<p>Hi, all! Nice to hear from you prospective SVA students and parents! </p>
<p>First, about Pratt…yes, it was pretty awful. I was beside myself. You can read about it in the thread I posted here, but at first I wondered if I had done something to “offend” Pratt because I called SVA JUST THE DAY BEFORE Pratt revoked to ask SVA if they had any kind of a matching program for outside scholarships. My son also got scholarship money at the two other schools he applied to – SMFA and Mass Art – so it’s not like we thought it would be unreasonable to ask. He only applied to four schools, got into all four, and three of the four gave him money, so I just called SVA and said, “Your website mentions matching…can you explain how it works?”</p>
<p>The SVA admissions person was super nice, but she did explain that their matching program does not apply to a private school’s scholarships. I suppose if you had an third party scholarship giving you money for school in a certain state or something like that, they would consider a match. But I told her about the Pratt money, and she said, no, there is no match for that. Well, okay, but I did feel it was worth asking. And as I said, she was very nice and helpful and all of that.</p>
<p>The very next day, my son received a two line e-mail from Christopher Paisley in admissions at Pratt telling him there was a “calculation error” and he was not awarded a scholarship at all. Not even less money – NO money. I called and asked for more information, and Christopher Paisley told me that he himself had made the miscalculation on 180 early action acceptances (yes, my son got this award in a personalized hard copy letter before Christmas!) and at least half of those would be getting no money. The other half got reduced awards. Three months later!!</p>
<p>Gee, thanks. But if what he told me is the truth, I guess I can stop worrying that SVA called Pratt and said, “Hey, this kid is looking to play us!” and Pratt said, “Oh, well then let us help you out!” That would just be horrble.</p>
<p>But even before that episode soured us on Pratt, my son had said he was leaning towards SVA because of the student work. He has been taking animation classes since he was 11 and learning a lot on his own and he thought the caliber of work at SVA was something to aspire to, whereas at Pratt he thought the work was good, but not great. (I have to respect his opinion on this, because I can only draw stick figures and know nothing about art.)</p>
<p>Of course, as a mom, I worry about him in an urban setting away from home for the first time – I’m not sure he has much in the way of street smarts – but we went on the SVA tour and he felt no qualms. They don’t have much of a cafeteria to speak of – kind of a cafe type place which is more like a coffee shop – so naturally I’m concerned about what he’ll be eating…but these are the typical “Oh my gosh, my baby’s going to college” kinds of things that I have to get over, I guess. It just seems like there is less coddling at a school like SVA than there would be at a suburban campus with a dining hall and an infirmary and all of that. We do live in the suburbs of NY, so I guess I take some comfort that we are close by if we needed to get to him quickly. </p>
<p>SVA as a for profit school: Well, from what I can tell, that’s more of a tax distinction than anything else, but I honestly don’t know all that much about corporation status and how they differ. I believe the main thing is that they are an accredited school, which they are. Lots of “for profits” are not accredited. Moreover, it has such a great reputation relative to the not for profit institutions. I read up on its history, and it was begun as a trade school in 1947 for returning GIs who wanted to get into advertising (like on “Mad Men”). It was founded by Silas Rhodes (after whom their merit scholarship is named) and Burne Hogarth, who was the illustrator of the “Tarzan” comics. (In fact, I knew of the Hogarth family because they lived in the town I grew up in, and Mrs. Hogarth is a big social activist, so when I think of the Hogarth family, I personally think of protests against Indian Point and for ERA in the 70s, as opposed to heartless profiteers.) Anyway, the for profit status didn’t deter me, but it certainly sounds off putting, doesn’t it? I suppose if the tuition was far above that of the not for profit art schools I would wonder, but the bottom line does seem on a par with RISD, Pratt, SMFA. (Mass Art was a steal! $44g for tuition, plus they offered him $8g. But…he wanted SVA.)</p>
<p>Sorry this post is so long! My son and his dad are going to Accepted Students Day on the 12th. I have to be out west that weekend and will miss it, but I have heard they put on a very good program, so check it out if you can.</p>
About the dorms, while we were in NYC, she visited her friend at Parsons and saw his dorm, and she thought the dorms at SVA were better fyi. ^^</p>