<p>Hello,
I'm an art major who got accepted to NYU Steinhardt, USC Roski, and RISD.
I applied to both NYU and USC as Studio Art and RISD as graphic design.
To be honest, I wanted to major in design, like, communication design, but none of the three schools had that major. I also got accepted to WashU communication design, but I'm not so sure about the location..or the reputation/strength of the program..
The reason why I applied to NYU and USC (despite the fact that they didn't specifically have a communication design major) is because of their locations. I prefer schools that are located in big cities like New York and LA.
However, I am a bit concerned about the reputation/strength/vigorousness of Steinhardt and Roski, especially because I know that there are Tisch and the School of Cinematic Arts which are more "known" or "famous" at NYU and USC. I wouldn't want people to react, "wait, I never knew USC(or NYU) had an art department.."
And then I have RISD, which is..well, RISD. Although I prefer universities over art schools, RISD is different because, well, because it's RISD.
My parents tell me that they'll be happy with me going to any of these schools, so everything's up to me.. but I'm having a real hard time deciding on which college I'm going to enroll at...please help me out :(
Thank you.</p>
<p>Honestly, why didn’t you apply to a school that had your major interest. There is Carnegie Melon, University of Cincinnati has two concentrations in Communication Design etc. I a stumped as to why you didn’t research this more.</p>
<p>Absent the above, I would investigate all the schools. See what the culture is. Check out the course offerings.</p>
<p>Wash U, for example, is very double major oriented and doesn’t have a lot of courses in Communication Design when I last checked. They even told me that it was because students are expected to double major.</p>
<p>RISD graphic design is a bit misnamed. I would call their major graphic design plus since there are a number of offerings outside of graphic design.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about NYU Steirhardt.</p>
<p>First, congrats!</p>
<p>Second, if you can, try to visit the schools. A lot of it comes down to feel and personal preference. I’m from Southern California and I currently live in NYC, and I have to say that NYC has a creative energy unlike anywhere I’ve ever been and there are great opportunities everywhere to expose yourself to art and inspiration. I’m not big on LA because everything revolves around Hollywood and it’s too laid back for me. I personally like the fast pace of New York. NYU is also located in a very fun and energetic part of the city that’s very undergrad friendly. </p>
<p>But then again, USC is consistently named the school with the best networking. I can vouch for this… I once worked in an office where everyone but me was a USC alum who got interviewed based on recommendations from USC alums already working there. Everyone I know who goes to USC (not for art) loves it. The campus is gorgeous, but the surrounding area is kind of rough (I haven’t been to LA in a few years so it might have cleaned up, I don’t know). </p>
<p>And then there’s RISD. As you said, it’s RISD. I applied there as a transfer so I’m still waiting for a response, and I’d personally go in a heartbeat if I got accepted. I would go for name recognition alone, because people want to hire RISD graduates. From what I can tell of the foundation courses, it’s pretty hardcore, but it’s like bootcamp and it’ll definitely get you in shape. </p>
<p>You’ll just have to weigh the pros and cons and really think about what you want in a school. From my experience, having already done a BA in something else and now going back for a BFA, the school’s name means something if it’s nationally recognized or well-known in your area, and then everything else depends on what you personally bring to the table. Plenty of people phone in their work and get a degree, and then some people really try to learn something and become amazing.</p>
<p>Taxguy, thank you for the reply. And actually, I applied to CMU (1st choice - School of Design 2nd choice - School of Art) as my early decision. However, I was deferred. And just yesterday, I got rejected and got waitlisted at the School of Art. So now I have to choose from the choices that I have…which I have listed above.</p>
<p>Misszebra, thank you for your reply. I do appreciate your opinion. Yes, it is a very tough decision to make for me…considering the pros and cons of each school. And as much as I would love to visit the schools, I cannot because I am an international student.
I didn’t know USC had such good networking system. I wonder if it is the same for art.
And I really wish you luck! You sound like a such an amazing person who would do very well at RISD! :)</p>
<p>My understanding of USC is that there’s an extraordinary sense of school spirit that pervades everyone, regardless of major. Once a Trojan, always a Trojan…that sort of thing. </p>
<p>You have a tough choice. Good luck :)</p>
<p>OP
you seems taken it rather well but lemme just say that taxguy only only means well.
and it is a pity you are international, otherwise you would have heard of DAAP and might have even liked Cincinnati.</p>
<p>good luck to you, if you are full pay Asian, I could see your worry. people respect FIT more than RISD in some place, none of their fault, thou.
wait on for this LA happy dad poster named Wheaty, he can tell you earful about Roski.
or he might beat you up for not trying UCLA, LOL.</p>
<p>wachW can give you a big chance to double major. but the load is very heavy and it is hard to do it. If in the middle you change your mind, it is easy to major something else.
My daughter facing WashW last year, but she didn’t go there because she didn’t feel that school can prepare her better for art world.</p>
<p>ineedanid,</p>
<p>Wow, ring the bell, touch all the bases kid - that’s a home run! USC, NYU and RISD? You kidding me? Very well done… ah, but how to decide which is best for you? This is a REALLY tough group of three to choose from. I think I could mount a strong argument for each one of these wonderful schools. The good news is that you absolutely can’t make a mistake with any of these. Good for you!</p>
<p>I’ll give you my perspective on each but I’m not an expert so take it for what it’s worth.</p>
<p>RISD
I don’t give RISD the free pass that many others seem to. You’ll see quotes like “RISD is RISD” and I don’t buy that. IMO, there are only a few schools that you can really say that about, Harvard is Harvard, Yale is Yale, Oxford is Oxford, Cambridge is Cambridge and that’s about it, at least it is according to me. Sure there’s maybe one or two others but IMO, RISD is not in this category. </p>
<p>So no free pass from Wheaty but I still really like most of what RISD does and I LOVE what RISD does when it comes to Graphic Design. I think this is RISD’s main strength. Look at the student’s work, cyber stalk the professor’s work, look where the graduates go, this is all really really strong stuff. Any Graphic Designer would be very well served in getting a degree from RISD.</p>
<p>NYU-Steinhardt
This program would offer a very good liberal art education with a good studio graphic art component. This might be an excellent choice if you want to be an art teacher as Steinhardt offers a really cool dual major BFA/MA program in Graphic Art & Art instruction. You’d get a BFA and an MA in art instruction in 5 years. I don’t see the communications component that you’re looking for within Steinhardt but maybe I just missed it.</p>
<p>USC-Roski
Roski’s Graphic Design program is very good. You also have to option of two paths: BA or BFA with the BFA being about 90% pure art classes. USC is very keen on kids getting dual majors or minors. They are big on interdiscipline studies and they strongly encourage students to look beyond their majors to mix in other studies. Perhaps Roski’s strongest point for you is their willingness to help you custom build a major or dual major. They would be very helpful in building a combined major just for you between Roski Graphic Arts and their Annenberg School of Communication (very highly regarded BTW).</p>
<p>Random thoughts
Roski offers a tremendous array of internships for art majors. When my daughter interviewed there last year the Dean told her they had 500 internships within Roski and that most would go unfilled as they had more internships than they had students. Beyond that you have the “Trojan Family” of alums and this group REALLY sticks together. This is very helpful for finding work after you graduate.</p>
<p>NYU also has a good network of internships and alums but with the advantage of being in NYC which could be very important for a graphic artist. RISD probably comes in 3rd place in this respect because of geography but that’s just a guess on my part.</p>
<p>I would call all three schools and explain what your goals are and ask how each can help you achieve them. I’d also ask any questions about anything you see as a weakness and ask for clarifications. Your choice should be a little clearer after those phone calls.</p>
<p>So, three really good choices for you! Fire back with questions and we’ll try to help.</p>
<p>Best of Luck,
Wheaty</p>
<p>ineedanid,</p>
<p>Just thought of a few more things kiddo…</p>
<p>NYU-Steinhardt is in Greenwich Village, a fun hip trendy part of NYC. That sounds like a fun place to spend 4 years to me. 
NYU is a walking urban campus spread across many buildings. </p>
<p>USC is a beautiful traditional college campus but in a somewhat rough part of L.A. Not terrible but not the kind of place you stroll around alone at 2 AM either. Urban setting but L.A. is all about the car so it’s a different kind of urban than NYC. Both cool in their own way.</p>
<p>It may or may not be important to you, but USC has a very strong sense of school spirit (as noted above by misszebra). Sports teams, marching band, etc. Maybe more on point would be traditional college dorms, inter-mural sports, gyms, pools, oh and bicycles. USC is huge on bicycles! There are probably 20,000 bikes on campus and it’s the number one mode of transport in and around the campus.</p>
<p>USC-Roski is less known in the art worlds (especially compared to RISD!) but I get a sense this is changing, especially so in at the graduate level. Internationally, USC is known very well in Asia but less so in Europe. USC has made significant inroads into India and the school’s reputation continues to grow there.</p>
<p>At RISD you would be surrounded by creative students. In fact, every single one of them is super creative at something. That would be pretty cool and could push you and help you grow as an artist.</p>
<p>What country are you from?</p>
<p>Best,
Wheaty</p>
<p>Wheaty - You are a great asset to CC. So well thought out, know wonder Bears loves you so much! Responding like you do is not for nothing, please know that you and others like you are so very helpful. When you concur with one another, when you disagree with one another… it all is valuable! Please keep it up.
So… tell me what to do (in your opinion of course) BFA undergrad, illustration; SVA (honors, as of today), MICA or Pratt - I have other options but I have weeded them out. Will visit MICA this weekend, SVA next weekend and went to Pratt pre-college last summer (which I loved - loved Brooklyn), just in case your response is “visit the schools and see”. Your opinion of the best education? No pressure, I realize it is your opinion and in the end it is mine that counts most.
Feel free to weigh in Bears and Dogs, I know you are out there! Also, I am a fan of taxguy - so factual and unbiased as a person can be ( a certain amount is human nature).
Please keep posting parents! It means so much, once in awhile we do listen.
Just realized I jumped in on somebody’s thread, please excuse - don’t have the energy to start a new thread, ignore if need be.</p>
<p>bears and dogs, loveblue, and Wheaty, </p>
<p>Thank you all for your thoughtful comments! And I am a Korean student who attends an international school in Korea. I’m having a such a hard time deciding on what college I want to go to. Transportation-wise, it seems like USC or NYU would be a better choice since I LAX and JFK both have direct flights to Korea. However, I do really want to attend all three schools so it is quite hard for me to choose…and I would hate to enroll at one college and regret not choosing another one.</p>
<p>I also wanted to ask about switching majors and transferring within the universities. Digital/media art is a field of study that I was always interested in and these days, I’m starting to think that this might be what I really want to study and make a living out of. If I do end up going to Roski or Steinhardt, how hard would it be for me to switch schools to SCA (USC) or Tisch (NYU)? How many transferring students would they take each year? Since both schools are highly ranked in film, I have a feeling that it would be almost impossible to do so.
Again, your valuable opinions would be appreciated :)</p>
<p>Oh and Goodschoolhopefully,</p>
<p>Your post is fine! I don’t mind at all. No worries :)</p>
<p>there’s not much i can say about nyu or risd, but here’s my input on usc roski…</p>
<p>i’m also trying to decide between schools (usc roski vs. parsons new school vs pratt institute vs. art center college of design) and i’m leaning alot towards usc. I live very close to usc and trojan spirit is EVERYWHERE in the area (my high school is the number one feeder school to usc in the nation). I know quite alot of people who attend usc including those who are a part of roski and i can honestly say that i havn’t heard from ONE person that they have not liked usc. from what i gather, roski has a really small art school, but still very good, has TONS of internship opportunities. as everyone above as stated, usc is veryvery big on their alumni so its a huge help if your looking for a job, and even if roski doesn’t offer the strongest program on your specific major they can still get you a great internship for it. roski also has two options of ba and bfa. bfa is ALOT more studio art than ba. also to transfer to other schools it really just depends on what school you want to transfer to within usc. for example its really hard to transfer into the school of cinematic arts.
also sc is in downtown which alot of people make it out to be a super sketch area but its really not bad at all. I would say the same rules apply for any big city, just be smart. but like wheaty said you don’t exactly just want to be walking around at 2am. if you love big cities, you will fall in love with los angeles, theres a HUGE amount of diverse people with different interests, so you will always be able to find people you fit in with whatever your interests are. theres always something to do whether its to go to good eats or concerts. in la, though, you will have to drive everywhere unlike nyc. you have the option of taking the metro, but the huge majority drive to get to most places.
one last thing about usc is that school spirit is huge, and it is a real college experience, one that you wont really find at nyu or risd because nyu doesn’t have a college campus and risd doesn’t have college sports. sc is big on sports (go trojans!), on their marching bands, school groups, and greek life and pledging is a large part of usc social life.
I would say if you want a “real” college experience with a really good art education (not the best but still really good) in the city, i would pick usc roski!</p>
<p>i hoped this helps and sorry for how long it is :)</p>
<p>there’s not much i can say about nyu or risd, but here’s my input on usc roski…</p>
<p>i’m also trying to decide between schools (usc roski vs. parsons new school vs pratt institute vs. art center college of design) and i’m leaning alot towards usc. I live very close to usc and trojan spirit is EVERYWHERE in the area (my high school is the number one feeder school to usc in the nation). I know quite alot of people who attend usc including those who are a part of roski and i can honestly say that i havn’t heard from ONE person that they have not liked usc. from what i gather, roski has a really small art school, but still very good, has TONS of internship opportunities. as everyone above as stated, usc is veryvery big on their alumni so its a huge help if your looking for a job, and even if roski doesn’t offer the strongest program on your specific major they can still get you a great internship for it. roski also has two options of ba and bfa. bfa is ALOT more studio art than ba. also to transfer to other schools it really just depends on what school you want to transfer to within usc. for example its really hard to transfer into the school of cinematic arts.
also sc is in downtown which alot of people make it out to be a super sketch area but its really not bad at all. I would say the same rules apply for any big city, just be smart. but like wheaty said you don’t exactly just want to be walking around at 2am. if you love big cities, you will fall in love with los angeles, theres a HUGE amount of diverse people with different interests, so you will always be able to find people you fit in with whatever your interests are. theres always something to do whether its to go to good eats or concerts. in la, though, you will have to drive everywhere unlike nyc. you have the option of taking the metro, but the huge majority drive to get to most places.
one last thing about usc is that school spirit is huge, and it is a real college experience, one that you wont really find at nyu or risd because nyu doesn’t have a college campus and risd doesn’t have college sports. sc is big on sports (go trojans!), on their marching bands, school groups, and greek life and pledging is a large part of usc social life.
I would say if you want a “real” college experience with a really good art education (not the best but still really good) in the city, i would pick usc roski!</p>
<p>i hoped this helps and sorry for how long it is :)</p>
<p>Wow thank you so much for all this amazing advice!!
I really do appreciate it
I have decided to enroll at USC and now I’m so very very excited!!
Again, thank you all for your valuable opinions…</p>
<p>that is a nice choic
NYU is too big. USC size is nice. Both are university, providing broad choice of electives.
USC have nice campus and this is another plus.
You just don’t have NYC but LA is cool also.
Congrats!</p>
<p>Just getting back from our “road trip” going to accepted students days at many art schools and universities. The school is a combination of faculty and student body. Think and observe what the student body brings to the institution. That is the most significant. Think of the faculty and the mission of each school. Lastly, the facility, the shell. Can you live there? Do they have what you need or will you have to supplement?</p>
<p>Goodschoolhopefully,</p>
<p>So it sounds like MICA is your new frontrunner? You asked for my thoughts on schools but I’m much more interested in how you see them at this point. You have visited these 3 and I haven’t. </p>
<p>A picture of a school (or going to it’s website) is worth a thousand words, visiting the campus is worth a million. (Trademark Wheaty 2011 :))</p>
<p>Sometimes just standing there in the middle of a school is all it really takes. Sometimes you just know.</p>
<p>Where are you leaning?</p>
<p>Best,
Wheaty</p>
<p>Yes, MICA is my new front runner. I loved the feel of the campus. Not a traditional campus but it still felt like a campus which I was happy to see. The presentation in the illustration dept. was so in sync with what I want to do and where I want to go with illustration. I have heard so many negative comments about Baltimore so I was surprised by the city itself. I thought it was similar to Boston in many ways but much less upscale - more like a working class Boston which makes it more affordable for a college kid. I think there would be plenty to keep me busy for 4 years as opposed to Ringling where I think I would be left high and dry after a week. Since we had no car, my mom and I walked several miles around the campus, ran into some abandoned neighborhoods but nothing felt threatening - it was daylight but there would be no reason to be there at night. Loved Pratt after pre-college but am thinking, Baltimore right outside of your door or Manhattan a quick subway ride away? I have heard some Pratt kids never even bother to go into Manhattan - too much work etc… I didn’t explore alot of Brooklyn when I was there in the summer though I liked the overall feel, just not sure what is close to the school for kickin around. Called Pratt yesterday, they said fin aid package should be out by Monday, MICA should be around the same. What I would like to hear from you is what reputation do these schools carry? Does one stand out above the other (in particular for illustration), yes of course you need a portfolio to speak for your work but just the same. Have decided not to go the SVA accepted students day this weekend, will go to Pratt’s and see SVA at that time. I know the Pratt campus but with the college in session I may get a different feel than I did in the summer. I can’t believe this decision will be made in less than a month.</p>
<p>You will have no problem wherever you go – you see things so clearly and analyze just enough to be intelligent and not so much that you get neurotic! I hope your mom sees this side of you too!!<br>
From my own knowledge, Pratt has always be known beyond NYC. I only heard of MICA in recent years when my D and others I knew were looking at art schools. But I think it is well respected. I also think MICA has a much stronger illustration department. I think Pratt has illustration courses, but not an actual program, per se. I’m a New Yorker, so I tend to lean towards Pratt for everything it offers outside of the campus, but MICA might offer you more “on campus.” It’s a tough decision. Good luck!</p>