<p>When I ask a question about my child, I indicate I am a parent. Cad, until very recently, did not do that on the Cornell board. Why?? I think you better reread these threads. Cad always had a reason that a suggestion would/could not work. There are very few posts which stated anything was actually tried. She attempted to contact the art department administrators at the beginning of the school year and was told contact should be initiated by her daughter. Obviously that hasn’t happened and I don’t think they want to hear from Cad now. And no AU is probably not the school to go to for a fine arts major, but wouldn’t a “serious” art student recognize that? It seems pretty obvious to me. Even if what you said about Cad and her daughter is true, why do you think she would continue to post on this thread? It’s very clear no one here can help them.</p>
<p>I just find it surprising that Caddaughter just hasn’t simply gone to her art professor from this semester for help in breaking thorugh any bureaucracy that is in her way. If she is such a talented artist, she surely shines above the other students and the professor should certainly be more than willing to help her get what she needs or wants with respect to art classes.</p>
<p>All of the administrators my son has dealt with at AU have been more than willing to help him solve whatever problems he has encountered. For example, last semester he had probelms scheduling labs for two of his classes because his UC had a 4 hour lab in the middle of the day on Wednesdays. His problem was solved by letting him attend the lectures that fit his schedule the other days of the week, and attending labs assigned to different lecture sessions. It took two visits to his advisor and a couple of meetings with the professors involved. All were more than willing to work with him, even though what he was trying to do schedule-wise was not the norm.</p>
<p>I suspect that what has happened is that Cadmother has already worn out her daughter’s welcome at AU in general and in the Art Department in particular. Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets the grease; sometimes it gets thrown into the trash heap. It all depends on the squeak. In the case it was probably a vinegar squeak instead of a honey squeak and at this point I have a feeling the administration is not feeling kindly disposed to helping Caddaughter get what she wants. Which is unfortunate, because students should be able to get the classes they want, especially in their major. However, as long as a student can get the classes in time to complete the degree in 4 years, fitting in prerequisites so as not to be behind in making normal degree progress, there is no real basis for a complaint.</p>
<p>In the original thread Cad said her daughter turned down RISD for AU. What serious art student would turn down one of the most highly regarded and competitive art schools in the country? And having done so, why would they complain that AU is not a serious art school? So much of what Cad says doesn’t hold water.</p>
<p>Well, to be competitive it is useful to learn from the professionals who would be teaching at a school like RISD, and to have the peers you would have there too. However, I am periodically approached by serious art students who also want a good academic education to suggest schools for them. I am working with a student like that now. She entered a conservatory BFA program but is missing more serious academics. She wouldn’t get that at RISD, unless she was fortunate enough to get into the elite RISD/Brown program. I have looked at the Katzen Arts Center and it is impressive. AU offers a BFA which not every school offers outside the large universities.</p>
<p>Yes, I can understand why an art student would want a well-rounded education, and I would want that for my daughter. This is why all majors at AU have to take a round of gen ed classes before all the major requirements. But Cad has complained vociferously about her daughter having to take the gen ed classes, and seems fairly outraged that they don’t put her straightaway into the advanced art classes. And she seems surprised that they do not have a top-notch art program. If she wanted her daughter to be in a top art school and she didn’t want her to have to take all the gen ed classes, then RISD would have been a better fit.</p>
<p>wrist,</p>
<p>It’s generally been my experience that academic departments–especially small academic departments–take care of their own.</p>
<p>If what Cadmom says about Caddaughter and her artisitc ability is even halfway true, she should be the gem and darling of the art department…and she would be getting the classes she should be getting. The department powers would not deny her placement in to the classes she ostensibly needs to progress…or they would waive the requirements in her case entirely. I find it hard to believe that she has never had a meeting with a professor or advisor, and shown her portfolio. Actually, I would think that the department is well aware of the quality of her portfolio because I am assuming it would have been submitted as part of her application to the BFA program.</p>
<p>What Cadmom says generally just doesn’t hang together coherently.</p>
<p>I can’t believe that the BFA program is out to deliberately make sure that their best students don’t progress through the program, and that it doesn’t take steps to ameliorate problems facing its best and brightest when those problems are appropriately brought to its attention.</p>
<p>Can we change the topic and move on? I know it’s hard (and I’m as guilty as everyone else), but this is getting entirely too much attention. Perhaps that what someone…</p>
<p>Boysx3:</p>
<pre><code>That is exactly the catch-22. You can’t officially be in the actual BFA program at AU until you have amassed over 18 credits of studio art which you can’t accumulate, if they close out the kids out from the needed pre-req. courses. A portfolio is not required. I have stated numerous times she sought help from her advisor who said she couldn’t do anything about it and instructed her to go the art registrar who also didn’t want to set up an appt. for her to show faculty. That was the protocol. It is a question of apathy and disorganization within the department. The studio art director has changed over, and the Art Dept Chair is an Art History prof., not studio art. Wrist is right on the money. My daughter was not impressed with the academics at RISD or MICA. She thought the current students at MICA she met during open houses were not very academically oriented at all. The RISD presentation in RI we attended was not very impressive and the academic classes were really lacking. Honestly, it was tough finding a BFA program at a university.
</code></pre>
<p>Also, from my own experience, the private atelier experience is higher quality than any university or private art college. I have had training in fine art at a well known private art college and a degree in art history from a top tier university. None of this really helps competitively speaking. My work really developed after I studied privately with successful
professional artist and at an atelier. Marketing artwork requires business sense, training etc, and especially who you know. In many art programs at colleges the artists there are more interested in promoting themselves and obtaining a national rep more than helping your kid do better than them. I’ve been there. My daughter, who really is talented, wanted the academics, the art training, and a full college experience which could happen
at AU if they would take their own program seriously and make use of the beautiful Katzen Center for more than an admissions center. I doubt that is what CY Katzen had in mind when he donated the money for the facility.</p>
<p>“if they would take their own program seriously and make use of the beautiful Katzen Center for more than an admissions center”</p>
<p>The nonsensical vendetta continues. Katzen is used for tons of fine arts and performing arts classes, performances and exhibitions. The welcome center takes up just one part of the facility. D is in Katzen all the time and has never felt any negative impact from the presence of visitors. I’m sure the Katzen family is proud that the building has been chosen for prospective students’ first impression of AU.</p>
<p>There is no 'Reddaughter. If there was, she would just walk over to the “admissions center” during any professor’s office hours (all of which are posted), with her portfolio, and, being such a talent, would have her nonexistent problem solved in 10 minutes (less time than it takes to write a fraudulent posting to this list.) I am sure (from my own d.'s experience in the very same “admissions center”), that it is done - successfully by real student artists all the time.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, we shouldn’t disturb 'Red. She still has another paper to turn in before the end of term at Cornell, and still hasn’t figured out how to do so electronically.</p>
<p>Just to change the subject - MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!</p>
<p>With that said, those of you who are so inclined (and you know who you are) may now resume your regularly scheduled ranting</p>
<p>Hi,
I am student, not at American. In reading this thread, I am concerned not just for the forum but the general perception of the school this conversation has created. I go to school in DC and have always thought very highly of American. I feel like if I visited CC while I was applying I would have been turned off by all those in involved. I know that it must be very frustrating for parents who genuinely have come here to discuss being a parent at American University. I also feel for cad’s daughter. Though I may disagree with the manner in which her mother has approached the situation, I believe at the center of everything, she just wants what is best for her daughter. Those frustrations have created a situation where negativity is commonplace. Regardless, if all involved still feel like this is a beneficial conversation, maybe it should be moved to the parent’s forum? I feel like the presence of interested students here as fallen as the parents have dominated the conversation. By moving it, I feel it would give students back their space. I think the lack on ED excited is a reflection of that. I mean to provide this only as an outside suggestion. Happy Holidays!</p>
<p>I am the parent of a daughter who graduated from a well-respected art program at Brandeis University and is now completing an MFA from one of the top five grad programs in studio art in the U.S… The Katzen Arts Center is an impressive facility as we recently toured with younger d for music. The impression I have in researching the school for both undergrad and grad school is that the program is not there yet… give it five years. Usually when an impressive arts center is established, the goal is to develop those majors and attact funding to provide scholarships to attract students as well as bring in quality well-connected faculty. The question you need to ask yourself in these situations is how much of a pioneer does one want to be? Our family has wrestled with the conversatory vs. university education issue on more than one occasion and has chosen what we hoped worked well for us in both cases on many different levels. There are so many intangibles… in art you need to be in a program with a core group of students for crit and for studio visits with visiting artists who need an audience to speak with, as well as the personality and philosophy of the program to see if it is a good fit. I personally did not know all the intangibles when my daughter was in high school…but learned a good deal along the way.</p>
<p>So I am AU '14 … and I am curious what dorm(s) your kids have lived in and just their general impressions. Also, what meal plan do you recommend?
I am SO excited!!!</p>
<p>hec2008, I appreciate your concerns, but want to point out that this is an “AU Parents” thread, where of course parents will be “dominating” the discussion; there is plenty of room elsewhere on the AU forum for every other AU topic anyone wishes to discuss! Because the current AU Parents thread and its predecessor were started to enable AU parents to discuss a wide range of subjects, it has been frustrating for all of us that one poster has for 6 months tried to turn the thread into a private preserve for repetitious and pointless rants against the school and the Art Department. But please feel free to start your own thread on the AU forum or comment on any of the other threads that exist here, which are blessedly free of nonsense.</p>
<p>Daughter mentioned this week in passing that weren’t many dating opportunities at AU. Mostly girls there and no dances or socials. She is not at all into the drunken scene at frats. Anyone else’s daughters experiencing this?</p>
<p>AU has about a 60/40 female/male ratio so it might be a bit more difficult for girls who want a dating relationship. I’m sure caddaughter considered this before she chose to attend AU. With this ratio, even if every male paired up with a female, a third of the females still would be left out.</p>
<p>However, dating does not need to be restricted to the AU dating pool. One of the men my son is living with next year is dating a girl who goes to GW…my son introduced them to each other at the Ben Folds concert at the Kennedy Center. Perhaps your daughter might consider young men not only at AU, but at other DC schools or those working in DC as eligible? If she wants to restrict her dating pool to the men at AU, then maybe she needs to put herself where the men are…the business school seems to have a larger number of males than some of the other programs, so maybe she should take a business elective or a class that would meet a gen ed requirement. Or she could sign up to play an intramural sport on a coed team and meet men that way…my S plays club soccer, and also plays ultimate frisbee and rugby. All of the teams have parties,picnics, barbeques,etc., often with their opponents after games/tournaments…a great way to meet a lot of people.</p>
<p>kAnother thing to consider…Like a lot of others, my S had a long term relationship in high school that he ended when he began college and right now has no interest in a traditional dating relationship. He was commenting on all the “drama” that seems to go along with dating relationships among first years in college and at this point in time he wants no part of it. Dorms are giant fishbowls, etc…Right now he doesn’t want a “signficant other” in his life. That will change, but this is the “now” reality. I’m sure a lot of other guys feel the same way. His social group includes a mix of both sexes but there is not any pairing off right now.</p>
<p>If your daughter wants to do the formals/dances/socials thing, she can always consider joining a sorority or perhaps one of the service groups on campus. </p>
<p>Or perhaps she could find some likeminded students and get involved in student government and work to create the social life she would like to be involved in? Maybe form a club that would sponsor monthly socials and a formal dance every semester? Students form clubs for almost anything under the sun and then apply for funding.</p>
<p>Looks like 'red has finished her paper at Cornell, and figured out how to submit it electronically. Now she can spend some time calling up some boys for her non-existent daughter.</p>