<p>I have just returned from a weekend visit with my daughter at SVA and thought perhaps I would take the time to update impressions.</p>
<p>For academics, please refer to my post in the thread about Art Schools with Strong Liberal Arts.</p>
<p>Art Classes: My daughter has had nothing but good things to say about her teachers. They are all excellent and appear to her to be quite committed. Despite each studio course being six hours in length, classes often go beyond that time period and continue offsite to museum, galleries, and other sites in the city. She doesn't feel there is as much commitment to excellence among the students. I think that this is because foundation classes will often have variety of majors many of whom see no reason for drawing, painting, and sculpture classes in much the same way she has no use for her digital media course this semester.</p>
<p>Facilities: This is one of her biggest complaints. The logistics are somewhat of a nightmare. Her dorm is a 20-25 minute walk from the classroom building. You cannot take the subway across town and taking the bus would be more time consuming then walking. There are no lockers available nor is there private or even semi-private studio space for freshman. As a result all materials, canvases, etc. get lugged across town. It is winter in NYC and it has been very rainy this year. When not rainy, it is cold. She is bundled up for her long walk and then gets to the studio where the it is often too hot. The buildings are old and lack in any modern amenities. </p>
<p>Dorms: The are three dorms. The one where most freshman are housed is fairly new, but completely lacking in charm. The are six to a suite (three doubles), a small common room with a table for four, a kitchen, and two bathrooms. There are no quiet study rooms or studios in the dorm. I think for $10,300 for the dorm there should be more recognition of the special requirements of art students. </p>
<p>Campus: There is none. Just buildings on city streets.</p>
<p>Cafeteria: There are a couple of cafes in the main administrative building and the main classroom building, but they are expensive and mostly, I believe, where commuters eat. She will grab a bagel or slice of pizza from local restuarants and cooks her own dinner back at the dorm.</p>
<p>School Spirit: Again, there is not much in the way school spirit. That, however, was never on the list of things my daughter was looking for anyway.</p>
<p>Hand-holding: Forget about the warm fuzzies. You are on your own and you will need to be a very independent kind of person or you will need to become one quickly. </p>
<p>She has mentioned transferring, but most of what she is looking for probably doesn't exist in one school and she has done nothing about applying to other schools. Her ideal school would probably be RISD with all of her academic classess taken at Brown, but physically located on the upper westside of NYC.</p>