Pratt Pre-college Summer program officially canceled, per an email I just received. 
They say they’re planning to offer a virtual option in its place, but no details as yet.
@LadybugPicnic @mommek3 So, my son and I had that conversation with the Pratt counselor, and basically, she said that they plan on having classes start in the fall, whether it be on campus or remote learning. When I brought up concerns about the limitation of resources at home versus Pratt campus, she acknowledged it and said that the classes would be tailored to adapt to the remote learning style. (Meaning, they will have to adjust to the situation but really there’s nothing they can do about it.)
When I asked about deferral, she said that she had been getting a lot of questions about that and it is definitely an option. The student would still have to make the deposit, but he/she will be able to take a year before starting classes and be able to keep their merit aid. She said she has rarely seen a case where the student doesn’t get to keep the merit aid…which prompted me to ask if that was the policy prior to coronavirus, and she said yes. So that is good to know.
I did forget to ask when the student could decide to defer. I will follow up with her on that.
@Graphitemovermom thanks for the update. My daughter will definitely defer as long as scholarships are honored. Class of 2025 it is.
This is interesting: I just received an email from Pratt saying that they are still accepting applications for Fall at both the main and MWP campuses. This seems odd for Pratt. My daughter was already accepted, but they must have my email separately from hers, because it came through mine and not hers.
She ended up getting the best scholarship from Pratt, however, it is the most expensive. Her Dad and I are both Pratt alums, and he actually taught there as an adjunct in ComD, so we understand the value of a Pratt education. Her choice is MICA, but they did not give her the scholarship that Pratt (and others) did. In fact, they gave her the lowest. So we are scrambling to try to make it work.
All of her friends who applied got great scholarships to MICA, but they are painting/illustration majors. Her declared major is photography, even though she has a lot of great painting in her portfolio. I can tell you that her portfolio and GPA are on par, if not higher, than her friends. My question is, does MICA generally give better scholarships to fine arts majors? And if we appealed, would we be able to get a little more to help us with this decision. Does anyone have any experience with MICA admissions? The counselor really seems to want her there, but that is her job to recruit, so who knows. Thank you in advance for your input!
This info. is a few years old, but my D’s experience with MICA was that they have wonderful AO’s who give you a lot of personal attention. They also gave my D less scholarship money than did Pratt and she felt that the fit with Pratt was just better so that’s where she did her art school (also ComD and she’s now working in publishing as an art director). I’m sure fit had a lot to do with getting less funding from MICA but we were a tad surprised that she didn’t get as much as we expected given her academic strengths and ACT score. Pratt was very impressed with all of that. MICA’s a wonderful school and my uneducated sense of the place was that they had a particularly strong fine arts focus even in their applied arts. I was very impressed with some of the paintings and sculptures that I saw on campus; touring the MFA exhibit for GD, I had difficulty understanding how the works displayed differed from a fine-arts piece. Sometimes the “design” connection seemed to be missing. I had no difficulty understanding either RISD’s or Pratt’s graphic design exhibits. So maybe MICA would have been a poor fit for me as well!
Don’t know what to make about any of these schools still accepting applications - that might be a routine e-mail every spring (seem to have a memory of such but can’t remember for which school or when during the admissions cycle that those e-mails showed up). In addition - or alternatively - it might suggest how the pandemic and related economic crisis is playing out with families this year.
I would think they’re all really going to be hurting with the loss of international students. I believe I saw that 50 percent of SVA’s enrollment is international. That’s a lot!
@lrose121 It looks like Pratt extended the deadline (once again) to April 8, according to their website. They have been extending it repeatedly since the original deadline in early January. I guess they feel that they can take on more students. My son has been getting emails from colleges still accepting applications through April 15, so I guess they are hoping to catch applicants who are still making decisions (and many schools have extended the deposit deadline to June 1).
@mommek3 - yes, I agree. I know that Pratt has a huge number of Asian students. That could be part of it. I did hear of several applicants getting waitlisted, so hopefully they will also get a chance to attend.
@JBStillFlying - thank you so much for your insight. You pretty much hit the nail on the head with what I have heard that from others as well, re. MICA"s fine arts focus. I have to admit, I was almost insulted with their offer, considering the level of her work and academic record. However, she really likes the school, so we may try to appeal and see if that gets us anywhere.
So many decisions to make!
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@lrose121 did she get the $6000/yr academic scholarship. That is their only academic scholarship at MICA, except for a few named scholarships that mostly are need based. What are your daughter’s stats? What did they offer? My daughter received the $6000/yr academic scholarship, $11500 creative vision, $1000 NAHS, $3000 precollege and a $1500 grant. I personally can’t stand all these little scholarships they do. My daughter loves MICA but feels Pratt can open more doors as far as connections. She used to have a superstar admissions counselor at MICA who left this year and now she has one that is not the greatest, and that also kind of put a damper on MICA a bit for her. Pratt and MICA ended being within $400/year of each other. It was a very hard choice.
Good point about the international representation at these top-ranked places. Might be a third of the student population! Asia, Europe, Mid-East were all well-represented at Pratt when my daughter attended.
@mommek3 She only got a $3000 academic, $2000 NAHS, $1000 grant and $14,500 Creative Vision award. She has a 4.0 GPA and strong portfolio.
For reference, her fine arts friends got so many other scholarships that I don’t even know the names of - stacked one on top of another - all the way up to $35K+!!!
I think I know the superstar admissions counselor. I actually just reached out to him for guidance.
Your daughter is correct about Pratt’s connections, and I think she is making the best choice. And another little tip about Pratt - their food plan is phenomenal!!!
@lrose121 the superstar is a she so a different superstar. Notice how our daughters’ awards are very close in the total even though different amounts are allocated to different things? For example, yours got 3000 more creative vision mine got $3000 more academic. I think in general that’s what they do and it all comes out to pretty much the same award. I could be wrong.
The more interesting thing than that is the lack of other, more specialized scholarships.
@Graphitemovermom @mommek3 - any info on the deadline to defer at Pratt? and is it 100% certain that merit rolls over with it? my daughter emailed Pratt (and SVA/Ringling) 2 days ago to ask about the details of deferral, but she has not received a reply form any of them.
@LadybugPicnic I followed up with admissions counselor today by email. Haven’t heard back. I did find this on Pratt’s website and asked the counselor if perhaps the reason she said that the student would get to keep the scholarship is because criteria probably doesn’t change that much from year to year:
Deferring to Another Term: If you decide to defer your enrollment/application to the following term or year, please use our electronic form after reading the information below for freshmen and transfers. Please note that any merit scholarship or financial aid package you may have received for your previously accepted term will not be deferred. You will be reconsidered for a merit scholarship according to the criteria for the year in which you will enroll. The financial aid office will also need to recalculate your financial aid package as well if you are a US citizen or permanent resident who submitted the FAFSA.
Oh well that’s a whole different story because I expect their available funds for merit are going to take a nosedive next year. I’m not willing to take that chance.
@Graphitemovermom - this is incredibly helpful info, thank you - I used that link and spent a good deal of time poking around, it was really informative. I agree with @mommek3 , this is a whole different story - if that merit money does not roll over, neither can we! for the record, SVA is saying the same thing … with the $500 deposit, the spot will be held - but not the merit aid. they told my daughter she would be “reconsidered” for the scholarship, but …
have any schools pushed back the april 30th decision due date? hard to believe how soon that is!
I never dreamed that a global pandemic would carry so much weight on my daughter’s college decision! After leaning toward Pratt for its great reputation and program, connections for jobs/internships, close proximity to home and everything that is NYC, it looks like MICA May be back in the race. It’s such a hard choice! Baltimore’s 1377 Covid cases to date compared with NYC’s 110,425 cannot be ignored. While I realize the population of NYC is over a million more than Baltimore, that’s exactly the problem. Too many people crammed together, the need for public transportation, it’s just too much too soon. I do think both schools will begin online, but I do think it’s going to take NYC a lot longer to be up and running. My daughter does love MICA, having attended precollege there. Her concern is that the connections/opportunities may not be as good, and the info out there is vague. Fortunately we live within a commuting distance to NYC, (And equidistant to Philadelphia) so once normalcy returns internships in the summer or breaks are still a possibility. If anyone know great things about career services at MICA, let me know!
My kid was offered exactly the same amount of merit money by MICA and CCA and is having a deuce of a time deciding.
@LadybugPicnic Counselor emailed back and basically quoted the same thing I copied/pasted here from their webpage.
We decided to go ahead and make the deposit to Pratt. If it’s remote learning, then I guess that’s what we’ll be doing in the fall. Hopefully, they get to be on campus.