Hey everyone I’m a junior in high school
I had a great experience at a precollege summer art program at Pratt MWP and have decided that I want to go to art school or a liberal arts school with a good art program, most likely for Fine Arts and Illustration.
I am in New York. Location isn’t a huge deal, I’m versatile, but I’d like to stay on the east coast.
I need help deciding where I should visit/ apply to later on. I’m not leaning towards art school or liberal arts schools so I want to hear opinions or varied suggestions
I’m going to visit RISD, Pratt, Cooper Union, RIT, and Bard.
Thanks for any help!
DO NOT come to RIT. I am a Graphic Design major this is my second semester here. It has easily been the worst experience of my life. Here are some aspect about the school.
- Absolutely no social aspect to the school
- Being friendly is something unknown to most students here
- they take great advantage of parking tickets
- They don’t plow or keep parking lots properly maitenanced
- Most classes require extra fees to milk students of every possible cent they have
- Classes don’t get cancelled during blizzards putting everyone’s lives in danger
- labs aren’t provided with sufficient equipment and up to date computers/ software
- Shops that certain majors require run on unscheduled times making it impossible to be confident in getting work done on time
- The gym will be packed everyday all day. Mostly by people who don’t know how to properly exercise
- Every RIT website is confusing
- Most RIT websites don’t work properly
- Enrollment is completely unfair. They hold extra spaces open for deaf students that don’t require the course even though there are majors that require certain classes to graduate.
- They have several food places to eat, but it’s all interchangeable food, just a different name on the place. for example the chicken at salsaritas is the same at Gracies and commons and everywhere else that sells chicken. That goes for everything like pasta, cheese, etc
- All facilities are run on RIT’s time not the student’s
- To get to your classes you must first walk about half of a mile, and during 10 degree weather in a blizzard it is almost unbearable. And like i mentioned before these walkways aren’t shoveled at all… that speaks for itself
- Specifically to my major… the doors to the studios are never locked so students will come up and steal from you unless things aren’t locked up tight at all times
- they do things like construction in the middle of main campus walkways during prime class times. for example the other weekend they had a bucket truck in the middle of the main walkway hanging up a “Freezefest” sign while thousands of students had to walk by the dangerous site all day… Negligence
- from my experience with deaf students… they are immature and wreckless so prepare to put up with this behavior everyday.
- All campus living is a scam. Do not live at Park point, province, Colony, etc. they are money hounds.
- They claim to have a great hockey team… They were good for a few years, but not anymore.
- Advisors usually aren’t much help. They spend more time out of the office than they do in the office.
- extremely ugly campus… it looks good from space though…
- The buildings are designed and placed in a way that they become gigantic wind tunnels. This is not ideal for a place that is already above average windy
- All the dorms are disgusting
- Parties are horrendous. Most of the time they are held in Park point or Province apartments that are basically one room apartments so It’s always just a bunch of weirdos standing around being weirdos
- They host tours during the 4 weeks of nice weather in September and May to trick people into coming here. Little do they know there is a 6 month long intense winter
- All the frats/sororities suck. They either consist of douche bags or weirdos
- Most RIT events will be a complete let down due to either weather or just a bad event overall
- When there are special events parking becomes closed off for special guests making your 200$ parking passes illegitimate for the time being.
- Insufficient parking leads to you being late for class because you have to wait 10-15 minutes on average for a spot in your designated lot.
- There is no community within the campus. it is pretty much a place for students to go to learn and do school work. there is no life within the buildings just static students there for one thing, education.
- Every food place is way overpriced because they know they can get the money out of you. I mean where else are you going to eat?
RIT does not give a fuck about you as a student. Honestly the list goes on and on. I think of something new everyday mostly because these things genuinely do happen on a daily basis. The school is one of the biggest scams in the country and I hope this persuades you to look at other options. People rave about the programs here and yes they will get you a job after college but its ALOT of money and co-ops/internships are really not mandatory. Its self driven. If you can get into RISD do it. Go for it. If you go there anyone will hire you its an amazing program. I applied to Pratt was wait-listed then differed. Its in the city if you think you would like city life better than a campus environment apply if they don’t accept you they defer you to the MWP program or there other charter school in Delaware (DCAD). Cooper Union is also amazing. Just remember your program will not determine how successful you will be; its how driven you are.
@jort68, definitely check out MICA in Baltimore. It has an excellent reputation particularly in fine arts and illustration.
Also check out Temple U. 's Tyler School of Art, University of the Arts, and PAFA in Philadelphia.
Be sure you visit RISD on a day when the school is actually open, we drove 5 hours there in August for an open house only to find that classes had not started yet and we didn’t get to see any buildings other than the freshman studios.
Check out the Visual Arts and Film Majors forum here or more ideas.
@superstok3d Are you staying at RIT? We visited with our D for animation (one of those beautiful fall days) and were not impressed. She did not apply there. Good luck to you.
I applied to colleges after my first semester here. I applied to SVA, RISD, Saint Rose, Parsons and a few others. Its currently my second semester here. I honestly don’t know what I am going to do but moving forward I doubt I will stay here. Although its hard to leave this place because already after my freshman year I have gotten job opportunities and will be doing an internship this summer (mainly because the kids in my classes suck). Animation is one of the top programs here but your daughter will be around a lot of weirdos no matter where she goes just remind her of that. She may get to college and not have a lot of things in common with people in her major and that’s okay. Its just something to keep in mind moving forward. I wish someone would’ve told me this when I decided to persue Graphic Design. I wish your daughter all the luck! I hope she makes a better decision then I did.