<p>I am new to the site but have been reading past posts. Son is a sophomore in High School planning on majoring in Illustration. He is very interest in Ringling College of Art and Design but I don't see much mention of this college. I would appreciate any and all input.</p>
<p>The threads may be a couple months old, but if you search on Ringling, you will probably come up with several. Have you visited? They host a National Portfolio Day in January. D visited Jan of Junior year and the combination warm weather and resort city atmosphere was quite calming. They are well known for their computer animation, yet seem to have a strong illustration dept. which was D’s interest. They are doing quite a bit of reinvestment in infrastructure, which is a good thing, but that means that there is less for scholarships right now. Maybe when your S is ready, their coffers will have more to give away. </p>
<p>There are some students on this site who were accepted who might comment on their perspective and at least one parent who can comment. What do you want to know?</p>
<p>Yes. We visited last April. Went for the tour and met with an admissions officer. My issue is that he is totally convinced this is the school for him and has little or no interest in looking elsewhere. I was just concerned that Ringling was not mentioned much in the other posts. How do they compare to SVA or RISD in the illustration area.</p>
<p>this is the mom you can ask about Ringling
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visual-arts-film-majors/1151469-ringling-college-art-design.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visual-arts-film-majors/1151469-ringling-college-art-design.html</a>
make up any bribe or excuses and drag your kid to RISD if you can, don’t skip library if not included in the tour.
avoid summer, go during school year but not peak app time or bank holidays.
Then you can start from top down, assuming you can pay in case he does want to go there.</p>
<p>The forums are littered with advice about not falling in love with one school. But kids do it anyway. Can you have a practical conversation with him to pick his top 5 (or whatever #) choices JUST in case something would fall through with Ringling? Or in case he changes his mind when he visits another good school.</p>
<p>If he loves Ringling, I wonder what he would think about campusless, cold SVA no matter how good it is.</p>
<p>I have heard of kids applying to one school, thinking they are a shoe-in (legacy or just plain arrogance) and then not getting in and scrambling at the last minute to apply and get in someplace else. By then, the merit aid has already been disbursed and they are left facing their 2nd or 3rd choice school and having to pay more than they would have had they had those schools on their application list in the first place. </p>
<p>After receiving the glossy catalogs, D fell in love with Maine College of Art - there was no other school for her. But I made her visit other New England schools while we were there visiting MECA, and guess what, she thought it was OK, but not in love with it anymore. She kept looking at brochures and found KCAI, MCAD, MIAD, SAIC, and Columbia College Chicago to add to the list. The next summer we took a trip to the Midwest and visited the above schools. After applying to her 3 top choices, and getting in each with merit aid, she chose MCAD and has never looked back.</p>
<p>Bottom line, you absolutely need to have him look at more than one school. I know Ringling is top for animation, but there are other schools that do just as well or better for illustration (D is illustration major BTW). My personal opinion is that RISD or SVA is better for illustration than Ringling.</p>