SCAD for Grad?

College Majors Visual Arts and Film Majors
1

<p>I'm looking at going for an MFA in Graphic Design, and am considering SCAD, and have been reading every thread about SCAD that I can find. I'm uneasy about all the arguments that seem to break out whenever someone mentions SCAD. When I go for interviews, am I going to have to defend my choice of school if I end up going there? I will be applying to schools at the end of this year, and while there are several more schools still under consideration (UBaltimore, UMass, Temple, Pratt, MICA, and Central St. Martin's), it's becoming clear that SCAD will probably be the most financially feasible for me. But I don't want to end up somewhere that I'll regret later.</p>

<p>Please, can anyone tell whether the complaints, such as not being selective enough, student quality, etc. are present equally in the Bachelor's and Master's programs, or more concentrated in the Bachelor's?</p>

<p>I am really only concerned with the reputation arguments. I understand the accreditation issue, and am willing to deal with that, and am currently living in Los Angeles, so do not anticipate the crime in Savannah to give me a pause. But the contentiousness of the school is concerning. Those of you who are ardently against SCAD- if it weren't for accreditation and crime, would you think differently of it? Or are those not the big issues?</p>

2

<p>SCAD has only been around since 1978. It was started from scratch; maybe 45 students the first year, and now there are twenty-something majors and I am guessing 6000 students. It definitely experienced some growing pains during the 1990s. I attended during this time; from what I can tell, these growing pains are in the distant past. It was a weird time, but the first president is gone and I haven't heard of any similar issues for many years.</p>

<p>There have also been many myths perpetuated about the college; for example, that it retains the copyrights to all student work. It does not; it simply retains the right to use the work in order to promote the college; doesn't/shouldn't every art college? If you make an amazing painting, the school is not going to take it from you, but take a photograph and publish it in a catalog, or wrap it on a bus. I have heard/seen where the college has purchased pieces from student exhibitions/thesis projects.</p>

<p>It does not have the same reputation as many other art colleges simply because the graduates are just now entering their 30s and 40s and just becoming art directors, etc. Also in the early years the student base was more regional. Students weren't coming from California, or Illinois, or New York. They do nowadays. And, upon graduation, students weren't populating bigger cities in the Northeast, Midwest, or Westcoast, so it remained largely unrecognized in larger media centers except for Atlanta, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Miami perhaps, etc. RISD, SVA, Pratt, etc have been around forever, and many talented students went to these schools and achieved notoriety in their fields for decades. SCAD has not been around long enough to place tens of thouands of graduates across the USA. However, nowadays graduates are finding employment everywhere.</p>

<p>The school is not as selective as other schools as it has many more sealts and classrooms and majors to fill. However, outstanding/excellent students do attend the college. I experienced a broad range of talent and ability. I found it competitive, but among a smaller group in each class. This was in the 1990s. I can't tell ou about today.</p>

<p>I don't think it is the very best school, but I do think it is a very good to excellent school. Some departments are probably better than others. I rould rate the graphic design department as very good-plus based upon my experience and observations.</p>

<p>My opinion is that the whole accreditation thing makes for a useless argument. The college is held to the highest standards of education by SACS. These standards are not specific to art or design, but to the practice of education. Ultimately, faculty set the standards. If you look at the faculty roster for the college you will likely find the majority are from big name schools like RISD, RIT, or Pratt, etc. and/or have extensive industry experience.</p>

<p>Students also prosper by the college's aggressive marketing. For example the Spring Fashion Show is honoring Vera Wang. And I think And</p>

3

<p>[larationslist]:
"I will be applying to schools at the end of this year, and while there are several more schools still under consideration (UBaltimore, UMass, Temple, Pratt, MICA, and Central St. Martin's), it's becoming clear that SCAD will probably be the most financially feasible for me."</p>

<p>~~~~~~~~
How is it clear already which will be the most financially feasible? maybe a seemingly too-expensive school will give you an assistantship, whereas SCAD might not need one in your department.</p>

<p>Especially at the graduate level, scholarships, assistantships, fellowships, work opportunities etc. can be unpredictable........ a lot depends on what the department will need for that incoming crop of grad students.</p>

<p>I didn't pay a dime for either of my advanced degrees....... and not because I was recruited........ just in the right place at the right time.</p>

4

<p>That's the only reason why I'm still bothering to apply to Pratt and MICA. Just in case something like that comes up. Because I wouldn't be able to pay anywhere near the full rate, but I'm holding out a hope that one of them will let me help teach their architecture or environmental design students (I'm LEED accredited and won awards and such in architecture school). </p>

<p>SCAD lists their criteria for fellowships on their website- I already know that I'd be getting an academic fellowship because of my GRE scores, with a chance to get a combined (bigger) fellowship once they see my portfolio, which is shaping up very nicely. So that statement was based on the fact that they'll give me $$$ for taking a test well, while everyone else will probably be more concerned with my grades, which are not so hot considering architecture programs are notorius for grade deflation. I don't imagine my 3.3 GPA will carry me that far with other merit scholarship committees.</p>

5

<p>//How is it clear already which will be the most financially feasible? maybe a seemingly too-expensive school will give you an assistantship, whereas SCAD might not need one in your department.//</p>

<p>SCAD does not offer assistantship opps to grad students. All courses are taught by faculty. All projects are graded by faculty, etc. Teaching internships are available in lieu of field internships; what a teaching intern might do is up to the professor - - likely to include research, assistance in prepping lecture content, and giving presentations in the presence of the professor.</p>

6

<p>Thank you, RainingAgain. You've been very helpful, and the teaching internship thing is very interesting- I didn't even realize that SCAD did that! The reason I'm not worried about the accreditation is that I have an undergrad degree (in a different area of design) from a well-respected university, so aside from it being an "MFA" so I can teach later, I'll really be relying on the strength of my portfolio much more than the degree.</p>

<p>I feel much more confident now that SCAD is a suitable option.</p>

7

<p>// so aside from it being an "MFA" so I can teach later, I'll really be relying on the strength of my portfolio much more than the degree.//</p>

<p>The degree will qualify you to teach at the college level and submit an application; your portfolio, disposition, and presentation skills will get you the job. No one will question the legitimacy of a degree from SCAD. </p>

<p>If you are going into G.D., here are 2 links to Adobe's site featuring SCAD projects.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.adobe.com/education/gallery/scad/posters/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.adobe.com/education/gallery/scad/posters/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Here is another.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.adobe.com/education/gallery/scad/envirographics.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.adobe.com/education/gallery/scad/envirographics.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

8

<p>Update in case you cared: I got a call this morning that I was admitted to the SCAD MFA Graphic Design program with a combined academic+artistic fellowship.</p>

9

<p>Hey, congratulations! Is that an offer you'll accept, or are you still looking for more options?</p>

10

<p>definitely still looking at more options. As I think you noticed (or do I have you confused with someone else?) I'm interviewing at UW on friday, so they are very much still in the picture. Actually, they're all still in the picture because SCAD's the first acceptance I've gotten, and I expect more. CCA sent out their answers yesterday, so I should know about them any day now.</p>

<p>If I do decide that SCAD's the one, I'll probably retake the GRE to try and get to the next level of fellowship, which my GRE score is 10 points too low for me to qualify for currently.</p>

11

<p>Yes, I'm the one over at the UW forum:) I hope the weather is nice for you when you are in Seattle --it's pretty wet, blowy, and nasty here today. If it's not too cloudy, wander over to Frosh Pond <a href="http://www.washington.edu/newsroom/tour/frosh_pond.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.washington.edu/newsroom/tour/frosh_pond.html&lt;/a> and you'll get a knock-out view of Mt. Rainier. Also, look into the quad and see if the cherry trees might be beginning to bloom. And don't drink too much green beer.</p>

<p>Good luck with getting lots of acceptances!</p>

12

<p>Thanks! I'm really nervous, have been making a new portfolio for this thing. It's also going to be my first time traveling where I'll be relying solely on public transport, so I'm far more nervous about getting where I'm going properly than I am about the whether. From everything I've heard about Seattle, I'm going in expecting rain. Although it'd be nice if it dried up for some bar-hopping on St. Pattys.</p>

13

<p>whee, update: got accepted to CCA today! Lots of confidence boosters to prepare me for the Seattle trip.</p>

14

<p>Excellent! Given hypothetical acceptances at all, which is your number one pick?</p>

15

<p>Given hypothetical great financial aid at all, it's MICA. Given hypothetical acceptances at all but lack of aid, it's UW.</p>

16

<p>LA Rat,</p>

<p>Looks like you have some great choices so far. </p>

<p>Best of luck.</p>

17

<p>Congrats laration!</p>

18

<p>Thanks all. Just got back from the UW visit/interview, and have a TON of stuff to think over. Both of the visits I've gone on (UW and CCA) have been incredibly enlightening in different ways. I wish I could afford to visit every school I applied to. But then, some of them might not want me, so that could narrow down the list a bit.</p>

19

<p>Please elaborate, we love details here...</p>

20

<p>hmmm, details. Back in the fall, when I went to the Grad Portfolio Day in San Francisco and visited California College of the Arts, I learned that there were two types of grad schools for graphic design: those who consider graphic design as one of many subsets of the broader category/profession, 'design'; and those who considered graphic design to be a separate set of skills which takes years of rigorous and specific preparation to enter. Being an architecture refugee, I promptly crossed those schools which fell into the latter category (SAIC, Tyler) off my list, and embraced those which recognized that I am already a designer, and what's more, a designer who brings a unique perspective to the table (MICA, CCA). There were a few schools on my list (UW, Pratt, SCAD) that I was having a hard time guaging on that front, but I decided to give it a go anyway. So I submitted a portfolio that was 60% traditional graphic design, 20% packaging/soft industrial, and 20% architecture, and decided that any school who couldn't handle that could kiss my bum, making sure to explain in my statement of purpose that the point of going to grad school for me was to utilize the time and resources to develop a personal voice that would span multiple media, not to develop extreme specialization in one media.</p>

<p>It turned out that this was PERFECT for UW, because my interests in evironmental graphics/exhibit design and print media actually align perfectly with their faculty's specialties, and they turned out to be the sort of school that loves interdisciplinary students. I was invited for an interview, which I went on the past weekend. The recent revelations that I discovered there are to do with specific content of assignments/projects within schools. At UW, the projects have a real social agenda: in information design, they organize charts about childhood obesity, in exhibit design they make an exhibit that educates people about the dwindling salmon population, thesis projects include studying the public's reactions to political posters, and a collaborative project with the university staff creates a website that will be the portal to all of UW's sustainable efforts. At other art schools, typical projects include wine bottle lables, posters for theatrical or musical events, and cd album covers. UW's approach really reaches the core of what I think graphic design has the potential to be- a political voice, an attention getter for great causes, deals with really great meaty sort of stuff. But then I wonder, since my undergrad studies were very user-oriented, socially concious projects, would it be better for me personally to spend time in the really far-out artistic world with fewer parameters? Will I exercise my creativity more that way, develop my voice more fully? Or can I do that at the same time while I undertake a more research-intensive curriculum? It's a very personal decision that will take a lot of thought on my part before I can be confident on, but they are questions worth asking. </p>

<p>A friend of mine put me these two questions: 1) What school will challenge you the most to explore areas that are unfamiliar to you? and 2) What school plays to your interests and goals the best? Unfortunately, for me, the answers to those two questions are NOT the same, so I am left trying to figure out which is the more important of the questions...</p>