Am planning a trip for my twin D’s, one generally undecided, the other graphic design. I have a lot of places for D1 (Brandeis, NEU, Tufts, BU, Simmons for Safety) but not much for D2 beyond Mass College of Art and Design.
As was discussed in another thread, the facilities at BU leave something to be desired although we will look and she can decide for herself. Northeastern would be great but it’s too big an academic stretch.
Am I missing anyplace? Suburban is fine, maybe preferable. She and her artsy mom will decide on a road trip to RISD.
if your d is open to it , one of the best programs in the nation is at VCUARTS in Richmond VA. Great arts town too.
D attends and is a graphic design major . USNWR ranked its program #2 in the country just behind Yale(grad ). Great weather too. Suggest a look.
We’re in NC and have freshly designated NYC as the outer limit for any sort of school. It has to be driveable in 1 day and NY is our limit. We usually take 2 but don’t have to. This knocks out B.U.
She has decided that she doesn’t want pure art school but rather a college or university with a design department/school. This knocks out Pratt but leaves in VCUARTS, @stones3
As was discussed at length in another thread, money is a factor and I will let our financial advisor (who does our life and retirement planning) suggest a budget. His model has hundreds of specific schools built in and all he has to do is choose from a drop-down to see how today’s decisions impact our 80s and 90s.
@byadg123 - Another art school/university combo that may be worth a look is Tyler School of Art at Temple University. The art school is housed in a beautiful, relatively new facility. Temple and the surrounding North Philly area have seen a tremendous improvement and renaissance over the past decade or so. Great city, tons of cultural and entertainment resources, and a good 2-3 hours closer to you in NC than NY. Since money is a big factor, we know from both our own experience as well as that of a significant sampling of friends and other posters on this site, that VCU (all ranks cited are for grad school, btw) is notoriously stingy with financial aid, whereas a school such as Tyler is very generous. Good luck!
Understood - we had similar budget and driving limits. Sorry I’m not much more help with schools your way since MICA in Maryland was our farthest limit.
byadg123 this is a very personal decision. All I can tell you is our D ended the foundation year at VCUARTS with all A’s , she was accepted into her desired major Graphic Arts (known to be one of the top programs in the country). She had the fortunate opportunity to sell a few pieces she produced for foundation (with the help of prof). She also won a cash award during the second semester for her writing. She was in addition able to earn a few dollars more writing for a weekly online publication. So , for us it was obviously a very good experience so far. and while she didn’t receive much in the way of aid, the lower starting cost of tuition and the other opportunities she found to earn, placed it within the other top schools she was accepted to. On top of all that the Fact that the grad program(which she thinks she would like to attend), is ranked as #2 in the entire country only behind Yale —well we know how fortunate she is. For us, its the perfect spot. Wish you all the best.
@byadg123 if you’re looking for a larger university rather than a stand alone art school, I would suggest as @BrooklynRye did, to check out Temple University’s Tyler School of Art. My D just finished her foundation year and loves the entire vibe of the school, the university, and the city. She’d be happy to tell you more, just DM me.
As far as aid went, Temple was super generous in comparison to VCU Arts which is very expensive for OOS. Plus it’s in the middle of Virginia. It can’t compare to what Philly has to offer.
@byadg123, as has been discussed in detail on previous threads, the lower going-in tuition at VCU is more than offset at schools such as Tyler. While they have higher going-in tuition, Tyler’s financial aid and merit awards bring this to less than the lower cost of VCU. This is true at elite art schools such as RISD and Pratt as well.
Also, in evaluating any art school, aside from recognizing that there are no established rankings for undergraduate art schools, even graduate rankings should be parsed. For instance, for graphic design (your child’s target major) graduate schools, VCU is actually ranked #7. The #1 ranked school is RISD, followed by Yale, MICA, Cranbrook Academy, Cal Arts, and Carnegie Mellon. This is the breakout from the cumulative rankings found in USNWR.
FYI, @veehee is a great resource re Tyler and was very helpful to us and our daughter in making her decision.
no , actually our experience was that Pratt did not offer aid high enough to “offset” the much higher tuition costs and room and board costs. They did suggest the upstate campus for two years at a lower costs, but then its honestly not even close to the same experience. Stated many times, after all scholarship offers schools were all within 5-7k of each other so for us its not a factor . Meanwhile very happy with VCUARTS .
It’s interesting that you were not offered a substantial award from Pratt. I have yet to communicate with any parent, on this thread or outside of it, who did not receive such an award. It does offer a lopsided juxtaposition: Everyone receives a substantial award from Pratt, except you, versus no one receives money from VCU Arts, except you. Once schools are effectively on the same level economically, it often comes down to personal fit. This is all good and why we are all lucky to have so many options in so many different settings. Glad you and your child are so happy with your choice. It’s, after all, what makes horse races.
Well D off to VCUARTS shortly for sophomore year! Very exciting as last year went so well with all A’s, getting into her #1 choice of major, being published in a school essay contest with cash award, having sold several works and now was just commissioned for another piece and school hasn’t even started yet! hope for continued success. Good luck to all.
@stones3 raises an interesting question. Many of us target schools because they offer majors of interest to our child. However, we don’t necessarily factor in the difficulty of being accepted to that major. There are no ready statistics regarding this of which I am aware. The difficulty is compounded in that there are schools where the large majority of students are accepted to their first major, but have majors in which a much lower percentage are accepted. Which are the difficult acceptance majors at VCUArts, Stones? I am curious because I noted that 90% of VCUArts students are admitted to their first choice of majors. At RISD, a much smaller art school, majors are restricted more as a matter of studio space. Popular majors have more space to accommodate the greater amount of applications. This has the affect, oddly, of rendering less popular majors tougher to get into. This relates back to the OP’s original question. In our search for art schools, it would seem the ability to get into one’s major should be at least researched. Anyone have experience with this at other art schools?
@BrooklynRye my D is experiencing this currently at Temple. All BFA candidates declare a major after sophomore year. All the majors except GAD/Interactive Media do not require an application/portfolio to enter the programs. So of course the one major that does is the major my D desires! It’s stressful on her and I can’t say that part of me wishes she would have accepted Pratt or Ringling’s offer because those schools do not ask students to apply to their desired program and that stress would not be a part of her world right now. But she loved Temple and felt it was a good fit for her, so that’s where she went. Overall, she loves the school and her classes and profs. But if she could change one thing, I’m almost positive it would be having to apply to the major.
At RISD, students declare their major in March of their FRESHMAN year! It is VERY stressful. I was not aware that this was not the case at Pratt. @JBStillFlying can definitely weigh-in on this!
When my D15 was accepted to Pratt she was actually admitted to her major (Communication Design) and concentration (graphic design) at that time. If they have changed that it’s recent. It was not necessary for her to declare later on. When we visited for Accepted Day (a little more than two years ago, now) they said declaring a major wasn’t required for admission to the schools of art or design and that it was possible to gain admission to a major after foundation year - but I wouldn’t bet on it. For sure, they do allow you to enter as “undeclared” but there are risks to doing that. First of all, ID, ComD, interior, etc. - all the depts that are highly ranked - are likely to be full as long as students are allowed to be admitted up front. Don’t know this offhand but would bet that’s true for animation as well, possibly even film. Secondly, Pratt has a lot of students - they admit more than 600 new students a year - so the earlier you are in your major, the better because if you are a declared major you get your classes - though I suppose the advisors know enough to make sure those who aren’t declared have done so by the time registration rolls around! And finally, programs like arch. and fashion, with their own foundation years, obviously have to be an admission to the major - no exceptions.
I’m guessing if there is any flexibility it’s something within the fine arts such as sculpture, photography, ceramics, painting, or jewelry. You can probably switch among those or come in undeclared to the school of art and declare a fine arts major sometime during first year with little worry about exact discipline.
Have no idea whether there are additional portfolio requirements for anyone who enters Pratt as “undeclared” and wants to join, say, the interior design dept. or animation by 2nd year. My guess is “No” and the real challenge would just be whether they have room at all for you in that dept.
Addendum to #16 ^^ I notice there is a specific question as to WHEN during your course of study to declare your major. From what I’ve noticed, the majors at Pratt all have 2nd year required courses that, assuming you could actually switch later on, you’d still have to take. So if you ARE undeclared, it’s best to get your major decided and declared well before fall registration opens spring of your first year.
One comment to add to the discussion of (additional) portfolio reviews in spring of sophomore year and applications to majors at that time. My experience with some state schools is that they do NOT require a portfolio review upon admission to the art major. Have no idea if that is the case with Temple or VCUArts, but it’s certainly true for all the CSU’s, for UCF, and other large state schools with renowned art/design schools. In those cases, when you apply you do specify your major interest and, if accepted, are actually admitted to Pre-Major status in the BA program. That’s not to say that your foundation year isn’t intense - it is. You just haven’t gained admission to BFA candidate status (and typically to a more specialized major such as GD, or animation or whatever) yet until your portfolio is approved. There might be a GPA requirement as well. Just a different way of operating the program.
its definitely stressful. I think it helped keep our daughter focused as she was very concerned. As it turns out her major Graphic Design is one of the more competitive . Last year there were only aprox 60 spots available at VCUARTS for graphic design majors, and I understand over 130 applicants . I am not familiar with the other majors. I know the school says 90% get their first choice but that’s overall, I know several of her friends did not get into the graphic design major.