The viability of Cooper union.

<p>I'm wondering what everyone is thinking about Cooper Union. Are people still considering going to the school even though it will now be 50% tuition for families with more than 60k yearly income? Is the strength of the student body/faculty, its interdisciplinary program, as well as the school's overall reputation reason enough to still put it among other top schools such as Risd, Cal arts, or Mica. </p>

<p>I just want to measure where people are at and their relationship to the school given the recent turn of events.</p>

<p>How much is 50% tuition? And do they have outrageous added fees as well?</p>

<p>Timkerdes:
Did you feel the school is changing now? Or it is the same as one or two years ago?
All the free Cooper activities, and the worry from faculty and student may affect the school already?</p>

<p>I have always had the plan of applying to Cooper in the hopes of being able to receive full tuition, but I feel with their recent financial changes (Of course the year that I will be applying/attending…) are a sign for their future, or at least the time I would be spending there. I’m not sure what else has been affected from this, but it may be a window into what other areas are no longer doing well. Many other schools, that may even be rated higher and have better reviews, supposedly offer fairly great scholarships as well. Hopefully things will turn around for them.</p>

<p>50% tuition is roughly 19k+ a year. Added fees are much higher than other places - this was justified by the fact that if you got in you recieved a full merit scholarship + financial aid if you qualified.</p>

<p>The school is only different in that people are constantly discussing the plan to charge tuition. It’s basically the same otherwise. As long as Cooper is able to attract the best students and as long as the faculty remain the same, the school wouldn’t change much.</p>

<p>However, there’s the fear that the school won’t be able to attract the best anymore since the ability to attract the most skilled and talented applicants is inextricably linked to the no tuition policy.</p>

<p>I mean to say that the quality of the education would not change so long as the students remain the same.</p>

<p>hi Timkerdes! I wanted to ask you guys a question…I am currently a Pratt Fine Arts student, and am in the process of transferring to cooper union. My question to you is would it be acceptable to apply as a first year student and then if i am accepted, to ask the school to transfer some of my credits I took based on my freshman year at Pratt? i was advised to do this because cooper has an even lower acceptance rate for transfer students, and i’ll probably start as a freshman anyway so applying as a first year student would be better? I just have a weird feeling about applying as a first year student, when technically I am a transfer student…and i would have to get recommendation letters from two of my teachers at pratt…</p>

<p>and Its required of transfer students to send a transcript from my previous institution- which is pratt. If I applied as a transfer student, would it help my situation at all because i received a presidential scholarship? would that even come out on my college transcript? </p>

<p>thanks so much for taking the time to read this! much help would greatly be appreciated!</p>

<p>The only thing that matters at Cooper art/architecture is the hometest/portfolio and then the essay questions. Think of it like this, you either have to have had one of the 60 best portfolios/hometests out of 2700 to be admitted as a freshman or you have to have one of the 10 best portfolios out of 800 as a transfer.</p>

<p>The technical details are strange about your status as an applicant.</p>

<p>I applied as a transfer, got in as a freshman, talked to the transfer coordinator, got about 1 year of credits and ended up as a sophomore. </p>

<p>Though, I’ve heard several people tell me that they applied as a freshman but ultimately got in as a transfer. However, depending on your credit situation, it could mess up the possibility for some oppurtunities. For example, you want to do study abroad but you haven’t met the credit requirements to do so because you need to make up for classes you didn’t get credit for.</p>

<p>Though, If your okay with the possibility that you won’t get ANY credit, apply as a transfer.</p>

<p>thank you! hmm…the statistics…haha…I think i’ll apply as a freshman student anyway, and if I do get in, I could ask to get my credits waved over from Pratt because I saw the website and the minimum credits accepted was 18, and i only have 18 so far :S </p>

<p>I have a question… i just noticed that on the regular first year admissions page, it also asks for any official college transcripts, would sending my transcript from pratt for my first semester of my freshman year be fine? and also, would it be alright to send a recommendation letter from a professor at pratt when I apply as a first year student? </p>

<p>thank you so much in advance!</p>

<p>Provided, you haven’t taken enough credits to be considered a transfer, I don’t see it as a problem to have a recommendation letter from a professor indicating that you’ve taken a college course.</p>

<p>I will say, however, that you run a risk of confusing the admissions staff by applying as a first year but sending college transcripts. Are you only sending a semester’s transcript? Actually, is it even possible to have only a semester recorded on your official transcript and nothing else?</p>

<p>Regardless, I don’t think it will be too much of a problem or would even effect you much if you applied as a freshman with hopes of getting some transfer credit. In fact the faculty only looks at your portfolio/hometest/and your written responses when making a decision. They don’t take anything else in consideration so long as they think your among the top of the students who applied.</p>

<p>Just go into this aware of the possibility that you may not receive credits if you get admitted to the art school as a freshman with the intention of later being considered as a transfer.</p>

<p>I will, however, say that Cooper Union does not tend to award much transfer credit - people who apply with a full year of college schooling get a semester or less of credit.</p>

<p>Hey reflectionssno. I transferred from RISD and they jumped me ahead to sophomore year. They tend to do that to students from RISD Pratt and The New School because they have a similar foundation year that doesn’t need to be repeated.</p>

<p>It still might depend, I know a guy from RISD who transferred and he ended up getting no studio credit. Though, he was transferring from RISD’s I.D program so that might have had something to do with it (but I still would think he should have gotten foundation year).</p>

<p>thanks guys! I think for now, I’ll apply as a first year student because I only finished a semester worth of credits so far (18) as a freshman and then wave over my credits from my entire foundation year later on :)</p>