MECA vs VCUarts?

College Search & Selection
1

Hello all!

I just finished my sophomore year at Clark University and I initially intended to be a physics major but quickly learned that it was not for me. After a some self discovery, I have decided upon Furniture Design/Woodworking as my major. I took it for a couple years in a high school and always knew I wanted to make stuff so it seemed like the right choice. So I went and applied to RISD, RIT, VCUarts, and MECA. I got in to all of them. Unfortunately, I have ruled out RISD for financial reasons and I have ruled out RIT since they accepted me as first year. So I am deciding between VCUarts and MECA. My loan for MECA will be about $15,000 and my loan for VCUarts would be about $20,000-25,000 (I have not received the financial package from them yet). I am just looking for some outside opinions since I cannot find much about MECA reputation due to its small size and VCUarts has all the rankings it is known for, but not in the wood department…I also worry about cost because I will have an art major which statistically has less income and I want to be able to afford my debt. Any insight on the schools reputation, talent, woodworking department, comparisons, etc would be very helpful.

Thanks

2

Sorry for the long post, but I would also like to add that I visited both and loved both cities. I just could not get a feel for the quality of education in the department I would be attending.

3

congrats. VCUARTS is the highest ranked of the list at #2 in the country for fine arts . Will you be accepted into a major or foundation year? Also I suggest you call the art school and ask to speak with an advisor or department chair of the major you hope to enroll in to get a solid idea of the curriculum and how it fits with your goals. They are fond of pointing out that most of the students actually change their major after exposure to all the other mediums in the foundation year. Good luck, VCUarts is as good as it gets.