<p>My DD is looking at art schools and universities that have well-known art departments. Right now her list includes Skidmore, RISD, MICA, Pratt, RIT, and Syracuse. She feels RIT and Syracuse are a little too big for her, and Cornell, besides being huge, is too much of a reach. I am trying to encourage her to apply to Carnegie Mellon, but she's resisting, saying she will not get in. Is there even a point in applying? She has a weighted GPA of 3.63 at a very highly ranked public HS in New Jersey--above average but not at the top of the class. She got a 30 on the ACT and is retaking it this month. Her portfolio is superb--RIT already told her she's in based on that. Worth applying or is it really too much of a stretch? Thanks in advance!!!</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon, despite being a strong academic school in other areas, has a reputation for not putting a lot of weight on academics for their talent based programs. So for students applying for art, music, musical theatre, etc. their admission will be based primarily on their portfolios and auditions. D has a friend currently in their art program. She did not have CMU range academics at all, but got in based on an excellent portfolio. Actually of the schools you have listed, Skidmore will consider academics more than any other college on your list, since their art program is not portfolio based. While a strong portfolio can be sent as a supplement to Skidmore, her application will be reviewed alongside applications for all majors and the same criteria will be used. My D is studying studio art at NYU (she applied ED), but was accepted at Pratt as an EA student before she withdrew her application. But she also started applications and interviewed at Syracuse and Skidmore and I’m very familiar with their programs. Both NYU and Syracuse base their admission on a mix of academics and talent. For NYU, it is a 50-50 talent/ academics criteria. Stand alone art programs will consider portfolio much more strongly. CMU tends to be more aligned to that standard.</p>
<p>Thank you, uskoolfish! I think she has the academic stats to get into Skidmore (possibly–they had a banner year but she spent last summer there and knows people). I know the art schools mostly look at portfolio, except perhaps for RISD which likes good academic stats. I just think CMU might really be worth a look, as the size is half that of RIT and Syracuse. Incidentally, what can you tell me about Syracuse and Skidmore’s art programs? I know that at Skidmore she would not get a BFA. Her concern is finding a job after graduation. Syracuse seems like a bit of a party school, and I personally didn’t like that most of her classes would be in the warehouse downtown. Is your daughter’s friend holding her own academically at CMU? That is another concern of ours.</p>
<p>btw–to give you some background–D had a 91ish average (lots of honors and AP’s but stronger English leaning vs math) with 2000 SAT and 29 ACT. She was lopsided with a 35 Eng ACT and 24 math/ 720 V vs.620 M SAT. She had strong leadership skills and was also very involved with music and theatre. (Which NYU and Skidmore definitely liked.) I felt her academics were on the borderline for acceptance at NYU or Skidmore, but got very positive feed back from Skidmore after an interview with the head of admissions and in the end she was placed in NYU’s scholars program. So your daughter should have more confidence in her grades/ scores and apply to CMU, etc. without worries. </p>
<p>Actually despite the positive feedback from RIT, I would be more concerned with her portfolio, as schools have very different criteria. Have her try to get her portfolio reviewed by as many different schools as possible. When we did this, the range of opinion was startling. Some schools raved about piece A and others said to leave it out! D got her portfolio reviewed by NYU faculty the summer before she applied and it was very helpful. They were sold on the level of her skills after looking at just a few pieces–but basically had her re-do a significant part of her portfolio to have it become more her own…reflecting her inner creativity rather than high school assignments. NYU has a more contemporary bend (as does CMU) and wants to see that a student can think outside the box. Syracuse had accepted her portfolio early before she added more pieces for NYU. She used essentially the same (revised)portfolio for Pratt and NYU. But in the end I would say that at least half the pieces she submitted were not high school assignments in painting and drawing.</p>
<p>Good luck to your daughter!</p>
<p>I thought Skidmore was a very good fit for my daughter. She was less impressed, though, and I think part of that was because she wanted to be in a portfolio-based BFA program. She would have tried for the Filene Music Scholarship (which would have been a way to get some merit $), so I thought the school would match her talents in music, theatre as well as art and possibly save us some money. But she decided she wanted to be in a stronger art focused program and preferred being in a city.</p>
<p>She ended up doing an art program at NYU the summer before senior year, and from that point she was sold on NYU. My older D went there for vocal performance and loved it, but I wasn’t pushing my younger D to go to the same school as her sister. But she fell in love with everything about it, so that was that.</p>
<p>She loves NYU’s program because it is a real balance between studio classes and academically based art classes. From her perspective, she can’t imagine not being in NYC with all the galleries, etc. She feels the student body overall is very smart and very talented and is in awe of her professors who are all working artists. She is friends with students who are very creative in other areas, as well. So she has acted in a bunch of student films through her Tisch friends and did hair and make-up for a friend who is doing fashion design through Gallatin…</p>
<p>I think CMU offers a similar experience to NYU (minus the NYC art scene). Her friend who is there was admitted into their fine arts program, but ended up not liking the contemporary art emphasis. She had a terrific portfolio, but was heavier on technique than creativity and philosophizing about art–whereas my D was probably more the opposite. In the end, her friend switched to CMU’s graphic arts department, but she did withdraw for the second half of freshman year and had to re-apply into the graphics program. So she will graduate a year behind, I think.</p>
<p>My husband is a graduate of CMU, but oddly he did not want her to go there as an art student. But his feelings about the school are based on his own recollections from 30+ years ago. He felt that the art students were very separate from the math/ engineering types who make up the majority of students. He felt that the MT and art kids were not really integrated with the rest of the school. He was also very involved in fraternity life there and had quite the wild time. He felt that Greek life was great, but since D’s weren’t really looking to join sororities that it wouldn’t be a great fit (and I think he was being over-protective remembering the bad boy that he was).</p>
<p>D hated Syracuse and did not want to apply. I saw it as a safety because she was accepted talent-wise based on her portfolio junior year. </p>
<p>Pratt was a top choice, but D wasn’t sure about being in a stand alone art school. She likes the exposure to other high level academic classes that NYU offers. She did apply there early action and rec’d merit aid…so it would have been a real possibility had she not been accepted to NYU ED.</p>
<p>I did not like the location of MICA and once she had a positive review of her portfolio by the former head of admissions at Pratt (from a pre-college class)–plus a letter of recommendation–MICA was out of consideration by junior year.</p>
<p>I think that RISD was very intimidating to D after she did a portfolio review with them at a National Portfolio Day. Whereas other schools were encouraging to all students and took the time to discuss individual pieces, RISD was like an assembly line and basically just kind of grunted at most of the work that passed before them. D didn’t consider applying.</p>
<p>D as of today wants to teach art when she graduates and will probably apply to NYU’s 5 year program senior year to get her MA in art education. She would love to find a position in an independent school in NYC (they offer more creative art options to students). She would love to remain a practicing artist (her concentration is in sculpture) and hopes that the networking that NYU provides in the city will help her get into gallery shows some day.</p>
<p>What is your daughter looking to do as an concentration and ultimately as a career?</p>
<p>Wow, you’ve given me some great info. Right now she’s into interior design. In fact, she will be spending July living at Pratt and taking interior design courses. If she ends up not liking it, though, I’m not sure what she’ll major in. </p>
<p>I hated MICA’s location and the dorms that we saw. I think she’ll still apply there, but I really, really hope she doesn’t go! RISD seemed like a better location but she is still partial to real campuses, which is one of the things she loves about Skidmore. We never thought about NYU, probably partly because of the lack of a campus. She was turned off to Boston U after visiting the art department. I’m not sure where else to look! She wants to stay in the northeast for sure.</p>
<p>My daughter hated BU too. Mostly because of how it was situated in the city. Totally different feel than NYU. NYU 's art classes are all in a seperate building (the Barney Builfing) on Stuyvesant St. 10th off 3rd ave. NYU doesn’t have an interior design program (to my knowledge), but has a strong art program that is absolutely worth considering. D really loves it. Great internships and networking too. As I said, our top picks were NYU, Skidmore and Pratt. And CMU seems wirth a try. </p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>Yes, CMU College of Fine Arts (CFA) is portfolio heavy. CFA is almost like a conservatory within a University, which is one of the things I really liked when I went there (lots of great drama productions, music recitals, art exhibitions). Also, within CFA CMU has a very highly regarded design department, particularly in industrial design. My wife graduated from CMU with a degree in Graphic Design.</p>
<p>A couple of other great things about CMU for a potential art student. It’s very interdisciplinary, so your daughter could at some point branch out if she wanted to. Also, it is computer U. so computer generated art and graphics is pretty fantastic there. In fact there is a whole center (Entertainment Technology Center) at CMU which is dedicated to integrating computing and the arts. Check it out.</p>