS CITY ART INSTITUTE ) in terms of the building and classroom/labs. Thought they are very run down. But the admission lady was really nice and keep us up to date for almost everything. So we LOVE that of KCAI.
Have not visited OTIS yet but their response is so slow compare to KCAI interms of the questions I sent them via email. It took st least 13 days to get a response via email.
SCAD : visited both Atlanta and Savannah locations but I m NOT impressed with the recruiters or admission office at all especially the one at Savannah who looks like is her 1st job and kept telling me to check their website for the questions I asked her. I was like I drove 16 hrs to get here and that was not the answer I was expecting. I did like the building and labs and all the equipment they offered. But I have this gut feeling that SCAD is more like a profit school.
My husband keeps saying we should send him to the school that gives the most scholarships. But S really want to go to RINGLING. Otherwise he is thinking of going to a state school and reapply the following yr to Ringling CA. But husband doesn’t want to pay for 5 yrs of college.
What are your thoughts?
Killerbees18–What exactly does your son want to do? Movies? Work at smaller companies? Advertising? Create character design? Story? Does he really know? Has he done a pre-college anywhere?
Does he want to be an animator or another facet of animation?
There is a big difference between signing up for CA and Illustration. Is your son into drawing the art or creating animation on the computer? There’s a lot in between.
The acceptance rate to CA major at Ringling is about 10%. It’s tough. Not only to get in but to get back out.
Their focus is 3D (a lot of kids want 2D (traditional animation) but Ringling’s focus is 3D because that’s the industry now).
If you don’t get accepted to CA at Ringling you might be offered entry into their game art or motion design programs (and also illustration). They have also started a Virtual Reality Development major very recently (which seems very cool to me!). I honestly think a lot of students who think they want CA would be happier in the alternative majors.
No doubt the faculty is excellent no matter what you choose. Look up student work for all the majors.
My advice to your son would be to take a good look at Ringling’s other major offerings now if he hasn’t already and ask some questions about what you really want to achieve. Call and ask Ringling if you’ve got questions–they are very accommodating.
And good luck!
SCAD scholarships can be hard to keep from what I’ve read on this forum. Check the fine print on grades, etc.
@gouf78 SCAD is quite clear on their scholarships. You must keep a 3.0 per quarter. If you go below, you forfeit the scholarship for the following quarter, but the nice thing about SCAD is that you can get it back when you get your GPA back up. If it is an athletic scholarship, you only need to maintain a 2.0, but the problem with accepting that over the merit scholarships is that if you stop the sport, have an injury, you lose it. Many athletes choose the merit based scholarship instead.
Thank you @gouf78 and @CalGal17 for such a detailed response. Yes it is so nerve racking. My son said he likes all the aspect of what u @gouf78 has mentioned in the last response. Any one knows much about Otis? Thought Otis might give him a chance of job placement or internship if he is at the west coast vs Midwest if Ringling rejects him. Any thoughts?
@Killerbees18 I was accepted to Otis as well. I think that being on the west coast is an advantage, personally, depending on the type of industry you’d like to enter. I think Otis is a good school, they are good with job placement and while the campus is too tiny for me, it’s a plus for many people.
Killerbees18–Sorry, don’t know much about Otis. But look to see what companies regularly interview there and that will give you a clue as to their focus and prospects for CA. Their focus seems to be 2D (from what I can see from student work).
Does anyone have any idea of when Pratt Institute might send their decisions? I know that they’re website said before April 1st but they also extended their deadline. People from past forums also said that they got theirs between the 16th and the 24th.
@nadi157 No clue. I was wondering that myself, it’s one of the last schools I need to hear from.
@pastelrain thanks for your response! So Otis campus is smaller than Ringling? .May I ask how much merit scholarship did u get from Otis? I was hoping they would match KCAI but I have not heard from them. Their show in respk
@gouf78 may I ask how do u see what companies usually go to Otis and conduct interview?
Killerbees18–I found this in an article from Animation Career "Top 20 Animation Schools on West Coast.
“Just a few recent employers include Blizzard Entertainment, Nickelodeon, Electronic Arts, Pixar, Disney, Sony Online Entertainment, DreamWorks, and Sony Imageworks.”
I am starting to looks at schools for my son (sophomore) and recalled that I got great advice in the 2017 version of this thread. My older son is a freshman at RISD. Happy to answer any questions anyone has.
FYI, my son received the acceptance package from Ringling today.
Hey guys, I live in New York and received my Ringling package in the mail today. I was waitlisted for Computer Animation, but they offered me automatic acceptance to 1 of 4 other majors, including Game Art, Illustration, VR Development, and Motion Design. I’ll have to do more research on them.
My other Computer Animation options at the moment are SUNY Alfred State (to which I received a full ride, room and board included) and RIT with a presidential scholarship.
I love both science and art and would eventually like to combine them in some way, or at least acquire gualifications in both fields. I would honestly be happy at both a strictly science-based or strictly art-based school, but I feel as though it’s smarter to go to college for a science degree. Thus I’ve applied to a bunch of other schools (particularly USC’s SCA, Stanford’s CS+Humanities (Art), and Cornell’s CALS) and am waiting to hear back from them.
Obviously the Ringling program is ultimately superior to both, but cost is a huge factor to me and it looks like I may have to select an alternative major. Any advice? How do Ringling’s other programs compare to their Computer Animation?