I am trying to help my daughter decide which art school to attend this fall. She is inclined to major in animation/time-based media but that can change, and I think that the most important part at undergraduate level is probably a well rounded general education. She is admitted to VCU arts, RISD, MICA, Ringling, Pratt, SVA, RIT, Carnegie Mellon and U. Miami, and she has narrowed down to RISD, MICA, Pratt and Carnegie Mellon. She got substantial scholarships from MICA and Pratt ($80k to 120k), but nothing from RISD and Carnegie Mellon. I would like to know that in terms of overall reputation how do you rank this 4 schools? I am aware that RISD has a better reputation than MICA, but does it worth the $130k extra? I am an immigrant and received my education outside the US. I have really limited knowledge in US higher educations in general and knows even less in fine/visual arts. Any input will be helpful! Thanks!
I know RISD is very prestigious, but $130k extra is too rich for my blood. Unless you have all that cash available to easily pay the high full sticker price, I would choose one of the least expensive options. MICA and Pratt are fantastic schools with great reputations, and she will thrive at either at less expense. I’d say let her be proud to say that RISD and CM wanted her, but it’s OK to decline the offer because the price tag is too high.
Thanks for your insights! What you said makes total sense to me! The only thing for me is that I think my daughter prefer RISD because she considered to apply RISD with “early decision”. I advised against it and she was ticked a bit and applied to 10 schools! We did visit some of the schools and she actually also liked them. If it comes down to MICA vs RISD, which I think is likely, curriculum flexibility, general education courses and living arrangement may become important factors. MICA is quite flexible with its curriculum, can take courses at Hopkins, and the dorm is apartment style and you get your own room which she likes. We will visit RISD again next week. I am not sure about its curriculum and dorms but I know their students can take courses at Brown and the students from the two schools interact with each other, which I think is an advantage. But the cost difference is hard to swallow. RISD will actually cost $144k more than MICA using the “net cost calculators”. We did save up with the 529 but it is a big chunk of money no matter where it comes from. If RISD can truly prepare her better as a person and as an artist, we might be able to bleed it. But I truly do not know.
My D did not consider RISD at all so I don’t know any more about it than its reputation as a super-elite and prestigious school. It will be an impressive name to drop, but MICA, Pratt, and frankly all the other schools you mention are all fantastic names. MICA sounds like a more practical option – I wonder if RISD would actually be the right place to prepare her for a career in animation (though I get that she may change her focus)?
The extra money could be used to help her out when she graduates … down-payment on a home purchase, etc. Art school, IMO, is tough to justify for a sky-high cost of attendance unless the family comfortably has that money available to spend.
Keep us posted on your decision!
What major did your D get accepted to at these schools? What does she want to major in and ultimately do?
Computer animation?
Illustration?
Game art?
Well, I can tell you why my daughter chose MICA…but a lot of it is related to what she wants to study! But I’ll preface it all with this–she didn’t get into RISD, but was actually ready to go ahead and commit to MICA before hearing back from RISD, and really only waited to hear because I told her she should know ALL her options before making that final decision! But for her, it came down to this: she loved the dorms at MICA (as you said, apartment style, possibility of having a single bedroom, etc.), especially compared to RISD which looked like more “traditional” style freshman dorms. She, too, is very interested in taking some cross-registered classes (humanities, social sciences), and after asking around, it sounded a lot like, in reality, this didn’t happen as much with the RISD/Brown relationship, mostly due to scheduling conflicts (as in, different academic calendars). We’re hoping it does happen more, in reality, with MICA and JHU, especially because we toured JHU with my younger daughter (a junior now) and my artist daughter was with us and she particularly LOVED Hopkins. And lastly but most importantly, curriculum. She worried that RISD would be too intense (especially first year) and the major too focused. She wants to major in Illustration, but is also very interested in “associated” things like game art/character design/game design. We are under the impression that there is more flexibility in majors at MICA, and ultimately that would have been the deciding factor for her, had she actually HAD a decision to make, LOL! (she got into several other art schools, but MICA was her clear favorite of those!) I do think that part of why I wanted her to wait to hear back from RISD before committing was because I consider it “the most prestigious” of the art schools, and there’s certainly something to be said for that. But I think if it came down to a big chunk of money deciding between RISD or MICA…well, I don’t think the difference in “prestige” is worth THAT much money! I can’t speak to differences with Pratt & Carnegie Mellon, as I don’t really know. My d didn’t apply to any NYC schools because we live here in NYC and she wants to “go away” for school, and Carnegie Mellon didn’t have an Illustration program so was out from the get-go.
@gouf78 My D is mostly interested in animation but she would like to combine it with either painting or game design. She is pretty strong on art foundation and on portraiture, but animation and digital arts are her favorite RIGHT NOW. She has not shown great interests in illustration. I am aware that animation is not necessarily strong in MICA or RISD, but it seems that these schools do pay attention to the humanistic side of a well rounded education. We will be visiting Ringling too as we know that it has a very strong animation program, but not much of a graduate program where the prestige shows.
@KCHWriter Thanks for your reply! For cross registrations at MICA and RISD, what I heard is quite mixed. Someone said that JHU is 3 miles away from MICA and it is not really practical to take classes there for MICA students (Google map shows it is 1.7 miles apart and a 36 minutes walk). I am not sure if they have shuttles between the two camps, otherwise it will be hard if the MICA schedule is rigorous. On the other hand, Brown and RISD campuses are basically connected and cross registrations are said to be more common, but I have also heard as you said that the RISD curriculum is quite tight and it is difficult to reconcile the class schedules. Has your daughter already started MICA? How does she like it? Bolton Hill area in Baltimore seems quite nice, and the campus facilities seem a bit more up to date at MICA too.
@madgemini4 That down payment on a home purchase is a great idea! I will sell it to her and she might buy it! Thanks!
I want to share with all an email reply from a friend who is a professor in art history:
“Both RISD and MICA are located in college towns, where I believe she can take courses at Brown University and Johns Hopkins University, respectively. When I taught a semester at JHU, I had a MICA student: she is highly talented and intellectual. She told me that the MICA students and teachers are of first-class caliber; she certainly demonstrated that in my class and she eventually became inclined to go to graduate school (I haven’t tracked her down lately). Between these two, RISD is probably more prestigious; it has been generally considered the most prestigious art school. She could take humanities courses at Brown if she likes”.
Is Baltimore considered a college town? The city is quite big!
@Janfrank–Is your D admitted to Ringling’s computer animation program or to one of their other majors?
I ask because Ringling works a bit different than other schools in respect to CA.
CA at Ringling is a closed program.
It’s very selective and there is no room for other majors to take those animation classes unless they are already in the major. It’s focus is 3D animation. If you like to draw on paper or paint more than do computer work–it’s not for you. There is plenty of drawing no doubt! But that’s not the final goal. The final goal is a professional two minute film where you do it ALL from beginning to end. That’s art, story, characters and animation. Your own personal Pixar miniature so to speak. It will be your resume (reel) when you graduate.
Game art or motion design may be a better fit if you have different interests/talents–you’d need to talk to professors for the best advice. (And they’re very helpful! Nobody at Ringling will steer you wrong.) Both of them are very strong programs AND have the animation components so you learn animation but not so closely focused on movies.
Yes, she is admitted to CA at Ringling. We will visit tomorrow and find out more!
@Janfrank, Baltimore seems like a college town in the same way that Boston is (but to a lesser degree, I suppose) as there are SO many colleges there spread out throughout the neighborhoods. MICA is right next to the Univ. of Baltimore, and if you go to BaltimoreCollegeTown dot org you’ll find info about the different schools and the CollegeTown shuttle that runs between many of them. There isn’t a MICA stop on the shuttle, but there is a Penn Station stop, and Penn Station is less than half a mile from MICA, easily walkable. So, a MICA student could easily take the shuttle (or the train) to JHU or Goucher. Probably a 15 min. ride.
@Janfrank My D is a HS junior so we’re complete novices compare to most families on CC. We just came back from a week of visiting various schools. This trip was focused on college of art in a larger university. One was CMU. I’m glad we visited it because it helped us tremendously that CUM is the right school for my D. My D is in between illustration/animation/graphic novel and history or Chinese minor so CMU’s BXA seemed interesting. However, the meeting with a faculty member of college of art did not start off well, but it got better towards the end. After general introductions, he asked my D what she wanted to study, she said possibly illustration. He obviously said illustration is not offered at CMU and he went off for a long time how illustrators solver other people’s ideas or problems and that CMU’s students create their own problems and solved their own problems. She is 16 and a bit introverted and couldn’t reply back quick enough to expound on her interests and/or background. He definitely made a quick assessment of her one word answer and could not look beyond that. He just talked and talked and did not give her a chance to speak. I finally stepped in and said, she’s still young in this art process and it’s easy to say illustration bc it’s general. He kind of backed down a bit and agreed that many young students don’t always know what they want but that many CMU’s students have a clear idea where they want to end up and that they want to create change and are culture changers. When he finally stopped talking and really looked my D’s works of art he said she has the skills and talent and creativity. He said if my D said she wanted to be an animator or a graphic novelist, CMU could help her. The meeting made both my D and I feel CMU’s was a bit of an elitist and it was not the right fit for her. We also did not see any art students in the art building even though we did an official tour of the college of art as well. The sophomore year’s small exhibition was not very impressive nor were the posted drawings from drawing I in the hall, in our opinion. The students we did see around campus looked lonely, stressed and all so quiet. Students in the cafeteria were mostly sitting alone, all plugged in headphones and working on laptops. It was so quiet, it felt odd. It was a weekday visit.
@cag60093 Thanks for sharing your experiences with CMU. It is very helpful. We will be visiting CMU for their accepted students day next weekend.
I have already had a bad impression of this school when I called their admission office. The admission officer was cold as ice, very impatient and marginally rude. She shows no interests in her job whatsoever! It is by far the worst of all the schools I interacted with. Maybe it is my accents annoyed her or something. But it is a very selective school and the BXA program is indeed attractive. Many people in our friend circle do think we should take CMU for its prestige as a renowned research university. We will see how my D feels about it. She did defend the admission officer and said that she probably was very tired because many prople are probably calling the admission offices now.
@gouf78 We visited Ringling and its CA program, and toured the campus today. It is just as you described, a highly selective (10% acceptance rate this year) and very closed program (no other major can take any class at CA). Do you have a connection with CA at Ringling?
The program is very impressive with its vast connections to all major animation studios. The school seems to be much more job/market-oriented than RISD or MICA. They want the students to focus on one thing and do it really well so they can stand out on a specific job market. They will have no possibility to cross into other majors (e,g. game design) as the CA curriculum is so intense that they are all consumed by the requirements. They do have some required liberty art courses but when I talked with a student and he indicated that those are not really serious courses because they do not want those courses “in the way”. So, if you like 3D CA and your goal is to work from project to project in animation studios, Ringling is definitely the choice, and you have to work really hard and truly stand out. If you want a well-rounded education, you should not come to Ringling but chose a liberty art college as suggested by our student tour guide.
@Janfrank–I do have a connection with Ringling–my D went there as a CA major. 
@gouf78 It truly is an amazing program if your mind is set on CA. My D does like it a lot. Sarasota seems a great city, beautiful beaches!
I have one at RISD and another child applying to schools so my kids have applied and/or visited many on your list.
While DD loves RISD and it’s a good fit for her. I don’t know if I’d recc’d it for what your daughter wants to pursue. Also she got really lucky in that RISD offered us the most aid $ thus making our decision MUCH easier (she was told ahead of time that finances would heavily determine our family’s choice).
Re Brown/RISD…they’re on completely different types of semesters (RISD has 2 and a Winter Session) so their class schedules don’t line up easily so it’s not as easy/clear of an option as one might believe to take classes at Brown. Also RISD’s animation program is NOT as well respected as at other schools. It’s part of the film major and much more conceptual in nature. My daughter has several friends who are switching into Illustration as a result.
Feel free to DM me if you’d like more info. I’m not knocking RISD, it’s great for a lot of things, but it seems like other schools would be a better fit academically and financially. Pratt, MICA and CMU are all great options academically and money-wise.
@ArtAngst Thank you for your insights! It is very helpful! We will see RISD this Friday for its accepted student day. I agree that she needs to find a good fit. My D does like MICA. But compared with MICA, RISD appears to have a better campus and it is safer. I read some serious safety issues in the MICA neighborhood, though the school is trying truly hard to keep it safe.