Art School admission 2019

Thanks, @ArtAngst, we’ll definitely message you if she has any questions! And POSE does sound like a great option prior to orientation-- did your daughter do it?

@monkey99, since we already visited RISD thoroughly over the summer, and my daughter had a lot of first hand experience of what it’s like by attending the pre-college program, she opted not to go again to either of the admitted students days. RISD really covered all the information about the regular school year at the sessions they held before, during, and after the summer program. The pre-college students and their parents were a captive audience for marketing the school! I hope you and your son enjoy your visit and that it helps him make his decision from what sounds like two great choices. Has he been participating in the informational student webinars last week and this week? In case they are not on your radar screen, there’s also another one about art careers tomorrow evening and a parent one next week.

thanks for the info!

@monkey99 My D and I are also attending this Friday’s RISD accepted student day. We visited 2 years ago, but need a refresher to get the full picture and more info overall. Enjoy your visit.

Yep @artdreamer my D did do POSE as an incoming freshman. :slight_smile:

My D and I returned from RISD’s accepted day event. She was quite smitten by the whole day and loves the school. She really wants the foundation year learning and experience and was very impressed by the students’ works. She has one more admitted student event tomorrow, then she’ll make her final decision.

@cag60093 My D loved her precollege experience there last summer, and it sold her on RISD over her other options. We’ve also been listening to the two student webinars and the career counseling office webinar last week, and those reinforced her impressions. In case you don’t know about it, RISD is also doing a parent webinar next week if you want any additional information or have any more questions.

@artdreamer Yes, I already registered for the parent webinar. I missed the career counseling webinar due to scheduling conflicts. Any highlights or info you found useful? Thanks.

@cag60093 They definitely seem to have a lot of career development support-- I hope my D takes advantage of it! Much of what he talked about is covered on their webpage: https://www.risdcareers.com. Wishing your daughter the best in making her decision!

We were also at the RISD admitted students day last Friday. Son made his decision the following day. RISD’s relative small size and the nature of its rigor and structure in the foundation year will be good for him. We’ve got a family friend who’s a first year student. Our son stayed overnight with him in the dorm on Friday and took him round to various parties, a student opening and a short film screening. Loads of kids connected with him that night, making him feel welcome and encouraged. He’s so happy.

I’m signed up for the parent webinar later this week.

Yay team!

@monkey99, welcome and encouraged are more than half the battle. And you can’t go wrong with the rigor and prestige of RISD, plus the resources of Brown next door. Congrats to your son, and you! Hope he’ll have a great experience there.

officially going to RIT woo

Congrats @sallyface !! and all the best!

With the May 1 deadline looming large, I could really use some guidance in helping my D make the final decision. Before Thursday, she was leaning very strong towards RISD. It had so many thing she is looking for in her college experience and education – excellent reputation as an art school, student body that is serious about the practice of art, a kick ass foundation year, strong commitment to liberal arts classes. She also considered the other two art schools, Pratt and Ringling. Pratt she ruled out due to Brooklyn; she loved Pratt’s intimate campus but she didn’t want to be overwhelmed by the challenges of navigating a very busy city while adjusting to college. Ringling, she really loved during precollege, the excellent teaching, committed student body, the high job placement opportunities. However, her Ringling merit scholarship, though excellent, is tied only to the major she was admitted to (VR) and it can not move with her if she changed her major if VR was the not fit. Without the scholarship, Ringling will be too costly. She won’t lose the RISD’s scholarship if she changes her major from illustration to something else after the foundation year.

She wore her RISD gear to school for a couple of weeks and informed her teachers and friends that she is mentally committed to RISD. THEN she was thrown a curve ball. Our flagship notified her on Thursday that she was awarded a merit scholarship that will cover all tuition costs, housing/board, fees, books, and give $2500 for travel and living expenses for 4 years. Study aboard will also be covered. The scholarship is only offered to one incoming student in the college of art and design every other year. This was completely unexpected and it is not something she applied for or knew it even existed. It’s truly an exceptional financial gift and it’s hard to ignore. The flagship is a very respectable big ten school, but its college of art and design is strong in some majors and in some majors we’re not sure. It doesn’t have an illustration major, like RISD. It’s student body is smaller in size than RISD and not as talented than RISD students in her opinion (which is important for her). The flagship is obviously huge in size in comparison to RISD, and the cultures of the school are very different. However, the flagship college of art will offer flexibility that she can create her own path and she can take as many classes outside of the art college or even minor in other than art if she chooses. It will take all her 24 AP credits so she can opt out of the university wide gen ed classes which will allow her to take more art electives.

Four years at RISD is essentially $200K and at the flagship will be $0. We have enough in 529 and with current income, RISD is doable. There is about $8k in gap annually for parent contribution and she’ll have to take student loans. (We have a sophomore in college and a freshman in HS as well). However, given that the flagship is an incredible financial gift, it’ really hard to ignore it. She is super torn about this. Her heart is all in RISD, but her mind that is very pragmatic knows the flagship will free her of future financial burden. If you were in our shoes, what would you do. HELP!

I’m going to post the same issue on the Art School admission 2018 thread as well, since there seems to be more parents who have current and graduated art school students on that thread. Thanks.

@cag60093 — tough decision! Maybe if we knew the flagship someone might be able to give some more insight.

@gouf78. University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign. I am told that they had a bit of lull in the college of art but have changed their curriculum in the last several years.

One thought is that she can study art and get an undergraduate degree without any financial burden. Then go to grad school when she knows more about what she really wants to specialize in.

At this point, I am a big fan of $0, but I have a kid who doesn’t want to go to our urban campus of State College, even though it has a very very good art school. I don’t know what happened there, but it got talked down among her peers, none of whom have to live her life. :frowning:

Kiddo really wanted to go to Pratt, but we are from a big city and she likes/is used to public transportation, and her brother lives in NYC (dance school). I don’t know anything about RISD besides that it sounds competitive (which is why kiddo didn’t want to apply there).

But I am waiting to see what other people say! We are in a similar boat. Up to mid-week, it seemed SAIC was an inevitable for her. They threw her a few bucks but even with her commuting, it’s going to be $30k plus a year net for us. Meanwhile, MICA just keeps upping the game to the point where there is a difference of $1K between it and SAIC, even including MICA room and board. Also, IMO they seem to appreciate her, but I don’t know if that’s salesmanship and whether that will change once she’s there.

We toured MICA in March but we were zombies (5 am flights will do that to you). People keep saying the area around Baltimore (something hill–Boulton?) is a bad neighborhood but I don’t know if that is true or racism or what–it looked fine to me.

Does anyone have any insight on MICA and the art community in Baltimore? Is there a scrappy, student-accessible arts community in Bmore? We went someplace close by for lunch, I took her to Fells point and then we were so sleepy we went to the airport and waited for our plane. Chicago has an accessible arts community, but the school here (SAIC) is kind of like, “Eh, come if you want, we don’t care,” and MICA is like, “OMG WE APPRECiATE YOU FOR and we NEED YOU HERE.”

Pluses of SAIC (for Kiddo) are that it’s pass-fail and very interdisciplinary, and a known entity, easily accessible by public transport.

I mean, I know what I think but I am wondering how it would look from a student’s POV, since it’s her life, not mine… Any thoughts would be extremely welcome. TIA for all the info and hand-holding.

@cag60093 I’ll DM you more on ‘small art department’ (which is what I work in) pros and cons and RISD. Had some more thoughts from our DM with regards to what you wrote above.

FYI to @missis Baltimore has some wonderful museums, cultural centers etc by the Harbor and other pockets throughout. I have friends in various art fields that find it very welcoming to up and coming artists and it seems to have a good art scene in general from both the MICA’s influence and larger cultural institutions there.

Re ‘dangerous’ perspective, D applied there the year of the riots and we were all really impressed with how safety was publicly addressed on their Facebook page publicly to everyone AND how the school responded to the wider cultural issues in the immediate aftermath and moving forward. My own opinion is that they were very proactive safety wise and respectful and open about what was going in their vicinity.

And yes, their marketing is great! S is having a hard time deciding between them and Parsons and he really responded positively to how personal all of his interactions with MICA has been.

@artangst, Kiddo is heartbroken she got waitlisted by Parsons. She just loves NY. I don’t think Parsons would have been the right choice for her, because I have heard stories about how competitive the students there can be. Still. NYC! She just loves the city; it’s like a second home for her.

@artangst, what is S studying? Kiddo is in “fine arts.” When we visited, I was really impressed with the visiting artist who spoke at MICA’s weekly lunchtime lecture.

@ArtAngst. Thank you! Hope your S’s decision process will be easier than ours. I’ll be touch.