<p>I was looking at the University of the Arts for Graphic Design and a minor in web site design for my daughter. Does anyone know how good the school is? What is the school like?</p>
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<p>no campus at all - just a bunch of bldgs. along the main drag running north-south through downtown Philly.</p>
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<p>More info plz! :) (majors offered, selectivity and strength of its programs, type of admission, etc...)</p>
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<p>Sorry - College-ish - can't help you more - D was so turned off by the location/appearance during a family visit to Philly that she crossed it off her list of schools to investigate further. If you can get past her issue with the school, you may find a great fit there!</p>
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<p>My son and I are going to visit there in a couple of weeks. I'll post my impressions when I get back. We're amateurs at the whole school visit routine, so if you have suggestions about things we should look out for or should ask on the tour, I'd enjoy hearing them.</p>
<p>Looking at the course catalog on their Web site, one thing I liked about the place was the number and variety of liberal arts courses they offer.</p>
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<p>I can understand
where your daughter's apprehension was coming from--she did not
like the place and just going there seemed like her worst
nightmare came true. It happens. May I ask what other schools you
visited and where she ended up attending, beachy?</p>
<p>Hmmmm....I have trouble remembering what I had for dinner a couple nights ago, but will try to think back to last spring/summer....</p>
<p>She looked at lots of schools online (also eliminated several being dragged on visits w/her older brother 2 yrs. prior), then we visited RISD, MICA, Ohio State, Kent State, Ohio Wesleyan, U of Dayton...and the winner....Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<p>This is the kid who wants to be in the city, with all its amenities (not sure where she thinks she'll get the funds to take in all those amenities, but that's another thread!), so I was a little surprised that U of the Arts hit such a nerve with her, but that it did. MICA and RISD are very urban as well, but they have some green to them, and CMU has even more of a campus, so that one was her dream school in that regard....so...off she goes!</p>
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<p>Heh ! Thanks for being able to remember =P. I also plan on visiting MICA, RISD, and a few others before the spring semester.</p>
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<p>My wife just looked at University of the Arts. Although she really liked the programs and the combination of art, dance,theater and music, there were some major drawbacks:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>First, she hated the dorms. My wife actually said, "take the worst dorms that you have ever seen, and these were worse." They were not that clean and very crowded and very small.</p></li>
<li><p>Secondly, there was no campus: None. </p></li>
<li><p>She went on the tour and was not shown any student union or student center. Moreover, no cafeteria was shown on the tour either. We assumed that either there is no student center of it is very crappy.</p></li>
<li><p>Although the area where the school is located is very nice, she noted that if you walk a few blocks in any directions, the area changes drastically to a burned out, inner city look. </p></li>
<li><p>WE scanned the liberal arts offerings,and they seemed very mediocre and watered down. This was confirmed by talking to some of the students who noted that the liberal arts courses weren't that good and were designed for "art students to pass." This was not very encouraging.</p></li>
<li><p>The bookstore was simply a few shelves in one building. It was really very crappy.</p></li>
<li><p>They had a pool,but it was empty of water. My wife also didn't see any gym, workout facilities, or other exercise equipment. She assumes that none exists.</p></li>
</ol>
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<p>My son and I visited the University of the Arts on Monday. Id agree with taxguys wife that the dorms are bad. I didnt think they were small in fact, the two-bedroom suite I saw was pretty spacious. But they looked run down, as though no one had bothered to paint or fix or renovate anything after years of hard use. Considering that you have three or four students in each one paying about $6,000 a year, Id expect something nicer.</p>
<p>Also theres no meal plan. We did see a cafeteria, but it was just the sort of place youd go to grab a sandwich not a dining hall. I imagine that for kids who rely mainly on takeout, restaurants or frozen dinners, the cost of food can really add up. </p>
<p>None of this bothered my son, although after seeing his first standalone art school he decided hed probably rather go to a regular college or university. He still wants very much to have a look at MICA, though, and I expect its going to look a lot better to both of us. </p>
<p>We did like the neighborhood. The only major city I know well is New York, and using that as my frame of reference, Id say the area to one side of Broad Street looks like midtown Manhattan and the other side like Greenwich Village. I know Philadelphia has some very bad slums, but we drove into the city from the Ben Franklin Bridge to the east and drove out to I-76 to the west and never saw anything but tourist and business areas and upscale residential neighborhoods. </p>
<p>I dont know enough to tell one art program from another, but the studios looked like studios and the student work I saw on display looked great. </p>
<p>We didnt see a student center either, and I dont see anything on the Web site to indicate that they have one. </p>
<p>Overall, I get the sense that is a fine place for students who are mature and independent enough to live on their own from the start, and who can make their own community without the aid of the physical and social infrastructure you find on a real campus. I wouldnt be eager to send my son there, but if for some reason he decided it was his hearts desire and we could afford it, Id agree to it.</p>
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<p>I've read some first impressions here about the Univ of the Arts. Well, I graduated from there in 93 from the painting dept. I was a commuter so I didn't really experience the dorms except through friends, most of my friends, at least after freshman year shared an apartment with people.</p>
<p>Yes, in Phila one minute you can be in a great neigborhood the next block it's run down but not usually in center city which is where UARts is. When I went there the area south of the school was much worse now it's being built up and is much better.</p>
<p>I guess it's all in what your looking for. I really didn't care that there was no campus or a student center. I have to agree that with many of those things missing and the fact that many students live off campus that this school is for the self motivated focused person who may not care about those things and really wants to focus on the art and learning.</p>
<p>Philly is NOT New York. If your looking for that experience then go to NYC. But Philly is very very rich in art and history. The Phila Museum, Rodin Museum, the Barnes Foundation, the PA Academy of Art (which is another school alternative) many gallery's architecture, history etc...</p>
<p>There's a bunch of art schools in the city</p>
<p>UArts
Tyler (Temple Univ)
Moore (for women)
U Penn
Art Inst of Phila
Academy of Art (very traditional cert program/degree with U Penn)</p>
<p>I always felt that the Univ Arts was what you made it which is a double edged sword. If you get lazy it shows, I guess that's with everything though. I really had to budget my time. Living at home helped. Between classes when everyone went back to the dorm or apartment to sleep or slack off I did homework.</p>
<p>My portfolio experience with Uarts was very good. The person was friendly and we had very good communication and conversation about my goals and what UArts had to offer. I also interviewed with Tyler. This is a very good school too and would have been cheaper but I had a horrible experience here. The interviewer didn't even look at my portfolio. He said that my SAT scores were too low and they had a standard score they would accept since they were a state school. I wish I knew that before I wasted my time. UArts considered the scores but they looked mostly at the portfolio, my goals and my GPA from high school which was good, I was an A and B student. Just horrible test taking which i still hate and i'm a teacher.</p>
<p>The painting dept at UArts is very subjective. If your into tradition and very structured classes it may not be for you. I had some trouble with that. I think I needed more structure or self motivation at times. But generally it was a good experience.</p>
<p>the foundations year was excellent. they basicly strip everything away that you know about creating art and start from scratch. You think you know how to draw going in but you really don't. At least not a professional level. if you have an open mind you'll do well.</p>
<p>Uarts was and I guess still is very diverse, having the different disciplines like theater, dance, music and visual no other arts colleges have that.</p>
<p>As far as academics, most classes I had weren't easy maybe a few. I'm not sure if I agree with the person who said they are easy so the art students pass. I saw many students struggling, maybe they were just dumb. But that was over 13 years ago.</p>
<p>Over all I had a good experience there</p>
<p>We visited UArts last fall and my son liked it very much. We thought the studios and the quality of the students' work was good. Although I didn't like the dorms or the fact that there is no meal plan, my son didn't mind at all. My daughter, who is 15, was also on the tour, and both kids didn't have a problem with the "funkiness" of it. I asked the admissions officer why there was no meal plan (they have small kitchenettes in each room), and she said it promotes being independent. Although I know my son could handle getting himself meals every day if he had to, I didn't think he should have to worry about that during his freshman foundation year. However, it was totally up to him. As to no campus, again, it's what he wants, not me. I like the idea of a campus. He loves being in a city.
I had posted here before asking about its reputation. I know that when it used to be Philadelphia College of Art it had a very good reputation, but it doesn't seem to be talked of now. One of my son's classmates will be going there for dance.
Although they gave a better scholarship package than Pratt, my son has decided to go to Pratt for Industrial Design.</p>
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<p>One other thing we like about UArts is that it's not just a visual arts college, but there are music, theatre, and dance students there as well. If you are a visual arts major, you are able to take a few electives in the other areas. This appealed to our kids (and us parents) because one is an artist/musician and the other is an artist/musician/dancer.</p>
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<p>Personally I always liked University of the Arts. Its right downtown, and one of the nicer locations of most of the Philly schools (with the exception of Moore). If you think Broad Street is a bad location you should go check out the Temple campus.</p>
<p>If graphic design is what you are interested in, you should know that they stick to a Swiss school of design, and a lot of the faculty is actually swiss. This can be good and bad, where as Swiss design is thought of as innovative for some, but could also be dismissed by others as too exotic.</p>
<p>Either way, Uarts is a good school.</p>
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<p>I don't know how I missed this thread but glad I just found it. My d is a junior in HS and we have started the college visits. Saw Drexel last week, she liked the campus (if you can call it that) and being in the city but would just have to make sure they would have a major she is interested in since she is more into fines arts, drawing, illustration with an added interest in art therapy and not graphic or computer arts. We visited Pratt this past Monday and I don't think it's the school for her. I thought the campus was great but I think she thought everyone seemed way too extreme in artsiness compared to her. We had talked to her about summer pre-college there but after our visit, she ruled it out. Also, she tends to not like to venture too far from home (we live in northern DE) so found out UArts had a very similar summer program. We got her signed up barely before the spots were all filled and she is very excited about the program. It seems a little lower key than Pratt's program but sounds like she will get a lot out of it and should come out of it with some good pieces to use in her portfolio. She was able to select 2 concentration classes and 2 electives. The added appeal for her is she is just 30 minutes away so does have the option to come home sometimes if she chooses. About the dorms - I know this thread was started last year so don't know how many changes have been made and when. I do know they really don't have dorms but more like apartments. For the summer program, the girls are being housed in a building they recently acquired and renovated and they are 2 bedroom apartments with full kitchens, bathroom and wall to wall carpet. They sound nice. We have not visited yet, this was all so last minute and all the tours this week were filled which is her spring break. I do know the area and it is a great area of Philly. They can walk to South St. and are very close to many of the museums, are right next to the Kimmel Center and Merriam Theatre. Someone made a comment about going a couple of blocks and the area greatly changes but that is typical in any city. They mention a Cantina in their main building where you can have a meal plan through an outside service but for summer, I believe it is only breakfast and lunch, not sure about during the school year. I have been all through their website and also did not see any mention of a student union or gym facilities. We're going to try to visit sometime in the next couple of weeks and I can report back on my findings. The summer experience will be great for my d and this will tell her whether she would be happy at a stand alone art school for college or if she'd rather be at a regular university that has a strong art program. Also, one of her HS art teachers recently graduated from UArts so she'll have to ask him some of these questions.</p>
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<p>// If graphic design is what you are interested in, you should know that they stick to a Swiss school of design, and a lot of the faculty is actually swiss. This can be good and bad, where as Swiss design is thought of as innovative for some, but could also be dismissed by others as too exotic.//</p>
<p>The International (Swiss) style is functional, minimalist, homogonizes the practice of graphic design, removes all evidence of the designer, and is definitely not exotic. Are you refering to Swiss Punk, or Postmodernism perhaps?</p>
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<p>Well maybe exotic is the wrong word, but some hiring design firms will reject a porfolio in the swiss style.</p>
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<p>I know this topic is a bit old, but I went to Uarts for one semester, so I figured I would add my experience. Im sure someone might find it helpful in the future.</p>
<p>I applied to the Uarts as a transfer in 2004 in the Graphic Design program. I live in Delaware and had been to Philadelphia many times and new the area well, so I felt comfortable about the school. I had a portfolio review in February. Their guidelines for a portfolio review seemed more lax than other art schools. Since I was a transfer, I brought all kinds of things with me from bigger drawings and paintings, to sketchbooks, to a book of graphic design I'd done, everything. It might have changed since then. The review lasted about 20-30 minutes. They carefully looked over everything, I did not feel rushed at all. They talked to me, told me that they were impressed and like some of my stuff, and they said also that other pieces weren't as sophisticated as others.</p>
<p>A few weeks later I got my acceptance letter, with a certificate saying I'd been admitted, along with a window decal I could put on my car. </p>
<p>So that Fall I went. I dont know if it was just me, or the school, but I had a hard time with my loans. I applied to loans to cover my costs, but I didn't even know until the day I moved into the dorms if they had gone through. But then again, I never called the loan agency to ask about it either. I was a bit inexperienced about it, and without any parental help, it was very interesting.</p>
<p>I have heard a few things about the UArts staff, that they mix things up and such, but I didn't have any other problems with them, and they were always nice. </p>
<p>I moved into the Juniper dorm. I think this was because I was a transfer. It was more or less the "upperclassman" dorm and was the nicest of them all. I never saw the other dorms, but heard really bad things about them, such as mold, holes, and mice.</p>
<p>The Juniper dorm was wonderful. There was a full kitchen with a clean fridge, stove, microwave, and plenty of cabinets with a bar and stools. Then a common living room area, big enough for a couch and a few chairs and a TV. I shared the room with three other girls. There were two bed rooms. Each BR had two beds, which could be stacked as bunk beds, a dresser with a good amount of drawers, and a closet. Each student was also provided a desk with shevling unit and a chair. You could remove the shelving unit from the computer desk. </p>
<p>There isn't really a cafeteria at UArts. Since we had a stove and everything I just cooked everything I ate.</p>
<p>So then classes started. I had class from 9-11:30, which were my liberal arts, and then class from 1:00-6:50, a studio class, with one 30 minute break. I really enjoyed all of my classes. The two liberal arts I took were Art History I and Into to Modernism. I learned a lot in each class, but it seemed the Intro teacher didn't care as much as my Art History teacher.</p>
<p>My studio classes were Descriptive Drawing, Intro to Typography, and Design... Elements? I forget the name of the last one. All of my studio class teachers were all foreign, and it was interesting to try and guess where they were from. I think the DD teacher was from Russia. Im not sure about the other two. But I could tell by the end of the semester they all knew what they were teaching.</p>
<p>DD was a very interesting class. It was very hard to straddle an art bench and sketch with my arm straight out for 6 hours, but it really teaches you patience and tolerance. It was interesting to learn a different type of drawing. Every person had a cube, or some 3-d object, and in the most basic terms, it was drawing my measuring with your eye by your pencil, but doing it precisely. Very good for learning to draw and see buildings and landscapes. For the first 30-40 minutes of class we had newsprint and tempra paints and were to paint abstractly, anything we wanted. It was nice to experiment.</p>
<p>Into to Type was probably my favorite, because I love typography. I had already taking Type at my former college, and was a bit sad of having to take it again, but it was like it was a compeltely different course. UArts really instills traditional methods, to exhaust those before moving onto the computer. We learned how to do kerning and leading by hand and to compose by hand, and then eventually moved onto the computer.</p>
<p>The Design class was my least favorite, but also the one I learned the most it. I really didn't like the teacher, but she did know what she was talking about, really. I just didn't like her people skills, but thats hardly a think to complain about really. We focused in this course entirely on Point, Line, and Plane. Anyone who is a fan of Kandinsky knows about PL&P. Its all about composing with dots and lines and other objects and how they relate to each other and the space they create. At first the class seemed trivial, but in the end I could see it wasn't.</p>
<p>The reason I left UArts because for a few reasons, I wasn't happy there. I didn't think I was ready to be on my own, in this place were I didn't know anyone. I didn't really make too many friends or have much of a social life, except when I went home on the weekends to visit friends.</p>
<p>However, that being said, the social scene in Philly is really neat. UArts is right in center city Philly. Its just a few blocks from South Stree, which has lots of shops and the TLA, where major bands play. Its a cab drive from the Philly stadium, Eagles stadium, and the Wachovia Spectrum, where all the big name musicians play at.</p>
<p>There is also "First Friday" which is how I got to know Philly. The first Friday of every month all the art galleries are open late and for free. I remember when the Real World Philly was filming. My friends and I had already been going to First Friday for awhile and we always been to Old City Pizza, right across the street from the Real World House, and going into some of the galleries on the same street and seeing all the camera crews.</p>
<p>I know I have typed a LOT, but to sum up, the UArts GD was really nice, from what I saw. The teachers were dedicated and cared about the students. The downside is there really isn't a campus, just buildings in Philadelphia. There really isn't an emphasize on clubs or anything like that.</p>
<p>Anyways, I hope this helps!</p>
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<p>I'm also going to the UArts summer institute, but for musical theatre.</p>
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<p>Any graduates of Uarts in Phila. in graphic design or animation? Looking for some success stories. Thanks!</p>
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