how to compare three summer programs

College Majors Visual Arts and Film Majors
1

<p>This was buried at the end of a very long summer art program thread, so I am reposting here. </p>

<p>My daughter, a junior in High school, is considering three residential summer art programs for high school students: Pratt, RISD, Syracuse . She has a limited art background, but is now thinking of applying to arts programs for college, so her goal is to walk out of the six weeks with a portfolio she can submit with her applications in the Fall. She is leaning towards Pratt because it is closer to home and she loves NYC, but RISD has fashion and jewelry design as class options, both of which she loves. Syracuse and Pratt have fashion also. The key is whether she will do enough quality basic work (drawing, etc.) to fill out a portfolio. Anyone care to comment on the differences between programs, and strengths for helping one develop a portfolio ...given that her ultimate interest is fashion and possibly jewelry design. </p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

2

<p>...and perhaps the most important: she is looking to have an experience that is a good proxy for being in design school, to give her a sense of whether she will like the rigor of being in the studio every day as a college choice, or whether it is not as appealing as it sounds. so I guess, besides good quality instruction, the authenticity of the experience as a proxy for college will be very important.</p>

<p>Thanks again.</p>

<p>Ronnie</p>

3

<p>My son was in a similar situation to your daughter’s. He had a very limited art background (one “Intro to Fine Arts” class) before he attended RISD’s pre-college program the summer before his senior year. He had a wonderful experience there, and it really helped him decide that he wanted to attend an art school rather than major in art at a university or LAC. He liked the idea of intensely focusing on art and being surrounded by like-minded people.</p>

<p>Based on his experience, I would say that it is extremely unrealistic to expect to get an entire portfolio out of any summer program that lasts 6 weeks or less. Certainly the student that really applies themselves to their work there will produce at least a few pieces that will be of portfolio quality, but there will not enough to constitute an entire portfolio. Remember that she will be competing with many students that have very extensive art backgrounds and have been working on their portfolio for years! She had better plan on spending a great deal of time working on her portfolio when she returns home. (My son did it by taking AP Studio Art his senior year, as well as working on it every minute of his spare time.) I don’t know anything about the Syracuse or Pratt summer programs, but I suspect that they are similar to RISD’s in content; if so, she will learn a lot about basic techniques and design principles that will help her finish her portfolio on her own.</p>

<p>And just to give you and your daughter some encouragement, my son is currently a sophomore Industrial Design major at RISD and loves it!!!!</p>

4

<p>Thank you for the details about your son's experience...I had no idea how much work a portfolio is to put together, but at least hearing your description gives me some idea of what to expect. Hopefully the experience will help my daughter clarify her goals, as it did for your son. Thanks</p>

<p>Ronnie</p>

5

<p>i would say risd's. straight up. risd is such a hard school to get in to, that going to their precollege would help a lot. as well as thats the most rigorous and its probably the best for the resume. a bunch of my friends did it when we were in high school [ i went to otis's ] and loved it. </p>

<p>i went to syracuse as a university and loved it, but im not sure how their summer program runs. except that its HUMID AS HELL at syracuse during the summer.</p>

6

<p>For Fashion, you can hardly beat Parson's summer program. The Fashion center of the Universe in in New York City. The more time a fasion student spends in NYC the better. Full stop.</p>

<p>Agree that a complete portfolio is too big an expectation for a summer program.</p>

7

<p>Our daughter attended RISD's pre-college program last summer, and focused in illustration. She felt that major was very rigorous. She had tons of homework, but loved it. She used I think 4 pieces from the summer in her final portfolio. Keep in mind if your daughter is focusing on fashion she'll still need a range of work to show in her portfolio. If she has limited art exposure at her high school, I would recommend she take additional art classes to help her with her portfolio. Continuing Ed classes at schools like Pratt offer Saturday classes in portfolio preparation.
Good luck!</p>

8

<p>Last summer, I attended the pre-college program at risd and it was honestly one of the best things I have done. It helped me to decide what kind of school I want to go to, and it strengthened my decision to major in metal and jewelry arts. When I was at risd, I was a jewelry major, so I can definately say some things about that specific class. The teacher was absolutely amazing and the assigments actually required thought and preparation in contrast to some other jewelry classes I have taken where assignments are simply like "make a ring" or something like that. </p>

<p>Since I am currently a junior instead of a senior, I did not create many pieces that I am going to use in my portfolio. However, a lot of my friends did end up creating portfolio pieces in their drawing and/or basic design classes. It really depends on your teachers and what you put into the classes. If your daughter works hard and puts thought into each of her assignments, she should get a few pieces out of it, but still not enough to fill a whole portfolio. She should continue to work in and out of school to build up a strong body of work. </p>

<p>Precollege at risd was tons of work, and I had to stay up late quite a few nights to get things done, but I loved every minute of it. I would go back in a heartbeat. Good luck!</p>

9

<p>One thing to take into consideration regarding the RISD pre-college program is the level of maturity of the student. My child attended a few summers ago and there was a lot of exposure to alcohol, drugs & teenage sex. One girl was arrested for possession of a HUGE amount of cocaine and there are always numerous pregnancies that occur each summer. There is also a lot of freedom and if you are OK with her roaming around Providence at night, going to concerts, etc.</p>

10

<p>But they are also extremely strict about it too. If you are one minute late for curfew (must be in your own dorm at 11:00 weekdays, 12:00 Fridays and Saturdays), you get a violation. First is a warning, second equals community service, and third strike and you're out. Honestly, at least during the week, you'll have so much work to do, you won't want to go out and party. If you're serious about being there and you want to stay, then you won't do anything because they have an eerie ability of <em>always</em> knowing. As for roaming around Providence, there's not that much to do anyway. There's the movie theater/mall and Thayer St. but that's pretty much it. As long as she makes sure she's not walking alone, it's fine.</p>

11

<p>hey silver<em>and</em>jade this summer I just signed up for the RISD jewelery course and I was wonder since you did it last last summer could you tell me more about it </p>

<p>thanks so much!</p>

12

<p>Jewel_Lover: Sorry it's taken a while for me to respond. I don't really have time to write a really detailed account, but here are some of my livejournal posts from when I was there. Hopefully they'll give you a sense of what it was like (classes, critiques, dorm life, etc...). I omitted a few (non-relevant) parts plus replaced people's names with dashes.</p>

<p>July 1st -- Hey all. So, I realize that I have been a lazy @ss and haven't posted any updates about RISD yet, even though it has been a full week since the program started. That is about to change. muahahahahaha
First off, my dorm is the best ever. It is the only building that has air conditioning, and for some reason, my room is even colder than the rest of them. My room is huge--much bigger than a typical dorm room -- I have a work table which is really nice and the bed is actually pretty comfy. Everyone in my dorm is really awesome as well. We have definitely had some weird conversations...
Classes have been pretty good as well. My schedule is as follows:
Monday: Jewelry 9:00-4:00
Tuesday: Basic Design 9:00-4:00
Wednesday: Jewelry 9:00-4:00
Thursday: Art History 1:00-3:00
Friday: Drawing 9:00-4:00
Jewelry is my major, so I have it twice a week. Only a few people in my class have any idea what they're doing, so it's kind of annoying because our teacher is really treating it like a beginner class. The first day, we did the same basic sawing exercise that I have done every single time I have ever taken a metals class. The handout she gave us was even exactly the same. Then I had basic design which was kind of cool. We did some abstract stuff which was fun, but our assignment for next time is really weird. We need to do an abstract drawing using line to depict our "journey to school" every morning. It's kind of annoying, but I'll post what I do as soon as it's done. On Wednesday I had jewelry again which was just more sawing stuff, though I think my teacher is beginning to realize that I am not a beginner at this. My designs for our first assignment are a lot more complex than most people's. It's good because I like a challenge, and I want her to see that I'm trying to challenge myself, but then it's bad because I have the same amount of time to do my pieces that everyone else has to saw out simple shapes. Art history was really boring, at least to me, and we have to do group projects that are going to be annoying. Then yesterday I had drawing. Two words for that: nude model. That was....a little bit awkward. But he was really cool about it so...yeah. I think it wouldn't have been so weird if they had told us, but he just went into the middle of the room and started taking off his clothes. O_O
Last night a few of us walked down to the mall and saw Superman at the theater there. I had fun, but the movie was kinda lame. So that's pretty much it for this week. I'll try to update more in a few days.</p>

<p>July 10 -- Today was awesome. We finally got to start working in silver for jewelry class. I made this kick @ss ring in about two hours and I'm really really proud of it because it's the fastest I've ever finished a ring and it's probably one of my best rings. I'll post the pic on my deviantART at some point, but I'm too lazy right now. While we were working on our pieces (some were doing rings, others were still working on their mini-sculpture thing that was technically due today) she met with each of us individually to go over and discuss our ideas for our ring assignment. We have to make a ring that is "inspired by a fairy tale" and it has to somehow incorperate a hollow component. I did a ton of sketches and designs, but finally decided on one inspired by the rose in the glass case from Beauty and the Beast. After class, I went to starbucks with --- so she could meet her group for art history and just ended up sitting and drinking my iced tea. <em>heart green tea</em> But on our way back, we went into the metals/jewelry studio and dug through the scrap bins. People throw out some pretty awesome stuff. Not just awesome, but super super time consuming to make. <em>shrugs</em> oh well.
My parents are coming one Saturday and they're bringing ramen and a bunch of other things including my sketchbook which I stupidly forgot. w00t </p>

<p>Well, time to go now. Not much more to type.</p>

<p>July 20th -- Meh. I don't really feel like writing a long entry because I'm lazy like that. Though I don't really feel like doing my art history work either. I have to analyze a Renoir painting. It's not too bad, just annoying. But...yeah. Happy now. We started making chains and jumprings in jewelry. Which equals.......CHAINMAILLE! Muahahaha. Though ----'s kinda already known as the chainmaille guy so when I started my little bracelet no one really noticed next to his wrist cuff (that's going to be a sleeve). But oh well. <em>shrugs</em> Though I do kinda feel bad for him because he <em>is</em> known as the chainmaille guy, so when he brought in a kick ass chainmaille piece for one of our design assignments, people were just like "oh". And they were all really hard on him during the crit saying they want him to "branch out" and all that. And this turned out to be a much longer entry than I had planned it to be so I'm out for now.</p>

<p>July 31 -- I have so much work to do!!! Lalalalalalala!!!! I'm really weird right now. My sleeping pattern has been way off lately and I have so much work to do for all my classes. It's the last week of the program (<em>tear</em>) so everyone is working their asses off to get stuff done before final crits and all that. I can't believe it's almost over. I'm going to miss it here so much, I don't want to leave. Even when I'm working my ass off and staying up until four in the morning to finish assignments, I'm having a ton of fun. Though I have been completely overworking my hands with my jewelry work and design projects. Ah well, such is life. <em>sigh</em>
My friend ---- just walked in carrying this huge (five feet tall) charcoal drawing that is absolutely amazing and makes me feel like a <a href="mailto:dumb@ss">dumb@ss</a>. And the fixative she sprayed on it is making all of us high. She's amazing. <em>jealous</em> But my drawing has improved immensely since I've gotten here so I'm happy. I'm going to take drawing and painting next year in school, so I'll get to do a lot more with that then. Though I highly doubt we'll be drawing naked people in my small catholic school. <em>laughs</em> Ah, drawing class won't be the same without having crazy guy as a model. But I'll hopefully still be able to practice drawing the figure either with clothes on or nudes during open sketch nights at this art place about 20 minutes from my house. At least I've stocked up on art supplies while I've been here so I'll be able to do more stuff when I get back to CT. Plus I finally have my own jewelry tools to work with now. My dad said that I can get a jeweler's bench set up in our garage to do some work. <em>happy dance</em> But I still can't get a torch. <em>tear</em>
I'm going to try to find some jewelry classes to take during the year at aforementioned art place.
And I really need to get back to my work now, so I'll be off for now. Bye Bye.</p>

<p>Hopefully that helps! If you have any specifc questions, I'd be glad to answer them.</p>

13

<p>yes! that totally helped!!!! thank you sooo much uh I do have a few questions I feel like im jumping out of my skin too much and should just be patient but oh well ha here are my questions </p>

<p>-where does the jewelry program focus more on, because Im more comfortable with wire working than I am with soldering and such do you think ill have a problem and is there anything i should maybe get acquainted with before I go there
-in this forum someone said something about there being a cocaine arrest and pregnancy's what is the truth behind all that? is it stupid to be kinda worried about the streets of providence any tips about that?
-at the end of the program what where the final projects you had completed?
-so I know that your major is a 6 hour class, what goes on in those 6 hours?</p>

<p>so basically im seriously glad I found you, ha, and thank you so much for all your help oh are there any good restaurants or stores in providence?</p>

<p>thanks sooo much!</p>

14

<p>Just a follow up to this thread, which I started about a year ago. My daughter \ended up attending the summer program at RISD and loved it, and it greatly influenced her ideas about where to apply for college. True, she worked really hard, pulled a few all nighters working on projects, in fact…but loved the kids, the instruction and the location. While her portfolio needed a bit more work to ready it for her college applications, it gave her a good start. Based on her experience, I highly recommend the summer program at RISD.</p>

15

<p>My D also did the RISD program and was glad she did. It was a great taste of what art school is all about. It also provided a solid foundation for her continued studies.</p>

<p>From what my D told me, it was very strict they did adhere to curfews and they were so busy working that there wasn’t much time for anything else. If you broke the rules (and there are many rules), you are asked to leave. SHe said she knows of a few instances where this happened. Some kids also leave early on because it is hard, and it is serious and they weren’t prepared for that. If you are there to have a good time, and not to work, it’s a waste of time and money.</p>

16

<p>as someone who did risd pre-college in 06 and in 07, i can say it was the absolute best experience iv ever had. i couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend my summers.</p>

<p>while you’re friends are at home laughing that you chose to go to “school” over the summer: take a risk, work hard, play hard, get a portfolio going, and open up your mind.</p>

<p>without a doubt it was extremely intense in terms of the workload, but it was such an amazing learning experience artistically and intellectually, i have to say it is completely worth it. but dont get me wrong, 6 weeks without your parents and limited supervision (they actually treat you like college students, and heavily emphasize “pre-COLLEGE”) ends up being rediculously fun. </p>

<p>if you’re a mature, independent thinker and looking for a challenge, i highly recommend it.
if you want to get away from home for 6 weeks and have fun, please do not go. you will probably get kicked out (eliminating the “get away from home” aspect) and you probably wont have fun because you’re not passionate about what you’re doing.</p>

<p>anyone with questions feel free to PM me, i will gladly describe what its like and what to expect.</p>