Received a booklet from SCAD about their summer program, Rising Star, along with a letter from their president offering a full-tuition residential scholarship to the program. I have two questions: 1) is this an actual offer? Are they literally offering me a full-tuition scholarship? If they are, I see no reason why I shouldn’t take advantage of the opportunity, but honestly I find it kind of hard to believe that this is an actual offer. 2) Has anyone here had experience with the program? Is it good? I’d be interested in something related to writing, if I ended up attending.
I also received this offer & had the same questions so I emailed the program advisers. From what person who replied told me, I think it is an actual offer. I would also like to know more information if anybody here has attended this program ^^
I got this too and it seems pretty legit but I can’t find much information about people’s past experiences… I would love to study in Hong Kong, though, so fingers crossed!
If you read the brochure, the scholarship section mentions something like “all scholarships are applied to tuition”, but residential housing / food is $1500, so I am skeptical it is truly free… They use a misleading term free tuition residential program. Confusing. If you look up threads on SCAD, you get very different views of this school.
I emailed the admissions officer listed, and he replied saying it was a genuine scholarship offer. Over 5,000 dollars worth!
So you pay no fees?
I got it too. I was told that it is fully paid. Any one consider it this summer?
I got a letter and packet as well and was wondering about this too. Commenting for interest. I’m not sure how they’ll determine who gets the full scholarship though, since the letter doesn’t have any sort of code on it 
Well lol I actually applied for this program, got accepted, and received $2000 in scholarship. I’m not sure if they give full scholarship since I applied for the only two scholarships they offer and won both. However, I still must pay $1000. But if you received the offer, you should totally go! It s actually pretty selective
DS just received a letter offering him a full-tuition residential scholarship to SCAD Rising Star this summer. He had never heard of it before. The envelope looked like the typical college spam you get from the PSAT so he almost didn’t open it. I am not sure why they selected him or even if there isn’t some catch, He has taken studio art every year in high school but that is all under duress. Four years of either art or music is a requirement of his high school and art is his least favorite subject, but he is not musical so no choice. He is very academic though. I strongly doubt he will go to SCAD for the summer, but am out here looking for anyone’s more recent experiences with this to see whether he should feel honored to have received the offer.
I got the same letter yesterday. Never taken an art class during high school, but I had high PSAT/SAT scores. I see that most posters got the mail in March. Did anyone find out if it’s actually real? The website talks about scholarship options and specifies that you need to apply by April 6. It doesn’t make sense that I would get a full scholarship when I didn’t apply for one (didn’t even know about this program), and I have never done anything related to art.
I received the same letter on April 6th. I emailed their admissions and they just replied today; it seems real! The guy said it covers all $5790 (application fee, program fee, tuition for 2 courses, housing and meals). Apparently I just need to fill out the online application and send in my transcript. There was also some code to enter to waive the application fee but you should email him too to get it.
I was really skeptical too cause although I’ve taken several years of drawing lessons, I’ve never taken a class in high school and I never applied to the program either. My SAT and PSAT scores were pretty high, but I’m not sure if they’re the reason either because obviously SCAD couldn’t have offered the full scholarship to everyone who got a high score. So I’m still really confused. But I emailed him again to ask why I was picked and I’m waiting on a reply.
The courses they offer are pretty interesting though! They offer drawing, art history, photography/film, ceramics, painting, sewing, etc which is what you’d expect, but they also offer horse care (lol), writing/composition, public speaking, advertising, business, computer programming, and even one math class centered around geometry.
If anyone gets more info or sends in an application please let me know! I’m trying to decided if I want to do it or not, but still pretty skeptical since I never even applied to anything remotely art-related.
Do you know if getting the scholarship has any factor on admissions? If it doesn’t, I can see them sending out “scholarships” to people with high test scores and then picking the best applicants out of those who apply.
I would really like to study programming and film, but I have almost no background in art and my application wouldn’t be very strong.
I’m not completely sure. This was the exact wording of the email reply-- “Other than the application form, the only other item required in order to receive this scholarship is your First Term Junior Transcript.” From what it sounds like, you’re already admitted if you got the letter. I just submitted my online application today, and all I had to do was fill out basic info like name, address, parents, school, etc.
I also got a reply today about how I was selected for the scholarship, and it said:
“SCAD was notified of your outstanding performance on your standardized tests, and, based on this information, our President felt that SCAD would be an excellent fit for you.”
I didn’t even know that College Board released our scores to colleges…and tons of people get high scores, so I still don’t know how they chose specific people out of those people.
Either way it sounds like an amazing opportunity (honestly way too good to be true but I guess it seems like it is) so you should email their admissions people and apply 
In case you guys don’t know yet, SCAD’s a real school with a real(ly) great art and design program. Particularly strong in animation, film, graphic design, interior, fashion, and probably a few more I’m missing. I’ve been researching art schools for a couple years now due to my D1 (who is a foundation student at Pratt) and my D2 (who just committed to SCAD for fall 2016). I spoke about Rising Star with another mom while our kids were touring another school for animation in Feb (he’s a junior). She was very interested in the program as well but was worried about the cost. I’m really hoping they received this invite!
The horse care stuff is because SCAD is known for being one of the best equestrian colleges in the country. It’s a southern thing (and a horse’y set thing!). SCAD is not the only college to offer this - Vassar, for instance, is a 7-sisters elite women’s college that also has a strong equestrian team and is really into the horse’y thing.
The one thing you need to consider strongly is whether you want college credit and grades at this point. That transcript will need to go to all colleges you are applying to when you are a senior, whether they be art/design schools or not. This would be the one thing keeping me from enrolling my kid. A precollege program where you can try out a BFA studio environment, test your skills and produce some great pieces that will work for ANY (not just art) college application supplement is a great idea. Any official grade, however, will be part of your permanent college transcript so don’t do this program unless you believe you will do well - and definitely take is seriously all the way through. It’s real college.
Having said all that, SCAD is also a place where experience coming in isn’t necessary. It’s very possible to do well if you work hard, desire to pick up a new (or improve an existing) skill, and take the program seriously. SCAD believes that grades and test scores are the best indicators of whether a student has the ability to succeed in a BFA program. Believe it or not quite a few very artistically talented kids do NOT do so well in such programs. They may lack the self-discipline to sit and do and re-do something, or there may not be anything to teach them, or they don’t have the desire to explore and reach out of their comfort zone.
Just to answer the question about how these places get your name: they all seem to (even if you didn’t check the box authorizing College Board to send your information to the Student Search Service) and some pretty nice opportunities can come from them.
So if Rising Star appeals to you and you think you can benefit from it, by all means go for it! At minimum you’ll produce some wonderful portfolio pieces in case you decide to apply to art and design school (and, as I mentioned above, even if you decide NOT to apply to such a place, your work will make for some interesting supplemental material for any admissions committee).
Good luck!