<p>Hi, I am new here. My D is seriously considering art school (currently hs soph).
She has a lot of really good pieces already; we are thinking of visiting an art school or two over the summer.</p>
<p>Here's my question. Being new to the art school thing, is it a good idea to schedule a portfolio review when we visit? My older kid looked at LACs, and always had interviews. Helped to see if the school was a good fit. If she has a few holes in her portfolio as a rising hs Junior, would they hold that against her? </p>
<p>Her art program at school is good, in that they get great assignments and she does really good work. But her teacher is rather overworked and doesn't give a lot of individual feedback, that is a shortcoming of the teacher's. </p>
<p>I want her to get good feedback/advice...is this a good way to get it?</p>
<p>I would definitely recommend having interviews and showing them her portfolio. They will give her tips on what to add, subtract when she does a final portfolio presentation.</p>
<p>And of course you want to read up on the portfolio requirements on the school websites first. Some schools we talked to loved D’s imaginative work, others said they wanted more observation. All good info to take in and filter as your D forms opinions of what kind of school she wants to attend. What a fun journey! Please come back and fill us in on your opinions and experiences!</p>
<p>Actually I wouldn’t worry too much about what the differing schools are looking for when making an initial visit where you are just having the school do a “review” of the portfolio. </p>
<p>Let them see what work she has and don’t attempt to “create” works just for that initial meeting. Where you would want to be sure the reflect the different schools “requirements” is when you submit the actual application with the finished portfolio slides or CD.</p>
<p>You should also attend a National Portfolio Day where you have access to many different schools from around the country. But it’s a quick visit and a bit of a zoo, just a good way to get a feel for a lot of schools that might not be in your area. Their web site is helpful and lists all the different areas where they will be. Just search for “National Portfolio Day” </p>
<p>And yes this is the perfect way to get feedback. You might want to do a National Portfolio day next fall so she gets an idea of what she has to do and where she sits since you mention that the teacher won’t be helpful. It will give her some extra time to focus on what the schools might say is missing or needs work. Any actual interviews/visits would be a very good idea. The time between Senior year fall and the actual application window is very short and the earlier the focus on producing a good portfolio the better.</p>
<p>Also if you go to National Portfolio Day, SERIOUSLY arrive minimum an hour early. Earlier is better. Two hours early would be good if a major city. Bring book, walkman, cup of coffee and wear jeans or slacks so you can sit on the floor while you’re waiting.</p>
<p>Thanks! I appreciate your input so much, Artsmarts & Mom4art!</p>
<p>She will do NPD this fall, but I figured it will be a bit (or a lot) crazy…I’ll definitely encourage her to do interviews when we visit a couple schools this summer.</p>
<p>Her teacher is good in that they give great assignments and have super-high standards. Just not much feedback, other than the letter grade. She’s taking a life drawing class this summer, so that should help boost the observational drawing section of her portfolio.</p>
<p>She’s got lots of 3-D and video stuff; any advice on how to best present that in a portfolio review? Should she create a digital slide show of her 3-D stuff, or should we actually bring some of the pieces (the smaller ones) on our trip? I guess the video stuff can be shown on a laptop that she’d bring?</p>
<p>I am looking forward to exploring art schools! (Now, to try to figure out how to find one that we can afford!)</p>
<p>it’s better than no visit, but summer is tricky.
kids aren’t there, or worse yet, pre-college brats are there trashing away and you’d think
“is this it?”<br>
some of the studios are locked up, faculties are not there, admission folks and sales person you meet during summer could have totally different view, or hold some bias toward certain style or medium from faculties you have to deal with once you are in.
sure, admission folks supposedly make decision, but you never know the person happened to be manning the office in mid July could fold much power or not.
It is good to start early, you get to see some of the facilities and surrounding area.
but try during school year again, to narrow your choices. make appointment to some profs in your interested major, so won’t be surprised after gotten in and want to quit already.
Art schools don’t usually offer official over night stay experience like regular colleges but if you have a friend already in the dorm, it is OK to stay as long as following rules on visitors. Some school even let visitor “mirror” the student friend with prior notice.
You as a parent have to arrange most of these. but it well worth the effort. every view book, website, sometimes rankings are made to sell school. you’d get fooled by COA (1.if costs this much, better be good, or 2. wow!! it’s totally affordable!!! neither one is a good idea)
words such as “one of the best in the field” “state of the art” " vibrant community"
should be taken with caution.</p>
<p>it is so much fun and learning opps for parents as much as students.
I wanna do it all over again!!!</p>
<p>she is away this week or so but this nice mom named (cough cough) fineartsmajormom could tell you about laptop and 3D, video.
money wise, there were some interesting full tuition talk about Massart in "Color Blind?“thread.
how is GPA, test scores? it is funny but smart kids get best merit scholarships in general. and they are happened to be hard working, so portfolio is well done in done-ness standard.
far as I know, art schools runs in different circle, much of other highly regarded ECs or awards works for LACs are often unheard of if not related to art, and hold small value.
for some schools, it’s better to be 4.00 in easy course than 2.3 in honor. and some seems no care how HS is ranked in which state, that all affect overall achievement.
some don’t even ask for portfolio unless applying for scholarships and still known to be “selective” " very hard to get in”
more you research more options you’ll find.
have fun!!</p>
<p>Thanks bears and dogs!
She has very good grades. Top 5% of her class; I think unweighted is around 3.8 and weighted 4.5–all honors academics, AP studio art this year (and the next 2 years) plus she’ll have academic APs starting next year. Test scores looking to be good but not necessarily merit scholar realm–not sure but psat fall of soph year was I think 187. </p>
<p>Wasn’t sure how much grades & such factored in w/ art school but I figured it would only help, cause merit sure would make some of this doable. We might qualify for FA year 1 (we’ll have two in undergrad that year) but probably not much after that. </p>
<p>We’re saving our pennies with the idea of her attending a summer program at an art school right after junior year—her art teacher REALLY recommends those. So if anyone has a favorite program to recommend, I’m all ears.</p>
<p>I’m big on having financial safeties. I was thinking VCU might be a good school to add to the mix of stand-alone art schools, as it is not too crazy cost wise (we’d be out of state for VCU). Though maybe it is very hard to get accepted at?</p>
<p>MWS!! free!!
[url=<a href=“http://sharpeartfdn.qwestoffice.net/summer1.htm]Summer[/url”>http://sharpeartfdn.qwestoffice.net/summer1.htm]Summer[/url</a>]
they seems liking immaculate, really tech-y skilled works. but all free if accepted, except cost of traveling to Colorado Springs.
there is a thread about in page 2. Junior-senior summer only.</p>
<p>fineartsmajormom is also expert of sort on VCU. if I remember correctly, you get good merit even OOS.
with that grades, no worry.
what I leaned this year is, if you lower the tier, more merit/more institutional aid.
look into art schools outside of RISD-MICA corridor and you’d find solid program with nice facilities (more real estate that safe enuff for giant furnace or metal shops, sunny airy dorms etc) and nice folks willing to accommodate your need, like, simply take time to talk to you on the phone which NYC schools seldom do.</p>
<p>federal aids and institutional grants helped, but academic/artistic merit chunk is hard to beat. max merit amount would be usually at least twice more, if not in different digits.
my regret.</p>
<p>Wow, never heard of MWS, very cool. Thanks for the info!</p>
<p>I’ve already kind of told my gal that the super-high-end art schools would be a big financial stretch, and unlikely. </p>
<p>She wants to apply to MICA (at the moment), and I will probably let her apply there if she still is into that when the time comes–but my focus is on finding schools she’ll love that will cost a bit (or a lot) less.</p>
<p>Learned w/ our experience w/ LACs w/ my older–the east-coast ones said, sure, you’re accepted, but your financial pkg is $5k student loan, $25k parent loan, and the other $25k out of pocket (no thanks, can’t quite swing that!).</p>
<p>Check out New Hampshire Institute of Art. D went to pre-college there, came out with some nice portfolio pieces. Nice merit money offered too. After pre-college there, she was offered great merit $ to attend. Plus tuition is half the cost of RISD, SAIC, etc. Also check out Northern Michigan University. Has new art building, only downside was in small town (Marquette Michigan), but aid was good.</p>
<p>What is she leaning towards majoring in? Also - have her bring her sketch books, all the schools we visited asked to see those.</p>
<p>Since older siblings already did college search, your D may have a sense for what she does and does not want in a college environment. </p>
<p>We started from scratch and made a couple visits to schools, portfolio in hand plus attended a couple NPDs at potential schools (kill 2 birds with one stone) her Junior year. I don’t know if you are the analytical type, but I got the Peterson’s guide for Visual Arts Majors book and built a spreadsheet of potential schools and cross-referenced the College Board site for quick $, size, admission stats, etc. It really helped us narrow the list from dozens to just a couple as we made visits and she firmed her criteria.</p>
<p>I will check out New Hampshire for summer program, maybe we could work a family vacation at one end of the program. Love New England!</p>
<p>mom4art, yes–being dragged along on a number of older sib’s college visits was somewhat helpful, in that she’s leaning toward a compact campus, preferably urban (smaller urban okay, she’s looking for walkability to shops, restaurants for off hours, but doesn’t like the idea of sprawling campus).</p>
<p>She’d love being in Chicago, which isn’t too awfully far from home, but it seems that SAIC is very expensive and from what I’ve heard, hard to get merit at? Does anyone know anything about Columbia in Chicago?
We are midwest–but if merit/school/program is good would look outside our immediate area. She wants to look at MIAD.</p>
<p>MassArt sounds kind of interesting, as does Kansas City & Minneapolis (we haven’t been to either city, but hear they are great).</p>
<p>She isn’t sure what she’s interested in yet. Likes 3-d, likes digital/video, likes illustration, likes painting, likes photography, maybe art education. Has great design skills, but right now not interested in pursuing design (parents both designers). So she would like a place where she has a bit of room to explore before declaring major. And who knows, in 2 years, she may have decided where she leans.</p>
<p>And mom4art, spreadsheet idea is GREAT. Didn’t really do that w/ older sib, but should have! (Worked out fine, but the sheer number of possibilities can get overwhelming!)</p>
<p>since you are in there midwest is the great place to find affordable, honest and nurturing art schools.
redbug can tell you about MCAD. KCAI is more than great, for right kind of kids.
MIAD, CCAD, CIA noone here talk about them much, but all are solid schools and got what you are looking for.
I saw CCAD quick and do agree. </p>
<p>We passed by in front of Columbia Chicago (was like, building with some banners), and saw not so well done posters in the train.
It is known for photography I think, and I have this theory if an art school put up ads in trains, it is going for profit and better to be careful.
it’s my pet peeve that came from looking at SVA posters for CE classes all these years, you don’t have to believe me.
for SAIC
most they’d give is 22K/y merit, that’s like about half of tuition and fees together.
if taking no loans after finaid, chances are you are still 20-25K short for total budget since you’d have to buy food and supplies.
frosh dorm is $$$$ but once you see the dorm, you wanna sign up right away!!
SIAC is the one that makes you buy laptop that costs twice more than say, MCAD’s requirement. I am sure there is a good reason to it, but still… that’s the expensive and very conceptual (fuzzy!!!) school for UG.</p>
<p>We got the Peterson’s Guide as well, very helpful. We visited Columbia, and I agree with bears, it seemed to us that it was a little more about the money than we would have liked. Their creative writing program seemed very good tho.</p>
<p>We visited MIAD and while D liked it, it wasn’t the school for her. KCAI was a nice school, was D’s second choice, but Minneapolis is much more vibrant city. MCAD’s DesignWorks studio was a great plus too for real life experience. D is working on a synopsis of her first year there, but if you do a search on MCAD, you can find her post on her experience after a couple of months there. If you have any questions, feel free to pm me.</p>
<p>redbug, I sent you a PM. I figured out what you meant about her post about MCAD (I was initially thinking you meant it was on MCAD’s site, duh, it’s here).</p>
<p>But read the rest of my PM and any thoughts/info appreciated, if you have time to reply.</p>
<p>Not urgent–just starting the process :-)</p>
<p>I read your pm this am quickly, then closed it, and later was getting ready to respond, and it has disappeared from my inbox. Can you resend it?</p>