Thanks for your reply @ArtAngst ! Some early actions here too and I was thinking the portfolio day would actually lower her stress but the opposite happened. She is even more stressed now probably becoz the deadline seems more real now! RIT is definitely not her top choice for NY based schools, however she will take that over Texas 
or Kansas any day. I guess besides the the NY as a city she is looking for for the connections to the NY world during her college years and after. She will get less of that in Rochester she knows. She is not much of a social person and not like she will party in the city. She is perfectly okay to go to PrattMWP. She liked VCU too which is not NY. At this point she is ready to run from the south. Its sad becoz we lived in NJ and we moved to Texas. Who knows where life will lead.
Yes fingercrossed for all of us. Good luck to you DS!
@BrooklynRye U of Arts is in our list to apply too. We didnt get a chance to see them on the NPD
our d is a junior graphic design major at VCUARTS so feel free to ask any questions should you wish. I can tell you we are out of state , and when choosing schools she was accepted to all the top ones (except she did not apply to RISD as she didnât care for it). The only no was CooperUnion (and that was after having earned a scholarship for both Saturday classes for a year HS and 6 weeks summer intensive.) As it turns out, was great as she never cared for the campus and VCUARTS has done so much for her . It is also very highly regarded as it is ranked #2 mfa behind only Yale. So here are some of the cool things that have happened to her through VCUARTS and being proactive. First she has been honor roll each semester, she has had work sold professionally . This was initially with faculty help, but now it seems she has avenues to pursue on her own with success. She found an internship after sophomore year , working with an up and coming artist in NYC . That lead to things like photo shoots as director and modeling, participating in the NY Art book fair (again selling her work), earned a grant to attend a gp event in Seoul Korea, plus she was able to find part time employment off campus to supplement her while attending. There is more but you get the idea. Oh and Richmond is a really cool place, it is 100% an arts community with many things going on.So for us its been great. good luck
@stones3 yes she is applying to VCU! we were at their booth at the portfolio day and she got a good feel. The person evaluating her work said he was a professor and asked her to apply and also mentioned âI would love to have you in my classâ. I donât know if that means anything regarding her acceptance.
Finally all depends on where she gets accepted and also the financial packet and every place is OOS for us unfortunately. Though Pratt Parson SVA Scad are some of her top choices she is quite open to MICA VCU RIT Tyler etc. Some of the applications will be submitted soon and we are really worried with the financial aspect of it.
SomaRathore- Best of luck to her. If you have any further questions on VCUARTS feel free to PM me. I suggest a visit to Richmond when youâre ready.I would be happy to clue you into some of the cool places to stay, eat and enjoy. For our D , after being accepted to the schools you mentioned (Sans SVA ,didnât apply) she visited Richmond and knew it was a great fit for her.
Hi, @SomaRathore! Ahh, I remember being exactly in your position, not so long ago, LOL! So much good advice here already, but just wanted to add a little bit of our experience (my d just started her freshman year at MICA). She, too, was undecided at first about art school vs. a âregularâ university or college with a strong art department. She was interested in illustration/sequential arts. Once she started thinking about art schools, she did a summer program at SCAD, and another at SAIC. She fell in love with SAIC, but mostly because she fell in love with Chicago (and SAICâs dorms & facilities). Personally, I never felt it was a good fit because it seemed too focused on âconceptual,â has a VERY flexible curriculum (i.e., no majors!), and no particular strength in illustration/sequential.
Ultimately, she ended up applying to MICA, RISD, SAIC, SCAD, Stamps at UMich, Bard, Brandeis (simply because sheâs a legacy there), Univ. of VermontâŠIâm probably forgetting some! We visited a LOT of schools, and some were eliminated from the application list after visiting (most notably, VCU Arts). Didnât apply to any of the NYC schools because we live in NYC and she wanted to go away to school. She did get into some very good âregularâ schools (Bard, Brandeis, and UVM) but decided that their art majors were just too broad and fine-arts focused, without the depth of classes sheâs looking for.
Ultimately, she chose MICA (got some merit aidâa mix of art & academicânot much, but enough to bring down the price a little bit). I do think it was a very good fit. Itâs urban, which she wanted. Baltimore is hip and has a lot going on, and she goes to the Inner Harbor fairly regularly (via Uber). I feel like there is some emphasis on academics, and the Critical Inquiry class sheâs taking this semester (a writing course) is wonderful. There is cross-registration with schools like Johns Hopkins and Goucher, and she very well might take advantage of that in the future. Itâs considered a fairly âhotâ school at the moment in the art world (for instance, a MICA alum/current professor did the official portrait of Michelle Obama). They have a newly redesigned first-year program that allows for some choice in classes. The freshman dorms are wonderful (second only to SAICs, on our opinion!). All freshman live in a big complex with a beautiful quad, and itâs all apartment-style. My d has a single room in a 3-room apartment with a large bathroom, a living room, and a FULL kitchen. Her professors are super high-caliberâall very successful working artists with real careers (two of them regularly commute between Baltimore and New York City). Her humanities professor is Ivy-League educated, and absolutely wonderful. Thereâs also a very involved Parents Council, which I donât think Iâve seen anywhere else. They make a big effort to keep parents/families involved and part of the school âfamily.â
The cons so far? I donât feel like thereâs a lot of mixing (if any!) with upperclassmen. Her classes this semester are all freshmen classes, her dorm is all freshmen, and she isnât taking a class in her major till next semester. The food is meh. Like, super meh. There are clubs, but itâs not an extensive list and so far she hasnât been very engaged with them. No athletics at all (whereas at RISD, you can participate in Brownâs teams). Surrounding neighborhood is a little sketchy.
Also, and I wouldnât say this is a con, because itâs just fine for my daughter who doesnât drink and isnât really interested in parties, but there is NO âregularâ college party vibe. At least, not that my d has seen. My husband went down to visit her on a Friday, and couldnât believe how quiet campus was. A few kids hanging out in the quad (of the freshmen dorm complex), and thatâs about it. This past weekend, my d went with friends to the Inner Harbor to Build-a-Bear and to dinner for fun. The weekend before, she went with a group of friends to a roller skating rink. There seems to be a lot of video gaming. Iâm going to guess that this is common with art schools? So, definitely a consideration when choosing between art school vs. university/LAC.
Anyway, thatâs our experience so far! If you have any questions about MICA, feel free to ask!
I think your best bet is to compile a list of schools that fit her criteria, apply, and then make SURE you visit the schools sheâs accepted to. So much of it will come down to where she âfeelsâ a fit, where she wants to live for the next four years, and where the students feel like âher people.â We had already visited MICA when we first started the process, but it was really that âaccepted students dayâ visit that made MICA seem like âthe placeâ to her!
Thanks for sharing all that info @KCHWriter on MICA. Son is applying there and itâs great to hear inside info. Daugther is a junior at RISD and some of her experiences were very similar - for example, she didnât really interact with upperclassman until after freshman year. She got to know more starting sophomore year from her liberal classes and also RISDâs winter session.
Also to piggy-back on what you described about socializing, RISD has a similar âquietâ vibe. Some students will attend Brown frat parties and events, but daughter didnât find it too common among her friends and there wasnât much pressure to do so. Daughter goes out casually with friends, but mostly they WORK. Like ALL the time, so the socializing seems to take place organically as people get stressed out, need a break from studio etc and theyâll head out to do something fun. Or like your daughter, theyâll plan something on the weekend and work their homework studio hours around that.
Her dorms have been soooo quiet too and the weekendâs are generally pretty chill. RISD does have a bunch of clubs & Dâs tried out various ones based on time/interest. Sheâs not too sporty, but she does have a membership to Brownâs gym and takes Zumba classes and several RISD classmates attend with her too.
One, and one more thing to add to my already too long post above! Another consideration when deciding which art school program is best for your child: keep in mind that, in several different criteria, the schools fall onto a spectrum. More academic focused â less academic focused. Of the schools we looked at, I felt like RISD and then MICA fell on the more academic-focused side (for this info, take a look at the actual course catalogs for the academic listings), with SCAD and SAIC falling on the âless academicsâ side.
Thereâs also a spectrum of âcareer-focused,â with schools like SCAD and Ringling being more career-focused than others. Schools that are more career focused can be better for the kid who knows exactly what they want to do, donât want to âdabbleâ or experiment, or get a more broad arts education.
And with that comes a âmajor-focusedâ scale. Some programs like SCAD are very focusedâfor instance, my daughter wouldâve had to choose between illustration and sequential arts, and from what we sussed out, there wouldnât have been much room to explore beyond that focused major. It seemed to me that RISD was also fairly-to- mid focused, with MICA being a little more flexible (my daughter is able to major in Illustration with a sequential concentration, and can easily throw in a creative writing minor, if she wants). On the other end of the spectrum, SAIC has no majors at all, and a totally flexible curriculum (also, no gradesâitâs all pass/fail!).
And lastly, thereâs a range of first-year/foundation-year programs. I feel like some of the schools with the highest acceptance rates tend to have intense âweed outâ first-year programs with very set, rigid programs. Some schools have no first-year programs at allâyou enter directly into your major and go from there (pretty sure Ringling fits this; not sure who else). RISD and MICA have set first-year programs, with differing opinions on how tough/intense they are, but they do expose you to a range of stuff before you begin your major program. Theyâre all different, and something to explore/decide whatâs important to you. Also, look at second-year retention rates (itâs easy to see who has those âweeding outâ first year programs!).
Oh, and one more considerationâŠif theyâre interested in getting teacher certification or not. MICA has a 5-year program where you complete your BFA program in your art discipline in 4 years, and then do a 5th year where you study art education, do student teaching, and graduate with a Masterâs in Teaching. I donât know about any of the other art schools, but itâs something to research if thatâs of interest!
âSome schools have no first-year programs at allâyou enter directly into your major and go from there (pretty sure Ringling fits this; not sure who else).â
Computer animation at Ringling is the only major Iâm aware of that is pretty much set from day 1. You can transfer OUT of CA but not into the major.
@gouf78 Some majors at Pratt have their own foundation year tailored to that major - I think itâs only fashion and architecture.
Similar to that, Laguna College of Art & Design and FIT both have a different set of âfoundationâ classes for each of their majors & more tailored to eventual professional skill sets.
@ArtAngst, I would think that would be very attractive to some students! (different âfoundationâ classes for different majors). I guess I have mixed feelings about the value of a general foundation curriculum for everyone. I can see benefits to both!
@KCHWriter I can understand the benefits of both too, altho my current RISD student will go on huge RANTS on how terrible her freshman foundation year experience wasâŠbut weâll see how she feels in hindsight.
But I teach in a similar field as architecture (interior design) and can totally understand how it makes sense to start them off right away in their intended major since thereâs never enough time to teach everything we need to cover AND teach the various computer programs they need to know to be competitive in their field.
Pratt admits directly to the major; for architecture and fashion, there is a major-specific foundation year. For everything else in the schools of Art or Design you share a common foundation year but are guaranteed courses in your major beginning 2nd year. Some majors are more popular than others so fill quickly and may not have a lot of room for those who declare during their first year or who want to switch majors. So switching into them might be very difficult if not impossible in a given year.
@KCHWriter @ArtAngst Great information again and thank you! I am starting to feel this place more like my family now 
Being one in a âminionâ here pretty much applying to art schools, we have no help no info anywhere but here. The D is even getting sarcastic comments from offices and counselors becoz she has so many colleges to apply to and they have to work for it. Really sad.
She is not a party kid at al!! So that above environment fits her perfectly. Thriftshopping, museums, build a bear, roller skating and going for a meal are the kind of things she would do if she wants to get out at all. Not interested in sports except maybe just workout and swim for herself.
Visiting is what we were just talking about. I was telling her how that is required and we havent done any since there are too many schools and too much expense for us to travel from Texas. So we will wait until we can narrow it down, maybe in March. Hoping by then we know at least something. After all these we are doing and spending time one, visiting and getting the vibe shouldnt be left out.
I cannot tell right now if more academic or less will appeal to her. It all depends on where the focus is. She is applying for Communication Design/Graphic Design, and does not really care for a math or science class at this point unless that science class is teacher her science of art She would like to definitely explore more of art but maybe not as broad as excited to take liberal art classes. But you never know. A lot depends on the environment.
At the same time she does want to explore film, photography etc. She got completely put off by SAIC on the portfolio day. Not just the person that reviewed my daughters, but my ears were open to others too and I felt whatever they said was âconceptualâ too. more like everything just went past me not relating to whatever they were reviewing if that makes sense. My daughter got a 5 in her digital art AP class (mind it I am not bragging), but when she was asked if she could use a lasso tool in photoshop we were ready to leave. She was asked that because the lady felt her art had too many squares. She didnt even care to look at the photos of the 3D pieces she took. not many but still. Maybe its their way, but luckily it saved us an application and visit as D didnt get the right vibe from the school
She sent our a few of her EA applications. We are sort of depending on RIT as a back up (with hopes that the school accepts her since she already got accepted in the program). Not in the city but still new york and from what i gathered here not a bad school either. The rest we will have to wait and see I suppose. But the New York schools are still whats pulling her in her heart. MICA VCU SCAD RIT second choice. She feels she is not good enough for RISD so she is not in a rush to apply for that.
Please keep these experiences coming! look forward to it and grateful that you all spend so much time writing to help others.
Knowledgable students, parents, and art educators can all disagree on the value of a major-specifc foundation year vs. something more general. Itâs hard to do a proper comparison; for instance, RISD (which has a general foundation year - even for the arch. majors!) vs. Ringling CA both have great outcomes. Perhaps its really about choosing the right program for the particular student.
Both my art kids were VERY focused on their specific majors (never changing their minds once they arrived on campus); however, both benefitted tremendously from that first year general foundation program and mixing it up with kids who were exploring or committed to different disciplines. A lot of this art & design stuff is about THINKING a certain way and learning to apply that thinking to a variety of problems to solve. That seemed to be the main benefit of something more generalized - while my kids were good at some applications, others in their cohort were good at something else. All learned from mixing it up with one another. In addition, while you forego that extra year of âspecializationâ you certainly do go wide in terms of concepts learned! Drawing, light/color/design, 2D/3D/4D space were all covered both conceptually and practically.
No doubt some disciplines are getting increasingly technical and require a lot more time to completion - and an MFA-level specialization might be too expensive for most so if you are able to get 'er done at the bachelors level, . . . well, I can see the merits to that argument. For my own children and their intellectual and artistic development, a comprehensive foundation program was best. I believe that most of the AICAD/NASAD-accredited schools still follow that pedagogy though hopefully others will chime in and clarify/correct.
@SomaRathore - I hope your daughter doesnât skip out on at least a few STEM courses during her college. My two art school kids have found theirs to be highly applicable! Both are in BFA programs that require fulfilling at least two courses of math and science. My animation kid was also required to take a specialized computer programming lab for the digital arts - even though sheâs specializing in 2D. Your daughter is likely to be well versed in the various digital applications and platforms available, given her interests and skill set. Hopefully she can build on that with a couple of STEMMY courses that are directly applicable to her major and will continue to train her in analytical thinking.
@KCHWriter - Iâd argue that SCAD is probably NOT one of the less academic art schools as they have a pretty structured academic core curriculum that you need to fulfill (1/3 of total credits). Subject areas will include all of the following: math/science, social/behavioral science, English Lit/humaniities, communication/media studies, computer programming, art history, and Iâm probably forgetting one or two additional. Each major will have a path to completion with specific generals that apply, but I noticed that my daughter was required to complete at least one (usually two) courses in each area. I donât think this is very different from other schools she looked at. I donât believe any of her schools of interest had a policy of allowing free choice for your generals (but she was also looking primarily at university programs).
Pratt is fairly âacademicâ as well. My older daughter is thrilled that, for the first time in four years, sheâs doing nothing but studio. She finished all her LACâs as of last summer. From what I can remember, Pratt requires at least two courses in Math/Science, Social/Cognitive Science, humanities/English Lit, and World History, in addition to Critical analysis of Art etc. Theyâve changed up the curriculum a bit, however, so no longer sure what the current generals are (my daughterâs class was grandfathered in - the changes occurred during their sophomore year once the new provost came on board).
@JBStillFlying She will not bypass if she needs to do anything in the curriculum. Just not her favorite thing to do. Having said that she has quite a few AP classes, which if they transfer might allow her to not take those classes. Instead she can use some classes (STEM) that relates to her major. In recent times things are too entwined to completely ignore them. She has 4s and 5s in AP classes so praying they transfer. Some science, some English/Soc/History and also Art history. Hopefully they allow us to save some money too.
The curriculum will be one of the factors once we are able to narrow it down to few schools. Yes a structure is needed and so is a strong foundation. I believe in that. Besides the foundation will also expose them to a lot more than if they didnt have to do that. I think my kid requires some structure as much as like likes her independence.
@SomaRathore, my D was accepted with scholarship to MICA, Pratt and MCAD (didnât get into RISD). MCAD is a much smaller and more personal art/design school here in the Twin Cities. It was her 2nd choice after Pratt and RISD. She loved all three because of the structured curriculum. MICA - at least at the time - was very âfluidâ - interdisciplinary, lots of options for electives . . . personally, I thought it sounded great! You didnât have to choose a major right away, you could choose from a variety of minors to create your own personalized curriculum. . . seemed about right for a BFA kid wanting to âexploreâ. However, that wasnât my kid. She desired training, not âexplorationâ LOL. She really was looking for some competent authority to tell her what set of courses to take. That would be something like Pratt or RISD.
@JBStillFlying My D didnât apply to MCAD, not sure why. Maybe our list was growing too long. Well she just started applying but MCAD is not in her list. Her first choice is Pratt (she will apply to RISD, but she feels she is not âgood enoughâ to get in). RIT seems to be her second choice and MICA on the same lines. There is a chance that she might get into RIT as her portfolio got accepted. For us, we are looking at the financial side too with the living costs pretty much half than the NYC. While Pratt/Pratt MWP and Parsons are her first choice, she is not disliking the overall mixed environment of RIT. Again we have not visited any schools.
She just saw that she got accepted in CCS Detroit. Any idea where the school stands in Graphic Design or overall? This is NOT her top choice more of a fourth or a backup if she doesnt get anywhere. This is the first acceptance she heard of. We have friends in Michigan and was told the school holds a good place in Industrial Design, but thats not what she wants to do. Not finding much information in CC with that school.
@SomaRathore - I donât know much about CCS, except that itâs an AICAD school (ie stand-along art/design school belonging to the best-known organization of such LOL). Animation Career Review does a yearly ranking of graphic design schools and itâs not very high on that; however, given that the rankings include Cranbrook and Yale they are obviously considering grad programs as well.
https://www.animationcareerreview.com/articles/top-50-graphic-design-schools-and-colleges-us-2018
Iâd look at the foundation program and communication design curriculum to see what they have to offer. Also look at undergrad. housing and campus, surrounding community, etc. While the BFA kids are a dedicated bunch, other aspects of âcollege lifeâ are probably going to be important at this stage of their education as well.
A few years ago USA Today ranked Pratt first for âa degree in fine and studio artsâ: https://www.pratt.edu/news/view/usa-today-ranks-pratt-number-one-college-for-a-degree-in-fine-and-studio-ar. Note that while Pratt-Utica may be small, it may also be desirably intimate for those first two years, and may offer substantial cost savings: https://www.mwpai.edu/about-prattmwp/pratt-utica-campus/.