RISD vs Pratt vs MICA vs SCAD

College Majors Visual Arts and Film Majors
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<p>OK a little help here is needed, my D has been accepted to every art school she applied to, most with very nice scholarships, though RISD doesn't seem to guarantee theirs for 4 years unlike the others. These are the top 4 she has of this moment, does anyone have good knowledge of current state of illustration/animation departments at these schools. We've been going through them and she seems more confused than ever. Pros and cons in her mind follow.</p>

<p>RISD not a guaranteed 4 yr scholarship, didn't love the styles she saw from graduating seniors, loved the quality of the work. She was worried the department would push her too much one way.
Pratt great location, she has good contacts in the city, but the department seems all over the place, and she felt the major was pushed towards ads
SCAD ok every other school badmouthed them, but the fact that their animation dept is ranked and they have sequential art and not just illustration intrigued her. Little worry that her multiethnic self might not love the town, though we have relatives there.
MICA they haven't sent money yet, and she didn't like what she saw their seniors doing in illustration, but she was impressed with their painting dept.</p>

<p>If her style helps, she loves Ligne Claire and more recent work like Brian Woods. Has a big effection for big acrylics and pen and ink, while loving Tara Mcpherson, Jeremy Geddes, and Mark Ryden. I think she is most concerned the faculty just wont get her, she purposefully sent in a portfolio tailored to charcoal and pencil observational stuff, since the schools seemed most impressed with that, but she doesn't want to get pigeonholed. She already took two schools out of the running after meeting the faculty. one who felt she did manga, "yes, in eigth grade" she informed me, and another that loved her work with type and seemed to think "they would break her of her bad habits"</p>

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<p>Is your daughter more interested in animation or Illustration? This is an important question.</p>

<p>I think all these schools are fine for illustration. I would go with the cheapest alternative. If close in offers, I would take in this order:</p>

<p>RISD
MICA or Pratt
SCAD. Scad isn’t well known for illustration</p>

<p>If she wants animation, the main question is “does she want 2d animation or 3d?”</p>

<p>If 2d: RISD then Pratt then SCAD then MICA because MICA only has experimental animation and isn’t well known for animation. Don’t take RISD over Pratt if you get a lot of money from Pratt. RISD isn’t worth full pay in my opinion.</p>

<p>If 3d. I would take SCAD then Pratt then RISD.</p>

<p>Frankly, for animation, I am surprised she didn’t apply to Calarts which is best in US for 2d or Ringling,which is best in US for 3d animation plus has strong illustration department. School of Visual Arts would also have been a better choice because of their very strong programs in illustration and animation. However, they usually don’t offer a lot of scholarships. Also, quite good for animation would have been Rochester Institute of Technology or Laguna College of Art and Design.</p>

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<p>She got into Ringling, was upset with the scholarship offer, perhaps she was spoiled by some of the other schools, CalArts just wasn’t an option, family is ingrained in East Coast since 1600’s, for some reason whenever we move or visit out there, we come back right away. SVA dorms upset her and she was unhappy with how many older students they had, she wants more of a college experience with a campus preferably in or near a city. She wasn’t impressed with RIT, though daddy was really happy with their scholarship offer.</p>

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<p>So do you have any idea how RISD scholarships work, she got a bigger one from them then she did from Pratt, but Pratt came with a 4 year offer with a really low minimum GPA, when I asked RISD, they said the review it every year. I guess I shouldn’t complain, but thats 20k more a year to cough up if they cancel it.</p>

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<p>Yeah I agree with Ringling. I was really sad about my scholarship offer. I knew it was coming though so I wasn’t terribly surprised. It’s a shame cause I honestly love that school and if they gave me more I’d have went. And I’ll agree on the RISD scholarship thing. I wish it was a definite offer for all four years. I do hear from students that the money they give doesn’t change as long as your income doesn’t too much. And I have also been assured that FA will work with you.</p>

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<p>yes the goal is to get D out of school with less than 40k in loans. Thats the max I’m comfortable with an art school grad graduating with. I based that on Payscale and their income for recent grads. She got most of the offers before FAFSA, and that didn’t help us. From where I sit, a big debt load from an art school limits your choices in those first couple of years after graduation and may force you into a job you don’t want that pays better. I remember graduating with 24k in debt in 1990, and how that was doable. Basically the price of a decent midsize car the debt payments won’t kill you.</p>

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<p>I would choose based on overall strength of the program, including the major but not only that. Truth in packaging: My D chose RISD over MICA, SCAD, and CMU many years ago. She first considered illustration as her concentration but ultimately chose industrial design (ID). A friend of my MIL, the children’s author/illustrator Robert McCloskey (“Make Way for Ducklings”), offered my daughter some basic advice: “Why not go to RISD? It’s the best, isn’t it?” That was the clincher, I suppose, but I think the sentiment is important. Perhaps focusing on the school’s reputation and quality is even more important if there’s some uncertainty about your daughter’s ultimate choice of major.</p>

<p>One factor my D considered was location. She wanted to live in a “real city.” She didn’t grow up in one (here in a midwestern college town). She had to decide whether Providence qualified. It did, marginally. It has some fine restaurants, as we grew to learn about. The Brown-RISD community makes for a rather diverse collective student body (and my D got to know students from other schools in the area as well, such as Johnson & Wales). My D also found ways to get away to the really big city, NYC, fairly often (and crashed with friends who were attending NYU), a 3 hr. bus or train ride. (Actually one of those occasions was on 9/11/2001 – fortunately, she had left to return to PVD the previous evening.) Boston is 1 hr away. </p>

<p>The possibilities for taking courses at Brown are real, though the curriculum doesn’t allow for a lot of such courses – unless a student is in the special 5-year joint program that was established 5-6 years ago. It can be a bit of a scheduling problem if you have several all-day studio courses (which you typically do). But my daughter did take several courses at Brown during the academic year and in summer school.</p>

<p>I agree with the sentiments about cost, i.e., not getting too overloaded with debt. Everybody has a different tolerance level. To some extent how much you can bear depends on your expectations about the future, including work and further education. Also, careers can evolve in unpredictable ways. After graduating from RISD without debt, my D worked for 5 years as a designer (product and graphic) in NYC but barely made ends meet (not a cheap place to live!). Had she been burdened with loan payments, I’m not sure how she would have handled it. (I think I know, though: the Bank of Mom and Dad.) Ultimately, she went on to earn an MBA, which in combination with her ID degree from RISD, as well as her work in NYC in the design industry and her internships in her MBA program, got her a terrific job as a project manager in the design department of a major consumer products company (headquartered abroad, where she’s now working). </p>

<p>In many fields the job market is highly fragmented or specific to the field. I have a brother who works in animation in “Hollywood.” Although he’s had a good career, the hot-and-cold character of the industry has led to his having worked for several major studios (e.g., Disney, WB, Sony) but also doing freelance. “Contacts” are absolutely key in the film-animation industry. And a willingness to upgrade and broaden your skills with changing technology also matters a lot. In 3-D animation, you have to be able to work with “Maya,” among other newer software. My brother picked that up a few years ago because he had to move beyond the Adobe products he was most familiar with. Now, as I look at RISD’s foundation course in animation, I see that they use Maya. A really good start.</p>

<p>Well – I’m rambling here. But I should summarize that I think the five things that matter most in building a career (not only in the arts) are: credentials, skills, great work habits, connections, and adaptability (willingness to move, to travel, and learn new things). For both of my kids, “careers” have been more akin to going up a climbing wall, rather than climbing up a ladder. You have to stop and think, move sideways, be strategic about job choices, but have a good sense of where you want to end up.</p>

<p>Good luck to all the fine young artists posting here.</p>

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<p>ethomasnj - RISD does not give merit scholarships. The offer you got from them is based on your FAFSA. If you expect your family income to stay the same for the next four years then you may reasonably expect that offer to stay steady. Call them and ask.</p>

<p>After the second year some individual departments have scholarships based on GPA and need that students can apply for. Call the departments she in interested in for more info.</p>

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<p>Thx for the info, hmm odd it came in near the same level as other schools, may just be luck of the draw. other schools gave no need based aid, well one gave work study, not sure how that worked out, and gave merit aid before fafsa, but if they use the same equation and subtract their aid that would make sense. Doubt daughter is headed for something like ID, but you never know, shes been writing comics and animating for years, so I don’t see the software as a problem, her biggest worry is getting pigeonholed in 3d animation. Oh well love the scholarship info, we are on whirlwind tour of all thes schools one last time to make up her mind.</p>

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<p>I know this thread is crazy-old, but I’m wondering how it all shook out for you? My daughter is considering a lot of the same schools…</p>