let’s keep this thread going! I’d recommend waiting til you hear from other schools and what they offer and then you can politely ask for more and say that your daughter received $ from X school and ask if theres any way they can match that.
I do not have specific experience with Ringling. At least when my D was applying to art schools, Ringling was known primarily for animation. My D was a painter-drawer who ended up majoring in industrial design and then working in user experience and various AI devices. Go figure.
However, our experience with other art schools was that, if they were inclined at all to “negotiate”, it helped to have a larger offer from a competitive school (see lisa’s post above). Even better if you can show any change in circumstance that might justify an increase in money.
Some schools, e.g., Pratt, were a flat-out “no”. They have their standard scales and when they reach their max offer they are done. Others, definitely allowed for movement. You just have to be patient and smart as to when and how you approach. It goes without saying (but I will say it…lol), that the more desirable candidate, the more amenable a school is to up its contribution.
Also, keep in mind that dedicated art schools do not have the endowments of classic, well-funded liberal arts colleges. There is a limited pool and a lot of ‘need’ out there.
Good luck!
2 Likes
I appreciate the feedback!
It would be great to hear what is going on with this application season! My D has applied to several schools so far for fall 2022, fine arts…
Arizona State (safety school, no portfolio)… admitted, $15,500 annual scholarship
VCUarts… admitted, $16k annual scholarship
Haven’t yet heard from:
Temple
Boston University
U of Michigan
Also applying to:
MassArt
George Washington
Concordia (Montreal)
We did a big tour from Boston to Philly last summer and she ruled out the pure art schools (RISD, Pratt). She just wants the big university experience and wants to keep her hand in theater. Temple has been top of her list since the school tour but a friend who is a successful artist recommended VCUarts so she is very interested. We will visit soon.
1 Like
Congratulations to your daughter! Some good choices already.
My D22 applied EA to all her colleges. She was seeking a BFA program within a university and had a few other criteria (art foundation year curriculum, in the northeast, ability to play her sport at the club level). Here is where we stand so far:
Accepted to:
UMass Amherst (OOS / $16k annual scholarship / no honors)
Tyler School of Art / Temple (OOS / awaiting merit / honors)
SUNY New Paltz (OOS / no merit but OOS tuition is only $18k per year)
UNH (OOS / $12k annual scholarship / honors)
Haven’t yet heard from:
Northeastern (BFA program where all studio art classes are taken at SMFA)
Her top choices right now are UMass and Temple, so we are eager to see those decisions from Temple. We have not yet been able to visit Temple, so I hope the experience Temple days will still happen in the omicrom environment.
3 Likes
I realize this is an old post but can you share if you don’t mind where your child ended up going? We are in the process of making that decision and your insights are very informative.
1 Like
She also got accepted to Tyler/Temple but we are also waiting for scholarship info. Good luck to your daughter!
1 Like
Hi all, first time posting here but have been following for some time. We’re in this process now too for my oldest son (and will do it all over again in a few years for my younger son who also seems destined for art school).
He is a painter primarily at this point but thinks he’ll major in a design field of some kind - he’s considering sports product design or even interior architecture/design. So, that shifts our list a bit in that he’s looking for schools more centered on design disciplines rather than fine arts, hence schools like College of Creative Studies in Detroit.
Here’s his list of where he applied and what we know so far in terms of his initial scholarship offers. He applied early and has been admitted to all. We won’t get much/any financial aid so we set a number of 35-40k/year net after scholarships in our heads as a starting point to begin entertaining a school as a possibility.
CCS - 26k merit. Super impressed with the school when we visited. Knew it was gaining ground in the rankings and had a good reputation with companies but still didn’t expect to be that impressed. Detroit isn’t exciting to him though.
MICA - waiting to get the first round of scholarships in the mail - know those come in stages and we’ll be waiting until April to really know what we’re looking at moneywise. Can’t imagine he’ll get enough given how expensive it starts but you never know.
SCAD - waiting on all the scholarship decisions but he got positive feedback from the admissions counselor that came to his school for portfolio days that he’ll get good money (but we’ll see if that ends up being true). The only art school with “real” athletics so this is a huge draw for him to keep playing soccer (he’s not good enough to play at D1 level like MN or Drexel). I also like the idea of a bigger school with a wider range of types of people because he could use more options to build social relationships since that isn’t his strong suit.
MIAD - 22k merit. They seem really interested in him and might give more $. Going to visit soon - hear their product/industrial design program is pretty strong. We’re from MKE so I hope he doesn’t end up here despite it likely being the cheapest option (the tuition starts notably lower than the other schools).
Drexel (Westphal) - 14,5 academic merit + 5k Westphal portfolio scholarship. Loved the art/design school there - really unique co-op program for real jobs in very cool companies. But my god the tuition is insane for a place that isn’t a really elite school. It’s not a realistic option for that reason. I think they give good need based aid though so if that is an option for your family, definitely consider the school!
Cleveland Institute of Art - 22k merit. Just applied because they were at his school’s portfolio days and he was intrigued by their presentation about recent renovations to the campus. Not that interested in the big picture.
U of Minnesota Twin Cities (College of Design) - our financial backup school because we get in state tuition as Wisconsin residents. Campus is awesome, we weren’t that impressed with the Design school unfortunately.
My gut tells me SCAD or CCS will be where he ends up but we shall see!
And thanks to all the previous posters in past years - the info, especially on merit aid offers, was super helpful since this art school thing is all new to us.
2 Likes
Our son (and us too) assumed he’d want to go to a bigger traditional university and major in art/design there but then completely shifted after visits. Now he’s certain he wants a dedicated art school. It’s so interesting how things change with visits isn’t it? I never would have guessed.
1 Like
Hi, can you tell me more about your impressions of Minnesota’s design program? That would also be my kid’s financial safety. Possibly interested in Product Design.
First I want to preface it by saying that the person that walked us through the Design school was new at her job as an admissions rep and didn’t have an art/design background. So even though she was super nice, it just wasn’t very helpful because she didn’t have a context for what would be important for a student coming in to these kind of programs. It might have felt very different had a faculty member walked us through.
It just felt pretty generic college to us - like the classrooms were just regular college classrooms. I couldn’t figure out where the larger studio spaces were (we saw one or two rooms but nothing substantial) and there was no air of creativity. The building was just outdated and pretty dead (it was the summer). Having already visited Drexel (their facilities are amazing, esp for a university) and having since gone to dedicated art schools, it just couldn’t compare. When we went to CCS, it just felt like a place people create things. Every department was open in loft spaces - whiteboards, group seating, space to spread out and experiment- just the fashion design area alone had a room full of new sewing machines and students were in there making prototypes of shoes. Students were doing prototypes of cars in the product design area. Everything was messy (in the best way), colorful, collaborative- it was awesome. We also visited Stamps at U of Michigan and this had much more of an art school feel. He still preferred the art school vibe but if we were in state, Michigan would have been a great option.
In our limited experience, it just seemed like you could tell U of Minnesota wasn’t investing heavily in their Design school. Which is fine, it just made it less appealing. The faculty and connections could be great though - we didn’t research that far. Hope this helps.
1 Like
Thank you so much, super helpful. One thing that has worried me is that U of MN’s College of Design is split across their 2 campuses: some programs on the St. Paul campus, others on the Mpls campus. That seems like a barrier to collaboration and cross-pollination…
1 Like
Did your daughters 16k from VCU arts come from Admissions or Art Dept? And you are oos, right?
Admissions, I believe. Nothing in the letter about the art dept. And yes she is OOS.
@txmom0f3 Where is your daughter leaning at this point? We haven’t visited Temple yet. Will do so at the first admitted student day in Feb. Still seems to be her top choice, but we don’t have the full financial picture yet. I wish she had applied to Concordia, since that is affordable to us without aid and she likes an arts-intensive program in an urban university setting.
She is still undecided… we are going to visit both GW and VCU this weekend. We will likely go to Temple too since she hasn’t seen the art facilities. (We did our own tour of campus and Philly but there weren’t in person tours last year.)
She is also undecided about applying to Concordia… they have been online since the pandemic started! She loves Montreal (not sure how she would handle the cold though) but with the uncertainty still looming with covid and Canada changing policy so often, she hasn’t decided. Deadline is March 1st so she will have to make a decision soon.
I haven’t seen Temple admitted student day dates yet! I will have to ask her… lots going on in a short time!
@reenie33 CCS is great for illustration, based on professional artists in the industry. So highly recommend if your son is considering it. I personally went to Drexel for business school, agreeing on the hefty price tag (i did get 50% scholarship but still very expensive at the time). However, I had friends from Westphal in design and they’re all now creative directors. The coop programs are a HUGE perk! We got paid $15 per hour as intern/ coop for 6 months (that was back in 2011). It offset so much of my tuition. That said, there’s risk of paying a lot if your son for some reason cannot find a coop position or only find one that’s unpaid. Only after graduating from Drexel that I appreciate it as a school a lot more. There’s not so much academic rigor if you think about academics in its traditional sense but the school feels like a trade school with the sole purpose of preparing students for the workforce. I’ve since gone on to work at big tech companies, interviewing new grads and was SO shocked how I’ve taken Drexel work prep for granted (job finding skills/ mindset, interview skills, team work skills, communication skills, advanced CV prep, etc.) If your son cares more about academic experience, then any other schools than Drexel is probably better. But if he cares more about having a leg up at finding jobs compared to other students, then I’d sincerely recommend considering Drexel again!
1 Like
This is so helpful, thank you so much! He just got a note from a Westphal student in the mail last week and he said “I did really like the art school there…”.
We might appeal and see what additional money they could give. As a parent who is nervous about “real jobs” post grad, the guaranteed co-op idea really drew me in and it sounds like for good reason based on what you said.
Just an update… my D had a tour of Tyler at Temple yesterday. She loved it! She couldn’t believe how big the facilities are. (Even bigger than VCUarts.) She loved both VCU and GW though. (GW is urban DC so she really liked that but art program is smaller and I think she is liking more the idea of fibers, jewelry, glass etc on top of painting, sculpture etc. so it is looking like VCU or Temple.)
Thanks for the update! We were pretty blown away by Tyler’s facilities as well. How do they compare to Concordia if you were able to tour?
My daughter’s other top choices are UMass Amherst—which has surprisingly nice studio arts facilities, including brand new renovations of the artsbridge floor housing the foundations year studios, but a smaller program overall, fewer faculty and students—and SUNY New Paltz. We haven’t seen SUNY New Paltz, but their ceramics and metals programs are supposed to be excellent.
We are still waiting to hear from Northeastern / SMFA art program. She was deferred to the RD round from EA, but I understand that the admission numbers in the RD round may be very small.
Money isn’t everything, but UMass Amherst is coming in around $10k less than Temple per year and SUNY New Paltz is around $20k less per year. All are OOS for us, but different amounts out merit aid/tuition.
I’m still letting my daughter decide: New Paltz means no loans at all. UMass means taking out the federal direct student loans. Temple means federal loans plus other sacrifices (selling her car, additional loans, trying to become an RA, etc). That is unless Temple comes up with more aid.
2 Likes