<p>My friend Annabelle was just accepted into UMich for Art and she is wondering whether or not its department is nationally recognized. If you could provide any comments, concerns, etc....that would be great!</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.
-Nick</p>
<p>I wish I could help, I got in there last year but didn't really look at it because I only applied because my parents wanted me to apply somewhere in state. I don't think they're NASAD accreditted, they weren't at National Portfolio Day @ Kendall but Western and GVSU were. I went to a senior thesis show last year though, @ the Creole Gallery in Lansing, that was really impressive, more so on the conceptual level than a technical one. The guy whose show it was really loved UofM though, spent a lot of time in France, loved his advisor and the facilities. I hope you get some good info</p>
<p>I don't know much about Michigan's program,but they definitely are NASAD accredited. I just checked the NASAD web site;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.arts-accredit.org/intro.jsp%5B/url%5D">http://www.arts-accredit.org/intro.jsp</a></p>
<p>Michigan, Penn State and Wisconsin all have good reputations for art scholols at the state public university level.</p>
<p>I am currently a Junior at UofM school of art and design, and wish that I would have looked more closely at their new curriculum. First off, if you are interested in design, don't go. Everything has become fine arts oriented. The Dean, Bryan Rogers, doesn't know what he is doing. He is the same Dean from Carnegie-Mellon, who changed their curriculum, and once he left, they went back to their old curriculum. Good old Mary Sue Coleman, the president of UofM, thinks that he would be a perfect fit. How asinine. You can only receive a BFA, and there are no majors. The Dean is a complete idiot. He doesn't understand that there are fundamental differences between design drawing and fine arts drawing. He refers to Design as the D word. Most of the administration lies/manipulates what the new program is and makes it seem like you could actually get an good education; which you can't. The good thing about UofM is the alumni connections, the social environment, and the broad range of classes one can take. I have taken quite a few classes outside A&D in ME, Mathematics, English, Language, and Math. This is an attempt to get a decent education. All the classes outside A&D were excellent. </p>
<p>The Dean is too retarded to realize what opportunities he is pis sing away. Instead of UofM, it will be Stanford that will have an amazing design school. (stanfords d.school) The Dean's contract runs out in 2010, and I think that the curriculum will change alot once he is gone. </p>
<p>If you want to know more email me at <a href="mailto:kjwjr@umich.edu">kjwjr@umich.edu</a>; my email address proves that i'm authentic.</p>
<p>That was very interesting, adroit. I guess what the new dean is doing is to put Michigan on par with what the other top schools such as Williams, Brown etc. are doing. They have some strong fine arts programs but are very weak in applied art. This seems to be the case for most major universities other than a small handfull.</p>
<p>Unfortunately the fine arts program is not very strong. The way it is setup, students experience a touch of everything from fibers to metal to paint to digital media. This takes up two years. It isn't until your junior year that you begin to take advanced courses. While I can see the advantages of taking different media; it is not being executed properly at UofM.</p>