<p>So I was accepted to RISD with no scholarship (just a $5,000 loan... but we could pay for most of it...) and I was accepted to Pratt with $15,000 per year (which is essentially $60,000.) RISD is supposedly the BEST art and design school in the country, only accepts 3/10 applicants (imagine the talent there), and is right by Brown, where RISD students are allowed to take classes. There's even a nature lab where you can borrow skeletons and taxedermy for projects. But Pratt employs working designers who can hook me up with jobs and internships, is located in Brooklyn, which is 15 minutes from Manhattan, and their "Graphic Design" program is among illustration and advertising under the name "Communications Design," which is rather attractive.
I am truely 50/50 right now. If I go to Pratt will I miss out on the art education of a life time? If I go to RISD will I suffocate in cigarette smoke and miss out on NYC? Which should I choose?</p>
<p>Both are very well-known, great programs. (I didn’t go to either, but am in a creative field so know them by their very good reputations).
I personally would choose Pratt–Brooklyn is awesome, and if it costs less, all the better.
At either you can be very successful if you work hard and have the talent/discipline for it.</p>
<p>Either school will be well-known among design professionals, which will not hurt in your eventual job search.</p>
<p>In design, though, it’s mostly about the portfolio. I’ve hired people who went to much, much less prestigious programs; at a certain level (anything past entry) it is so much more about previous employment and portfolio and skills than where you went to school.</p>