I am a high school senior, recently I have trouble deciding colleges. It is very confuse for me to decide the majors and the college I should go. Actually I am interested in all art majors, but do not know much about them. However what confuse me is the relative high unemployment rate of art major, and how much I can get from art school? Sometimes I will think of change major to engineering which is easier to find jobs. What kind of art majors are more demanded?
Recently I was admitted to the following schools, but I do not know much about them, and where those students go? I like all three of them, it is hard to decide!
SVA :
Major: animation
No scholarship
New York
Expensive(above $60000 per year)
MICA:
-Major:illustration
-$1250 scholarship per year
-Baltimore is dangerous, and students are not allowed to go out of school alone…
-Q1: I do not know what an illustration major can do? Is it hard to find a job? And where the MICA students go in the future?
UIUC
-Major:Art foundation(I plan to major in industrial design)
-Not very expensive
-good thing: a big university, have a campus. Experience college life. I can take non-art courses which I was interested in.
-Q1:I see their BFA students work on their pamphlet, which seems weak compare to the art schools. Anybody know if they have good art education and faculty?
-Q2:Is the ID courses intensive? Is it possible to double another major?
Some decisions I am still waiting for will come out on March: UCSD(new media) UCLA(animation, which is my dream school) Pratt+cmu(industrial design) RIT(new media) SAIC(Art education)
But I do not have many hopes on schools like cmu and ucla. (´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀)
Engineering is a lucrative major (at this point in history) but one, it won’t remain lucrative forever if everyone does it - one of the reasons the salaries are so high is because there aren’t as many people flooding the market and depressing salaries; and two, it doesn’t matter if the field makes lots of money if you’ll be miserable doing the job.
I think the art major itself is less of a concern and rather your skills and abilities with art. It goes without saying that you need to be good; beyond that, in this digital age you need to be able to do digital art. Graphic design (for websites and logo design for companies) and computer animation skills (for children’s programs, video games, and other media-related stuff) seem to be the most buzzed-about artistic fields.
Industrial design is a field that blends art and engineering/science. I once had a summer student who was an industrial design major at a well-known engineering school; she was interested in using her design skills in public health to build essential health elements like toilets for developing nations. If you are in-state for IL UIUC becomes your best deal, and if you are interested in taking some non-art classes that’s the only place that you can really do that - plus, like you said, you get the stereotypical “college experience,” and it seems like you want that. I don’t know about the undergrad program, but UIUC’s graduate fine arts (MFA) program is ranked in the top 30. I would imagine that some of that trickles down into the undergrad program as well.
I wouldn’t be surprised if, on average, UIUC’s art students are weaker than the art schools’ students. Art schools attract primarily students who are very serious about their art, whereas UIUC might get more students who are dabbling or trying it out or discovered a later-in-life love for it in addition to the students who are really serious about it. That’s not bad, though; you need to be more concerned about whether the faculty can help you develop your skills as an artist and help you with connections into the field. I do know that UIUC is a top engineering school, and
Definitely do not take that SVA offer. If you have no financial aid and the cost is above $60,000 a year, you can’t afford it. The average salary for art majors is way below what you would need to make to afford that kind of debt. $1,250 per year isn’t a lot to defray the cost of MICA. I find it odd that MICA would prohibit adult students from venturing into Baltimore on their own. I would imagine that Pratt’s and SAIC’s financial aid offers will be similar. And if you are from IL, then UCSD and UCLA are unlikely to offer you a lot of financial aid even if you do get admitted.
@juillet, not everyone has the chops to be an engineer just because they want to be. That’s why starting salaries for engineers are relatively high now, were high 30 years ago, and almost certainly will be high 30 years hence as well.