Test your Cooper IQ!

College Majors Visual Arts and Film Majors
1

<p>WWP(eter)D?
RD 2010 brain twisters here!</p>

<p>Draw or represent:
1. three drawings from observation of different botanical specimen. Draw a new botanical using the observational drawings as source: specify use and characteristics
2. A self-portrait with an idealized head or body
3. A view of an inaccessible landscape with an articulated foreground/background
4. A sequence or series of multiple rhythmic forms or notations
5. Stasis
6. Design an environmentally appropriate billboard with a public service message
(specify size, location, materials, etc.)</p>

<p>these came with warnings: at least two must be some kind of drawing, must fit envelope provided, do not mat, do not use food, liquid, breakables, fix charcoal and pastel.
About three weeks due time.
You are required to send in a sketchbook and at least five original works (video and large pieces are OK mac CD-ed) but all these and the test must fit in the envelope, 12" x 16" with about 2 inch gusset. And you won't get them back until it is too late to apply to other art schools and/or AP portfolio building.</p>

<p>Essay questions
1. List all visual study courses you have completed or are presently taking in pre-college, after school, or summer programs,
Do not include the high school courses listed on your high school transcript.
2. Do you think its (their typo, no apostrophe) important that artists speak or write about your work?
3. Describe any work experiences which you feel relates to your artistic goals.
4. How do you foresee the education provided at the Cooper Union affecting your future?
5. Where do you NOT want to be in fifteen years and what do you not want to be doing?
6. What books, works of art, and/or persons have inspired your interest in the study of art and why?
7. Explain any trivialities in which you engage.
8. Describe an event or idea that has been influential in your life.
9. Considering the obvious limitations of this questionnaire as a one-way interview, provide us with an answer to an important question we have not asked?
10. If you are applying as a certificate or transfer student, state the circumstances for your decision.</p>

2

<p>I am awed by the arrogance of the sketchbook requirement and 5 works since how the H*** is a kid to prepare for the IB or AP review in early May if big chunks of their portfolio and the all important sketchbook are missing. You assume they will give it back by early April but IB requires constant updating of sketchbook to match work in/out of classroom. Hmmm …perhaps they only want kids from magnet schools who had teachers who prepared them years in advance for this crazy application process (keep a parallel sketch book…?) …that, or they do ED and are blindly committed to Coopers. Either way, Coopers seems to send the message that they only want the kids that only want them.</p>

3

<p>fammom you and your math (left =logical )brain needs rest.
that’s exactly the why we love cooper so dearly.
molskines are the fav of snobby kids, it fits well in the envelope. If you got one of those cheap-sh big ones actually you could draw in it, it would fill up the bag by itself.</p>

4

<p>Fineartsmom: My daughter has maybe a dozen sketch books. She fills one every month or two and then starts on a new one. So she sent her most recent one; she’s already a third of the way through the next one. I can’t imagine having only one sketch book for the year. If there are 100 pages, does that mean only one sketch every couple of days? My daughter doesn’t go 3 hours without creating something new, unless she’s asleep! If she’s awake, she’s creating. </p>

<p>I am also confused about the part about magnet schools and stuff. Daughter doesn’t have any art classes at school, no art department, any thing like that. She sent in work that had already been photographed and submitted for other portfolios. Since she has to work small – she doesn’t have things like canvases or much paint, so she works on cardboard scraps – stuff fit in, though the musical instruments (!) she made for the challenge were a bit of a tight squeeze. </p>

<p>For the “one way interview”, daughter actually had someone interview her with the questions, then we transcribed and edited the interview. It gave a more realistic and personal sense of her than her writing. </p>

<p>I don’t expect her to be admitted because she is way below the Cooper curve for academics, but we think of the app as a lottery ticket. She <em>might</em> be admitted, and with the tuition grant and their other need-based aid, she’d probably be able to attend.</p>

5

<p>trin trin trin
chill, please
fammom is not saying her kid got only one sketchbook in the world, she is talking about the one that show worthy, IB or AP or CMU or Yale or whatever, the one that the kid needs, that had to give up for two three month and chances are trashed or gang raped by commitee (wait, is this going to be fixed by moderator? handle/ fondle by many not exactly careful hands which would be sick of going thru look alike concept alike all so self rightful -look-I am-applying-cooper-this-is-my-best-work-you’d-better-like-it-I am-a genius-or-what… just because there could be cooper worthy uncut hope diamond they’d otherwise miss.
sketchbook is the soul of the kids, quality over quantity. I knew many kids edit best works in one or plan ahead and use cooper only molskine for cooper only purpose. I am not saying it is the way but the fact.
or maybe famkid is so very smart like mum, could do all the planing in the head and don’t need to draw or write on it. Or using back of scrap copy paper for doodling like some environment nuts, brain/academia parents have tons of those around in their study in their mansion.</p>

<p>and please stop using the word lot ticket if you could help it, don’t make it sound so vanal.
It is not something anyone could win if you got a buck to spend, everyone (grandma, alien, headless horseman) could apply, yes, But it is the culti-sh but most holistic approach than any other art school admission.
SAT grades are better good and it does help alot if kid is the ivy material but wanna do Cooper but low numbers won’t always kill kids like RISD WasU DAAP whatnot. Look at the view book, you only need few math and science done in highschool.
It get mislead often by academic college counceling folks because of crazy high standard of eng. school and so so hard arch but the school of art is not brain school, it is the soul school.
All in all, your D is a good fit from what I hear, if only you’d stay away.</p>

6

<p>bears and dogs:
cooper is hard to get in and it is so possible my daughter may not get in. But I am worried about if she get in, do I need to support her to go?
Someone told me the environment there is not good, more chance for kids to get attempted to do drug or smoke …
It seems you LIKE Cooper so much. Do you think Cooper is worth to go compare CMU and WashU?
Thanks!</p>

7

<p>Please tell me the poor kids don’t have to answer ALL those essay questions…</p>

8

<p>Are you asking about the Cooper question section? They are never called “essay questions” anywhere in the home test packet. In fact, the set of questions is referred to instead as a “one way interview.” Yes, applicants have to answer them all, my impression is most people took them as short/medium answer, and not as essay. There are no suggested word counts or anything like that. </p>

<p>I think my daughter’s hard copy of her answers was about three pages long. Some of them were only a short paragraph, and some were two or three. As I think I mentioned elsewhere, she literally did it as an interview – had someone use the questions as the basis for a conversation with her – and then transcribed and edited the interview. It was about an hour long as a recording. </p>

<p>Of course, for all I know, other applicants write pages and pages about each question, but that’s not my understanding of it, and we don’t know anyone else who has ever applied, other than folks on CC. My daughter is the only art school applicant in her high school.</p>

9

<p>It is not good environment if you are looking for real college experience. I mean, if your kid could get in and like to go there, totally choose WasU.
It is common that they’d graduate with no real life skill unless one could become by any miracle fine artist that could live on art making or selling or talking. Kids would continue study at graduate schools or some art commune if they could afford it, or get training at pro pre school to become commercial artist to pay bills, or marry to hair dresser or school teacher with paycheck.
I am a self appointed Peter Cooper cult and the stalker, can not see things objectively.
Yes, they’d smoke drink rock’n roll, experiment with their mind and body in and out to become the true artist, if that what they want to do. You don’t have to do any of that if you don’t want to and no ego nor need to be the one always stands out and talked about.
There is the student teacher who introduced my kid there is such thing as avocado and alfalfa sandwich. There is a homeschooled Robert Crumb in eighteen year old body.
Like any other schools, if one has strong sense of self, you can stay healthy and wholesome, even in the middle of the East Village.</p>

<p>Ms Trin here is trying to ignore everything I say but it is known fact that you should write all you want if there is no words limit. It is the great chance to sell yourself. Though things can go wrong if you talk about un-cooper things, such as money, best selling books, sellout artists, Hollywood movies.
Cooper teach spoken words and writing poetry, songs, chants of sort along with arts at their free CE classes for HS kids. Writing is always important, not SAT cr 800 (though it helps) sense but how you can articulate what’s in your mind without being clich</p>

10

<p>I asked about the “essays” because it just seems like such a huge load of work. Not to complain about Cooper (I’m a big fan, except about how picky they are about that Lincoln room) but after my daughter finally finished all her apps (13!) she was exhausted. </p>

<p>Neither of us realized how hard it would be and how many first homework assignments she would be getting. And I hope to never go to the post office again! I was there yesterday mailing out a gazillion copies of our 2009 taxes and hopefully that will be it!</p>

11

<p>OK…major confession Trinf. My son really does have just ONE sketch book for the past 9 months where he documents his ideas and process for his main pieces as well as research on artists/ideas that he does. Some of his classmates may have moved into a second one but most have just the one main one also. Some pages represent a month of work and the page or two in the sketchbook behind the work may take several days to complete.<br>
Now that being said, his calculus notebook probably could easily be counted as a sketchbook since it has more doodles than integrals (unfortunately) and much of his creative projects and ideas (layout for the playbill, cartoon for school paper, still life obs, story boards, even lines of programming code) are found in the margins around the rather sparse notes on differential equations. It would be a hoot to send it in for a review. </p>

<p>Your daughter has independently learned the importance of retaining a record of ideas, sketches, practices, etc in sketch books. My S does not, apparently, function like that. The IB requirement that the students keep a sketchbook…and yes…they have a minimum number of pages to complete every few weeks–has imposed a discipline on my S that was totally lacking prior to this course. He NEVER kept his sketch ideas …they were always on odd bits of paper or in one sketch book but then used another that was then misplaced to be found under bed months later. Many times he has to retrieve his doodles/sketches/etc from other places and either replicate or literally cut and paste them into his IB sketchbook (thus the gaps in his calculus notebook). In the “sketch book” he uses photos to document his sculpture as work progresses and screen shots from his computer to illustrate the ideas and the process behind some of his animations. So it is unique, it is valuable to him and it is a critical element of his IB evaluation. He NEVER takes it anywhere except to school or to his studio classes, occasionally to a museum . On family trips it is generally the first thing we all ask him to check on before we move from a hotel room. The idea of sending it in the mail or with a courier service to be stacked with hundreds of other sketchbooks and rely on a bunch of New York artist-types to return it quickly and in good condition gives me the jitters. So what isn’t a burden for a well organized, obsessively documenting, sketching kid is, for another, a tremendous risk of losing the documentation of a year’s work (a lifetime for my son) and losing a high school credit too. I noticed that CMU’s reviewer treated it with proper reverence–always told S where the sketchbook was during review and was the first thing returned to him after his interview. Not all kids work the same way and the Cooper Union requirement seems to assume that all applicants are like your daughter or that they don’t mind putting their lives (as represented in that single sketchbook) in their hands.</p>

12

<p>Fineartsmom: <em>laugh</em> I agree it’s a learned skill! Until maybe a couple of years ago, my daughter had sketchbooks but seemed to draw on everything <em>but</em> those – something she still does. (Menus. Napkins. Homework. Tests. Mail. Her body. Her clothes. Other people’s bodies and clothes. Pieces of cardboard she finds on the street. Food wrappers. The list goes on…) However, going to NPD really broke her of that habit, because all the reps wanted to see all that material in one place. They kept harping on it. Because she doesn’t get much instruction, she takes what reps tell her very seriously, so she gradually got more in the habit. Now she says that she does about a page in every class. That’s four classes a day, (plus her night classes), 5 days a week. She’s also a lot better about putting random scraps in there when she does that.</p>

<p>I think the other thing is that there are practices that your son probably does because he was taught them, that my daughter has never had anyone teach her. For example, she doesn’t do sketches of work in her sketchbook before painting them. When she’s working on canvas, she preps the canvas and then sketches right onto it. When she’s doing smaller works, she does the same thing. Because no one has ever told her to do that, and no one has ever graded her on having sketches of a work, she’s never done it. </p>

<p>She and I were having a conversation about it the other night, because this was yet another one of those things where it seemed like no one has ever said “do it this way”. She said that at NPD, she saw students handing over sketchbooks for evaluation that were little little jewelboxes full of minature versions of the same work they were showing full size, done as sketches, as watercolors, in tonal versions, etc. Other than some early sketches of some of her three dimensional work, daughter doesn’t have <em>anything</em> like that – not a single sketch of a larger work. </p>

<p>Of course, the sketchbooks are still very important to her, because they include a wide range of her smaller work, and a lot of what I’d call the “stream of consciousness” of her art – she does strange things with captions and speech bubbles that seem to hint at her thought processes. She mostly uses them to track her evolution as an artist; you can see a difference in the most current work vs what she did last month, last year. </p>

<p>There are advantages to the way her art has evolved, but also clear disadvantages. She has never had a high school art class. She has never, in her entire life, drawn from a photograph, or even from another work of art. On the other hand, she also has had a hell of a time compiling the kind of recommendations that schools ask for. We’re still going around with MICA about that – their scholarship form asks for the name of her high school art teacher, and there isn’t one. She has no one to help her put together her portfolios, because there’s no teacher or artistic mentor available to do that. She depends on the comments at NPD almost exclusively. It’s a pesky thing, sometimes.</p>

13

<p>perhaps some kid could start a “post your sketchbook” with scanned images from -it may be far more illuminating than the post your portfolio posts. I keep asking S to scan a page or two from his sketchbook because some of those pages are among his best pieces IMHO.</p>

<p>It is interesting that the course curriculum forces certain approaches and the teachers have strong ideas about what should or shouldn’t go into a sketchbook. Your daughter may actually have been spared too much influence of early art teachers. She has been free to explore and develop a system of her own. In my son’s case, you can lead a horse to water…(or an artist) but S still tends to use everything but the sketchbook to prep and then has to reconstruct later. Hey BandD, any idea of how cooper teachers promote the use of sketchbooks? </p>

<p>They have both AP and IB art at his school with different teachers and a couple of kids (gluttons for punishment) are registered in both. You can tell an AP from an IB sketchbook almost immediately even from the same student. AP is much more concerned exploring various techniques/media and the sketchbook is more about ideas and drawing/sketching practice not the full background of the piece. S is in IB only and the the teacher will make them research artists or schools/movements and have them discuss their reactions etc in the sketchbook so DS has little mini essays on some pages although lots of illustrations around and after them. She then asks them to to do a piece that tries out the ideas. After S does a piece he tends to go back and document rather than work it all out in the sketchbook. So…for example he did some large panel paintings on some wood he found in our garage (I was saving them for shelves…)…one of them has a walrus and the other a mountain goat so the sketchbook has some observational drawings from a trip to the zoo of various animals, then research on the symbolism of the two animals he selected, plus lots of surreal touches and dream images so some pages have references to Jung and Freud and their views of dreams and then how surrealism and psychoanalysis developed in France (made more interesting with S’s caricatures of Freud and racy cartoons about sex and sexism). Then some color trials and paints and then…a photo of the final pieces with some narrative about what he thinks about his final product…It looks more organized than he really is but I think he is starting to see the benefit of the approach but he will probably never be a disciple. </p>

<p>…As I was typing I discover he is in the basement casting his hands apparently??? and it suddenly occurred to him that he can’t actually photo this so little sister has been asked to document what I can only describe as an unholy mess at 10:30 at night!!! Hey how about a shot of mom’s red face asking “why the hXXX didn’t you put newspaper on the floor?”" Put that in the sketchbook…</p>

14

<p>fineartsmom: A lot of students use ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ as a “post your sketchbook” sort of place. My daughter scans images from her sketchbook periodically and posts them there, though not very often. </p>

<p>As far as IB vs. AP, daughter’s school is all AP for every student; it’s a small charter high school where all the students take the same curriculum, except for a choice between AP Stats and AP Calc senior year. There’s a school with an IB curriculum in the district, but daughter would not have been allowed to participate in it. The district tests all 8th graders and tracks them accordingly; had she gone to one of the big high schools, she would have been put in courses deemed appropriate from someone with her test scores. (We’re talking “algebra readiness” sorts of courses here.) Of course, once you get put into classes like that as a freshman, you don’t have the prereqs for the college prep courses sophomore year, or the AP’s later, etc. It’s a terribly injust situation, especially because URMs tend to be routed to the easy classes and are “locked out” of being admitted to the state university system because they don’t have the state mandated minimum course requirements. The district chooses to parcel out the resources to give only some students the opportunity to attend 4 year colleges. Daughter’s school graduates 4.7% of all students in the district, but 20% of the college-bound Latino students!</p>

<p>I have really gone off on a tangent! The bottom line is that we chose for her to be a school that didn’t offer all the art support of some of the other district schools, because it did offer her the opportunity to be challenged academically. It’s been a series of tradeoffs, but then, pretty much every education is. :-)</p>

15

<p>then greenwitch, you are my new BFF.
Are you in CT, where WNYC comes in?
They are hosting 25th birthday party for Leonard Lopate show on 25th of March costing 25 bucks (shoot) in the Lincoln room now more so Obama room but I bet cake and ice cream had to be had outside of the great hall as usual.
Did I sound offended/ defensive/ know it all-y ? sorry if I did.
I am not the fan of the now super selective college itself, but the ghost of the founder who gave us jello and eventually green bucks, and somehow provides education that is free as the air and water (well, mandatory fee is now 7K or something so it is not exactly free but still… ) after good 120 some more years he’d been dead and buried.
There must be something in there still that all those ghetto kids otherwise never knowing they had art school option are given any Saturdays, nude live model to draw, supplies and trips, letter to GC if the kid is short on credits, some stale leftover snacks(from the Lincoln room affair, no doubt) reminder to apply again next semester, will be taken care of portfolio photo-shoot because they don’t have camera nor workable computer at home, CD burned, catalogued, pat on the back no matter how “not there yet” you are because that’s the kind of kids Peter wanted to help the most.</p>

<p>I sit in the park often amongst of what left of Bowery bums and survey the cooper universe. I don’t want my kid here if he is not ready to utilize what he is given. It is ok if next year, next next year, even after that, like many other older students there. it is ok if he does get in finally when he is 25 and come out 30 who do not know how to do minimal office job. it is the gift from Peter Cooper.</p>

<p>famom, Saturday portfolio class gives away free sketchbooks, strathsmore’s smallish but thick one and if kid goes through it, they’d give new one as often as they need. there is this fabled kid went through new one each week filled with immaculate amazing works cover to cover and the kid was told by adcom all have to do is apply, but didn’t go for whatever the reason.
so that was the goal when my kid started the class this year. did he do it?
No, only one book so far that filled with rather offensive comics based on iliad. he did have fancy molskines I urged him on but the iliad one was of course, went with his hometest.
generally speaking, well thought out beautifully articulated ones are better off. What I knew got in so far are all very conceptual and neat arty.
But then, once you are in, anything goes. Did I tell you about plaster cherub sprouting fake grass from the crotch and/or hot glued fake fur sloth family with rubber claws near ( or meant to be in it already, hard to tell when end of their school year) the dumpster parked in front of the foundation building. Oh the craps they make and leave behind to be carted away…
Hey. wait, your kid does sound so much of the cooper material. if only you’d stay away.</p>

16

<p>banal, lotto, clap. sorry, can’t do aeiou, r and l, v and b</p>

17

<p>greenwich CT is not greenwitch, sorry can’t do geography either.
wait, you mean wicked witch of west? now you are really really BFF.</p>

18

<p>B and D…thank you for giving me a good belly laugh this morning as I start my bureaucratic day…the plaster cherub…Oh my! Unfortunately, I am very able to imagine it. Next time I go to NY I will go by the dumpster . I am starting to think S missed his soulmates by not applying. Certainly the Iliad comics would be his first choice for submission so our sons may be kindred spirits. </p>

<p>The sculpture last night has turned into a human sized mythical looking creature riding a discarded bicycle and draped in some clothing from the goodwill (S decided raiding my closet would yield boring apparel) …It has horns and a strange nose but the position (and thighs, buttocks and calfs) look tour de france-ready–I told son that the hands on the handlebars may be casts of his but where the ? did he get the model for the backside because no one in our family is that shapely! then again, please don’t answer S…I really don’t want the answer to that. Anyway, perhaps it deserves to go in that Greenwich dumpster…right now it is in the living room!</p>

19

<p>Bears… I’m a little confused, but I’m not in CT. Sadly too far for my kid to commute to a Saturday morning cooper class. I’m awed by their generosity. And going there does seem to be like joining a religious order. Those are lucky students with their smarmy chia pets!</p>

20

<p>greenwitch
I am an ESL and this is where I practice communicative written language skill.
I can see that I have failed (again)
I assumed you are from Greenwich CT, being somewhat Cooper-sh place in my mind, before I saw the letter “t” in front of “ch” that makes witch. (I have username dyslexia, too.)
So my second thought was that you must like OZ and the green witch who gotten melted by the water, and I love the book, movie, anything OZing. If you adore Cooper and love OZ, you are my best friend forever.
Cooper’s Outreach (seasonal/ semester) and summer ( 4 or 6 weeks) pre colleges are open for non-public schooler and non NYer but commutable relatively near suburbia, just need to live through brutal super selective reviews. Because Outreach classes are selective, kids are more hardcore and instructors are teachers.(=them)
Saturday classes are taught by UG students and more fun and intimate. pretty much first come first serve and open for deprived public school kids. (=us)
Within the Saturday program, there is year long portfolio prep class. Unlike other Saturday classes, you need to get reviewed and selected. It is confusing because high and mighty Outreach also offers portfolio prep class few month in the winter.
I asked which one is better for what, and this loveliest lady said, def. Saturday class version.
“but you won’t need portfolio after apps are gone, say Feb or March?”
Her reply
" But you will never stop being an artist, right?"
You gotta lov them.</p>

<p>fammom
you are a good sport.
Just let you know that the dumpster appears only in the summer, around the end of the school year. The school would put notice saying anything left in studios by so and so date would be discarded.
So there would be lots of foams, tubs, wood pieces, antlers, unidentifiable objects are to be found. Your S would love to dive right in.
Did he see the animation “The Triplets of Belleville” 2003 or 2004? It is creepy funny you might enjoy it as well.</p>