<p>My daughter (17) is getting ready to apply to art schools for admissions in fall 2011. She had thought she was focused on animation, period. But after a summer at RISD (which she loved), she found herself drawn to several of the 3-d disciplines -- sculpture, industrial design, interior design (NOT architecture), as well as animation. For that reason, she crossed Cal Arts off her list and is looking more to schools with a foundation year, or at least with some flexibility to explore some the first year.</p>
<p>She also is a very group oriented person, and she (and I) really would like a school where a lot of the students live on campus, and where the majority of the freshmen live in dorms with a meal plan. This is important to her, and a really big deal for me.</p>
<p>She is a good student with excellent grades and SATs; she is doing a full IB and Art higher with excellent teachers with a track record at helping kids put together portfolios that get them in where they want to go). And, though I am not an artist, I think her portfolio will be good (besides lots of studio time with IB art, we're in DC, and she has done and is doing protfolio development class at the Corchoran -- lots of life drawing -- and has several from her summerat RISD).</p>
<p>Location is not really an issue.</p>
<p>All that said (sorry to go on and on -- not to brag but to give you all an idea of where we are looking), she definitely is going to apply to: RISD, SCAD, MICA, Ringling, and Cooper Union. </p>
<p>Where else should she look? THANK YOU SO MUCH!</p>
<p>Kate
A mom going through her child's admissions, not for the first time, but for the first time with an artist...</p>
<p>D just started at MCAD, and has 3 foundation classes this semester, 2-D, Media, and Drawing. Her roomates (all freshment except for one MFA student) have similar classes, one having 3-D this semester. Many students live on campus, however, they have apartments instead of dorms and no meal plan. There is, however, a cafeteria where you can have an account. D ate there a lot the first week (as well as OPF!) but is going grocery shopping on the van today.</p>
<p>Thanks! I just put MCAD on the list. I also added Pratt and Parsons. SFAI too, the website seems to suggest they have a meal plan (like the one at MCAD maybe) but I saw posts here that said they did not.</p>
<p>It probably sounds overly protective to most of you, but the meal plan/housing situation is really important to me. I am totally on board D going to art school, but she is a HS kid moving away from home for the first time. I guess I just want to make sure she gets to immerse herself in the experience without also learning to shop, cook, etc. for herself at the same time (it is not like she is helpless – she does cook for the family, do her own laundry, as spend summers at cap or pre-college since she was small). The other part of my concern is that I want her to have some of the “typical” college experience of living in a dorm and eating meals with fellow students – she is a social person and I think she’d really enjoy that.</p>
<p>Any other of you art school parents who struggled with this? Thanks so much!</p>
<p>UArts has a foundations year, and is known for being the art college that has every single art major you could dream of. I know they have a good ID program, but I dont know about the others. </p>
<p>Philly is convenient for you and has amazing museums (with opportunities for internships). In addition to UArts (which only has dorms for first year): Tyler is part of Temple. Moore is female-only. Drexel has a school of media and design and a coop program that places students in paid employment. Penn has a fine arts major. PAFA just gives a certificate, but she could get a degree by taking Penn classes. Art Institute has a Philly branch.</p>
<p>D is in an apt with 3 other girls, one is from China, one from Mexico and the other from the Chicago area. After the first week, she has a lot of friends, several of which are sophomores. She was in touch with her roommates before they moved in, so they knew a little about each other. Just because there is no meal plan, doesn’t mean that the students don’t eat together. She is learning to enjoy authentic Chinese food and Mexican food, as well as going with her friends to “Eat” street, a street with many ethnic restaurants. The other night she told me that 8 of them went to a Mexican place for banana splits. She has joined 3 clubs already. They have a van that goes to the grocery store. Home Depot and Target every Sat and Sunday night. The first week she ate mostly in the cafeteria and the restaurants, and then decided she needed to go to the grocery store and get food! </p>
<p>She wanted the apartment living arrangement because she felt that it was more like real life, having to learn living skills. She had been away from home before too, to camps and pre-college, so that was not an issue. The apartments have so much more than a dorm room has (and we saw LOTS of dorm rooms at art schools), and they have room for a drawing tables in the living room!</p>
<p>If you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>I think it is important to look beyond the websites and paper brochures and talk to students and staff at the schools. What appears to be flexible and open is sometimes much more rigid and vice versa. AlsoS thought RISD and SCAD were less flexible than advertised…quite difficult to get into courses outside of your major and taking classes outside of the school (MICA-JHU, RISD-Brown) was more complicated than as presented in the glossy profile books. The stories of the guide at Temple indicated that reality there was far more flexible than their written materials which sounded like a student enters with a passion, pursues it single mindedly and leaves with a single craft. </p>
<p>S thought SAIC and SMFA were very flexible but worried that the curriculum seemed so totally student driven he thought he may get lost with so much choice and reliance on student self motivation. </p>
<p>I think contacting students or recent grads is one of the best ways to get a feel for the school…try visits early …we left it until apps were mainly completed which was a bit of a mistake.</p>
<p>I would add VCU, Syracuse and Wash U to the list. At least go see them. Wash U is worth applying to, they offer a full tuition scholarship and they will fly you out if you get shortlisted. Its easy to apply to it and Syracuse because they use the common application. VCU has a good 3d program, and it is the only public school ranked in the top 10. If she is interested in Cooper make sure that she gets in front of them at NPD. Applying to both Cooper and RISD is daunting. pm me if you want, we just went through this, similar kid with similar academics.</p>
<p>I agree with the SAIC remarks. D liked the school but the pass-fail grading system made her (and me) a bit nervous. Might be better for student very focused and driven, but it is definitely not for everyone.</p>
<p>SAIC is not known for foundation courses. DDD took animation theres and SAIC has lots of hand drawing and old fashioned bench work. Good for that !</p>
<p>Sounds like your daughter is very similar to mine, and she is applying to many ofthe schools you mentioned. We are adding U. Cincinnatti to our list, as well as Syracuse. I hear good things about SUNY Purchase and New Paltz as well, though we are hoping more Mid-Atlantic area. </p>
<p>Very hard choices; there are so many smart and talented kids out there. SAIC is great, but not terribly academic, nor traditional. The dorms are fantastic, though!</p>
<p>SAIC is what a student would make it, I believe. D is an extremely driven kid, and intellectual in a startling kind of way. So SAIC is just the place for her to explore intellectually/academically as well as artistically. It’s an amazing curriculum in that sense, and the very reason she knew RISD wasn’t for her. The pass/fail was a concern of course but consider this: say your student experimented with metal works (the school has a FOUNDRY! Imagine that) but the sculpture “failed” at the end of the semester…the student would still earn the credit and the experience of having worked with a new material, and pass the class, even if the work did not “work”.</p>
<p>A pass/fail system can also save the students from the ego of the professors and from what could often be a very uneven grading system. Is it a true pass/fail? I had a friend who went to Harvard’s graduate school of design (architecture) and they had a pass/fail system too. Only it was pass, fail, high pass, low pass, and honors. They ranked the students and asked the lower 15% to leave after the first year. There were stories of people being in that lower 15% because of having a professor who gave the whole class a low pass because of their “disappointment”.</p>
<p>what those rejects need to do is, save the letter that telling you to get lost with mighty H insignia on it in acid free archive box for 30-40 years.
by the tine s/he become biggest shot designer or intellectual and called to come do talk or get some award that could be ironically named after that dick prof, you are to read that old letter at the ceremony.
It happened to this hi power grandma self made author / psychologist. you never know. her old class mate with pass hi pass PhD is now her assistant and loving that life.</p>
<p>How to narrow this list down? Is there anywhere else we should look? Okay, so here is “the list”: Tyler, MICA, Carnegie Mellon, Wash U. St. Louis, Penn, SAIC, SCAD, VCU, Syracuse. </p>
<p>We aren’t sure about RISD (so far away) Syracuse, Cooper because if distance and for Cooper, the application process; she’s stressed out to the max already. Looked at Yale, but to be honest, I think its a real reach for her. She is a deep, not flashy thinker, and an introvert… not one for a lot of extracurriculars. Also a homeschooler as of last year, so that we could travel to work with an artist who has been a great mentor. Don’t know how that will sit with admissions either. I am quite concerned about her well-being at this point. There is simply too much to do, and do well, to add more stress. Ideas, opinions? Sensitive, emotional girl… incredibly intelligent. Also came through first disappointment in love. <em>Sigh</em>. Very hard. Everything coming at once!</p>
<p>With the what I call “stand alone” art schools (RISD, SAIC, MCAD, etc), I doubt very much that being homeschooled for the last year will hurt her, especially for the reason stated, it may actually work in her favor. However, I don’t know how the LAC and universities would see it. D did not have a lot of extracurriculars either, just Art Club, the mostly adult local art guild and volunteering at the local library. Nothing like what you see some of these kids list!</p>
<p>catmom2- where are you located? With a “sensitive, emotional girl” you may want to be closer to her school so you can visit more often in the beginning. I’m sorry to hear about her stress problems and disappointment in love. Our D1 had a similar problem last fall and just dragged herself around, barely doing anything, for two months! Then they got back together - ugh.</p>
<p>Thanks Greenwitch and Redbug. We are in Knoxville, TN; originally from Philly, so lots of friends there, though no family. Its why the mid-Atlantic looks good to us… far enough away, but within a day’s drive. Anyone hear anything about William and Mary? Hollins? Goucher? These are schools that were all suggested at one point or another. </p>
<p>She is fiercely independent, even with the sensitivity. She is taking AP classes online, so she’s kept up the academic rigor; got a 5 on English 11, taking AP English 12. Has other AP’s under her belt and verbal SATs in the high end. Math is average. But the emotional stuff has really slowed her down this year, and I’m concerned. I know a lot of this is normal teenaged stuff, except the young man is older, studying abroad. At least he isn’t under her nose, but that also makes it challenging. Disappointment is over distance and where they are in their lives, not lack of feeling and caring. A hard one.</p>