Okay. Here we go. So basically, I’m extremely extremely conflicted on where I should go to school. For the past few months, I’ve been falling in actual love with the idea of living in New York City. Yes, I know the bad things that would come with it. I’ve considered everything. But I cannot get that place out of my head. I think about it all the time and how much I love it and how much I want to end up there, how perfect it is for me. But here’s the deal. I want to go to an art school, point blank, for sure. I guess I want to study fine arts- hopefully art education to be an art teacher. But the problem is that it seems like this cannot be done in New York City. My main schools in question that I applied to are SVA, Parsons, NYU, Pratt, and SAIC (not new york, I know, but hear me out). The problem with SVA is that I’ve heard it’s not that great of a school, with professors that don’t really care that much. I haven’t been able to find anything online about an undergrad art education program there (which is really weird because I thought for sure they’d have one). Also, apparently the living situation absolutely sucks. The problem with Parsons is that it’s a design school with a supposedly not very good fine arts program and I’ve heard it’s pretentious and unwelcoming. The problem with NYU is that I have a gut feeling that I won’t get in, and the cost is ridiculous (although that’s going to be an issue for all the others as well, just more so with NYU). The problem with Pratt is that it’s in Brooklyn, I’ve had people I know personally that have visited the school tell me that it’s a sketchy and unsafe campus and that’s definitely not the type of place I want to live in. I’ve thought about getting an apartment in Manhattan and commuting each day, but I know going to art school and doing that is going to be a pain with the projects I have to carry and I have no one to room with since I don’t know anyone in NY yet. I don’t know which of these schools is best, which has the least important flaws. I really have heard that Parsons’ fine arts program is not one you want to be apart of which is what’s pulling me away from it for sure, and there’s so many issues with all the others that I don’t know what the heck to do. I suppose I could conceivably go to SAIC, but I really, really, REALLY love NYC, and not living there would feel off and wrong and I don’t want to stay in the midwest (I live in Ohio right now). Anyways if anyone has any insight to share on any of these 5 schools it would be greatly greatly appreciated because I’m just so lost right now and I don’t know what to do.
I’d say Pratt is your best choice if you want to focus on fine arts and still be in NY. I feel like SVA and Parsons are more geared towards design. Of these schools I’ve only visited SAIC and to me it is a safer, cleaner version on New York and they are very focused on fine arts and conceptual based artwork( which would be super useful for art education). I would also consider MICA if I were you because they have a program where you can get a bachelors and masters of teaching all within 5 years.