@nanava Sorry I didn’t see this until today. Hope you had a good visit. Husband and D1 went down and really enjoyed the presentations (although they said the brunch wasn’t very well organized).
D1 is also an introvert and she really loves the vibe of the kids there. I get the sense that out of her 3 finalist schools, MICA kids are definitely her people. And same thing re the student art displayed.
I understand your thoughts re animation – that’s sort of where my son’s interests are headed but more into Concept Art specifically for film, gaming and animation. And I haven’t heard about masters either. I think animation is much more job/professional oriented (much like graphic design). Also the field and tech changes so much that it seems like you learn a lot via internships too. Has your daughter seen that the animation software Studio Ghibli uses has been released as a shareware? My son spent all weekend playing around with it.
@Mamelot Yep we legit have the spreadsheet all filled out and that last column is waiting on MICA! Husband understood them as saying it will be mailed out Tuesday…argh the waiting is killing me!!
My son is a soph @ Tyler and LOVES it! We were concerned about safety in Philly but that hasn’t been an issue at all. It’s actually a fairly safe campus and the art school is contained within one large relatively new building. Charles is majoring in Graphic & Interactive Design. There are animation classes available to him but I don’t think there’s an actual animation major. He wanted a university environment so he could meet students (I almost called them ‘kids’) who are not art students. He has 5 apt-mates - none are art students. They are several orchestras that are open to non-music majors, as well as playing opportunities for theater productions, etc. Unfortunately his schedule hasn’t allowed him enough time to take part in much outside of his school work. The university requires all students to complete a number of general ed requirements. Depending on the major it may be difficult to do a major & minor within 4 years but not impossible. Temple also has a great study abroad program which scholarship $$ can be used for.
@mom4cw Yes, that’s a huge draw to Tyler - she definitely feels like the MICA people she met were her tribe. But that doesn’t mean she wants to associate exclusively with artists. It’s nice to hear that there are animation classes at Tyler, and yes, i’d also heard there are musical opportunities for non-majors, which is a huge draw. Music has been a huge part of her life so I can’t see her giving it up. She got a Provost scholarship, honors college and a stipend toward studying abroad, so that’s a pretty sweet deal. The good thing is, either way she’ll be in a good school.
Ok, we finally got her scholarship notification yesterday. The Creative Vision (early action) scholarship is still her biggest scholarship from MICA. The additional National Art Honor Society and Academic Excellence Scholarship are generous and appreciated, but not enough to make this an easy decision by any means. At this point, I feel we should probably take our decision making process offline and private, but thank you all for the feedback! It’s been very helpful in thinking all of this through. I will update once she makes a final decision.
@nanava I just read this thread as I was about to post a similar thread. My daughter sounds a bit like yours. Creative, good in math/computers, but slow in getting projects done (perfectionism +anxiety). She wants to study animation but we are concerned that she might not love it as much as she thinks she might. We are thinking perhaps she should get a broader education. We didn’t have her apply to straight art schools. Right now we too are considering Temple because she got honors program and a big scholarship. We are not able to go to accepted students day tomorrow but did tour the honors program and were very impressed. She applied as a Math/computer major, and we figured she’d take classes in film and art as well. Their programs in LA and abroad are impressive as well. but the lack of animation classes (and those that are their are available to upper level students) is concerning. Price --a big consideration–is right though.
Her other choices at this point are Northeastern Computer sci/digital art degree (wonderful progam but very expensive, even though she got a scholarship) and Drexel (Visual Arts/Animation major). Drexel is appealing because of the impressive dept and she got a substantial scholarship that makes it affordable (although not as inexpensive as offer from Temple). My concern with Drexel is that it is separate from Computer Science (no crossover classes) and I am afraid it will over-specialize her …or if she wanted to change majors she would be in school much longer.
Did your daughter apply to Drexel?
It is a tough decision.
Feel free to PM me if you have any input.
I know I’m late to this thread, but my son is a sophomore illustration major at MICA, and one thing that hasn’t been mentioned is the scholarship opportunities for returning students. While the amounts aren’t huge (from a few hundred to a few thousand), every little bit helps. Not everyone who applies wins, of course, but I remember being shocked by the sheer number of awards distributed–I think it’s close to a hundred. By the way, my son is very happy at MICA, and I was impressed by the way the school handled the unrest. The communication with the parents was swift and direct. It’s pretty clear that MICA knows how important safety is to its image and, ultimately, its yield; it’s something they seem to take VERY seriously.
Thanks for all the feedback, everyone. We all came to a decision that our daughter will attend MICA in the fall. She received some wonderful scholarships totaling $68,000 over 4 years, but it didn’t compare to Temple’s academic scholarships she received. So we decided that by making her live at home during her junior and senior years, that would bring it down to the same debt level as Temple. We’re going to look into other outside musical opportunities for her, and computer science classes at Johns Hopkins. You have been very helpful, and thanks so much for your feedback!
@nanava Hey there! Congrats on the final decision. I thought I would just mention that there are a few MFA Animation or animation variant programs out there - RIT, Pratt, CalArts, UCLA, USC. The difference though is that those programs will not be teaching the same core foundation skills as a BFA program.
Having an interest in both animated film making and computer science is a good thing although I recommend focusing on just one area unless your daughter is interested in creating her own games or apps. These days a lot of learning in secondary interests can be easily found online. Good luck!