<p>Well, its time to decide where my parents are ganna ship me off to, and soo my top 3 are RISD, Tulane, and Ohio state (honors on Tulane and Ohio).
Ive visited Ohio and was quite impressed with the Dean there, VERY intelligent, taught at MIT, got her degree from Princeton, does projects around the world. Very insightful, and was given the chance of being dean of Cooper Union. </p>
<p>Im also an artsy kid (hence RISD) and absolutely LOVE RISD. i also have family about 5 minutes away from the campus so that is a major factor. </p>
<p>Just wanted others opinions</p>
<p>I was tempted to think you were kidding, lol. Couldn’t have 3 more different schools, especially RISD. If you cannot make a decision about going to a school like RISD vs. the other two, no one here can help you.</p>
<p>Pretty much the same for Tulane vs. OSU. Just decide, taking RISD out of the picture for now, if you want huge vs. smaller, big-time sports vs. not, moderate climate vs. colder winters, so on and so forth. The schools are so different that if you know your own mind at all the decision should be easy. Just don’t make the decision based on the dean. That is just one person, the day-to-day at any school can be very different than one charismatic individual.</p>
<p>But if you “LOVE RISD”, go there. Decision over.</p>
<p>mm they are very different.
But im a pretty artsy kid so i was thinking RISD was by far the best choice.</p>
<p>Have you visited the schools?</p>
<p>I will point out that as a RISD student you get to take courses at Brown also. I don’t know the exact rules of the road there, but they are next to each other on College Hill, overlooking Providence. It is pretty nice, although there are a lot of public streets that run through the campuses.</p>
<p>But that is what I am saying to you, that if you are artsy and love RISD, that seems like the best decision. I am a Tulane alum and currently a Tulane parent, so I love to guide talented kids towards Tulane. But you definitely seem more of a RISD type.</p>
<p>While it is possible to cross register for courses between RISD and Brown it is not always easy to work the schedules out due to the studio time required in many of the arch classes at RISD.</p>
<p>mhm, i completely understand. Tulane did seem like the next best fit after RISD, but i do love my art!
And yes, i’ve heard that the scheduling can get pretty helacious, and freshman year you can pretty much bet you wont have a social life, but it’s all good. I’m ready to go. But the RISD campus is beautiful, just a bunch of renovated old buildings and if you wanted to have a “quad” feel just go lay in the sun on the brown campus. That’s pretty much what they said.</p>
<p>freakintexan, My mom is a RISD grad. She is 80 years old and would say her time in Providence were some of the happiest years of her life. She still keeps in touch with old friends and went to her 50th reunion not too long ago! Our son considered RISD, and while he loves architecture and is very creative, he was not not as close to the “arty” end of the continuum as you obviously are. He ended up studying architectural engineering, specializing in lighting which seems to be a great match for his talents.</p>
<p>Good luck to you!</p>
<p>Tulane has an art major and grants a BA, BFA, MA, or MFA. They have concentrations in painting, printmaking, sculpture, glass, photography, and digital media. I bring this up because I used to live in New Orleans, and attended some BFA thesis shows and they were good. </p>
<p>I haven’t been to Providence, but I can imagine very few cities that are more artistic than New Orleans…</p>
<p>Providence is actually quite groovy, its very academic (thanks to brown) and very artistic (thanks to RISD). so i cant imagine a better place to be. And it also helps that Boston and NYC are a drive/train ride away. </p>
<p>But i do love New Orleans, so it was a really had decision to make.</p>
<p>Tulane student here, from my understanding from friends who go to RISD, Tulane and RISD are very different in their architectural pedagogy and conceptual approach. Tulane emphasizes design that respects its surroundings, especially due to the cultural and historical significance of existing buildings in New Orleans (most of our design sites are in NOLA). We have a great design-build program here called UrbanBuild, and if you’re into that realm, this is probably one of the best schools in the South if not the country to actually get a design realized while still in school. That being said, if you want to be very conceptual and artsy, you’ll find yourself in a minority here. I’m personally into parametric based design, and I am always influenced by professors to make my designs performative and not just purely an artistic ego-experiment. Honestly, visit both of the schools and see where you would fit in. I did that with USC/Tulane and it really cleared it up for me. Don’t let the US News/Design Intelligence Rankings influence you-- purely superficial criteria are used in relation to architecture schools.</p>
<p>I didnt let any of that influence me haha, i visited both campuses. (all three actually) and i do respect the urbandesign program Tulane offers, that is very interesting and unique. Tulane is beautiful, but RISD is also. Ohio state… wasnt my favorite in the world. But anyways, i’ve talked with many RISD students they say that they absolutely love the school, and same with people at Tulane, but i felt more “at home” at RISD with all them weirdo art lovers 
but that doesnt mean im just purely artsy. Im also academic, with APs, a 32 ACT, and a 3.8 GPA (unweighted).</p>
<p>Speaking as the parent of a recent RISD alum (ID '09): If you are truly a “RISD type,” then I can’t imagine you would be happy at Tulane or OSU. Those are great schools, but they are nothing like RISD. You will definitely find many of “your tribe” all around Providence, not just at RISD. Great school, great little city, great art & design!</p>