SCAD for Grad?

College Majors Visual Arts and Film Majors
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<p>//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.//</p>

<p>Yes you can say there are two sides to design; one is that it is a public service in that it makes information available to people so that they may make the best possible decisions for themselves, or that it makes things useful; something that is hard to use, is less useful. Aesthetics are important as well as is craft. Learning to use the tools to a high degree of proficiency in order to present a solution that appeals to the tastes and values of the audience makes the information more useful in that it stands to communicate with greater autheticity.</p>

<p>You may be interested in reading The First Things First Manifesto, 1964 which was reiterated in 2000.</p>

<p>1964: <a href="http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Emaxb/ftf1964.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.xs4all.nl/~maxb/ftf1964.htm&lt;/a>
2000: <a href="http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Emaxb/ftf2000.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.xs4all.nl/~maxb/ftf2000.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>The first printed "political" poster or leaflet? Perhaps Martin Luther's 95 Theses.</p>

<p>Once upon a time Graphic Design was called "Commercial Design" because the profession developed during the industrial age, when competitive products and services began to be manufactured and thus differentiated. </p>

<p>During the early 20th century, posters were used by many to inspire political, economic, social change; the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the Nazi Party in Germany. An interesting contemporary designer is James Victore: </p>

<p><a href="http://www.hillmancurtis.com/hc_web/film_video/source/james.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.hillmancurtis.com/hc_web/film_video/source/james.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Presently, many call graphic design, "Visual Communications" because the practice of design is understood to be, or recognized as, a language unto tself, used in commercial practice or for the good of humanity. A program like this is likely to discuss visual communications theories which can be applied to design regardless of the intent.</p>

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<p>This is really great! Thank you both for the meaty posts.</p>

<p>Cool.</p>

<p>Larationalist-Have you visited SCAD yet? I can't remember.</p>

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<p>It's nice to know that there's a whole movement about this out there. I just keep going back and forth on what I think is the best path for me in the long run. </p>

<p>No, I have not visited SCAD yet. I didn't intend to visit any schools until I had acceptances in hand, and then to just visit the 2-3 front runners. It didn't work out that way because CCA (in a fit of brilliant scheduling) held a grad day on the same weekend as the portfolio workshop I was already attending in San Francisco, so I visited there because they made it so convenient. Then UW called up with this interview stuff. They said I could do it over the phone if necessary, but when I looked at the odds (50+ applications, 14 remaining invited for interviews, 6 spots in the program), I felt like I really needed to go up there. I'm still waiting on the final response from UW (I thiiiink I made it, but one never knows), MICA (had nice phone chat with Ellen Lupton 6 weeks ago), Pratt who is notorious for their tardy responses, and RIT.</p>

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<p>larationalist, thanks for filling us in! Interesting questions, and we'd love to hear about your final decision and any other thought process regarding your choice you feel like sharing. Does grad school admissionsoperate on the same rough schedule as undergrad, they tell you by April 1, you decide by May 1?</p>

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<p>Theoretically. But I'm expecting late decisions from RIT (who is rolling and the postal service screwed me over on), maybe Pratt (who never sends decisions out in a timely manner it seems), as well as MICA (who made it clear that decisions would not be mailed before April 1st). I also have not recieved financial aid packages from either school I've been accepted to yet, so lord knows when those will come. The schools seem to set their own timetables much more than was the case for undergrad- several schools want decisions by April 15th, and I don't know if I'll have heard answers from all of my schools, much less all the financial aid information, by then. They don't seem to be making it easy on me with the timing.</p>

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<p>Oh, dear! That's a shame, that the timing is so uncooperative.</p>

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<p>UPDATE: I'm in at UW! And they gave me a small (well, mid-sized for a state school) scholarship, w/ the standard 1 quarter of TA a year, which turned out to have a bigger stipend than I'd imagined. This all puts it at less than half the cost of SCAD, and it's higher up on my list. So, despite this thread's title, I think it's time for me to say 'good-bye' to SCAD.</p>

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<p>Best wishes!</p>

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<p>Congratulations, that's very exciting news! One thing to consider, though, in weighing offers based on expense, is housing costs. Unfortunately Seattle is not super cheap to live in, plus you'll need a winter coat.</p>

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<p>actually when I look on craigs list, the housing prices are comparable to what I see in Savannah. In either place I can get a room in a house walking distance from campus for $400/mo. Considering that I'm coming from LA, I see that as a bargain! I expect that the housing in Seattle that's so expensive is downtown, which is very nice but I'd like to be closer to campus than that.</p>

<p>Plus the difference in the tuition I'd be paying is so great that Seattle housing would have to be 4x as expensive as Savannah to make up the difference. And I can get a job more easily in Seattle (bigger art and architecture industry there, could even do construction again if I needed to). So I am definitely taking everything into consideration.</p>

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<p>Ah, if you're willing to live the frugal student lifestyle, then you'll be fine :)</p>

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<p>In architecture, you learn to live the frugal student lifestyle into your mid-thirties.</p>

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<p>another update for those who are keeping track: I got accepted at Pratt today and told I was on the waitlist at MICA. That's not so bad, as I knew MICA would be a bit of a stretch for me, and they don't over-admit for that program. Nine people were accepted for nine spots, and there are nine more of us on the waitlist, which is not ranked. So if one person doesn't accept their spot, then the director looks at who didn't accept and picks one of us from the waitlist according to what they feel would be best for the makeup of the class.</p>

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<p>That's quite a fine bundle of acceptances you are clutching in your hand!</p>

<p>The clock is ticking . . . when does UW want to know?</p>

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<p>April 15th. Later in the week I'm going to start making urgent calls to financial aid departments at CCA and Pratt, informing them of my situation and trying to find out my aid awards at those schools. </p>

<p>I'm not really holding my breath for MICA... if I do get called up off the wait list, it's not likely that they'll offer me any sort of substantial funding, which is unfortunately a major consideration.</p>

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<p>Good luck with getting hard info on financial aid via phone!</p>

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<p>yeah, huh. Pratt said they'd bump up the timing on my application since I had the April 15th deadline. They were actually really nice about it, but we'll see if they follow through.</p>

<p>The final tally is:
MICA - MFA Graphic Design: waitlisted
UW - MFA Visual Communications Design: accepted, w/ one quarter TA(tuition waiver + 4.3k stipend) + 3k scholarship
CCA - MFA Design: accepted w/ 7.2k scholarship and workstudy
Pratt - MS Communications Design: accepted, no funding info yet
SCAD - MFA Graphic Design: accepted + 10k fellowship
RIT - MFA Graphic Design: accepted + 7.5k scholarship</p>

<p>I've got the field narrowed down to UW and Pratt. Despite the pain of applying (Pratt admissions people make a profession out of being unhelpful), the opportunities in NYC are just too good to not give a serious look to.</p>

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<p>"(Pratt admissions people make a profession out of being unhelpful)" Gosh, you can make a living at that? </p>

<p>Totally agree about New York -- it's an amazing place. Have you ever been there?</p>

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<p>Apparently, yes, if that phrase describes you then you have an excellent chance at being hired as an admissions counselor!</p>

<p>I haven't been to New York since I was pretty little, but if it looked like Pratt could help me get within my affordability comfort zone, I would make a trip out for a few days so I could compare it properly to UW instead of going based on romantic assumptions.</p>

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<p>The verdict is in: it's UW in a landslide.</p>

<p>Pratt is not worth that sort of debt.</p>