<p>sbarrytown - I also have a HS senior who is a complete opposite of her older sister. I am going through a similar college search for art schools and it is so much more difficult this time, mostly because she is getting very stressed over the whole process. It is interesting with the different opinions from everyone as to how difficult some of the schools are to get into and which look more at the portfolio. I agree, most of the posts here are from A students with great stats and she is more of a B student. She visited some schools last spring, Arcadia, which I thought had a nice art dept. but she wasn't sure she could picture herself there, as well as Drexel and not sure what her thoughts are there. She also visited Pratt and didn't come away feeling great about it, but interestingly enough, she has really changed her views in the past 6 months. One thing that really helped her was taking a pre-college program at UArts this summer. I think it opened her eyes up to what art school will really be like and she came out of there with some great pieces to use in her portfolio. It's amazing how much she improved. I would suggest to anyone interested in art school to definitely enroll in a summer pre-college program. I corresponded with some of the moms posting here last spring about Pratt and am glad to hear how well all of your kids are doing there. My daughter worked with someone this summer who is a freshman there this year and he has been encouraging her to come up and visit. So now, she is still interested in Pratt, and has made a list of other schools to consider which I believe includes Tyler, probably UArts since she was there this summer, Univ. of DE, Towson, possibly Philadelphia University, not sure if Arcadia made the list. She ideally wants a school in the city, preferably Philly or NY and is not sure if she wants an art school or university. She also has no idea of what direction she wants to go - she has talked about interior design and possibly graphic design but really loves drawing and painting. So, what schools on this list are realistic choices and any other suggestions?</p>
<p>I don't think being a "B" student should discourage anyone from applying to any specific art school. Art schools, through portfolio evaluations, drawing requirements, or hometests, have more information to evaluate past and expected student performance. I think they can see beyond grades and test scores in many cases.</p>
<p>There are only a couple of art schools that might be problematic with a "B" average; RISD and Cooper are two that come to mind. The main issue would be merit aid as many will use their merit money to attract top academic students.</p>
<p>Yes, I am aware of the schools that you must have high stats for, like RISD, CMU, and Cooper, mostly because of all the great information I get from everyone's posts on this site. But I'm still not sure about schools like Tyler and Pratt. The average GPAs and SAT scores seem to go up every year and my daughter is below the averages. I want to make sure she has at least a couple of schools on her list where she will definitely be accepted. Based on what she's looking for in a school and being undecided on what she wants to study, Pratt and Tyler seem like they could be good choices for her. She would probably have a tough time getting accepted to UD, our in state univ. because they take two thirds of their students from out of state and have high minimum GPA and SAT requirements.</p>
<p>Perhaps I should be a little more specific. My D's high school GPA was much closer to 3.0 than 4.0. She's enjoying her first semester at Cooper very much.</p>
<p>Never say never.</p>
<p>As for SATs, hers were not special. In fact, three days before the school sent out acceptances, we got a call from Cooper saying they didn't have her scores. I figured then that she was probably in and that scores counted for little, though very low ones would probably raise a red flag.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, she reports back that the entire freshman class is unusually articulate, a trait not necessarily found among all good art students. She remarked that that was something the adcom couldn't learn from the hometest, though they do require written answers to a set of questions.</p>
<p>But I reminded her that at NPD, the Cooper faculty member spent 45 minutes with her, in a wide-ranging interview that covered a lot of intellectual ground. </p>
<p>Earlier in this thread a poster wrote "skip NPD." It's a reasonable conclusion that my D wouldn't have been accepted at Cooper without the NPD visit.</p>
<p>I think there's nearly as many potentially successful paths for traversing the college process as there are people doing it. The strength of this forum is seeing the various ways others are tackling or have tackled the problems. But I don't think it's useful to eliminate possibilities or categorically state that certain methods not be used. To do so is to dismiss the uniqueness that all our children have in abundance.</p>
<p>When I spoke about colleges for non-A students, I was also referring non-studio art students (eg art history, creative writing). I agree that RISD is one art college that looks for higher grades - they talked about it at the information session - but I think might be because RISD students can take courses at Brown. In terms of studio art majors, I agree, the portfolio and related art activities probably weigh more.</p>
<p>TH21 - Wow, that's great to hear about your daughter. I'm sure she must have had an amazing portfolio and obviously made a very good impression at NPD. Don't get me wrong - I would never discourage my daughter from applying anywhere, that's the last thing I want to do. She seems to be coming up with a reasonable list so far so we will have to wait and see. She's been dragging her feet on getting started on her applications so I am encouraging her to get them completed as soon as possible. With most of the schools she's applying to having rolling admissions, it could take some of the pressure off if she gets some acceptances by getting applications completed by November. I looked at the schedule for NPD and it looks like the earliest date for a location close to us is in November. Would it still be worthwhile for her to attend?</p>
<p>It would be easier for us to make recommendation if we knew what field of art she wants such as graphic or industrial design, fine art, art history, photography, print making, sculpture etc.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I looked at the schedule for NPD and it looks like the earliest date for a location close to us is in November. Would it still be worthwhile for her to attend?
[/quote]
Any time before the portfolio is due could be worthwhile. In most cases, the purpose of the NPD review is just to get advice about composing the portfolio (types of images, selections of media, weeding out the weak stuff, etc.). So take advantage of that advice if you can. She should remember to take her sketchbooks as well as her artwork or images of it. A reviewer may suggest that she take photos of a couple of items from the sketchbook.</p>
<p>Mom of Alex,
Everybody's situation is different, but I can say that for my d, applying Early Action to Pratt and knowing in Dec that she was in, took so much pressure off her. She applied to both LAC and Art Schools, and her Pratt acceptance enabled her to apply to far fewer schools, and really began to engage her concretely in her school decision.</p>
<p>taxguy - Yes, it would be so much easier for her too if she knew what field of art she definitely wanted to study, but she doesn't at this point. She seems to mention interior design more than other majors but really loves painting and drawing. So schools that offer many different majors, or at least schools with BFA degrees in interior design would probably be her best bets. I think she wouldn't enjoy the BS programs as much since they don't offer as many studio art classes. This would be the case at schools like Drexel and Philadelphia University. So schools similar to Pratt would probably be good, just not sure how many are out there with so many choices of majors.</p>
<p>mackinaw - I agree it would be worthwhile for her to go to NPD. I just brought it up with her today and she definitely is interested in attending. She may have already had her portfolio reviews with some of the schools she's interested in by then but sounds like she could still get some good pointers for schools where she hasn't completed her applications.</p>
<p>artschoolmom - Early Action does take the pressure off, and my daughter has surprised me by starting several applications this morning and she is aware of the deadlines. She did mention early action at Pratt and plans on getting her application completed in time. Thanks for all of the advice. What year is your daughter now? Did she have a major when she applied and what other schools did she consider?</p>
<p>My daughter just started her freshman year at Pratt. She ia a fine arts major and is unclear as to what her concentration will be. Pratt really appealed to her because one has 2 years of foundation before one needs to declare. Her college criteria was very specific, yet created a somewhat disjointed list. She wanted to be in a city,diverse student body, with a campus; a LAC with few core requirements and a great studio art/art history and english dept ; or an art school with good Art History and English Dept. She did her homework, looked at a ton of schools and ended up applying to Pratt, RISD, Parsons/Eugene Lang(5 year BFA/BA program), Skidmore, Pitzer, Scripps, Goucher, Lewis & Clark.</p>