Okay, so over the course of this thread you went from a legitimate private school to listing awful for profit scam “schools”. South Carolina is by far the best option and cheapest option available, above every school you’ve mentioned. This is a no brainer, go to USC.
If you can’t get in then go to a regional public school in your state or do community college and transfer. There’s no need to take out massive loans for an art degree.
Well, I talked to my aunt about it. She told me to start 2 years in a local college like USC and then transfer to SCAD for the last 2 years.
Sigh. You know you may not get into USC. And you still haven’t told us your real level of art talent, skill and experience, and you have no idea what your parents can pay, and you don’t know the Net Prices. See how this goes in circles?
What’s the plan, if you don’t get into USC? This needs to be a rational process. It’s not, Oh, I’ll go to Ringling or AI. Not, Oh, I have a B or C average in hs and I’ll just go borrow 200k and everything will be hunky dory.
Well maybe I’ll go to one of the community colleges in my hometown? Or maybe I’ll work harder on my grades to get into USC
If your parents don’t have money to pay for SCAD now, how will they have money to pay for SCAD 2-3 years from now? You will save money by attending locally for two years, but SCAD will still cost somewhere around $60K a year and does not give good financial aid.
Your parents seem reluctant to talk finances with you now, but you can’t make a realistic college list without some idea of how much they are willing to pay per year. Even if they don’t want to tell you how much they make, ask them if they can fill out a NPC for a couple schools so you can get an idea of where you stand in terms of financial aid.
And there are options in South Carolina besides USC and community colleges. There’s Clemson, College of Charleston, Winthrop, Coastal Carolina, South Carolina State, the USC branch campuses (Aiken, Upstate, Beaufort, etc.), and Francis Marion. There are also private colleges - like Furman and Wofford - that may offer you some financial aid.
Parents often put off the financial talk because they are afraid and embarrassed that they will not be able to help as much as they would like. Or, a few, engage in magical thinking that the money will “somehow” appear. Neither of those are effective strategies. Better to get a straight forward answer even if it isn’t what you’d like to hear. Best.
So, just don’t go to SCAD then?
You are oversimplifying. But, IMHO, yes. Do not count on going to SCAD. Do not count on an art school being your best bet. Recognize your realisitc perimeters and work within them.
Edited to add: someone was just pimping SCAD to my daughter yesterday. I likely wouldn’t pay for it even if I could because I do not think it is a good overall strategy even for someone with art dreams.
Why do you think an art school is good for those with artistic dreams?
Where did that question come from? Nobody’s said that.
I probably could have said better: there are many ways to skin a cat–I would encourage my kid to learn to skin a cat somewhere reasonably priced, with a good cat skinning program, AND where she could also learn to do other things besides skin a cat.
Oh so in other words, I should go somewhere cheaper to learn about art?
Bottom line - it doesn’t sound like you or your family can afford SCAD, even if it was the right place for you academic / talent wise (which is unknown at this time). That’s fine, most of us have limits on the $ available for post HS training. So move on from the SCAD dream and put your time into figuring out what schools ARE good fits for you - from a financial, academic, and art talent standpoint.
There are vital pieces of the puzzle you need to put together a possible list. How much you and your family can afford, what your art teacher believe is a good level of art training/school for your talent, and what your academics looks like GPA (which you know) and SAT/ACT. Work on getting that info together and you’ll be in a good position to find a good fit!
I was planning to go to the Art Insititute of Charleston since my mom said she could help pay for that, but I heard bad reviews that the AI is a scam and they don’t teach anything.
One problem with for-profit schools are that the credits for courses they teach often don’t transfer. So you go to AI and take classes and don’t love it like you think you will or run out of money. What then? If you go somewhere else you are basically starting over. You’ve wasted time and money. At a “regular” college, even if you change majors the courses you have taken MAY go to another major (definitely your gen eds and likely some of your art since many schools have a fine arts requirement). You will still get a chance to learn a lot about art and to see what the field is like.
You haven’t told us anything about your artistic abilities. Awards? Shows? Feedback from teachers? Lots of people are artistic. Lots of people are musical. My H is very talented pianist but when you are around other performance majors, you quickly realize you’re not the cream of the crop that actually make money on an art career. He has enjoyed playing and has accompanied rehearsals, auditions, musicals and been active in choirs, etc but he makes his money another way.
You may be incredibly talented, but that may not be enough to earn a living with straight up studio art. College will let you try other things and show you how artistic talent can be used in a number of fields. If you love art it will be part of your life forever - the advice here is not to jump at For-profits and the niche schools that you can’t afford. SCAD might be great for what you want to do - not a scam, but very narrow focus (which might be ok) and just too expensive (THIS). There are tons of threads on CC about kids who can’t go to great place due to money constraints.
Well I post my art here (www.milkynova.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■) and on my IG (www.instagram.com/dreadoodlez)
What’s the medium?
I may have missed this, what does your art teacher say? What grades do you get in your art classes? Is art a heavy focus at your high school (like an art specialty school?) or just an high school that offers art classes?
Note the link on this blog to a WSJ article regarding the President of SCAD paying herself over $9mm per year - definitely feels like for profit school and unlikely a good choice for OP.
http://investigations.blog.ajc.com/2017/03/17/egads-scad-presidents-pay-tops-in-nation-among-nonprofit-colleges/
Excellent article, chembiodad. Especially the info degree value. I was just saying tonight to my family: I remember when SCAD started here. Since 78-79, I have only known of TWO people who have done something with a SCAD degree. One is an acquaintance of my son’s. The other is the “dancing first baseman” for the Savannah Bananas. There of course are likely more people than that who’ve used their SCAD degrees. But that’s still an awfully small number since 79.