Art Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ranking are meaningless in art schools. You go to the program that is best for your area of study. The best ceramic school is Alfred university. But I guarantee no one has ever heard of it. We felt RISD had a weird vibe and dc did not apply there. They spend too much time boasting on their link with Brown, and little time telling me what they offered. Also a good one is Temple University. They actually just absorbed another smaller art school in Philly. There art studios were impressive. National Portfolio Day is vital.

We crossed Temple off our list bc of the extreme high levels of violent crime around campus.

[Anonymous]

If you live in Virginia, the value of VCU cannot be easily dismissed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Colleges with strong undergrad art programs:
Williams, Yale, UCLA, VCU, USC, Wash U, Michigan, Indiana.
An alarming number of art colleges have dissolved over the last year. If your kid is going to art school, I'd only send her to the most reputable, wealthiest schools, which will likely remain solvent in the decades to come. If your kid isn't likely to thrive at one of the best art colleges, I'd recommend enrolling in a regular college/university.

Op here - Are the highly competitive schools listed above looking mainly at the art portfolio or the students academic grades ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colleges with strong undergrad art programs:
Williams, Yale, UCLA, VCU, USC, Wash U, Michigan, Indiana.
An alarming number of art colleges have dissolved over the last year. If your kid is going to art school, I'd only send her to the most reputable, wealthiest schools, which will likely remain solvent in the decades to come. If your kid isn't likely to thrive at one of the best art colleges, I'd recommend enrolling in a regular college/university.

Op here - Are the highly competitive schools listed above looking mainly at the art portfolio or the students academic grades ?

Both. Also, for the highly competitive schools your child should submit test scores (SAT, ACT). I didn't mention CMU, which a PP noted above, as also an excellent college with a strong art program. As an out of state applicant, DC will need to be extremely competitive all around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ranking are meaningless in art schools. You go to the program that is best for your area of study. The best ceramic school is Alfred university. But I guarantee no one has ever heard of it. We felt RISD had a weird vibe and dc did not apply there. They spend too much time boasting on their link with Brown, and little time telling me what they offered. Also a good one is Temple University. They actually just absorbed another smaller art school in Philly. There art studios were impressive. National Portfolio Day is vital.

Alfred is very well known for their ceramics program. And rankings/name recognition definitely matters in certain ways and in certain artistic fields.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Colleges with strong undergrad art programs:
Williams, Yale, UCLA, VCU, USC, Wash U, Michigan, Indiana.
An alarming number of art colleges have dissolved over the last year. If your kid is going to art school, I'd only send her to the most reputable, wealthiest schools, which will likely remain solvent in the decades to come. If your kid isn't likely to thrive at one of the best art colleges, I'd recommend enrolling in a regular college/university.

Yep.

RiSD or undergrad major in Art at a good college.

[Anonymous]

Somewhat as an aside, since I don't have a kid interested in art schools nor anything to contribute on the topic, but I live in the Detroit area and am generally curious whether folks in the know have heard of and/or have an opinion on the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.

Locally it's highly regarded for automotive/transportation design, but they do have a wide range of programs, so I'm curious about the perception (if there is one) outside my bubble.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Somewhat as an aside, since I don't have a kid interested in art schools nor anything to contribute on the topic, but I live in the Detroit area and am generally curious whether folks in the know have heard of and/or have an opinion on the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.

Locally it's highly regarded for automotive/transportation design, but they do have a wide range of programs, so I'm curious about the perception (if there is one) outside my bubble.

SAIC grad here. I don't much about it, but a grad school friend of mine taught there for a number of years before taking a job at RISD. It makes sense that it's is highly regarded for automotive/transportation design, considering its location.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just art schools, or is DC also interested in universities with large art programs?
My DC applied to both. The big art school names are RISD, CalArts, Pratt, SAIC, SCAD. There's also Ringling and Parsons. Each school has a unique reputation and they vary wildly with regard to acceptance rates. SCAD accepts the majority of applicants; RISD accepted 14% for the class of 2028.
DC should attend National Portfolio Day to see where they stand and to learn about the different programs.

How are the portfolios going?

Is your DC applying to colleges/universities for Art besides traditional art schools?

[Anonymous]

I had a good experience at SCAD. The administration is sus but the professors are excellent.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I think you need to say which art, as the list of schools for each particular type is going to be different.

Temple didn't really absorb UArts. A lot of the students from UArts did decide to transfer to Temple, but it isn't the same. I think Bennington in VT actually moved some of the UArts programs to their campus. It's complicated what happened there. Still not sure what is to become of the facilities - UArts buildings were supposedly stunning.

My daughter is a dancer. The list of schools that are tops for dance, even different types of dance, are going to be much different than someone who is interested in interior design.

I wish the state programs in VA were actually what we were looking for. VCU and Mason are great dance programs, but not the type of program or dance style she was looking for. Radford did wind up as her runner up school, as they offer a BA which would allow her to double major a lot more easily. She wound up picking a very small school in MA (Dean) that is well known for performing arts AND their programs for kids with learning disabilities.

[Anonymous]

USC, NYU, Northeastern.

4 year out median earning for Design & Applied Art from Northeastern = $95,088

https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?167358-Northeastern-University&fos_code=5004&fos_credential=3

This is amazing and probably one of the very best.

[Anonymous]

How's the social life at RISD? The school is pretty small with 2,100 students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How's the social life at RISD? The school is pretty small with 2,100 students.

I have no personal experience, but it's reputedly a complete grind. Students apparently pull all-nighters throughout the semester and struggle to keep up with the workload. If you look at the Niche ratings, only 8% of RISD students "agree that the workload is easy to manage." Compare that to traditional grind universities and colleges like Princeton (24%), Swarthmore (23%), or Chicago (25%).

[Anonymous]

Anyone applying to RISD? If so, how's the portfolio preparation going?

Are there any good art school forums outside of DCUM?