My daughter has been accepted to the art dept at Cornell, and was also accepted to RISD. We are leaning towards Cornell, thinking it would provide a more general education, but don’t know whether or not that makes sense. We have heard that Cornell’s art dept is very “conceptual”, but to be honest, are not sure what that means and how it would fit my daughter.
Ultimately, she would like to pursue a career in animation. We know that Cornell won’t provide animation-specific art instruction, but believe that she can get the more “vocational” education in other ways, such a perhaps a MFA, after getting a more rounded education at Cornell.
Any thoughts or advice appreciated, about the Cornell art dept or otherwise.
Cornell is an amazing school! However, if you are looking for serious animation opportunities (internships, mentors, jobs), I would select an art school that has a specialization in animation, like RISD or MICA. Both RISD and MICA have animation specific internships and alumni success stories. You will also get a strong peer group of animation professionals in both of those schools.
Thank you for the info. It is very helpful. I think we are definitely leaning more towards RISD. (She did not apply to MICA.) One thing we both noticed is that RISD’s animation program seems to focus more on the cinema side (but we could be mistaken), rather than the technical side of how to do rigging in Maya, for example. I think the former has great long-term value, but at the same time she wants to learn the technical aspects of being a working animator.
Do you think RISD will teach that in courses, or is it more like RISD gives you the foundation, which is arguably more important and longer-lasting, while the technical skills can and should be picked up in internships and/or non-RISD summer programs/courses (such as at Pixar/Disney)?