<p>My son is trying to decide between RISD and Pratt for Architecture. All other things being equal , what do people know about the programs? RISD arch. students start with a foundation year (with all other students) At Pratt, students jump right into the Arch.program. I noticed that Pratt has quite alot of "visiting instructors" or "assistant instructors". What does that say about the quality of the teaching (a professional in their field does not always = a professional teacher!) RISD also has a fair amount of visiting instructors- though not as many. RISD's program includes a 6 week "wintersession" a time when students can step out of their major (or not) and concentrate on another interest (can also travel, intern). I've heard that RISD's program is heavy on hand drawing and lags behind in teaching/use of technology based methods. (stuck in the old days?) I don't know about Pratt.
I am biased towards RISD. My perception is that it has a better rep. Of course there is also the fact that I went there (for fine arts).I will say that RISD's public relations is FAR superior to Pratts- RISD has returned every call, email etc. within hours- Pratt has not returned ONE query- in days, weeks. kinda frustrating.</p>
<p>I know nothing about Pratt, but my niece attends RISD for Grad school and has really loved it. Added bonus is you can take classes at Brown, which is right next door. Seems to me you’d also get the social life of both schools at RISD.</p>
<p>RISD! Hands Down. As for the “hand drawing”, kudos to them. Hand drawing can be much quicker, much more responsive and often easier for clients to understand. At meetings or even with staff in the office, it’s more direct to rapidly sketch out an idea than laboriously use a computer to express a fluid thought. Very few schools emphasis hand drawing. Coming from fine arts backgrounds has been immeasurably useful (& unique) for my partner & myself in our arch. office.</p>
<p>I’ve always had the feeling that Pratt was better for art than architecture. I too consider hand drawing a plus. I think architecture is currently suffering from the fact that it’s too easy to have the computer draw really complicated stuff. It’s not unusual to have a lot of visiting and adjunct professors in architecture. I far preferred having architects who’d been out practicing in the real world than ones who were stuck in the academia bubble.</p>
<p>I worked with architects a lot on the last round of a major school addition and remodel, and the ones who could quickly sketch an idea made life enormously easier for those of us who don’t think very well in 3-D. </p>
<p>Having said that, I’d look closely at student employment in architecture (and not as a draftsman) for recent graduates of each program – architecture has relatively poor placement rates at many schools, and if there were a significant difference in employment opportunities I’d run to the school with the better recent employment record.</p>
<p>I’ll admit right away that I don’t know anything about Pratt’s architecture program, but I can assure you that RISD does not “lag behind in teaching/use of technology based methods.” I think this perception comes from the fact that RISD’s first year (which, as noted above, applies to all incoming freshmen, regardless of intended major) focuses on traditional techniques, including hand drawing, in order to lay a solid foundation for all future work and does not incorporate any computer use at all. However, starting in the second year, all architecture majors are required to purchase – through the school – a specific laptop that comes loaded with appropriate professional software and they make extensive use of that computer for the remaining 4 years of the program. I personally think this approach gives students a great combination of both hand and computer-based drawing experiences.</p>