<p>Does anyone have information on CalArts in Valencia, CA? S is lookingn into music and arts schools. I was looking at the state schools and then I heard of CalArts.</p>
<p>Depending on what grade your son is in he might look into the Summer program at Cal Arts. I think it might be called Summer Sparks. I think it is for Ca residents. Don’t think it is expensive.</p>
<p>California State Summer School for the Arts (csssa, pronounced seesah) has been at CalArts for the last five or so years, but I think their contract is up and they will be at another school in 2010.</p>
<p>CalArts was founded with $$ from Walt Disney and has a highly created reputation in the fine arts. Don’t know alot about their music program. Valencia is about 15 minutes north of West LA. It’s very hot in the summer.</p>
<p>Csssa, (California State Summer School of the Arts) has been housed as a summer program for high school kids on the Cal Arts campus since 1987, and has no relation to the school itself.</p>
<p>Cal Arts is a wonderful, albeit somewhat isolated, residential art school. It has true strengths in Animation, Music, Dance, non-narrative film and studio arts. For the focused arts-driven student, it is a solid choice. For those students who are wavering at all about an arts career, or want some academic balance with their arts major, it may not be a good choice.</p>
<p>Hi! There’s a Visual Arts forum on CC – if you ask there, you’ll get a lot more feedback. Many CC folks don’t know anything about art schools, but the Visual Arts forum is where we all think about that stuff all the time. 
Here’s what I can tell you: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>CSSSA (Innerspark) is a California state program, yes, but they admit 20 out of state students a year. OOS participants pay full tuition, because there is no financial aid for them. In all honesty, if you’re not in state, I wouldn’t recommend it as a pre-college art program. My daughter has now attended 3 pre-college programs and talked to students who did many others. She found that CSSSA is much more like summer camp than some of the other pre-college art programs. It’s also VERY hot in Valencia in the summer. More information is available at [CSSSA[/url</a>] . It was almost 45-50 minutes between Valencia and LAX when I drove it several times this summer, largely because of the traffic. </p></li>
<li><p>CalArts as a school: Yes, it’s the School that Disney Built, and it still has a rep as a conveyor belt for Disney animators. The campus looked almost like an office park when we drove in. It’s very suburban. My daughter found the dorms “skanky”, and was not terribly impressed with the amenities for artists. The public spaces are gorgeous, but everything not forward facing was often in a poor state of repair. CalArts is considered a top school for animation and some other things, and a better school for some other visual arts. </p></li>
<li><p>CalArts financially: It’s got the reputation of being stingy with aid. Several folks have posted over in visual arts about getting the least aid from them. My daughter also spoke with several students this past summer who said that their aid package from CalArts was the least generous of any they recieved from art schools they applied to. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Again, for detailed questions, go check over at [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visual-arts-film-majors/]Visual”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visual-arts-film-majors/]Visual</a> Arts and Film Majors - College Discussion](<a href=“http://www.csssa.org/]CSSSA[/url”>http://www.csssa.org/) .</p>
<p>lilmom, there’s also cc’s music major forum [Music</a> Major - College Discussion](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/]Music”>Music Major - College Confidential Forums) if your son’s interest is more music than art. Plenty of knowledge about a wide range of disciplines and schools there.</p>
<p>Thank you to everyone. S is very involved in music in school and his ec’s but is also interested in photography and multimedia. He’s also a good writer but it isn’t his interest right now. I’m afraid that an art school won’t allow him to explore other areas.</p>
<p>I’m finding it difficult to “make” him choose. Isn’t that what the first year or two of college is about? Exploring and identifying interests? I will look into the other forums for visual arts and music for additional info.</p>