<p>nocalmom and cama, thank you so much for your feedback, My d and I had a long talk last night and I think both the location and the prorams at Pratt make it a better fit for her than RISD. I have one question . This may seem somewhat vaque, but I know my daughter; she is not interested in a Greek or sports scene, she is a very hard worker, BUT close friendships are very important and sustaining to her. She enjoys a very diverse group of friends. I get the impression from graduates and current students that RISD is known as a very supportive, friendly and (although at times burnt) happy group. I do not know any students @ Pratt so I wonder if you might speak to the social dynamics of your daughters' experiences ? Do they find diverse groups interacting or is it cliquey ? Do the kids seem happy ? Are they supportive of one another ? Thanks !</p>
<p>Artschoolmom,
My D has made some really good friends at Pratt. The students are very diverse in that they come from all over the country. She has a solid group of friends most of which she met freshman year. Freshman orientation was about 6 days long and alot of it was geared on how to navigate NYC, including going to Broadway shows and museums. I am not hearing about a cut throat environment at all just the pressure she puts on herself to succeed. Of course she likes some kids better then others. One negative for her is the lack of abundance of straight men, though she has dated students from Pratt and has made good friends with gay males. Does your D know what she wants to major in?</p>
<p>taxguy,
Hope your D is not too disappointed. Even though my D was asked to apply early decision to Cooper Union by their rep (based on her portfolio) she didn't get in. In the end I really do think things work out for the best. Just this morning there was a news report on how competitve this year's college application process has been and how so many more students are being rejected. The amount of students applying to college is up tremendously making the applicant pool huge. I am not looking foward to doing this again for the third time when my 11 yr old has to go through this.</p>
<p>Cama,
Believe it or not of all the schools my daughter applied to Pratt has the highest percentage of men - they may be gay but at least they are guys ! D is planning on a BFA in Fine Arts she's honestly not quite sure what her concentration will be.</p>
<p>My daughter just received her acceptance from RISD with no financial aid package included. I, as her mom, am most upset for her and for us. I almost think a flat out rejection would have been preferable to this torture of thinking about how we could possibly come up with the 40+ thousand dollars to go to this most wonderful school-or so we thought. She got some money from SAIC and was also accepted the studio art dept. at the University of TX, which is considerably less expensive.<br>
She has had her heart set on RISD since day one of thinking about colleges, but do we want to go so deeply into debt being that we will have 3 kids in college next year? Winning the lottery and robbing a bank come to mind, but realistically should one take out PLUS loans in the amount of $160,00 over the course of four year. Naively speaking, I never would have believed this could even happen at a school like RISD. I was thinking they would be heavily endowed like the Ivies and be able to meet admitted students financial needs.</p>
<p>If you're looking at the M/F ratios, and trying to take into account sexual orientation as well, then you also have to figure that not all the women are straight -- that affects the "odds" of heterosexual matchups also. Frankly, this kind of thing never entered into the calculus of either of our kids (to my knowledge); but they both favored diverse environments for a variety of reasons. In any case, if you're in the art world, you'd better be open-minded.</p>
<p>On finaid, RISD apparently feels that it doesn't have to discount its list price, while some other schools do. We paid full fare for my daughter to attend there. We think it was worth it compared to the lower (net) costs elsewhere. But I wish RISD would do more than it does so that more kids could make a straight-up choice like our daughter was able to do.</p>
<p>Sorry,but RISD is well-known for NOT giving financial aid other than for need based aid. Even so, they aren't generous for that too.</p>
<p>What do they do with the huge endowment fund they have???</p>
<p>We too received no financial aid from RISD. Weighing the costs with Milwaukee Institute of Art where she recieved a half ride for all four years. RISD will be 160,000+ or Milwaukee at $$60,000. Is it worth $100,000.00 more to go to RISD? Tough call.</p>
<p>RISD does not have a huge endowment. Granted, it is relatively large for an independent art school, but it pales in comparison to most LACs and universities. And much of the endowment is earmarked specifically for the RISD Museum and is unavailable to the school.</p>
<p>RISD is just a few months from the end of its first major capital campaign. It is trying to raise $85 million by June 30 -- of which $18 million is targeted for financial aid. There is a real concern that RISD is losing some of the country's top art students because of cost. So the school understands that it needs to provide more aid if it is to maintain its position and reputation. The school's yield has declined for the past several years, undoubtedly because of the lack of financial aid. </p>
<p>According to the school, tuition covers only 70% of the cost of a RISD education. The school has extensive facilities that cost a lot to maintain, and it has several major construction projects on tap. RISD is currently completing the renovation of an historic 12-story bank building into a library and 500 dorm beds. Also, construction will start later this year on a new 5-story student center and expansion of the museum. One of the things my son noted when he was investigating potential colleges was that RISD had, by far, the most studio space for undergraduates (even freshman). There there seemed to be one of every machine (in the metal shop, wood shop, etc.) for each one or two students. Other schools had maybe one or two for the whole class, so that everyone had to share.</p>
<p>Due to its school of engineering, Cooper has more males than females, but being engineers, they can tend to be nerdy. Hence, the saying among the art school girls is...</p>
<p>"The odds are good, but the goods are odd."</p>
<p>Anyone...? I know more about VCU and CCAD... But I've ear over every post pertaining to these schools in this forum, if anyone has any information, please tell me.</p>
<p>According to US News & World Report RISD has an endowment fund of over $272,000,000.00 and could offer my daughter nothing. MIAD has an endowment fund over just over $2,500,000.00 and offered my d $48,000.00 in scholarships. With only 1% of what RISD has they offered so much!!! I know RISD has about 3 times the enrollment but it is still totally disproportionate.</p>
<p>Worried_mom, I agree that the endowment is modest in size, but it's not small. And RISD seems to have given priority in recent years to building and expansion projects. None of those is a luxury. They had a terrible shortage of on-campus dorm space before the new project was completed; the students/activities center facilities were minimal; the museum/library and the like needed a serious upgrade. It's good to see a commitment to adding endowment expressly for financial aid; the annual revenues generated from $18 million aren't going to go far, but they can begin to make a difference. As the parents of an alum, we try to do our part in annual gifts (though we give more to our own alma maters, I admit).</p>
<p>mackinaw,
The issue of straight or gay factor has nothing to do with being open minded but rather a fact, given my D enjoys the companionship of straight men. If she wasn't open minded she wouldn't be happy where she is. I told Artschoolmom I wouldn't be biased in my response to her so I am just stating one of the issues, nothing more nothing less. Just curious, were there any negatives you found at RISD or was everything great?</p>
<p>I think the issue of how to spend endowment is one that many schools grapple with. I know at Pratt just the opposite might be true... giving out alot of scholarships when perhaps school facilities should have been addressed. Now however I think there is genuinely a good balance. Maintainence, upkeep and expansion has improved significantly and they are still able to give out generous merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Cama, thank you for your candor; it has been very helpful. The Pratt scholarship money will most likely be a large (although not exclusive) reason my daughter will choose Pratt over RISD. I also believe there is some intrinsic value in going to college on a merit scholarship. Merit money is like being paid for one's work; which I guess may be a cop-out for some but reality for others.</p>
<p>I also told my kids...why not go to a school that REALLY wants you. That's what I think a merit scholarship is indicative of. Good Luck with your D Artschoolmom. My D went in as an Interior Des major but switched at the end of freshman foundation year to the Communication Design Dept with a major in Art Advertisement Direction and alot of classes in Illustration. Since you cannot double major she plans to have a double portfolio, one for art advertisement and one for illustration. D also got a merit scholarship which is nice validation.</p>
<p>Artschoolmom- My D has also decided on Pratt. She loved it there when we went to see it-everything about it. She has already changed her declared major from photography to communication arts- graphic design after our visit. I thought it was a great school and a perfect fit for her as well, but it had to be her choice.</p>
<p>Art parent, read my "Overview of Pratt" found on the Pratt forum. I loved the curriculum of Pratt. In fact, the more I looked at other art programs, the more I liked Pratt. They have more choices and more concentrations within a major than that of any other art program that I have seen.</p>
<p>I only wish I could have gotten my daughter to see Pratt through my eyes.</p>
<p>Cama, don't take things personally. I wasn't making a comment on Pratt or on you. I was just saying what I said: if people start making these kind of calculations, they need to be realistic.</p>
<p>Anything negative about RISD? Read what I've already above posted about financial aid. But it's also a realistic fact that RISD has (until recently perhaps) not felt as much as some other insitututions that it had to discount tuition as much to attract students. That may not be a correct calculation, of course. But it's also true that costs aren't the only factor that most students and parents are weighing.</p>