Overview of Univ. of Cincinnati: College of DAAP Part I

College Majors Visual Arts and Film Majors
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<p>We just had a tour of the University of Cincinnati, College of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning. Our tour guide majored in Digital media, which is one of the majors my daughter was interested in. This school was highly recommended by some designer friends; thus, I thought I would check it out.</p>

<li>Academics: A school like University of Cincinnati in most states would easily be one of the most prominent, well- endowed, and highest enrolled school in that state. However, with Ohio State and Miami University of Ohio competing with them, UC takes third fiddle in a number of majors.</li>
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<p>Overall, the university offers hundreds of majors and options. If you can think of it, they probably have it from the colleges of allied health, applied science, arts and science, college of business, College of Education and criminal Justice, college of engineering, college of nursing, and last but not least the college of DAAP plus a full contingent of professional schools such as medical, legal and pharmacy. Whew, that was a mouth full. </p>

<p>Overall, the university isn’t very hard to get admitted into. They have an average GPA of 3.3 and average SATs of 1103. Several college guides rate UC as a third tier university. However, this ‘lower’ rating may well be undeserved. For example, the School of Pharmacy is rated 32 in the nation. The medical school is rating 41. The law school is rated 58 and the school of engineering is rated 78 ( I guess they can use some help here). </p>

<p>UC, however, has two top schools that are rated in the top 10. Their conservatory of Music has a number of top 10, and in many cases top 5 ratings in various music fields. For example, opera/voice is rated number 3, Conducting is rated 5th, music performance is rated overall 6th in the nation and composition is rated 9th. </p>

<p>The School of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning (DAAP) may well be the hidden gem in the university and in the nation as well. It also has some of the top rated programs in the nation. Architecture is rated number 2 by Design Intelligence,which is a higher rating than Rice, CMU, and Pratt. UC’s Interior Design program is rated as number one in the nation by Design Intelligence Magazine. Industrial Design Magazine rates the industrial design program in the top 10, and their graphic design and digital design program is highly rated as well. UC also has a strong transportation design program for folks that want to design cars. </p>

<p>We looked at the DAAP building, and all I can say is WOW. Everything is state of the art. The building is huge. There are loads of studios that are very big, and the academic buildings are fabulous facilities in themselves. My wife, who is an interior designer of former fame, noted that she felt that the DAAP facilities were the best she has seen, and she has been to PRATT, CMU, RIT, and Syracuse. I would certainly give their Design program an “A.”</p>

<p>The DAAP program is also different from many others in that you only attend UC for 3.5 years and must undertake 1.5 years of paid coops. Thus, the total program for each major is 5 years. I should note that many people have written about the coop provided by Northeastern University, Drexel and others. University of Cincinnati was the forerunner of the coop system and has one of the best and most wide spread coop choices in the nation. This may explain why they have over a 90% retention rate in the DAAP!</p>

<li>Admission to both the University and the DAAP: I noted the average SATs and GPA. UC uses rolling admissions. This means that you should apply as early as possible, preferably in August or early September.However, for DAAP it is actually harder to get into their programs than that of other schools in the university. It was suggested that students should have at least a 3.5 GPA and 1200 on the SATS. However, what is very strange is that UC does NOT require a portfolio nor do they take AP and honors courses into account. According to an admission’s rep,everything seems to be done by the numbers at least for the first go around. Only in the second look at applications do they look at the quality and hardness of courses taken. Thus, if you have a 3.8 unweighted GPA with no tough courses, you will have a better chance of admission than someone with a 3.4 who has taken all AP and honors courses. How ridiculous is this! If unfilled spots , they then look at the toughness of the courses taken as well as use this information in awarding scholarships.</li>
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<p>As I mentioned, they also don’t require a portfolio believing that talented kids exist who may not have access to top art programs or tutors. They must believe that training is 90% and talent is 10%. I guess they don’t realize that some kids spend years with lots of tutors for SAT improvement too. In addition, those that don’t make or don’t like the program will be weeded out.</p>

<p>I should note that the school of music does require some audition.</p>

<li><p>Honors Program: UC has an honors program that seems to require an unweighted 3.8 our of 4.0 and SATs of 1300. Again, why they don’t use weighted averages is bizarre. More bizarre is the fact that they don’t seem to allow transfers into the honors program. Being accepted into the honors program before you first attend the university as a freshmen, seems to be the only way to get admitted to the program. Thus, if you are not admitted into the program when you start your freshmen year, you are out of luck forever. Although I could be in error on this, I didn’t see any provision in the web site for current students to be admitted to the honors program even if they have a fabulous GPA in college. Again, this is very odd. I will call up the school and post any change if I am incorrect on this honor situation.</p></li>
<li><p>Tuition: For in state residence, UC Tuition for 2005-2006 seems to be around $8,900 plus fees. However, if you are from out of state, the tuition jumps to a whopping $22.600 per year! This may be the reason that 85% of the kids are from Ohio!</p></li>
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<p>Interestingly though, Ohio does allow kids to establish Ohio residency during the second year and thereafter by obtaining an Ohio drivers license, voters registration, and other factors such as payment of the tuition by the student. Check out the UC web site.</p>

<p>They also offer many scholarships such as the Cincinnatus scholarships to many students. One interesting fact is that if you attend a special scholarship discussion, you will automatically obtain $5,000 off your tuition for your first year. There really is a lot of money for both merit and need based aid.</p>

<li><p>Campus: UC is HUGE. I guess they need a lot of room for almost 19,000 students. However, it is very well designed. All classroom buildings are very new or recently renovated. They are also located within a 10 minute walk or less from all dorms. This should be contrasted with places like RIT where you may need to take a bus to get to classrooms or Syracuse University who will be establishing some art programs away from the main campus and require an 8 minute bus ride just to get to the new facilities. I really liked the campus, and would give it a B+.</p></li>
<li><p>Parking: There was a lot of parking here, and even freshmen can have cars. This is unlike schools such as RISD, CMU, and Pratt where I don’t recommend bringing cars there. Here, parking is plentiful and safe. You just need to obtain a pass for a fee. I would give the parking an A-</p></li>
<li><p>Food: We ate on campus. They have numerous types of dining facilities. We ate at the main cafeteria. The food was very good. They had a number of choices and a very good salad bars. Vegans can do well here too. I would give the food a rating of “B.”</p></li>
<li><p>Dorms: I never saw the dorms,but my wife did.She thought the dorms were very nice and bigger than what we normally have seen at other colleges. You can get singles, doubles and suites with 4 people. They have special interest floors, honors dorms and more choices. Also, all dorms and suites are no more than 10 minute walk, if that much, to any academic building. My wife gave them a “B” to “B+.”</p></li>
<li><p>Facilities: UC has a brand new student center and plenty of athletic centers around campus. Much of the equipment is new, and in working order. Lots of treadmills,bikes and much more. I would give the facilities an overall “B+” to an “A-”</p></li>
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<p>10.Miscellaneous considerations: UC is an interesting school to say the least. First, although the weather isn’t great, it is supposedly better than some of their competition at RIT or Syracuse etc. They also have a lot of school spirit with their Bearcat teams. UC is now in the Big East, which provides some great basketball and football games to watch.</p>

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<p>Part II of Overview of University of Cincinnati</p>

<p>Moreover, their coop program is top notch and certainly equal to that of Northeastern, Drexel etc. UC's coop program was ranked in the top 10 nationally, and to my knowledge, they were the first coop program of its kind in the nation. Coops are available for most majors but not all. For example, there aren't as many coops in the school of arts and sciences, which then doesn't require a coop to graduate. Coops do exist,however, in most other schools.</p>

<p>Also, at least in the school of DAAP, there seem to be a lot of incestuousness going on. Many of the faculty attended UC! This might not be a problem ,but I would have preferred a high number of faculty to have attended other top notch programs as well. From the rankings, however, this doesn't seem to affect the quality of the programs.</p>

<p>I should also note that UC has the 51st largest endowment in the US. Their total endowed assets are around $987,000,000, which exceeds many of their competitors such as Syracuse, RIT, RISD, Pratt, and other colleges that provide majors in design and art. However, this endowment is a bit misleading since it also supports many other majors.</p>

<p>Finally, although the School of DAAP and School of Music are very top notch, the other schools aren't that highly rated nor do they require as stiff an admission's policy. I do wonder about the quality of other courses given at UC such as liberal arts courses or courses in science.</p>

<p>Obviously, my impressions may differ from yours. You should check out the school</p>

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<p>I should discuss one omission that needs to be mentioned. UC is on a quarterly system. Thus, the quarters go very quickly. Final will come upon you very quickly and there is very little time to slack off. Professors give work from the get go. Moreover, it is harder to transfer credits from a quarterly system to a semester system and vice versa. For example, two quarters worth of work on a subject only will get you one semester worth of credit. The advantage is that you can take more courses and get more choices. In addition, if you have a bad prof, you only need to put up with them for 10 weeks.</p>

<p>Finally, the campus is very Wi Fi friendly. All dorm rooms are wired for fast internet.</p>

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<p>hmm, i'm applying to uc this year for interior design and you gave them a very good reveiw. i just wonder why they have a 79% retention rate.</p>

<p>what about the surrounding area of cincinnati? you didn't talk about that.</p>

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<p>When you talk about retention rate, are you talking about 4 year, 5 year or 6 year retention? It does make a difference, especially with a 1.5 year coop program.</p>

<p>We did look around outside. In one direction, it isn't that great. In the other three directions, we didn't see any real problems or safety issues. Certainly, UC is in the city and is sort of a city school.</p>

<p>I also did a search of crimes committed on campus and off campus: I didn't notice any major crime spikes over that found at other city types of schools. There were a few robberies off campus ( few being 6), and one one campus. There were no murders. There was some vandalism and certainly come alcohol related issues,which is found at many schools.</p>

<p>I will admit that the retention rates are a bit startling. According to Princeton Review, only 77% of the kids return as sophomores and only 48% graduate within 6 years, which is a very low graduation rate. I am note sure why these numbers are so low. I believe that there are two reason: </p>

<p>First, UC is a hard school.
Second, They have very quirky and questionable admission's policies. For example, they admit to most schools based on unweighted GPA and SATs. They don't take the toughness of the courses into account,which is rediculous. Also, this is an overall retention rate. The rate for the School of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning and music schools is much higher!</p>

<p>Frankly, this is a very good school for anything in DAAP, music, business, criminal justice and possibly engineering. I don't think I would send my kids here for any other major unless they needed to commute and save money.</p>

<p>However, as I said in my post. you need to visit the school yourself.</p>

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<p>The U-C College-Conservatory of Music is one of the preeminent music schools in the country, ranking certainly among the top five university (as opposed to conservatory) music programs. Admission is competitive.</p>

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<p>As noted in my review, the School of DAAP and Schools of Music are both reknown and probably have a higher retention rate then found in the university in general.</p>

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<p>Thanks so much for this review, I had labled UC as a "commuter school" because of something I read. I struck it off my list, but after having read your review I'm going to add it back on since it has fairly easy requirements for admission.</p>

<p>I'm sure that exceptions could be made for the honors college if a student were to get a meating with the Dean and demonstrate their ability, perhaps not right away but after the first quarter or semester a change could hopefully be made.</p>

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<p>Yargg, I just checked with a Mr. Jones who noted that transfers to the honors college are allowed as long as you have a 3.25 average ( he was talking from the freshmen year). I don't know if you need a higher average as a sophomore.</p>

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<p>Good to know, from what you had written it seemed like the administration wasn't too bright, but that makes me think better of them.</p>

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<p>taxguy:
Thanks for your overview of UC. S is interested in CCM but won't be able to visit for a couple months, so the informative post was helpful. Do you have any info re public transportation in Cincinnati and accessibility to the campus? There's alot to do in a city that size, and it would be a big plus in my book if he didn't need a car to take advantage of it.</p>

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<p>Mommab, I wish you posted your post before we went to tour the school. I don't know the answer. I would call up the school and ask that question. It is definitely something that I would like to know too, although evenually my daughter would bring her car.</p>

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<p>There are city buses that you could ride to go downtown, the stadiums, the malls, etc. I am sure there are bus stops on the periphery of the campus. You would just have to familiarize yourself with the bus system (Metro). The fares are reasonable.</p>

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<p>Taxguy
It was very interesting reading about your visit (and impressions) of UC. My daughter had applied to DAAP. At the time, I queried the school about not needing a portfolio and was told it was because it was a state school and only went by high school grades/grade point average. Maybe things have changed since the time my daughter applied.</p>

<p>I have to say it's wonderful that you take the time to post such detailed reports of the art school visits! I wish you had posted all this information four years ago!</p>