<p>I am wondering if scholarships are given for Westphal students. If so, Are they merit based (Dean's list) or on artistic ability. My daughter would like to take the Animation and Visual Arts major. I am unsure as if a portfolio is needed to apply for this major.</p>
<p>I’m in the Animation and Visual Effects major and you do not submit a portfolio or reel. I received the Dean’s Scholarship. You can also get the early Fasfa and alumni scholarship pretty easily ($1000.00 each if I recall correctly). Since you do not submit a portfolio I would assume that it has to be merit based.</p>
<p>Great to know someone in that major. Do you like it? What year are you in? Do you think that you will have a future in animation? Please tell me more.</p>
<p>Also, you said that you received the Dean’s scholarship. If it is not too personal, can you tell me your stats (GPA, SAT scores, class rank, etc) and how much you received? A lot hinges on how much receive as Drexel is expensive an I’d like to get an idea of what we may get.</p>
<p>Thanks for your help. Hope you do well in school</p>
<p>I received a $16,500 Deans Scholarship and it’s renewable each year if I keep up a 3.0 GPA. I am actually a transfer student so my application experience is a lot different from the normal freshmen’s. I transferred from a community college with a 3.85 GPA. I only completed a year there (Fall 10/Spring 11) but I also did go there in Fall of 2006 which I withdrew from. So I did have 4 W’s on my transcript. Since I was a transfer student with over 24 credits completed I did not have to send in any high school transcripts. In fact I wasn’t the best student in high school. I only had a 1170 SAT. 650 Math 520 Verbal. (the essay portion wasn’t added until a year later). I also applied really late, during the last week of May, so I had a couple negatives against me.</p>
<p>So, my background will probably be zero help to you (I’m sorry!) but at least I can still tell you about the school. I was familiar with Drexel before applying since I had friends who already graduated there. This is my first year there and I’m really enjoying it. I’ve always wanted to live/work/go to school in the city, so Drexel fits in really well. I’m confident that I will have a career in animation. The things we do here are way more advanced that any other schools I’ve researched in the area. When I was doing my research for what college I wanted to go to for animation, I was blown away at the differences from the student’s work at Drexel than the other colleges around the Philadelphia area. Recent graduates have also landed jobs at Pixar, Dreamworks, and Universal, so I have a positive outlook for myself. </p>
<p>Drexel bought a building and is gutting/renovating it to house the Westphal College. The new facilities seem like they will be very nice and having state of the art equipment will is always a plus. Here is a link to a news letter they sent out for the new building called the URBN Center: <a href=“An error has occurred”>An error has occurred; Currently the digital media program lies in the basement of University Crossings (It’s not as bad as it sounds lol). They have multiple computer labs (both Mac and PC) and the computers are updated annually. There is also a ton of other cool equipment like motion capture cameras for when you get more advanced into your classes. I hope I gave you a little more insight to Drexel and I can try to answer any more questions you may have.</p>
<p>Thanks for getting back to me. You are a big help. I am hoping for the same type of scholarship. It will make tuition affordable for us. With animation being such a questionable living (as opposed to a doctor or lawyer), I hate to take out tons of money in student loans when it may be difficult to repay.</p>
<p>Glad you are enjoying the major. My daughter is looking forward to it very much. She is very artistically talented (in my biased opinion). She’s loved animation her whole life. I do agree, Drexel’s curriculum seems far superior to the other art schools. Do you know how many students are taking this major? Just curious about class sizes.</p>
<p>Well, I wish you the best of luck in your future. Maybe my daughter will run into you next year. Her name is Alexis. Are you planning to relocate to California? I hear that’s where all the jobs are.</p>
<p>OK, I rambled enough. Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>Since she is a freshmen coming from high school, she should be eligible for the A.J. Drexel Scholarship which is up to around $25,000 (that’s the better one to get lol). Last year they had 35 Digital Media majors. This year, since they expanded it and split it into three seperate majors (ANFX, GMAP, and WBDV) there are 70 of us. I believe the breakdown is around 25 animation (ANFX), 40 game design (GMAP) and maybe 5 web development (WBDV). The class sizes for the majors are really small; I think most animation/digital media classes are capped at 15 people. </p>
<p>I haven’t put too much thought into a career yet, but I have accepted I will probably have to move. I hope your daughter has a great time at Drexel! My name is Dustin, and I’ll probably end up running into her at some time!</p>
<p>Thanks for everything Dustin!</p>