<p>First time poster here (have lurked for a while) & am looking for recommendations. My daughter, 16 & now a sophomore, is looking for a 1 or 2 week pre-college residential art program for summer 2012. She's quite good at art, not great (yet), and is a fairly non-artsy kid (very mainstream, is on the H.S. Poms team), but loves art & wants to pursue an art major in college, probably at a university, not at an art school. She needs to develop creativity & conceptual skills, painting skills, and she loves to draw & is quite good at it. Her art teacher describes her as technically very good, but "tight." She's wants a course to help her skill level & to develop a good portfolio & will probably take AP studio art next year (first time offered at our high school). Because of vacation plans & other reasons (location - she doesn't want anything too far in the south or midwest b/c it's so hot) she has narrowed her list down to the following programs which work timing & length-wise: U of Michigan's 2-week BFA prep or it's 1-week Portfolio Prep; Tyler (Temple U); SAIC; Corcoran; New Hampshire Inst. of Art; Syracuse U; and Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design in Denver (RMCAD -we live nearby, so could commute). We're leaning toward Michigan (great college town & campus experience, not much info on program on website or in this forum), Temple (great city - we're not worried about safety, cool program) & SAIC (has a good review on this site).
Does anyone have personal experience or other info on these summer programs or even the actual college programs, or any tips on picking the right program? Money is not that much of an issue - all programs cost relatively the same & she probably won't qualify for a scholarship (may try at SAIC). Michigan requires a portfolio for admission, but that's OK, she can get one together. Please help! Recommendations! Thanks. I'm also posting on the pre-college forum.</p>
<p>My dd has done the summer program at SAIC and a boot camp at Temple. She liked the SAIC program, as it really changed her work. The boot camp was good too, but she had just come back from SAIC, it was a three weekend non-resident program and nothing could compare at that time to SAIC. That being said, we know many kids that did the Tyler resident program in the summer and did great work. They have all had their portfolios accepted at great schools, such as SAIC, MICA, Pratt, Tyler and RIT.</p>
<p>Thanks, phillyart mom. We actually read your previous review of SAIC & that’s what sparked our interest in the program. Some questions: dd is very capable, but a bit immature for her age (has never really been away from home for more than a few days through her own choice), and as I said isn’t really a particularly “artsy” kid & is initially extremely shy around people but then warms up, but does love art & especially to draw. She’s weak at painting, but needs to boost those skills. What she’s really looking for is an all-around strong art program that will help her improve her technical skills, develop her conceptual skills, with a great group of focused & nice kids, some supervised activities (we live in a college town & she’s not spent much time in the city), & some fun dorm life. She definitely is worried that she’s not “good enough” in art (our high school produces some pretty high quality art students, so there’s a high bar). Will both SAIC & Tyler provide what she’s looking for? Do you know how many students are in each program? How do they match up roommates? Web sites don’t say. Sorry for all the questions, but you & Bears seem to know it all! BTW, where is your dd going to college?</p>
<p>I would recommend Corcoran. Good 2 week program in a fun city. Not too big. Plenty of scheduled activities during the evening.</p>
<p>I’ve heard good things about NH Institute of Art but don’t have first hand knowledge of the program.</p>
<p>I would highly recommend the pre-college program at Tyler. My daughter, a current senior, needed to work on her portfolio so she did their Portfolio Boot Camp for two weeks last summer. The housing is at the University of Pennsylvania through Julian Krinsky Camps.</p>
<p>We chose the Tyler program for a couple of reasons. Temple was at the top of her list for college and since she had never been away from home for longer than a weekend we wanted her to experience dorm life. Not only did she do some great work that she used in her portfolio, but loved the experience living in Philly. Living at Penn, she met the people going to the various Tyler programs, but also met people doing a wide variety of other programs in Philly like internships, model UN, etc. The counselors were from around the world and they had fun activities every evening and a trip on the weekend. As far as her roommate, she filled out a form to match her with someone.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the SAIC, Tyler & Corcoran recommendations.
Creative1 - did you attend Corcoran? How many students in the program? Are most students residential or commuter? Where do residential students stay? Did you get fantastic instruction in drawing & painting, and really develop conceptually? Did you come away with really great portfolio pieces? Some older posts on this forum don’t give Corcoran great reviews - not sure why.</p>
<p>MicroGem - Tyler doesn’t seem to be having Portfolio Boot Camp this summer, but rather an a.m.course called Portfolio Prep & then the students selects an afternoon course (she would probably do Portraits, but maybe printmaking or digital design (not that interested in computer stuff, but nonetheless is thinking of graphic design for college to get a job). But, for the summer just really wants to hone skills. Do you recommend Tyler for rising juniors, or would it be better to wait til a rising senior to really work on her portfolio? How many kids are in the residential Tyler program?<br>
Has anyone done the U Michigan program? Has anyone even gone to their Art & Design for college? I don’t hear much about Michigan on this forum.
Thanks everyone & apologies for such long posts?</p>
<p>I would recommend Tyler’s program for rising juniors. Since portfolios need to be ready to apply to colleges starting fall of senior year my daughter had many pieces from junior year.</p>
<p>Not sure how many kids in total in residential program.</p>
<p>crazymom1 - My daughter did the program a couple years ago. Still keeps in touch with some of the kids she met. The 2 week program was a about 4-5 dozen kids split between their photography, sculpture, digital art and the painting/drawing program. The different groups hung out during the combined leisure activities. Most (all?) were residential as they have separate programs during the summer for commuters. The students stayed at one of the dorms at Georgetown Univ. (I assume that is still the case but you might want to check) and did their art instruction at the Corcoran School. She came away with 3-4 pieces that she used in her portfolio. She did more work but this was 2 years before putting her portfolio together and she had many more recent pieces to use by the time she selected for her portfolio. (She is going to a LAC not an art school BTW). I seriously doubt any 2 week program is going to give you more than 2-4 good pieces for a portfolio. It just isn’t enough time IMHO but maybe I am wrong. She was happy with the quality of the instruction and the seriousness of 90% of the students. One or two were goofing off and it did not sit well with the instructors, so it isn’t Mickey Mouse. Going to the art show at the end, I was floored by the quality of work of a handful of kids. So out of about 15-20 or so painting/drawing kids, 4-5 were just amazing, 7-8 definitely had varying degrees of developing talent and about 3-4 were mehh. One thing my daughter enjoyed was her first exposure to painting/drawing nudes. Honestly, it was exposure she didn’t have locally and it was something she wanted to experience and many other short programs that we researched did not have it. They keep the students very busy - in addition to a full day of instruction/work, they plan many fun activities and that was another reason my daughter liked the program. The RAs are college and grad students from Corcoran and they were fun, great people as well. Dorm was nice, food was good and the students could easily walk to the Georgetown neighborhood of DC for shopping, ice cream, etc. on their downtime.</p>
<p>Given your stated immaturity of your daughter and the fact she hasn’t been away from home for long, I think the program provides a good level of supervision and activity. Keeping the kids busy makes teens less likely to get into mischief IMHO. Not all programs offer this. For example, I’ve heard stories of some crazy stuff at RISD’s summer program.</p>
<p>My D went to NHIA for pre-college a few years ago, so I searched posts to spark my memory. Here’s what I wrote then: </p>
<p>“My DD just finished the 2 wk program at New Hampshire Institute of Art. Before she went, she was nervous about whether there would be any kids like her (not preppy or snobby), would she make friends, etc. Yes, there were kids like her, yes she made friends the first day, and during the final exhibition, they offered her a $5000 scholarship to attend the school. During her portfolio review at School of the Art Institute Chicago last week (which was accepted!), the reviewer was amazed at the amount of work she had done during that time. It was definitely worth it - it helped her see how art school was going to be and that she’d be fine!”</p>
<p>Here’s today’s take: Altho she had been away from home every summer for 2 weeks at Lions Camp, she was also nervous about making friends. She flew from Florida by herself and took a taxi to the school. The kids stayed in dorms (which were new and very nice), and since she was one of the first to sign up, she had her choice of a single or double room. We chose a single, and then when she got there, she was lonely in the room by herself. Luckily a girl she met on the 1st day had her roommate move out on her, and my D stepped right in, and they’ve been friends since. It is a pretty controlled environment, they were expected to be there for all meals, altho a few times they skipped the breakfast and went to the coffee shop for coffee. Manchester is a nice town, and safe, altho they were advised to stay away from the homeless people in the park. She never felt in danger. She liked the teachers and came away with several nice portfolio pieces. There were kids there who were serious about their art and some who were there for more of something to do during the summer, but the art kids found each other right away and instruction was serious. Dorms were new and very nice. There were some weekend activities (shopping at the mall, etc) that were supervised. The only complaint she had was that the meals were catered by Panera Bread. By the 2nd week, they were pretty tired of that and would grab Chinese food in town! She got a $500 scholarship to go the summer program, which was her art teacher recommendation and transcripts. That made it the most affordable program for us. As I stated above, she got a 5K scholarship to go to the school (awarded at the end of the session), and then after she applied and was accepted got other merit money as well. NHIA was her third choice when applying to colleges.</p>
<p>My D is currently an illustration sophomore at MCAD and loves it there - they also have a summer program but I am not familiar with it.</p>
<p>I will say they may all good. Choose the place you want to attend the most. This will give you opportunity to know some teachers? This may help you get some scholarship?</p>
<p>Thanks, loveblue. Thanks also to Redbug, Wheaty, fineartsmajormom, ocelite, PhillyArtMom, TaxGuy, momrath, drae27 & especially Bears&Dogs for all your informative … um, information on this forum (clearly I’ve been lurking a bit). I’ve read many of your posts & always appreciate everything you have to say about art schools, art majors, art programs at universities, pre-college, etc. I’m not sure my daughter will end up as an art major (she’s also an amazing dancer & has a few other talents & interests as well & may end up as a sorority girl majoring in business (most likely)), but your guidance & advice is invaluable. DD is in a hard position right now, she’s Chinese, but adopted (by us - my husband is chinese but 3rd generation so it hardly counts), so everyone always expects her to be great at math & science, but she’s really good at art & dance & not so good at academics (but does fine, 3.6, not great.) She could draw from a very early age (others are on stick figures, she’s on full portraits), but has in her head that art students are weird & druggy & she’s very straight (not sure how that happened) and mainstream. So, she is not sure if college is for her, which is why I really want her to try pre-college art to see if it’s a fit. So, any thoughts are welcome.</p>
<p>Hi. I would say that the SAIC program might not be the structure you are looking for. First, the students do only one studio type of class all day, everyday. Second, there is not much cohesive bonding time for the kids. There is no dining hall, so kids would go out or fix something in their little private kitchen. Also, my dd worked until one or two a.m. A lot of nights. I think the Tyler program you described would be a better fit with a studio and portfolio sections. Also, going as arising junior is perfect.that is when dd went to SAIC. Make sure to attend National Portfolio Day when she is a junior if she can. It is a great experience!</p>
<p>Crazymom, my dd is planning on going to Ringling next year. She is super excited! Thanks for asking. I am sure wherever you send your dd she will have a super experience.</p>
<p>My D is also very straight and mainstream. The kids call it "straight edge, which means no drugs, smoking, drugs. Out of her first roomates (4 in a apt, 2 were international students), one girl was totally straight as my D (from China), one was into pot and did some drinking (from Mexico), and the other (American girl) was into heavy partying and was known to do some harder stuff. Out of her 2 current roomates, one is a smoker, one is straight. I met a lot of the kids (including many of her Asian friends) there during Parents Days and moving in and out times, and I would say the majority are not weird and druggy. Of course there’s some tatoos and peircings, but nothing outlandish that I saw. And the students are very serious about their art. If she’s interested in art and business, MCAD has a program that combines the 2.</p>
<p>I think a summer program is one of the best investments a parent can make. It sealed the deal for us. My daughter was at the SAIC early college program last summer. It was a fantastic fit for her, but she was really ready for an intense studio experience. Her instructor pushed her in all the right directions. It seems my daughter went from artistic girl to artist in 3 weeks. She’ll be at SAIC as a freshman this fall.</p>
<p>Hammierules, congratulations on your dd attending SAIC next year! I love the way you described your daughter’s transformation after the ECP at SAIC, I felt exactly the same way about my dd after her time there!</p>
<p>Thanks Phillyartmom. Best wishes to you and your daughter. We know a number of kids who are applying to Ringling. It sounds like a great place.</p>
<p>I’ll think of you next winter as I brave the cold Chicago visits.</p>
<p>Sorry if this was said earlier in this thread but if and when you look at 4-week programs, which do allow more time for development, I would put Pratt and RISD high on the list. Structured and more demanding than some other places. best of luck.</p>
<p>My D did the Syracuse summer art program for painting and University of Michigan’s 1 week portfolio prep program. Hands down the Michigan program was far superior. Syracuse was a huge waste of money in my opinion. Very little “art” time with very little instruction. She did this program Summer of 2010, so unless it has changed drastically I would tell you to stay away from the program. Last summer she did the 1 week portfolio prep class. She loved it. They were in the studio 9 hours a day! All she did was work. She liked the kids in the program, loved Michigan and just really thought the program was great and came back with some great art that she was able to put in her portfolio.</p>
<p>Because of other summer commitments she couldn’t do any longer programs. </p>
<p>She is also a fairly mainstream kid and when you see her you don’t think “artist”. After the Syracuse program she refused to apply to Syracuse! She did apply to Michigan and was accepted. However, her top choice was Cornell (which also offers a summer art program) and she was accepted there ED so that’s where she is going!</p>
<p>I’ll be glad to answer any other questions if you have them about those programs.</p>
<p>SAIC HS program: depends on quality of teacher, and title of class may not reflect actual class as taught. DS has attended several one-week and two-week SAIC HS classes for commuters, wide range in satisfaction.</p>
<p>I agree with higgins about SAIC. My d went 2 years ago for design. It was a total disappointment. The teacher was a miserable young woman who was not in the least bit helpful. My d and others had problems with the computers—they were running so slow that doing the assignments was an ordeal! When my d approached the teacher with the problem, she blew her off and then later gave her a lower evaluation because she spoke out about the poor computer faciilities. For our family, it was a waste of time and money! Nice dorms, tho.</p>