<p>Hi I'm a high school senior who is having some trouble decided between these schools. I am debating between an animation or illustration degree. I figured if I got an animation degree I would freelance illustrate and if I got an illustration degree I would concentrate on animation. I want to be either a storyboard artist or own my own animation studio one day. I like the idea of working at companies such as Pixar, but I don't see that as where I want to end up in my artistic career. I want to have as much creative control as possible one day. My parents also don't make a lot of money so I have already ruled out Ringling, CCA, and SCAD. The aid/scholarship I was received wasn't bad but I do not want to be a financial burden on my parents. I'm happy enough that they are supporting me in my career.</p>
<p>RISD: I really love their foundation year and my scholarship and federal grants will cover my tuition and federal loans a lot of my room and board. It's really affordable for me now. Their animation program I hear is small but when I was at USC my interviewer only had good things to say about it. I like the idea of taking classes at Brown or getting a concentration in something like European History.</p>
<p>CCAD: People think I'm crazy but I really love this school. I know faculty and staff there and it's in my backyard. It has a good illustration program and one of the professors has talked to me about helping me with animation. My scholarship makes it affordable and I'll have friends going there. The problem is that since it is so close to home I am losing the college experience I was hoping for.</p>
<p>USC: I am a Presidential Scholar here as an animation major so they will cover half of my tuition. I've heard the best things about their financial aid so I expect my package won't be bad. I loved the people I met at Explore and the facilities were breathtaking. My problem is whether I want that traditional college experience (I didn't see any people with portfolios and one person with a canvas) and I wonder if their undergrad program is too experimental. When work was good, it was good. When it wasn't, it wasn't. My host told me that they don't emphasize versatility and that is important to me. I do like how I can minor in something like IR or go to Italy in the program.</p>
<p>MassArt: While the illustration and the animation program interest me the least out of all these schools, I am a Trustee scholar (full tuition) so my aid package was really good. I also am obsessed with Boston and have a lot of family there. RISD is only 40 minutes away from Boston too but if I am talking my financial situation this seems like my best bet. Would I be dumb to pass over this opportunity?</p>
<p>MICA: I have only heard back on one scholarship here but I hear their financial aid packages are good. But I have also heard that there scholarships are more like discounts. The campus is gorgeous and I drool over student work, but I have heard little to nothing about their animation program. I also like how I can take a liberal arts minor and an animation concentration.</p>
<p>I thought I was going to be a Tufts IR major and then go to law school until this summer, so I feel a little behind in thinking about schools and an art career. If anyone has any advice I would really appreciate it!</p>
<p>Tough call my D has same idea and similiar dilemma. One thing from visiting MICA, is the dorms are beautiful, but there is nothing nearby. Two weekend visits, and we had to drive to anything decent on a SAT or SUN. Tiny Providence has a lot more going for it right near the campus and the town is less sketchy. I would love to know what students you were impressed with, my D loved their paintings, but was not happy with recent illustration majors portfolios. She downloaded them from some professional website. On the other ones, i have no ideas, but my D is also in love with one tiny odd school MCAD, it seems they produce a lot of working comic artists, so I get your love for CCAD. I keep telling her from the few friends i have contacted in the industry, thats its the strenght of your portfolio, but name recognition gets it looked past first base. At least thats what I was told.</p>
<p>I chose RISD over MICA, Ringling and MassArt. I’ve been here for two years and so far it’s been incredible. You learn a lot. It’s been a heavy commitment don’t quite know why I’m responding to your post, I don’t have that much time, honestly!</p>
<p>I don’t want to scare you away, but I’ll be honest as a RISD student: It’s rigorous.</p>
<p>I’ll break down the workload for you: foundation year you have three 8 hour studio classes and 6 hours of liberal arts which makes for a good 30 hours of classes a week, and you have at least 24-30 hours worth of homework from studio a week as well–though the slightly edgy atmosphere demands a bit of quality from your work, so you’ll find you may spend even more time dedicated to your work if you don’t time manage well enough. There’s something in the atmosphere of RISD that almost demands a level of quality in your work, people can tell if you don’t work hard enough, so you fall in line. You get wired really fast here, since time is your most valued resource.</p>
<p>You don’t really have to worry about procrastination, because you won’t have time to. You’ll have plenty of time to relax once you figure out how to get things done, and it tends to make socializing really easy. If you’re smart you can get 7-8 hours of sleep a day, get all your work done and have all Saturday afternoon to relax. Once you get used to it, it’s like clockwork. As far as the second year goes, in my experience the professors have expected the same level of dedication. I have friends that went to MICA and Ringling, and they had a bit of a different experience than I did, from what they tell me it’s a lot easier than RISD, which isn’t a bad thing, it allows for a lot more breathing room.</p>
<p>The school is expensive, it’s a lot of hard work and dedication, but it lives up to the whole “Harvard of Art School” tagline everyone seems to give it in terms of experience. The experience you get as an artist just in terms of learning is astonishing, and you’re pushed beyond your boundaries and your comfort zone. If you’re given the opportunity, you can get some scholarships to soothe the financial blow, or if the financial aid is there, I would take it.</p>
<p>Wow, JakeyBee, that sounds like a lot of work, but really amazing. I think that energy is one of things I like most about RISD. I know your swamped with work, but could you tell me what you disliked most from foundation year or had the most trouble with? I’ve had little to no experience in Design or 3D so I am fascinated and yet terrified of the RISD freshman schedule. This sounds stupid but If I work my butt off but try to work smart, will I survive? And do students learn photoshop in class or is more of an on your own thing? I knew my RA at precollege said she knew little to nothing about it. If you can’t get to this I’ll understand. Thanks for posting!</p>
<p>And thanks for the info on MICA I haven’t visited there yet. I think Providence is nice, but when I was at precollege last summer it got really boring after a while. But I guess if you are working so much there isn’t so much time to be off campus… Thanks for posting and good luck to your daughter. We might go to the same school this year :)</p>
<p>I know taxguy. I don’t think any art student has a smooth sailing foundation year. Foundation year from what I know is supposed to kick your butt. RISD is however known for an especially ruthless one. Thanks for posting!</p>
<p>Well if Providence bored you, Baltimore would be much worse, its a bigger city, but the downtown is built to service the inner harbor and the weekday commuters, on the plus side the dorms are the best of the many art schools we visited. If you got the little MICA guidebook to the city, you will realize when you map a few things that a lot of the stuff is nowhere nearby.</p>
<p>Hmm. That’s not what I expected. I’ve been to Baltimore but never seen MICA. Are you talking about the red book? I’ll look at that tonight. But from what I’ve seen, the campus has some really pretty buildings. And you liked the dorms? Was it because they were large or well equipped?</p>
<p>I lived in Baltimore for a couple of years, the campus is beautiful and mostly new. The dorms were big, clean and apartment style. There are a couple of restaurants nearby on the weekend, and a few blocks away across a major highway there is a theater and a couple of clubs. Its in the MT. Royal section, which is OK, but Baltimore is still one of the crime capitals of the US and you are surrounded by pretty gritty neighborhoods, plus the police aren’t particularly friendly. I believe it is number 6 on the crime rankings even though the campus area is safe. My wife was disenchanted by the locals being overly obsequious or impolite, there didn’t seem to be a middle ground. My wife is African-American and we didn’t view the demographics as a problem, but it seems a lot of the locals thought she was hispanic, which didn’t seem to help.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. It’s nice to hear from someone really familiar with Baltimore. Hmm. I didn’t know that. Is it a real problem on campus or is it one of those “Be smart” areas? I’m African-African as well, but I’m honestly am confused by the end of your post. Do people have a problem with the demographics? Why did it not help that they thought she was Hispanic? I’m a little lost, tis all. :)</p>
<p>They have a long history of racial arguing there, and its traditionally been black-white. the neighborhoods are very segregated still. The city is 70% African-American and they seem to have some color or racial politics still going on and I guess someone with longer hair who was brown didn’t fit their profile. Its still a very poor city, and yes when my daughter put it on her list, the first thing some folks popped up was “the wire”. Having lived there, thats not a problem on or within a few blocks of campus, but a few blocks further and the crime can get really bad. The worst part about that is it means its kind of like an Peninsulawith one direction you head to the harbor, through relatively nice but mostly closed on weekends or late at night parts of town. And the other three directions it gets worse and in two of those direction much worse befoe it gets better.</p>
<p>Thanks for clarifying. I’ll keep this in mind when deciding and I’ll try to visit there soon. At least if that is the situation, it’s not happening on campus.</p>
<p>Best suggestion is walk around the campus in a big circle, and I mean big, on a weekend, see if you like the locals or not. We’ve done that everywhere but SCAD, and I can say i definitely found the area around Pratt to be friendlier than much of Baltimore, boring as hell and the subway service to Manhattan is horrible, but much friendlier, its quite possible knowing Baltimore the locals just didn’t get us as a couple. We are heading down to SCAD to see how that works, but from their maps its one of the most scattered campuses I’ve ever heard of, I think I’ll be getting my exercise in. On the positive side Baltimore has two amazing museums and when we were down there they were absolutely empty. The Cone collection deserves to be seen by a lot more people, and the campus is definitely one of the nicer ones we saw.</p>
<p>I love RISD and all, but I’m not so sure if Animation would be the best way to go with this school? Its strengths are definitely in other areas, like Ringling with animation. I get your point on ACCD, and I don’t know much about their animation program as well. I just know it has amazing connections and so does USC. I’d imagine CA to be also less boring and you live there too - at least that’s what the people in NJ I know dream of :P<br>
Also, you got into USC with that amount of money! I do think you have the brains to be doing both art and academics so I thought USC would be a good choice. Maybe not the best programs but if you can have connections, jobs will come easier…?</p>
<p>Like RISD, I don’t think MICA is the best for animation. Its foundation year courses are quite similar to that of RISD that you won’t need to take catch up classes, but like someone else mentioned, its foundation year is much less rigorous. (take it as a good or bad thing yourself) </p>
<p>You didn’t apply to NYC? </p>
<p>SCAD is less prestigious of an art school but its animation programs are really prevailing many right now. Don’t know about HK campus besides that it’s small but if you get bored with GA or Atalanta that’s always an option for transfer.</p>
<p>I’m taking you didn’t apply for scholarship otherwise with your stats right there (Getting accepted to USC for example and getting that amount of money), I’m sure SCAD would have been near full tuition grant for you and then financially your parents wouldn’t be in a burden.</p>
<p>oh! and MassArt. You received full tuition, and I know many successful transfers to other art schools in case you don’t like it. It’s so close to Berklee that I heard you can take some of their classes? And Boston seems so nice. I would ask around more for their animation program because I only know about their Illus.</p>
<p>@Bowman: sorry to double post, but pretty much these areas like Baltimore are supposedly the ‘be smart’ areas. Don’t walk alone at night, get back and take the shuttle and you should be fine. I just know one senior in real life there - she’s Asian, and that’s one of the minorities in Baltimore. She’s fine so far!</p>
<p>Frankly, I don’t like MICA’s animation offerings. I think that it is a rather weak department. For undergrad animation, I would look at RISD, RIT, SVA, Ringling, CalArts, CCA, SCAD and Leguna college of Art and Design. Pratt Might be a good choice too.</p>
<p>Well, I did apply for scholarship to SCAD and they gave me 18k per year. I applied to CCA and they gave me 13k a year and added on 6k more on my FA. Ringling gave me 5k that I assume is renewable. I just figured that since my other offers were better at other places I could rule these places out. Should I negotiate with SCAD? I never sent my extracurriculars to them and my mom said she could haggle with our tax return. I just ruled out CCA and Ringling because they did not cover the full cost of attendance very well. Was I wrong to? Should I consider them more?</p>
<p>I actually have the SVA application filled out and they sent me an email saying I could still apply. I just never was fond of living in NYC. I just never liked it as much as places like Boston. Should I send my app in? I just figured I already had enough places to choose from from where I applied.</p>
<p>And I’ve decided against MICA for right now. It has nothing to do with location but taxguy is right and there animation program isnt as great as their illustration program. I might put them back if they give me a good offer though, but I highly doubt I’ll get much there since the admissions lady told me their scholarships were über competitive. </p>
<p>And USC is a great school, but I don’t think they stress fundamentals as much nor do they versatility. From what my host told me, kids can get wrapped up in their own personal styles that they never branch out of their comfort zone. And I didn’t like my interview at Explore USC that much either. I heard about everything except the animation, and when did talk about the animators there, we talked about graduate work. I liked a lot of the graduate work but I’m still uncertain about the undergrad. My host was super cool though and all the people I met were really nice. My host who was a freshman and her friends were already scooping up animation awards too and they said being apart of SCA gave them a lot of cool connections. I just think I’d have a stronger art background at an art school. I don’t think I’d be unhappy here, but I feel the same with CCAD and RISD as well.</p>
<p>@ethno - my D goes to that “tiny, odd school MCAD” and absolutely loves it. She in their illustration program, but has taken classes in the comic major as well - her best friend is a comic major. Minneapolis is a marvelous city, with something to do all the time. Everything is accessible by bus or light rail and it is one of the top bicycling cities around. They have apartments there, rather than dorms, which are pretty nice and right across the street from the school. She has already has commissioned jobs without what you consider a “name school”.</p>
<p>my opinion is that OP would be better served by an illustration degree focused on animation if the interest is in storyboarding. It’s very unlikely that you will own an animation studio one day, but if you do, it will likely have to be one that puts out animation in a very unique style - which would need to be driven by your strong illustration and design skills, as most likely the studio will be a very small one.</p>