SCAD facts (first hand experience)

College Majors Visual Arts and Film Majors
1

<p>So I'm going to write about my experience at SCAD here as a new freshman. The purpose is to inform the people out there who are thinking about applying to SCAD... whether it's actually a good school or not, I don't even know it myself. If it's not worth the money or time, let me be the last person to be confused about the college and I hope you all make better decisions. If it actually is worth the money and time, I hope you will come and join me here... but that all depends on how my first year goes here at SCAD.</p>

<p>Here are some reports that I've written previously in this forum. I've gathered them all for your convenience.</p>

<p>school hasn't started yet, but i think i'll write my first report. keep in mind that my reports are going to be unbiased, but they'll be from my point of view when i describe quality or impressive-ness of artworks (you decide whether i have a high standard or not). aside of that, i will only describe facts.</p>

<p>so far, it's been good. everytime i e-mail scad in terms of what i need to prepare for school (eg. pay tuition, id card, etc.), they always respond very quickly. the longest one took only 2 days.</p>

<p>i have a facebook account (online social networking) and i met (online) many students who are going to scad with me. i saw many of their works. some are pretty disappointing to me (i thought: oh crap. i guess they're not gonna be competitive), but there are also many who are really good. i know they're not scad educated yet, but for now, the incoming freshmen are very much mixed in terms of ability and talent.</p>

<p>i also saw some works by some scad sophomores and seniors and i think they're impressive.</p>

<p>moominmama: i hope this helps =]</p>

<p>I just received an e-mail regarding where I'm going to live for my first year at SCAD. Apparently I'm going to be living in Dyson (which is my top choice of the three dorms), so I'm happy about that.</p>

<p>I also received the name of the person who'll be my roommate, so I tried to find out who this guy is, but I couldn't find him on facebook. SCAD has this thing called "corporate address book" or something like that on every student's e-mails, which, from what I heard, is supposed to have all the names of SCAD students (it's like a biodata page with name, e-mail address, phone number, etc) and you can search whoever you want. Somehow, I didn't find my roommate even on that thing. I don't know why so this is something that I'm hoping to find out soon enough.</p>

<p>hope this helps moominmama, and everyone else who's thinking about SCAD.</p>

<p>alright, i just moved in yesterday and everything's been good so far. i really like my roommate too.</p>

<p>i went out last night with 4 other guys and walked around savannah. it wasn't scary at all, but of course you have to stay away from the ghetto area. even in the city streets themselves you can see some of those people, but i felt pretty safe among my friends.</p>

<p>there hasn't been anything bad at all. orientation was good, but pretty much the same old stuff.</p>

<p>hope this helps</p>

<p>weather is... well, temperature is high. so it's hot. the sun is bright and the sky is clear. for me, i don't like it (i personally prefer the cold).</p>

<p>the food is actually pretty good. they have a couple different places for you to eat. the food... well, they have cheeseburgers, fries, pizzas, salad, sandwich bar, err... even oriental food i think... but i'm not too sure about that one. but definitely it's not too bad. you can go for the healthy food with salad and stuff, or go with the junk/fast food. breakfast is pretty good too. normal continental breakfast... eggs, bacons, biscuits, etc.</p>

<p>hope this helps.</p>

2

<p>i just had my first day of school today. I experienced some bad things.</p>

<p>In my drawing class: My professor gave us syllabus about his class. Two things I noticed right away: he made a grammatical error by typing "...projects and assignments will drop a point each day until the project is TURN in." instead of TURNED in... He also misspelled "Safety Policies" as "Safety Polices". I know those are little things, but I honestly think and feel that things like that really tell us about the intelligence level of someone.</p>

<p>In my art history class: My professor misspelled "Plagiarism" as "Plagerism", which surprised me.</p>

<p>The kids in my classes are... well... not as competitive as i thought they would be (at least judging by this first day, which i know is very much inadequate to prove anything in the long run). they didn't know basic things/techniques like taking measurements by extending your arm and using your pencil to do it. If you argue that they may not be cut out for drawing because some are majoring in film or music, here's another reason why i felt disappointed: they didn't know what a 'tangent line' was.</p>

<p>At this point, I'm feeling a little bit negative about SCAD. I don't know if it's like this in other schools, but SCAD seems to try to 'brainwash' their students. I haven't heard anyone talk about SCAD or even know it outside of SCAD community, but somehow the people (or at least the faculties) talk so good about SCAD as being 'the best art institution in the country'. My art history professor is very much into SCAD. he said things like "i take my job very seriously here at SCAD, i hold up high SCAD's mission and rules, etc" which is supposed to be a good thing i guess... but i somehow felt something fishy is going on. i have never heard of an institution so good who talks so good about themselves as if trying to convince other people how good they are.</p>

3

<p>Although the spelling error is a bit of a concern, I wouldn't judge the school by the first day or even the first week. All schools praise their school and curriculum and students. This isn't unique to SCAD, and this is from someone who isn't a SCAD fanboy.</p>

<p>I would love to hear your in-depth impressions once you finish the semester and then the year. That would be very illuminating.</p>

4

<p>SCAD has been named the Hottest, but it is certainly not one of the elite schools. Many students come from high schools with poor art programs, and yes photo majors, etc, generally cannot draw, and with 25+ majors you will find a wide latitude of talent in your class. SCAD is not a fine arts college per se, that is not its strength.</p>

<p>Nothing fishy is going on; you might respectfully point out the typos. I knew of a faculty member who was called to the Deans office and admonished for repeated typos in class. Help your prof out, he/she will appreciate it.</p>

<p>Start looking around at the work on the walls as it is hung, and find out which profs/classes are the best so that you will be prepared to pick your professors in the Winter.</p>

5

<p>dhillman, you sound like my daughter -- she's very critical of spelling errors too! Thanks for these reports with all the nitty gritty, and keep them coming as you have time.</p>

6

<p>I had my 2D-design class on tuesday and I thought it was impressive. Unlike the first 2 other classes that i had on monday, this class was actually good, interesting, and might be difficult (we'll see about that). Plus, the professor did not make any spelling nor grammatical errors.</p>

<p>I had drawing and art hist. again yesterday and both were actually pretty good. I actually learned in those classes. My drawing professor has a pretty keen eye about people's drawings, proportions, and shapes. He pointed out one of my mistakes that i actually did on purpose. I wanted to see if he would point out that "the bottle neck is too small" when he walks around and see my drawing. I was really happy about that.</p>

<p>Other than that, everything else has been good. I haven't experienced any crime at all, but there were 2 separate armed robberies reported in the downtown area on tuesday night.</p>

7

<p>//My drawing professor has a pretty keen eye about people's drawings, proportions, and shapes. He pointed out one of my mistakes that i actually did on purpose. I wanted to see if he would point out that "the bottle neck is too small"//</p>

<p>Well done!</p>

<p>//I haven't experienced any crime at all, but there were 2 separate armed robberies reported in the downtown area on tuesday night.//</p>

<p>Were students robbed? Regardless, be careful at night. The thugs know that the kids are back intown, and that newbies are easy prey. It makes me so mad that these people victimize students in particular.</p>

<p>Any observations on SCAD security; alert boxes, buses, bicycle patrols, bus schedules, etc.</p>

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<p>dhillman, be careful out there!</p>

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<p>RainingAgain notes," be careful at night. The thugs know that the kids are back intown, and that newbies are easy prey. It makes me so mad that these people victimize students in particular."</p>

<p>Response: EXCUSE ME! Weren't you the one who constantly argued that Savannah isn't that dangerous and isn't worse than that of any other city?</p>

10

<p>Taxguy, I've gotta pop in here. Not to comment on Savannah as such but on the fact that what RainingAgain noted is true of many towns/cities with colleges in them. For example, at Brown and RISD in the first couple of weeks in September there is typically a rash of muggings of students by Providence "townies" who take advantage of the naive students who think any old street near campus is safe at most any hour. Wrong. </p>

<p>As a case in point, my daughter was mugged in Providence on an early weekend evening in September many years ago, even when there were many students out and about; but the muggers worked in teams and knew how to operate.</p>

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<p>No TaxGuy...I have always acknowledged that Savannah has a crime problem, but have defended it against the constant barrage of statements you and others have made. Other cities have crime as well, and are situated in or near less desireable areas - like MICA for example. </p>

<p>Others have stated they have visited many times (with girl scouts) and not experienced problems, and poster/professor jkolko provided links to a web site to demonstrate that Savannah is not as bad as you often interjected. This is not to say it does not have a problem with crime. In ten-plus years, I have never been victimized, and SCAD does provide a variety of services to help keep students safe.</p>

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<p>Former professor :-)</p>

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<p>i went to the majors fair 2 days ago and talked to the architecture representative. i asked him about the statistics of graduates from SCAD who get a job after graduation and how they're living. he said around 93% of them get a job right after graduation, so i felt good about that. as for the next question, all he said was "they're living a healthy and happy life."</p>

<p>my friend went to him and asked something that i didn't ask. architects have to get an architect license in order to be a legit architect. she asked the rep. about the percentage of SCAD arch. grads who earn the license. he couldn't answer it. all he said was," we don't know. it's hard to track down how many got their licenses unless they actually come back and report it."</p>

<p>well... i thought, shouldn't a college have at least some numbers to give when asked that sort of question? are they trying to cover up bad parts about it? i hate it when i don't know everything. i want to know all the goods and the bads. i'm not saying most SCAD grads don't earn the license because I don't know. the way he answered that question made me suspicious about the program though. it's sad.</p>

14

<p>Visit the Architecture department and ask the Chair. But it is true, student's have to report and stay in touch with the college. I get mail all the time from two schools asking for me to update their records, etc. I don't reply. I have other things to do than fill out another form.</p>

15

<p>i was reading some stuff on the internet about SCAD and accreditation (i know this used to be a hot topic in this forum). does being accredited by certain organizations matter when you graduate and get a job? let's say, would EA pick you if you graduate from RISD compared to SCAD just because of the accreditations stuff? (let's say for the sake of argument, you have the exact same portfolio after graduating from one school or the other. you are also exactly as talented after graduating from either one)</p>

16

<p>//i was reading some stuff on the internet about SCAD and accreditation (i know this used to be a hot topic in this forum). does being accredited by certain organizations matter when you graduate and get a job?//</p>

<p>SCAD is accredited by SACS. They are not accredited by NASAD which makes some people suspicious. </p>

<p>To answer your question, no. EA even has a cooperative partnership with SCAD.</p>

<p>It's all about the portfolio. The school makes no difference., but if you have an art director evaluating two portfolios of equal worth, I suspect his or her point of decioson would be based upon the interview. People are very concerned about how an applicant fits into a company's culture. It is extremely important. They want to work with people that share similar values, and are likeable.</p>

17

<p>new update:</p>

<p>my academic adviser is lazy... it seems as if she's trying to avoid meeting me. I've met her once and I want to meet her again to talk over some stuff, but she keeps avoiding that topic in my e-mails and she doesn't return my phone calls. I understand she might be busy, but I want to schedule an appointment even after the due date of course registration and she still doesn't touch on that topic I wrote in many e-mails to her. my friend's academic adviser is way behind his schedule (at least according to my friend). she didn't tell me the details.</p>

<p>and yes, it is true. you really have to bend your backs to get the faculty to do things here... i asked the residence faculty to fix my cable because my TV doesn't get any of the good channels about 2-3 weeks ago... and they haven't responded with ANYTHING!</p>

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<p>dhillman -- Sorry to hear about unresponsive staff problems! Be polite, but be persistent.</p>

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<p>sorry for the late update. i've been very busy lately, which is a good sign =]</p>

<p>moominmama, is your daughter considering scad? does she want to go here? it depends on what kind of personality she has, but in this school here's basically the ratio of students (roughly, by no means 100% accurate, seen from my eyes as a student): pretty much 90% of the kids here aren't here for the same reason i am: to actually study design. 90% of scad population are a bunch of lazy bums. yes. let me emphasize that. VERY LAZY. then, we have about 7-8% who are here to do design because they like drawing. they're the kind of people that you see in classes doodling all the time, neglecting lectures, etc. if you take a look at their notebooks, they're full of doodles.</p>

<p>then, we have the remaining 2-3% whom we'll see on TVs and magazines in the future. </p>

<p>i felt bad in the beginning of my school year because of the assignments, professors, etc (see my previous posts). but at least for now, i feel pretty good. i can assure you its not because im getting lazy, but i actually work every night and on the weekends now.</p>

<p>here's one thing that i've proven to be true. in this place, most of the time, you really have to bring it upon yourself to do good designs. the professor would just say "draw hallways or something that incorporates perspective." almost everyone in my drawing class went on and drew hallways. well, i went to draw stairs. in a sense, i really "dug my own grave." i had to come back at nights and on weekends to draw because my drawing was so complicated compared to theirs. the good part is: the professor can and will help you no matter what you choose to draw. he wouldn't be like "oh, your drawing is too complicated for this assignment." my professor respects me for the way i carry myself in his class.</p>

<p>so in conclusion, if your daughter or son has the iron will to literally "dig his/her own grave", come here. it's a great school. if you expect your professors to push you so hard that every single kid comes back to draw every night, this isn't the place for you (some professors do though).</p>

<p>i am aware that college applications due dates are nearing. for those of you reading my posts, good luck. i hope what i wrote are not just bunch of useless information and i hope they actually help you wth your college decision, at least regarding scad.</p>

<p>i'll try to post another update whenever i have the time.</p>

20

<p>Thanks for making the time to stop by and give us the real scoop, dhillman. Yes, SCAD is pretty much the only school on my daughter's list. She has been steadfast in her desire to study sequential art and writing, and SCAD seems to have the best program for her.</p>

<p>Good for you for pushing yourself in your drawing class! It's a shame that so many of the other students aren't doing that as well -- perhaps they'll be inspired by you and your mad stairway drawing skills :) It's funny that you mention perspective -- that is definitely a weak area for my daughter.</p>

<p>Do you have time for any other activities/clubs/etc? And did your cable ever get fixed?</p>