SCAD in general

<p>i really don't like scad, i think the school is realy ugly and when i went there for a camp the teachers were not at all helpful and just slumped around, plus the food was gross and i didn't like where it was situated. but thats just my opinion, so take no offense to it.</p>

<p>sunspun41, I think you'll probably get the same caliber of education in those fields at either AAU or SCAD. They both have strong networking/placement programs, as well as internship opportunities. I would research your dream job and dream company to do it for, and if SCAD or AAU has stronger connections with that company, that might be your deciding factor. And no matter wher you go, as has been said many times, it's the quality of your portfolio and your snazzy interviewing skills that make the difference between working and not working.</p>

<p>On the SCAD equestrian program, do they let you use their horses, or do you have to provide your own? I wouldn't assume that they provide horses. You should also look into the costs of that and factor it into your budget.</p>

<p>The cities are very different, although both beautiful. They both have some safety issues, so you need to use common sense when getting around town, especially after dark. The climates are <em>very</em> different -- if you hate hot and humid, SCAD is not the place for you. If you hate cold, grey and drizzly, AAU is not the place for you. That said, both cities have their lovely days, sometime for weeks on end. </p>

<p>Culturally, SCAD is a bastion of student/artsy liberalism within a somewhat free-wheeling section of the city, surrounded by much more conservative areas. AAU is in a wildly liberal city surrounded by other pretty wildly liberal cities. So while you may feel at home at SCAD within the student population, you may find yourself confronted with attitudes that are surprising to you out in the wider community. On the other hand, if you are a conservative person, San Francisco may drive you crazy!</p>

<p>SCAD is the big frog in the fairly small pond of Savannah as far as wider cultural opportunities. Not a vast museum, nightclub, live theater and music sort of place, although there is some of that. San Francisco is bursting with things to do and see, as well as Berkeley, Oakland, etc. But, if you are doing it right, you'll be too busy at school to take advantage of it!</p>

<p>//i really don't like scad, i think the school is realy ugly....//</p>

<p>Ugly? That's an odd comment.</p>

<p>Thanks Moominmama! I'll start looking into connections with companies...</p>

<p>for the equestrian program, they DO let you use their horses (if you are on the team of course) and they pay for all transportation/competition fees, in fact all you have to provide is boots and a helmet for yourself.</p>

<p>I'm from the New England area, so I'm well-versed in hot and humid and cold and grey. Although I do hate humidity, another attraction to AAU. </p>

<p>Culturally I would choose AAU- I would love to live in San Francisco. But something about the students at SCAD, from what I've seen, seems more familiar to me.
But yeah, I'm really going to try to stay focused on schoolwork rather than a cray social life :) </p>

<p>AAU is less expensive and I didn't get a portfolio-based scholarship to SCAD, which surprised me slightly but many of my friends are not getting scholarships and many are deferred from ED admission that they are more than qualified for. I've heard that this is largely induced by the economy, so not getting a scholarship is pretty unsettling.
Hopefully grades/SAT will get me somewhere, but does anyone know if I can submit a different portfolio to SCAD for reconsideration? The website is a little unclear on that. </p>

<p>and RainingAgain, I agree with you...I thought SCAD was beautiful when I visited</p>

<p>I finished my first quarter at SCAD and I just wanted to defend it. Look, a lot of the negatives about it are blown waaayyy out of proportion on here. I have never been held up. Nothing has ever been stolen from me. I really don't see any crime in Savannah other than an off campus burglary that happened ONCE throughout the whole quarter. There is 20X as much crime in the cushy suburb where I live. The classes are all challenging, esp. for me since I did not take any art classes in high school. I worked my tail off, went in for help sessions, and it all paid off because I ended up on Dean's List. I don't see how visitors can be so freaked out by the apparently high crime rate here. I mean, what are you really afraid of? The odd "scary" homeless man on Broughton? It's like Williamsburg! </p>

<p>If you take a look at the Alumni page on the web site you can see what kind of jobs can be had. Most of them are doing quite well. It would also be helpful to research the accolades that SCAD students and professors have received.</p>

<p>A lot of people in the art world hold SCAD in high regard, and a lot of companies snatch SCAD grads up for jobs. There should be a disclaimer on this web site: Don't forget that the people who write scathing reviews on it have an axe to grind, and its easy to blame your alma mater when you haven't prepared yourself for the job world. Getting your education is just the start of it. It's up to YOU to go out into the world, get your work out there, and make some contacts that may help you find a job. Nobody's going to hand it to tou.</p>

<p>Sunspun41, I don't know about submitting a different portfolio, but an admissions officer should be able to help you get that answer. SCAD is quite generous with GPA/SAT based scholarships, although apparently it's not quite as automatic as such-and-such GPA = such-and-such $$. If you read it carefully they give themselves some wiggle room with language like "May be awarded . . . up to . ." etc. </p>

<p>My daughter was awarded the top level, $15K per year, applied per quarter, and it requires at 3.0 average for each quarter. She missed that for the first quarter, and we learned that SCAD doesn't apply grades to GPA quite the way we assumed. Rather than take class project/paper/test grades to determine an 4 point based grade with decimal points, such as 2.75 or 3.28; each class ends up with a whole number grade, 4, 3, 2, 1, which is then averaged. For example, if you are taking 3 classes and your grades were 2, 2, and 3, that averages to 2.33 which is what is looked at for the scholarship.</p>

<p>It's a bit of a blessing and curse -- you can get grades of 91% in 3 classes and end up with a 4.0, or get grades of 89% in three classes and get a 3.0.</p>

<p>Her counselor did call during winter break to say that they had decided to give back all the scholarships lost for the first quarter, which was a great Christmas present! Clearly this is not something to count on in the future, but it was fabulous news. My husband's theory is that a lot of families were looking at not going back for the winter term because of a lost scholarship on top of bad economic times, and SCAD decided to try to get as many students to stay on as possible.</p>

<p>fashion_freak, good for you for buckling down and succeeding! I'm glad you are liking SCAD. With your get-it-done attitude, I think you will go far.</p>

<p>As for the crime thing, don't take excess risks. Even I wouldn't go walking in that train yard area between the dorms and Ex Libris after dark, or be strolling around with an IPod, expensive jewelry dangling, or flashing a lot of cash.</p>

<p>Hey, I'm going to SCAD's open house on Jan. 31! Does anybody have any suggestions for me, of what to go do and/or see, or who to talk to? It'll be my first time in Savannah (first time in Georgia ever, really).</p>

<p>I'm kind of excited. It'll be the second (yet last) college open house I've ever been to.</p>

<p>As far as the city goes, just stroll around and soak it all in. Try to visit as many of the squares as you can, they are so pretty and all are different. Go down to the river and City Hall areas, too.</p>

<p>If you know what your major might be, ask your admissions counselor to make an appointment for you to sit in on a class in that area. That has to be planned out well in advance, you can't just do it spontaneously.</p>

<p>//If you know what your major might be, ask your admissions counselor to make an appointment for you to sit in on a class in that area. That has to be planned out well in advance, you can't just do it spontaneously.//</p>

<p>Absolutely do this...I had a few aspiring students sit in on a class each year. And yes, it takes a little pre-planning and preparation through the admissions office...though, I don't know why. If anyone had come up to me and asked if someone could sit in on a class that day, I'd have said, "Sure, no problem. Come on in!"</p>

<p>//My daughter was awarded the top level, $15K per year, applied per quarter, and it requires at 3.0 average for each quarter. She missed that for the first quarter, and we learned that SCAD doesn't apply grades to GPA quite the way we assumed. Rather than take class project/paper/test grades to determine an 4 point based grade with decimal points, such as 2.75 or 3.28; each class ends up with a whole number grade, 4, 3, 2, 1, which is then averaged. For example, if you are taking 3 classes and your grades were 2, 2, and 3, that averages to 2.33 which is what is looked at for the scholarship.//</p>

<p>This is an issue of occasional debate and discussion among faculty. It always disappointed me - and other faculty - that the student who earned a grade of an 88 or 89 in the class, would receive the same grade on their transcript as a student who received a grade of 80, 81, 82...etc for the course when, in fact, the two students are miles apart in terms of the quality of their work with one slightly better than a C, and he other just a tad short of an A. </p>

<p>Yep...that was one long sentence, wasn't it?</p>

<p>//Hey, I'm going to SCAD's open house on Jan. 31! Does anybody have any suggestions for me, of what to go do and/or see, or who to talk to? It'll be my first time in Savannah (first time in Georgia ever, really).//</p>

<p>Be sure to schedule a Portfolio Counseling session, and try very hard to see someone in Foundations or in your area of interest. For example, if you are interested in Sound Design and have some sound files, a professor in the painting department isn't necessarily going to offer you "sound" advice.</p>

<p>LOL</p>

<p>It is a rather odd way of doing things, and not one I've encountered before. I'm glad it at least gets discussed from time to time, so perhaps it will change eventually.</p>

<p>Here's a second on being sure you get a portfolio counseling session. My daughter had one at a SCAD presentation in our area, and another one when we visited. She found the feedback to be very helpful.</p>

<p>//I finished my first quarter at SCAD and I just wanted to defend it. Look, a lot of the negatives about it are blown waaayyy out of proportion on here....//</p>

<p>Oh for gosh sakes, yes indeed.</p>

<p>//It is a rather odd way of doing things, and not one I've encountered before. I'm glad it at least gets discussed from time to time, so perhaps it will change eventually.//</p>

<p>Well...it didn't change for 15 years I was there. So....who knows. </p>

<p>However, during my last quarter at the College, I had the pleasure of working with the "Inventor of the Rubric," and was for the first time exposed to the concept of developmental rubrics which typically evaluate student performance on the basis of 4 patterns of growth and development. He is presently the Senior Assessment Coordinator at SCAD, so perhaps some change will develop. </p>

<p>If assessment is your thing, you can visit his web site at Changing</a> Wisdoms</p>

<p>Kinda eye-glazing for me, I have to admit.</p>

<p>//Kinda eye-glazing for me, I have to admit.//</p>

<p>The origin of developmental rubrics comes from statistics, so it is eye-glazing for most of us, but what can be understood easily is that learning may be broken down into four phases - for myself I called them, Learner, Producer, Master, Innovator - and I wrote profiles of student work that might fall into each developmental phase. This way, the degree of each student's development along the continuum of learning could easily and quickly be identified, and students could also track where there work fell on the developmental learning curve.</p>

<p>Courses are typically written with specific goals and objectives for the students to achieve. While 100 level courses may identify Learner/Producer-type objectives, higher level courses typically ask students to achieve Master/Innovator-type objectives. Grades are assigned based upon the student's ability to meet the appropriate developmental phases for that course. </p>

<p>For example, in a 100 level course, a student whose work typifies the skill set of a Producer might receive a grade of A or B because it exceeds the Learner profile, while the same quality of work in a 400 level course would probably receive a grade of D or F because it falls short of the Master/Innovator profile.</p>

<p>The benefit of this system is also to help faculty identify what resources are needed to help a student bridge the gap between phases. For example, if the goal of my course is for the students to achieve Master level objectives, I would need to provide them with course content and instruction to bridge the gap from Producer to Master. If students repeatedly fail to make this jump, I would need to review my resources and make the appropriate changes to facilitate the appropriate level of growth.</p>

<p>It gets a little deeper, but this is the general idea.</p>

<p>//Her counselor did call during winter break to say that they had decided to give back all the scholarships lost for the first quarter, which was a great Christmas present! Clearly this is not something to count on in the future, but it was fabulous news. My husband's theory is that a lot of families were looking at not going back for the winter term because of a lost scholarship on top of bad economic times, and SCAD decided to try to get as many students to stay on as possible.//</p>

<p>Many educators complain that the administration runs SCAD as a business. In this case we have a business-motivated decision, but one that undermines the credibility of an institution of higher learning. How fair is this to students that lost scholarships one year ago? I don't like the inconsistency, but this is the mindset of the administration and students/families continue to benefit.</p>

<p>Your distillation of the applications of developmental rubrics is a model of clarity! Thank you. My kids' K-8 school did that sort of thing, on a level appropriate to the ages involved, so it does seem familiar now. The website was so jargon-filled that I failed to make the connection :)</p>