<p>I am currently thinking of applying to art schools like:Pratt, RISD,MICA, SVA Parsons, and Cooper union, but I am not sure which school is better when compare to each other or which schools have a better program like:advertising, graphic designs, multimedia, or 3-D animation. And do you know which schools have the overall better quality than the others? From the U.S news, it says RISD is the #1 in fine art, but I doubt if it is accurate in the art design programs since Parsons, Cooper Union, SVA and Pratt seem to have very competitive programs in art design too. So does anyone happens to know any of those questions?</p>
<p>if you are looking for graduate school, Cooper don’t have one for art.
did you read this guy’s thread?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visual-arts-film-majors/1129102-help-saic-pratt-graphic-design-mfa.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visual-arts-film-majors/1129102-help-saic-pratt-graphic-design-mfa.html</a>
skip my side tracking posts but if you are a already junior, I thing better to finish what you are doing first.
have you been building any portfolio?
If you are good at, you should be able to pull off what this guy did.
or
have you decided to start art school from scratch?
who is going to pay for it? (is your folks OK with you quitting UC?)
sorry I am asking questions instead of answering yours.
but it is sort of hard to tell what is that you really need.
every school got strength and weakness depending on what you are looking for.
and published rankings in commercial magazines could be biased.
like, how anyone could tell which school is best for fine art?
by how many self-claimed fine artist they produced,
or how much money per artist made per graduating class,
or how many award/fellowships students won that certain year which is going to change as juries change year to year,
or how selective the school is out of already self selective group of applicants who meet criteria that differ from school to school?
^ it does not make any sense to me, does it to you?</p>
<p>I’ve always thought of RISD as the top design/illustration school including industrial design (i.e. furniture, etc.). RISD doesn’t really come to my mind as a particularly stronger fine art school than others out there. Although the school is particularly strong I wonder why it was listed as a fine arts school since the focus seems to me to be more on design. Anyone else?</p>
<p>that’s US News to you, smarty
or
OP is still figuring out what is what and could have misread it?</p>
<p>Yes, US “News” which is part of the problem. I tried to look up their criteria for listing these schools but it was unclear. However I did notice that when I clicked on painting/drawing RISD dropped and Yale took first. So I think their definition of “fine art” is pretty inclusive. But at any rate RISD would be a logical choice for someone interested in graphics and I hear their animation dept. is being boosted up.</p>
<p>However do note that these are the ratings for the Graduate Schools not under grad. Which would explain why SAIC is listed so high. As has been discussed here before their retention rate at the undergrad level is pretty low and retention is one of the criteria for US News. Graduate schools probably in general have a higher retention rate anyway.</p>
<p>Hi bears and dogs: I am more interested in a BFA degree. And I do think money can be a problem and I will spend another 2-3 yrs to finish the art school which troubles me a lot too. But I just thought it’s still not too late that I have figured out something I am interested and want to do as my career for the rest of my life, rather than doing something which I am not interested and harder to stand out through the crowd. So if I can get accepted by those great art institutions, I will want to give it a shot even most people may think I am a little crazy.</p>
<p>OP - The only crazy thing would be putting yourself in a large amount of debt. Pursuing what you love is what we all aspire to do. So, to add to your list of expensive very good design schools, have you considered Art Center in Pasadena?</p>
<p>if you are happened to be Asian (noodle! noodle!!! I am) you won’t stand out at Artcenter anyhow but great school for getting real training, better than any I saw on East Coast for that regard.</p>
<p>Cooper is free tuition, that’s how people know about that school first.
read up and get some idea what you are getting into. there should be facebook livejournal, other student reviews galore. It is for selected few (by oneself first, then by half crazy committees) you might have better chance at their arch school, just my hunch.
have you thought about architecture? if you are good at math and artsy and want job and parents’ approval, better chance than art-art.
It is going to cost you anyway, and tuition and living expense means just that.
You have to count massive amount of supplies and shlepping, keeping (summer storage if lives on campus) them, hardware software, sometimes required mandatory update, fees for studio, lab…
after years of meandering, I came to understand that expensive top art school is, just too expensive for common folks. taking loans sure, everyone do that, but you’d have to pay it off and you are not going to able to do that with BFA very long time.</p>
<p>Count money, you should be good at it. and think about it again.
Art schools students are older than regular UG. kids come for second bachelor or going for true passion after few years, like yourself. it can wait. since already finishing up Junior at rather nice Uni doing rather nice major then there really no reason wanting suddenly pursuer art because you want to stand out (that’s going to be real hard at elite artschool you are aspiring to go, than say, you are doing at big universities as money counting major. I am assuming you want to stand out in good way, yes?)</p>
<p>I say, sleep on it, read design publications, go to museums and galleries and look at what is supposedly good art or art that sell (horrors!!!) , go see Artcenter if you can travel (it’s near LA) or there are CCA, SFAI, Laguna, UCLA, USC, I forget some more, visit, hang out and see and know what you are getting into.
If you can just finish your BA, you could better find work and make bit more money and your folks would be happy. at least you payed due. then you can go on your own.
prep during summer and try Cooper next fall, if you insist. it was said they do not award second bachelors, then I heard there are people with already degrees from elsewhere. I have not confirmed on this, you can worry about it after you are rejected, or who knows, get in then decide to defer for a year (allowed art only)</p>
<p>Re:mom4art: I have considered the art center, but I am more interested in those art schools on the east coast whose campus locations are closer or in the cities. </p>
<p>Re:bears and dogs: Why can’t Asian stand out in the art school? And those top private art schools also offer financial aids, scholarships, and grants, if I can get some, my cost of attending will become lower.
Also I don’t want to get a job for a while then pursue the art school because I kind tired of a working place which require so much networking and other social skills in order to stand out from the crowd. And I believe it is going to become harder once you have started a career and then decide to quit, there will be a lot of pressure and other staff may gonna change my mind. So I’d rather try to go for the my passion when I still have the time and option.</p>
<p>I hear you.
thing is, art is that one you try to quit million way and million times but still can’t, would be the last one standing - sort of field. If you think you are going to sway by other factors, maybe not good idea to commit.
transfer students gets less scholarships, generally. and year by year, need to be renewed with tricky restrictions. and tuition and fee would only go up up up every year 3-5% at least, or more if they feel like it, and won’t tell you until spring, sometime summer for what is going to happen next school year.</p>
<p>you did not answer but Artcenter in particular, is populated by so many killer skilled Asians, I bet as much as UCs. </p>
<p>you should read this article. It is a regional magazine and not everything fit for everyone but there are somethings we (are you?) all should consider. networking, social skill, family dynamic, (gasp) dating
[What</a> Happens to All the Asian-American Overachievers When the Test-Taking Ends? – New York Magazine](<a href=“http://nymag.com/news/features/asian-americans-2011-5/]What”>What Happens to All the Asian-American Overachievers When the Test-Taking Ends? -- New York Magazine - Nymag)</p>
<p>Re bears and dogs：I am curious that are you a current student from any of those art schools? And tuition cost is a problem everywhere, my UC which is a public school keep raising the tuition fees and lowering the aids money. And I have heard that more expensive private schools offer more grants to students than public schools. So I am thinking since those art schools are private school, they should offer more grants and aids to students who have financial difficulties. And just think if I get accepted by those schools, I will try to study as fast as possible and get a part-time job to reduce the debt. I just really think I should find something I am good at and interested in rather than just follow the flow and land a job in a big firm which everyone is expecting. I just want to have a passion and goal to pursue my dream which can help me get up at 9 AM every morning rather than going to those classes I don’t like and fall asleep immediately.
BTW: I have taken some art course before I can’t say I am that talented or special, but I do have some potential perspective and talent which I believe I can put it into a good use in my future career. I make my thinking very serious because I am a cautious person and always play my card safe, follow my parents’ advices, study hard, work hard and finally get into a top prestigious public university which I eventually find out it is not worth the efforts. I just want to do something to my life and make a change for myself, I have follow all those rules and advice my whole life and look at my life now, I don’t enjoy it at all. There is always a but right there, but if you keep focusing on those negative facts, I will end up never even try to do something I want to and I will regret this all my life for certain! But again, really appreciate your advice.</p>
<p>did you read the ^article? you are bit ahead of those poor U Chicago Williams grads which is a good thing but yet…</p>
<p>I am a parent of an art kid went thru this now for couple of years. there are old parents thread you can read if you have nothing better to do.
It is common misconception for non art people but artschools are not like regular private schools. I can go on forever on this but they don’t give away money like so-called top LACs Unis do, because there is no money to give. smaller students body, smaller endowment, way higher expenses (safety regulations for chemicals, fire hazard, air quality, must have constant upgrading of facilities and dept. course offering to meet ever changing markets, to attract hi named profs etc etc)
Yes, there are need based aid, but it seldom meet “need” </p>
<p>It’s your money and it all depends what your comfort level is.
if 25K out of 60K/year COA is awarded, one family would say “generous” the other would say “drop in the bucket”
look up each school’s COA and compare.
If you are not picky about location, there are lower tier art schools or public universities that cost far far less and willing to give more.
cheap school does not mean lesser school. If you’d start visiting alot, you will see it. unless you are totally prestige driven and/or have to go to school that everyone knows its name.</p>
<p>you are what, 20-22 year old? you got whole life ahead to do anything you want.
take it easy, go see art</p>
<p>OP - So you will make a list and put together the costs. Collegeboard, the SAT website has good info to help build total costs. Have reach schools, ones that you would love to attend if you got enough funding, and good schools that you know you can afford if your other choices don’t offer enough aid or scholarships. If the pursuit of graphic design or 3d animation are important enough, you will find a fit. Looking at your original post, it seems you only have expensive options on your list. (Based on the info available, they say you can expect to pay $20,000/yr for living and other expenses at Cooper Union). </p>
<p>Please consider putting some good or very good schools on your list which you could afford with only modest aid or scholarship. Then you can debate the top schools until you are blue in the face and know you have a back up plan.</p>
<p>Re mom4art: I don’t know many good art schools which is much less expensive than those I have listed. I believe a good program or good school can prepare me more of those design skills than the others, that’s why I want to attend those top schools to get the top education in art.</p>
<p>Again about the cost, I said I will find a part-time job and hopefully get financial aids and school scholarships, and if it is still not enough, I will take student loans. The key thing here is I really want to do it! </p>
<p>Also it’s like for those ppl who graduate from a BA and want to go for a graduate school to achieve a MA, MBA or Law degree, those costs are much higher than art. However, still many people are doing it. So why many those people can go to business or law schools for further education, I can’t go for art schools? </p>
<p>And again, really I make this decision is not for fun or joking, I am serious about what I want to do and what I think I can do well and enjoy it at the same time. Hope my comments didn’t offend anybody.</p>
<p>Hey…OP. First, you are among friends on CC. We have all been where you are at least for part of our lives and certainly, for those of us with art kids, we have seen our kids continuing to go through a lot of your confusion and doubts. I think CC isn’t so great for the advice but for having a forum to raise some pretty personal issues about school/life and sometimes just having the place to ask the questions helps you find some direction (or at least outlet for angst).</p>
<p>It can be difficult to make a change in course of study in the middle of your undergrad but not impossible. The good thing is that you will have two sets of skills and knowledge that can position you for some flexibility in your future. </p>
<p>I went from history/poli sci and no quantitative classes as an undergrad to doing a PhD in econ …the route took longer than most because, like you, I realized late in undergrad that I wanted to do something very different from where I started so I found a way to continue my undergrad studies and get the prereqs for my new area of interest. I ended up doing a lot of summer coursework and an extra 2 semesters at a state university after I graduated from my private uni.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the stuff I learned as an undergrad is still invaluable in my career. Just because you’ve found that you want to do something in fine arts doesn’t mean the business or econ or whatever you have done so far will not help you EVEN in your arts. My son is studying sculpture at CMU and admits that he is enjoying the computer science far more than art history and the comp sci will probably be more useful to COMPLEMENT his art. He does not think of math/comp sci as “backup plans” in case his art falls through but as complementary. First step to getting into a good art program is to embrace what you have done so far as part of making you and will impact who you are as an artist.</p>
<p>OK…enough ranting…now the practical part. Your list is a loooong list of prestigious US news ranked schools. I think that you need to consider that without arts classes and a well developed portfolio transferring to one of these schools is going to be tough. Go ahead and apply but one alternative if this doesn’t work out is to stay in your current undergrad or transfer to a cheaper in-state program and add a FA major/minor …they may not have all the courses you want or the prestige and…it may tack an extra 2-3 semesters onto your undergrad but when you emerge you will have a portfolio and a better sense of what you want to do art wise. You can then consider an MFA. Don’t limit yourself to the big names. Look at some of the very large state universities–VCU, Ohio State, Virginia tech, Wisconsin, Cal Schools, – a lot of them may be interested in having someone want to do a MFA in arts management. Just google and you get: [MFA</a> arts management - Google Search](<a href=“MFA arts management - Google Search”>MFA arts management - Google Search)</p>
<p>Someone who has a strong design background with an interest in arts management may be able to work in the arts using both sets of skills. Also, if you get a stipend, it may be a cheap way to finance your art studies. Some of the schools may be unknown to you but frankly they may offer financial support. I took on two extra masters degrees between undergrad and grad MERELY because they came with stipends and allowed me to get some of the prereqs for the phd program and all I had to do was some teaching of undergrads! they weren’t in the most prestigious school and they were not direct paths to my final destination but they gave me valuable experience, no debt, and a lot of fun. </p>
<p>You are young. You have lots of time. Explore your options, take it slow…My one strong piece of advice is no matter how you get there…AVOID debt as much as possible so that you can keep your options open and not have money concerns drive your career decisions. If you do a cheap FA or MFA degree and find out that you have changed directions again…well, at least you don’t have the burden of debt hanging over you…</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>go famom</p>
<p>To the original poster,
Your situation came up in a discussion with my husband. He taught for years in a graduate design program. Many of the students came from other backgrounds and had realized they wanted to change paths. But what they had in enthusiasm they lacked in practical skills. What he thinks would have been best for these students would be to have taken very practical skill based courses at community college or continuing ed programs so they could gain some drawing skills, learn the important software, Photoshop, In-Design, Illustrator, Flash etc and then apply to graduate school. In this way they could have taken more advantage of the program.
You could start doing that now at your current school and also take classes at night at a local CC or art school if you want to get a jump on things. This would be more affordable than starting all over from scratch. Then when you have a good grounding in these skills and have strong portfolio you could apply to a graduate program in the discipline you are interested in. Then it would be only two years of high tuition. The School of Visual Arts in NYC has some very good programs that have faculty currently working in their fields. They are a great bridge to the working world. <a href=“http://www.schoolofvisualarts.edu/grad/index.jsp?sid0=2[/url]”>http://www.schoolofvisualarts.edu/grad/index.jsp?sid0=2</a>
Are you in LA already? Art Center has a program called Art Center at Night. The classes are much cheaper than their regular tuition and it looks like it is a feeder program for their undergraduate and graduate degrees. I know you said the east coast schools get you closer to the east coast cities but Art Center is no joke when it comes to having connections in the professional world and lots of opportunities for internships. <a href=“http://www.artcenter.edu/atnight/main.jsp[/url]”>http://www.artcenter.edu/atnight/main.jsp</a>
There is a way for you to make this transition. And famom is right. Creative fields need people with diverse backgrounds and business skills if you have them. Nothing you do is wasted. It is all part of making you the unique person you are.</p>
<p>I second fineartsmajormom!</p>
<p>OP - Responding to this thought, “Also it’s like for those ppl who graduate from a BA and want to go for a graduate school to achieve a MA, MBA or Law degree, those costs are much higher than art. However, still many people are doing it. So why many those people can go to business or law schools for further education, I can’t go for art schools?” </p>
<p>First, when people go into law or business, the income increase expected with the advanced degree and the expected incomes are well documented in national and regional salary survey data. In GENERAL, one expects an MBA or JD to earn more than a BA or MFA and therefore pay off loans sooner. Still, large debt for any kind of degree is not wise.</p>
<p>Second, please don’t interpret our questions and advice as suggesting you don’t pursue your dream. I am the parent of a child who has this dream. And she has gifted friends whose parents would not hear of their child following a path like she is choosing. If we could not afford or she was not accepted to her first choice (loans, jobs included), she had a back up plan. First, she would have taken a year off and tried again. Last, she would have gone to the only school in our state univ system with an illustration major.</p>
<p>What I am reading in the responses to your posts is that we are concerned that you are fixed on one and only one path. We all know that because life can’t be completely controlled, we have to have alternatives. Speaking for myself, I wish you would have a broader plan that includes alternatives. When I spoke of “good” schools, I meant solid art or design programs at public universities or at well-endowed private schools with lots of money to give. Fammom listed several of these.</p>
<p>Believe me, you have sympathetic ears here!</p>
<p>noodle…what are you doing this summer? This is a perfect time to find some classes. Can you go to LA for the summer, work in the day and take a bunch of classes at Art Center at Night? Sorry to be so pushy but the classes start soon!</p>
<p>Also…you will need that numbers mind for sure. Even if it is a creative field it still is business. My husband and I run a small design studio…we have to do it all. Bookkeeping, contracts, budgeting, projections, marketing etc…</p>
<p>This modern world requires us all to be flexible and multi-talented. You can do it!</p>
<p>Hi drae27: I currently live in Berkeley which is a little far from art center and I have to do an internship in financial service area this summer so couldn’t make it to the art center’s summer school, however I really hope I can go though. I am really concerned now since I will not have enough time to build up my portfolio by this fall and not sure if there are night classes or weekend class open at those art schools in SF. My current university is also very stressful, which gives me less time to do something else. That’s why I find it is kind hard to do both at the same time. I really want to do art but there are so many other things need to be taken care in my life now. I just feel like I have missed my best opportunity to pursue an art degree at the first place, if it had been true, I could have totally spent most my time and energy concentrating on making art designs without being distracted. But I know life is never perfect and the good thing is that at least I know what I want from my life instead of only doing those things everyone else is telling me to do. And thank you so much for the encouragement!</p>