seeking advice, transfer student, ringling

College Majors Visual Arts and Film Majors
1

<p>hello,
Im currently a sophomore at ringling college of art and design in sarasota, in the computer animation department. I have recently made a decision not to return next semester, for various reasons that I will explain below.</p>

<p>Thus begins "round 2" of my college selection process.</p>

<p>I have always had a deep interested in both traditional art, and computer science. A computer animation program was what I believed I wanted, up until now. Ringling seems to fill your schedule up with classes that are made of air -- that is, no learning, no experience, wishy-washy grading criteria, vague criticism, teachers that may or may not be experience within their field, yet suck at teaching.</p>

<p>out of the 5 classes i am enrolled in now, i thoroughly enjoy one of them, and loathe the rest. Furthermore, in that one class i do enjoy, I don't even believe i need a teacher. I'm positive that i could just come to that computer lab at a regularly scheduled time, and just work on my animation, with only the internet and the programs' help file to guide me. Thats not to say that my teacher is a bad guy, hes one of the better teachers i have, and will give me more feedback should i desire it, but the curriculum itself is not engaging or challenging.</p>

<p>theres much more to my decision than this.</p>

<p>ringling's computer animation program is heavily based around story and character development through concept. I'm not interested in this AT ALL. I'm interested more in the technology of computer graphics, id like to be taking programming classes as well, but i don't want to lose the traditional art side of it either, i love to simplify things and just draw and paint, and I'm not able to do either of those here, the course catalog i received at registration time is smaller than what i received at my highschool. I was forced into taking two very lame liberal arts electives, because there was absolutely nothing else offered or available. </p>

<p>When i made the decision to come here i overlooked some very important things, and bought into the hype that was circling this school.</p>

<p>I overlooked the environment that this school was in, in a wasteland of strip malls, a little ways out of the rich, white, city of sarasota, and just before a very seedy florida ghetto. Its a very bad and stagnant place for any young student to live and grow.</p>

<p>I overlooked the population, its smaller than my hs, about 1200 students, this means decreased opportunities to meet people, make relationships, lead a happy and not miserable life.</p>

<p>for forty thousand dollars, i should be learning, i should be happy, i should be having the time of my life.</p>

<p>If you are still reading this far, i hope i could squeeze some advice out you.</p>

<p>when i was first looking at schools, i applied to risd, saic, ringling, and sva. i was accepted to all of them. All arrogance aside, i believe myself to be rather talented, based on comparisons with students work here. My portfolio is even stronger after what I've produced in the first 3 semesters of college.</p>

<p>I'm looking for more options, more schools to look at, Im also looking for larger universities that might offer me programs in art, animation, computer graphics, visual effects.</p>

<p>I believe I bought into the hype too much, and ringlings "reputation".
I'm now looking for other things in a school:</p>

<p>courses that sound interesting to me
larger student populations
better physical environment, placement of school
more in the way of student life/activities
more options for course selection
possibly a lighter tuition bill
a more customizable degree program</p>

<p>I'm interested in SCAD, the courses they offer in visual effects, and game development sound right up my alley, they also seem to have a much larger student body than many other art schools (they say 7000 on website)</p>

<p>I'm also interested in rethinking SAIC, being in a wonderful city like chicago would certainly open up some things, and saic seems to offer a lot more choices for classes.</p>

<p>I'm a michigan native, and will also be looking at univ of michigan, and mich state univ, they would both give me a much more "college" like experience, 20-30 thousand people, football games, better liberal arts, etc.</p>

<p>out of state universities and other private art schools arent out of the question, i just dont know where else to look for computer graphics, animation, game development, visual effects.</p>

<p>please feel free to ask questions, flame, or give advice,
thank you for your time</p>

2

<p>I don't know anything about your major, but I suggest looking at princetonreview.com for their college counselor o matic and the collegeboard.com's college matchmaker. Both search engines help you to get a pool of schools that match your interests, location, student population, etc. needs. It has really helped me get a sense of what schools had great art departments. It sounds like you need to have a great dept. for your major within a larger university setting or in a large urban environment like L.A., Chicago, Boston, or NY. I did a quick search on collegeboard for animation and game design and these schools out of 112 stood out to me: Art Center, Otis, UC Santa Cruz, Columbia College in Chicago. I went ahead and did another search for digital art and these stuck out: SUNY Purchase, Pratt, UMichigan, Syracuse, MassArt, Cooper Union, California College of the Arts, etc. </p>

<p>BU, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, and others might also have what you are looking for. I don't know anything about your field, but maybe in some way I helped. Good luck!</p>

3

<p>i think animation in general emphasizes storytelling...though the fact that you haven't been doing any programming i find a bit surprising. you could try majoring in CS with a minor in art. or design your own major with classes in film, art, and CS - the UCLA art department lets you do that (design your own major), dunno about other universities. just note that CS falls into the "engineering" category, so heavy coursework and a rigid curriculum means you'll probably in school for another 3 years.</p>

<p>regarding SCAD, consider SCAD Atlanta if you'd rather be in the city than the middle of nowhere. the classes and majors are more limited because it's not that main campus, but animation and game design are still available there.</p>

<p>i also get the feeling NY will have a bunch of schools to look at...</p>

4

<p>Funny, my daughter is thinking of animation as a career. She considered schools for animation. The top ones that were recommended to us were: Cal Arts, UCLA, USC, SVA and SCAD. Surprisingly, RISD wasn't mentioned that highly for animation by an editor at Animation Magazine. Also, one of the most highly recommended college to us was NOT in the US. It was Sheridan College in Canada. Check out: <a href="http://www1.sheridaninstitute.ca/programs/0708/pbaaa/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www1.sheridaninstitute.ca/programs/0708/pbaaa/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>However, my daughter decided NOT to go to a school just for animation. She wanted animation but wanted a more "broad based" program in digital design where she could also go into web design or special effects, if she chose. She chose University of Cincinnati,which I highly, highly recommend you consider.She LOVES the program as do every student that I met in their Design, Art, Architecture and Planning school. She feels that she will get plenty of animation there too and can always go to a masters program for more specialization if circumstances require it. She is only a sophomore and is becoming fluent in programing languages C and C+, Maya, Photoshop and Powerpoint, Illustrator,In-Design and some more programs.She was told that she will become proficient in both Java and Flash too. Remember, she is only a first quarter sophomore too. </p>

<p>UC just got a 420 MILLION dollar PACE grant for new, state of the art, software that will provide lots of special effects and 3D modeling. Check out their web site at <a href="http://www.uc.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.uc.edu&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p>

<p>Good luck</p>

5

<p>OH yes, RIT has an excellent program in New Media Design. You might even be able to take courses in their film and Animation department too if you apply to both departments. Serously, look at all of the schools that I have mentioned here especially Cincinnati and RIT. I should note that RIT is a bit easier to get into than Cincinnati since their DAAP school has very little attrition.</p>

6

<p>Thanks for the detailed review of Ringling, tellectual. Ringling was on my son's radar for potential colleges, but I was a little suspicious of Ringling's high acceptance policy, etc. </p>

<p>You sound a lot like my son, who aspires to be a video game artist. After extensive research, we've narrowed his list down to the following colleges:
USC, University of Cincinnati, Syracuse, MICA, and Towson. The University of Cincinnati would be my son's 1st choice for all the reasons Taxguy listed, but the projected acceptance rate for this year is around 10%, so even though my son's stats are pretty good, I'd say his acceptance chances are 50/50. We visited UC, and really loved the school. The co-op program is what puts it in a league of their own.</p>

<p>USC has a world class game design program started by EA games, but only accepts 15 freshman per year, so my son may not even bother applying, since just getting into USC in general would be a long reach. I imagine transferring into the program would be even tougher.</p>

<p>We just visited Syracuse a week ago, and I loved their Transmedia program. We talked with the professors, and they were very knowledgeable about the video game industry. If you want a good liberal art education in addition to a very well-regarded art education, to me Syracuse is hard to beat. Syracuse has great school spirit and a huge sports scene. The expected cost of attendance is $45K/yr., which is way out of our league without substantial aid. The acceptance rate in the Transmedia program was about 20% last year.</p>

<p>We visited RIT, and met with the head of the New Media Design, and he was very honest about it not being the right major for my son, with it's heavy emphasis on net design. We also spoke with the head of the animation department. Once again, it seemed like my son wouldn't be a good fit there, either. RIT is located in the largest area of strip malls I've seen.</p>

<p>MSU has a game design program, but my son would have to attend MSU for a year and then compete to be accepted into the program. MSU wouldn't give me an estimate of chances of acceptance, so we ruled them out. If you could transfer directly into the program, that might be a good option.</p>

<p>MICA is a small, more traditional art school with ties to the game industry here in MD, which suprisingly is supposed to be only second to CA in jobs. MICA offers a very flexible art curriculum, which I really like. The surrounding area is sketchy, though. On studentreview.com students say it would be hard to fit in if transferring, due to the cliches in place.</p>

<p>Towson is our state school, with an up and coming digital art program.</p>

<p>We also visited WPI, which has a game design program, but it's emphasis is more on the tech side of gaming, with a scarcity of art courses. Small school, but has a lot of school spirit. Not a good match for my son, but I liked the school a lot.</p>

<p>Visited Pratt last week, which has a Media Art major with an emphasis on games. Was not impressed for a variety of reasons.</p>

<p>Thanks for your review, and good luck in your college search part 2.</p>

7

<p>Sketchy, UC does NOT have a 10% acceptance rate for their digital design program. It is a relatively new program and isn't that well known yet. It is hard to get into,but not as hard as some other majors at UC such as Architecture. If your son has at least a 3.5+ high school GPA and over 1200 on SAT ( math and CR), he has a chance there based on prior year's acceptance rates. However, maybe things have changed recently for the digital program so that they have more applications. Who can say? I would defintely apply there and use another schools as a safety.</p>

8

<p>Thanks, taxguy. My son's already applied to UC, and we're keeping our fingers crossed. As in your daughter's case, my son took almost all honors/AP classes at a tough school, and as a result only has a 3.4UW/4.1W GPA. He got 1480/2190 on his SAT's, so I figure he's still got a fair shot with the slightly low GPA and above average SAT's. I got the 10% number from the total applicants to DAAP to spots available that I was quoted on our tour. Hopefully, the digital design program won't be the most competitive major in DAAP.</p>

9

<p>Sketchy, I do believe your son,especially with his high SATS, will have a good shot. Normally though, they want an UNWEIGHTED GPA of about 3.5 or better in high school. It is quite surprising that they DON'T take course difficulty into account. They would rather take a person with a 3.6 with all regular courses than a 3.4 with all honors and AP. How dumb is that? I was told this directly by an admission officer. However, they definitely shave the GPA requirement for either a strong SAT or good class rank.</p>

<p>Also, one bit of warning about UC: since coops start at the end of the student's sophomore year, they want the kids to have some decent skills at that point. Thus, they REALLY pile on the work during freshmen and sophomore year. My daughter routinely took 18-19 credits a quarter and spent many a sleepless night working. Now in her sophomore year, she averages 35 hours a week of classes alone! This intense regimin does weed out the slackers and those that aren't REALLY commited. If your son goes there, he should really understand what is required. He needs to take vitamins and eat well or wiill get sick. Frankly, they may be overdoing it,but who am I to say?</p>

<p>I read over your choice of schools and they looked good. I will say that, although my son attended Towson and loved it, I am not sure I would recommend it to you. They are NOT NASAD accredited,which is an additional accreditation for art and design programs. Secondly, although they have new facilities, they aren't really a well-known school in the art and design area. It will take a while to build up their reputation among recruiters.</p>

<p>Syracuse seems like an excellent choice. I am surprised that your son didn't feel like he fit in with RIT. I thought they had the best program of the bunch if kids can also take courses from the film/animation department. </p>

<p>MICA seems like an excellent choice too due to the reasons that you gave. Another possible good choice would be SVA (School of Visual Arts) in NY. Also consider California Institute of the Arts. This is the RISD of the west coast and is VERY animation and digital friendly.</p>

<p>Anyway, congrats on all of your hard research. It seems that you have some good choices and fun times ahead.</p>

10

<p>CMU has a stong fine art program and a strong CS program. There is a lot of cross disciplinary work. If you have the grades, portfolio and the money, plan a trip. The school is in a nice location and the city of Pittsburgh has much to offer.</p>

<p>Cheap flights from Fla and public transit to campus. May be worth a visit.</p>

11

<p>Posts like this make me sad. Here is a student that makes an uninformed decision, and then tries to pass the blame off on a fine educational institution and its faculty in order to prevent having to feel personally responsible for his choice. The truth of the matter is that Ringling goes out of its way to make sure it communicates the message of departmental direction to its applicants. It is apparent in the literature, the examples of student work, and in the published curriculum and course descriptions. Of course, one would have to bother to take the time to read and contemplate these in order to understand the direction. Apparently, researching his college education was too much trouble for this student.</p>

<p>Tellectual, of course you don't get anything out of your classes. You aren't interested in what they have to offer. You don't care and you don't try. But, you have no right to whine. You can't blame the school for not living up to your expectations, when your expectations were so divergent from those publicized. You should never have enrolled there in the first place, and you have only yourself to blame for your present state of unhappiness.</p>

<p>As a Sophomore, you are also completely unqualified to judge the quality of the faculty.</p>

<p>The truth of the matter is that the vast majority of students in Ringling's Computer Animation major are passionate and focused in their studies, and are challenged and engaged by the curriculum. Their work has won a student Academy Award for the last three years in a row. They will become the creative leaders of tomorrow.</p>

<p>Enjoy your football game.</p>

12

<p>Before you bash a student for being an "unqualified" critic, perhaps you could
explain how you are a qualified critic?</p>

13

<p>21 years in the animation industry and 13 years teaching in higher education... compared to his 3 semesters of taking beginner level classes.</p>

<p>Sufficient?</p>

14

<p>claire voyant does have a point.... for example:</p>

<p>
[quote]
ringling's computer animation program is heavily based around story and character development through concept. I'm not interested in this AT ALL. I'm interested more in the technology of computer graphics, id like to be taking programming classes as well, but i don't want to lose the traditional art side of it either, i love to simplify things and just draw and paint, and I'm not able to do either of those here...

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Ringling teaches animation, basically a film major supplemented by art and CS (or that's what it seems like to me). what tellectual wants is more towards CS&E, supplemented by art.</p>

15

<p>Yes Claire Voyant, that is sufficient information on your background. But wondering what is your relationship with Ringling that you would denigrate a
students personal observations to that extent?</p>

16

<p>Quickly reading through the above posts, and based upon the manner in which you expressed your interests, my opinion is that the majority of respondents have good naturedly misunderstood your needs, and offered advice that wasn't specifically relevant to your interests.</p>

<p>Do a little research into SCAD's Visual Effects department. SCAD may or may not be the school for you, but look at the program itself and see if this type of curriculum fits with what you seek.</p>

17

<p>claire voyant: which ringling faculty member are you?</p>

<p>"Posts like this make me sad"
correction: posts like this make your school lose money and momentum.</p>

<p>"But, you have no right to whine"
I am not whining, I am complaining, and taking action as well, there is a large difference. Furthermore, who the hell are you, to say that I have no right to make such complaints? Customers complain, and I'm certainly a customer of ringling's. Instead of using your time to browse through forums looking for ringling slander, then registering specifically to decry threads like mine, seeking ADVICE, why dont you try to help your students? Shouldn't you be trying to present me options that will make me want to stay? Aren't you concerned about losing my business?</p>

<p>I can answer that question for you: no, you don't care.</p>

<p>"As a Sophomore, you are also completely unqualified to judge the quality of the faculty"</p>

<p>I'm sorry, but thats just wrong. Being a student of certain faculty members qualifies me to judge them. I've had enough teachers in my life to know what a good teacher is and what a bad teacher is. Their artistic merit and industry experience was never in question.</p>

<p>"Apparently, researching his college education was too much trouble for this student"</p>

<p>You are right, I did not spend enough time researching and looking into schools the first time around, and the mistake I made was choosing ringling. However, I never mentioned my gender in the previous post, you obviously know exactly who I am, why don't you talk to me via school email about my problems and complaints? what about a face to face chat? if you have so much industry and teaching experience, do you have any useful advice to offer? any programs I should be looking at that might better suit my wants?</p>

<p>"Enjoy your football game."
Why would you write this? I'm a student looking for options for a fresh start, and you tack this onto your post to "rub it in my face"?
Besides, events like sports games can be a very large part of student life, Instilling spirit and pride and meeting new, diverse people, forming new relationships etc. There's much more to a college experience than just its curriculum.</p>

<p>to everyone else: thank you for the information, I've been researching all of the schools you mentioned so far.</p>