College choice advice

Hello all

I have looked through these boards and am hoping for some advice for my son. He will be a freshman in college in the fall and majoring in ID. He really wants to be at a diverse university so he only applied to those types of schools. Now he has a decision to make and it is difficult to get a sense of how well regarded these schools are and how important their rankings as a design school are.

He is deciding between Purdue, Cincinnati, Illinois (CU) and Ohio state. He loved Purdue the best, we thought the career services for job placement were superior but is the ID program any good?

Any thoughts on any of these programs appreciated. Obviously we know Cincinnati is the number one program but other than that important fact it would be third on the list as he really wants that big 10 experience

Sorry to be blunt but does he want a Career/Job or a big 10 experience?
If I were going to spend 4+ years in school to get the best education to prepare me for a job the rest of my life I would go to the best school, not the one with the best big 10 experience.
ID is not like other degrees where the school name and resume gets you an interview. Your portfolio will be what employers evaluate.
How are Purdue’s career services superior? Were those specific to ID or all majors?
Did you check out and evaluate the students’ work for each of those schools? Their internship and sponsored programs? Where are their recent grads working? What percentage gets jobs in ID after graduation?, etc.

How does he know he wants a Big10 experience? What does that even mean? Where did he get this idea from? TV, Parents, friends? If you can clarify that a bit we can give better suggestions.

I personally think I would have loved the college experience at just about any school I went too. At all the school mentioned your going to college at a big public university. The experience will be unique to each campus, but not drastically better or worse.

If I really wanted a “crazy” college experience I’d go to Ohio State not Purdue. Highly ranked football team, one of the biggest “party schools” in the nation. But not the best design program.

Cincinnati however has the highest ranked ID program in the nation. 5 years of the best education that’ll help shape the next 40 years of his working life. Great alumni network, and the premier Co-op program in the nation. You graduate with over 2 year of working experience.

On top of that Cincinnati is probably not far from that “Big 10” experience. Was the Big East conference. Now The American. It’s even rumored to be a possible addition to the Big12. Facebook Athletics are usually near the top in rankings. Basketball is great. Football and Soccer when I went were amazing. Large diverse student body (as with all public universities) Greek life and parties; are at all public universities. So what makes Cincy #3 choice wise? Living in Cincinnati as opposed to Layfatte?


Look at the work from these links and tell me which one you think will prepare your son the best.
https://www.behance.net/search?field=49&content=projects&sort=appreciations&time=week&schools=4158
https://www.behance.net/search?field=49&content=projects&sort=appreciations&time=week&schools=4787
https://www.behance.net/search?field=49&content=projects&sort=appreciations&time=week&schools=4040

I can confidently say that for ID this is not true at all. Perhaps for more traditional majors that may ring true. But Design does not work that way.

thank you for taking the time to reply…i think that I should clarify…I am looking for feedback on the quality of these particular ID programs: Purdue, Illinois and OSU…if any one has fairly recent experience with these programs or their graduates, we would appreciate the feedback

Thanks Eman for posting this.
Though it is just a snap shot and really just a few strong students uploading their work can tilt the scales in their schools favor, it still gives a really good general sense.

To me and not very surprisingly, there seems to be a pretty clear winner here…

No direct experience with those schools. Years of looking at portfolios and I cannot recall any from those 3 schools, maybe from Ohio. I didn’t even know Purdue had an ID program (usually a red flag when looking at portfolios).

My final 2 cents since it seems you want info on those 3 schools only. If I had a kid interested in ID, and tuition and location were not an issue I would look into Cincinnati or Art Center. I didn’t go to either of these 2 schools but their student portfolios are usually very strong. If tuition or location was an issue then I would adjust my options.

College experience seems arbitrary. It’s like choosing a doctor based on how well they treat you in the reception area. Good luck.

Cincinnati has had great portfolios streaming out of there for the past 10 years. I’ve worked with Cinci grads at Nike, Converse, frog, and I hired one hear at Sound United as well.