I’m currently a high school student who’s beginning to get acceptance letters. I applied to UCSB at the College of Creative Studies for art with the impression that there’s a lot of flexibility to the program. I also applied to a few other CSUs for Animation, Illustration, and Graphic Design.
I was recently contacted by CCS about my application, and spoke with one of the admissions officers who said my portfolio is strong, but he wanted to make sure I really knew 100% what the program was about. He also expressed his concern that the program was more general than I was looking for, and that CCS might not be the best fit (I’m trying to pursue animation as a career). He wanted me to talk to him again at the end of the week about what I thought about it, because it’s so selective.
Is anyone here familiar with CCS, particularly the Studio Art major? I would like more information. Is it worth entering versus a more specific program at another school? Based on my conversation, it sounds like they were interested in my application, so I feel like if I tell them I’m still interested, I’m basically making an early decision. It’s such a big opportunity I’d feel bad to turn them down, even if it’s not really what I’m looking for.
Info/Advice?
presumably you have looked at all their web pages. They have this one https://www.ccs.ucsb.edu/art/emphases and it doesn’t sound to me (a non-artist) like animation is an area they specialize in. CCS has a great reputation, but if it doesn’t prepare you for the future you want then why go there?
My take on all this is they are impressed with your work and are seriously considering admitting you, but they want to make sure you understand what they will and will not teach you. And that you have done the investigation to understand how people enter the animation field.
Time has kinda run out here, it sounds like you need to talk to them by tomorrow, but if you aren’t well versed in how people enter the field you might want to call a few animation studios and ask to talk to animators and directors. If you explain that you are a HS student exploring college programs (eg. not someone angling for a job interview) I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised that people in the field will be willing to talk with you. One approach is to spend a little time finding out the name of animators or directors that worked on some work that you like and contact them. Lots of production people are listed on websites. I quickly found this as one example – http://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/pixar-good-dinosaur-concept-reality/ It’s a lot easier to call a switchboard at Pixar and ask to speak to Julie Jones than to try and convince the switchboard operator to connect you to someone in the creative division (although hopefully they would do that)