<p>Im planning on checkin out Penn State. How hard is it to get into? Im from PA so maybe that can go to my advantage. I see on sites that the instate tution cost about 12,000 which is excellent and I can afford.</p>
<p>How is their communications/journalism program? How diverse is the campus? Please help a brotha out.</p>
<p>I was looking at Penn State for my daughter, who is from Maryland and interested in Graphic Design. Getting admitted generally reqiures around 1200 SATs and about 3.5 or so weighted average. Check out <a href="http://www.princetonreview.com%5B/url%5D">www.princetonreview.com</a></p>
<p>My problems with Penn State is that they are a HUGE school and their high liberal arts requirements. In many cases, they require 45 credits of liberal arts PLUS 3 foreign language courses! This is almost two full years of liberal arts. Yes, some of these requirements might be met by taking courses in your major,but it is still an onerous requirement. For example, you need 2 maths courses, three science courses, three foreign language courses ( for most majors), two social studies, two in cultural diversity and two english courses and maybe more. It has more liberal arts courses than that found in most other universities. </p>
<p>If you don't mind this then it isn't a problem. Personally, I would think that having less core requirements and more flexibility is preferred.</p>
<p>Hm... I didnt know about that. Thanks for that tidbit.</p>
<p>hey TaxGuy....there are many other places to look for your daughter......that aren't out in the boonies and have fewer reqs.</p>
<p>Hi Taxguy, This is why I did not spend anytime looking into Penn State. They are just too huge. I even looked at the other 2 and 4 year campuses (the smaller campuses), but it looked like housing would be an issue except for one of those campuses(can't remember off hand-started with a B). This was furthest from our home and got some mixed reviews and so we did not persue it.</p>
<p>My daughter's preference was not to go to a "stand alone" art program. She wanted to meet people who aren't just artsy. Also, as a participant in a humanities magnet program, she certainly wasn't afraid of having a strong liberal arts program. She also attends a large high school; therefore, she doesn't mind attending a huge school.Thus, she would prefer a university setting. However, she doesn't want a school of under 1500 kids, which is smaller than her high school, and doesn't want a large amount of core liberal arts requirements.</p>
<p>We stumbled on Penn State after it was recommended by several people. They do seem to have a decent program in graphic arts and digital media and had good liberal arts. However, I didn't know about the onerous core requirements until recently. They don't make this very well known. hehe.</p>
<p>Our problem is that most schools with strong graphic arts programs have some significant drawbacks. For example:</p>
<ol>
<li>Penn State: huge amount of core requirements</li>
<li>Cornell: same problem as Penn State, and no graphic design program</li>
<li>Syracuse: Graphic program is moving off campus, which requires busing each way and cold weather.</li>
<li>RIT: Nothing to do around school and frigid environment. Moreover, no Jewish population to speak of ( more of a preference). Also, many appartments are far away from scholastic buildings,which mandate busses be taken to class in upper class years if she doesn't win the appartment lottery for close in appartments. Also, college review sites give lots of negativity about the school. Most students wouldn't attend this school is given another chance. This is buttressed by fact that they have one of the lowest 6 year graduation rates around.</li>
<li>UMass Dartmouth: nothing around and not well rated. Also, College review sites have lots of negativity about the school.</li>
<li>Pratt: Good academics and great number of artistic majors and choices but deteriorating buildings. Also, Brooklyn isn't the safest spot in the world. Lots of security, and surrounded by iron gates.</li>
<li>RISD: Very nice but very artsy and very hard to get into. Also, stand alone art school.However, this is probably preference for daughter if she gets in</li>
<li>University of Cincinnati: unsafe area surrounding school and not cheap for a state school. Also relatively far from us since we live in Maryland. WE will be visiting this school this month.</li>
<li><p>CMU: very few kids taken, and my daughter didn't seem to like it. Studio facilities were so- so compared to other schools. Also, CMU requires kids to REALLY know exactly what they want. My daughter wouldn't come across as that assured in an interview. </p></li>
<li><p>VCU: In the area of Richmond where VCU is located appeared very downtrodden.There were many homeless people and the area didn't appear too safe. Moreover, liberal arts were not rated very well. Art building looked very old and dilapidated despite good ratings of program.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thus, all these schools that we have looked at have some drawbacks, which makes this whole process very frustrating.</p>
<p>Also.....there are quite a few "artsy" schools in Philly which teach this discipline and have cross registration with other schools in the area.....a lot of schools in the city and so opportunity to meet students of a non artist type is great.</p>
<p>Hazmat, The drawback with Cooper Union is simple: with a 6% acceptance rate, she probably wouldn't get admitted! Moreover, she really doesn't want a school that is much smaller than her high school. She also wants some kind of social scene, which doesn't really occur at Cooper Union. Personally, I have qualms about her living in Manhattan alone too. </p>
<p>In addition,I inspected Cooper Union personally with my wife. We also interviewed many students. Although it is VERY selective, this seems to be their only main benefit ( besides free tuition of course). The facilities were just so- so. Course offerings were rather spartan compared to other schools.</p>
<p>Taxguy, I was going to suggest VCU because I heard some good things about their art program.</p>
<p>I checked Penn State's Blue Book (listing of all requirements for undergraduate degrees in each major: <a href="http://www.psu.edu/bulletins/bluebook/%5B/url%5D">http://www.psu.edu/bulletins/bluebook/</a>)</p>
<p>If you look closely near the top, you'll see that 15 of the required 45 credits of general education are included in the requirements for the Graphic Design major. Quoting:</p>
<p>GENERAL EDUCATION: 45 credits
(15 of these 45 credits are included in REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MAJOR) </p>
<p>So you only need to worry about 30 credits.</p>
<p>As for the foreign language -- if you've taken four years of the same language in high school, you'll pass out of say, Spanish 001 and Spanish 002. As a result, you'll only have to take Spanish 003 (4 credits) and be done with what looks like a 12 credit requirement.</p>
<p>KCS149, frankly, it isn't that clear what major courses also fulfill general education requirements. All schools allow some overlap,but I can't quite tell how much that overlap for graphic design kids occurs. Either way, it is stupid to have to play this game of "getting the best double counting courses for the buck" game. </p>
<p>If you can direct me as to where it shows that only 30 credits of gen ed courses would be required for graphic design kids ( after taking courses required for their major), it would be very helpful. I can't see any discussion on this. In fact, it all seems quite confusing.</p>
<p>As to foreign language, I have yet to see any art program require foreign language for graduation in art. This is very unusual to say the least and adds a whole lot more than should be added.</p>
<p>The fifteen credits of gen eds included in the Graphics Arts major at Penn State are:</p>
<h1>9 Credits of Gen Ed Arts</h1>
<p>ART H 111 GA
ART H 112 GA
ART H 202 GA or ART H 305 GA or ART H 307 GA or ART H 325 GA</p>
<h1>3 Credits of Gen Ed Social Sciences</h1>
<p>ECON 002 GS or ECON 004 GS or ECON 014 GS</p>
<h1>3 Credits of Gen Ed Writing/Speaking</h1>
<p>ENGL 202B GWS or ENGL 202D GWS</p>
<p>Finding courses that double count for requirements is a useful skill to learn because it will help you graduate more quickly, regardless of whether you value the skill or not.</p>
<p>It is actually quite common to require proficiency in a foreign language of students who would like to graduate with a bachelor of arts.</p>
<p>You can read all about Penn State's general education requirments at:</p>
<p>For graphic design:</p>
<p>Go to <a href="http://www.psu.edu/bulletins/bluebook/$aamenu.htm">http://www.psu.edu/bulletins/bluebook/$aamenu.htm</a></p>
<p>There is a link on the left side of the page called 'Majors and Minors [College of Arts and Architecture] '. Click on it</p>
<p>A frame will be created on the left side of the webpage, scroll down in it until you see 'Graphic Design (GD) '. Click on it -- it will display all of the requirements for the graphic design major.</p>
<p>Any class that has a GWS, GA, GH, GS, GN, GHA, or GQ after it is a general education class.</p>
<p>If you look under the bold-faced headings 'Prescribed Courses' and 'Additional Courses', you will see exactly fifteen credits of required classes that have a general education designation.</p>