Why did you choose your school?

I chose CMU:

I had a few major criteria in mind when I was thinking about colleges at the end of high school:
I wanted to go to a school that was in a city, had industrial design, and allowed me to continue studying Japanese.
This narrowed things down rather quickly. CMU fit the bill though.

I visited CMU and loved the campus, was impressed with Pittsburgh as a city upon my first visit, and became fixated on going there when I saw the design studios and all the work they were doing. I was also very attracted to the small design class sizes, each year is only ~50 students, who then split into industrial design or communication design for sophomore and junior year before rejoining in senior year.

Simply put, I got a very good vibe. The convergence of artistic creativity and academic rigor that I think defines CMU was clearly apparent in my visits there and made it a very appealing place.

I actually applied early decision to the humanities college for a Japanese major, but got deferred. I then applied regular decision to the school of design. I felt good about my portfolio, but the interview portion left me a little shakey; I couldn’t tell if the prof talking with me appreciated my work or thought I was a tool… It was a long drive back to CT! But I must have been over thinking things because I got in and was ecstatic! It was the only school I felt passionate about going to, and was the only one I applied to. If I hadn’t gotten in I wanted to find some kind of work for a year and try again along with some other places.

Retelling this story always gives me anxiety, because so many of the big things in my life right now are directly related to starting my design education at CMU 3 falls ago. It’s too crazy to think how different things could have been. In particular I always feel grateful that I didn’t get into the humanities school!

Heading into my senior year at CMU ID, I feel better than ever about what I’ve gotten from the program. The facilities, the staff, the community, the greater campus intellectual environment, I have nothing but great things to say. I’d say it’s one of the more progressive design programs at the moment, from what I know, but there is a long standing appreciation and respect for the traditional technical skills of design, and a high standard of craft that is instilled in you throughout the first two years. The second two years, although I’m still in the midst of them, push you to think critically of how you apply the design process, to a rapidly changing world’s diverse set of problems.

The only real issue I can think of is that there are a lot of periods of angst amongst the students, myself included. I think the program asks you more questions than it answers, in a good way, but with job hunting on the horizon, finding yourself as a designer, etc. etc. I’ve found the environment to squeeze out a lot of introspection and contemplation, and maybe too much at times. You have to step out of the bubble regularly to keep your head, because it is a very intense and concentrated environment, CMU as a whole and the design program specifically. I think it takes initiative to provide yourself with rich outside perspective on all that you are experiencing within the school, and that can be difficult.

In addition, it certainly is expensive. That said, in my case CMU has been generous with grants every year, and Pittsburgh is definitely a cheap city. I’m racking up a good bit of debt, but the investment has felt worth it more and more as I progress. I might change my tone a tad when I start writing those checks, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it :wink: For any people considering CMU though, don’t write it off too quickly over the price. My family is middle class and with the financial aid etc. it is manageable and worth it, if you connect with the school and program, that is!

I don’t find CMU gets that much love on Core77, and I can understand that, because looking at shear numbers, when you compare CMU alums to other good ID schools, they are probably much fewer and far between in the traditional ID world. A lot of ID students end up in UX and IxD which makes even fewer of the ~22/year that graduate likely to be seen in the ID community. Then when you look at tuition costs, things don’t add up. But if anyone is considering it, i’d encourage you to considerate it strongly, because the education I’m getting is top notch and has really changed my life for the better. It’s a great school, they make you think, make, and ask questions. It is a very ambitious atmosphere at CMU and I think it pushes me to work my hardest and learn as much as I can in my time there.

Why did I choose the school I did:

  1. Reputation - It has a good reputation for all courses producing many “famous” designers in all disciplines even outside of ID.Within ID there are some very big names on the alumni roster.

  2. Location - It is in an incredible city and to experience a faster pace of life so early on had been my dream.

Would I choose it again? Yes and no.

Yes - Only on a personal level. Mainly for the location and being able to live in that city so early on, personal growth and being exposed to so many different cultures, and finally meeting people that have made a huge impact on my life.

No - Professionally it has not prepared me to where I personally would like to be as a designer. It has relied too long on it’s reputation to the point where other schools produce more employable graduates. Recently our grads move in to research and strategy and not so many hardcore ID’ers

I also didn’t know as much about design as I do now when I picked my school and what would prepare me best for the real world. My school didn’t offer a CO-OP or even allow us to study abroad - we had a lot of people come over to us but we weren’t allowed to go to them! If I had my time again and could afford it I would have moved to the US, from what I have seen Virginia Tech seems to be right on the money currently.

Design school is strategy formats.A good designer needs a good school.I can not go an design school because i where i live there has no school.so,in my life i can not learn any design of any formats.

Looking back, definitely will choose my school again… because of

  1. Proximity to my home
  2. Teaching techniques I like it
    3 I love my teachers

If I get a chance I would be there again…

Because is close to my home.




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http://hacksplanet.org

I noticed a trend that people are choosing schools close to their home. I would be in the same boat! I grew up in Cleveland and it just happened to have the great design school, “The Cleveland Institute of Art.”

I was convinced by ID students who went there and studied automotive design. When I got accepted into the program, I learned much more about the wider world of industrial design, which was much more than cars. I’ve learned so much from the competitive environment and made many great memories.

I chose Carleton because of proximity to home, but I also because of its more technical background. While I value aesthetics, I felt like the program I was previously in at University of Montreal lacked that technical component that made projects “realistic” as opposed to blue sky concepts. Carleton having that engineering background IMO helped constrain the projects more and make them more believable as portfolio pieces instead of things a la Electrolux.

Back in 2002 I chose the Eindhoven University of Technology because:

  1. Close to my parentals home, saved me lots of money in the end, but did inhibit me from a good integration into the social community in Eindhoven. In the end I would not recommend that to most people. I also did my masters there even though now I’d also recommend always doing your masters somewhere else, even in another country and another culture.
  2. The newness and uncertainty actually attracted me. It seemed rather boring to me to design products in an established manner, while these times are very exciting and things are majorly shifting. It felt less institutional than other schools.
  3. A future oriented approach to projects with lots of room for free and blue sky thinking. I felt like I needed that for a few years before starting to design in a more structured and well-defined manner. In the end I think it greatly helped me and the program appeared to offer a lot of variety in projects, also some more defined ones.
  4. Nice open spaces to work in, for the first year students. Some other spaces were quite awful though. The entire faculty is moving to a new building in September this year.

I choose my school due to its reputation.It is the best CBSE school in india.

My school was chosen by my parents.

This is a nice wee topic to get my pen started again…

I applied to Coventry University in 2001 as, at the time, it had one of the best transport design programs in the world, and I was obsessed with cars. I was unsuccessful in my application so I enrolled in the foundation course at Coventry. This was a great move, as it took my thoughts away from ‘run of the mill’ secondary school Art teachings and delved into the core of the subject spanning life drawing (naked people - :open_mouth: ), Georgia Keefe and her petals, craft, etc. and of course ID. I would highly recommend this to any willing designer as it’s only one year and by hell does it broaden your mind!
It was a one-on-one critique with my lecturer when I dropped the bomb that I was thinking of moving away from transport and hitting ID for my degree. His eyes lit up, and told me with my Maths/Physics/Art A-Level background I’d be a fool not to, otherwise I’d be designing the next wing mirrors on a ford focus, if I was lucky… I’ve never looked back.

I chose CSULB.

I went there for 3 main reasons:

  1. Convenience (was enrolled in a completely different major when I switched over)

  2. Price (was the cheapest BS degree I could find)

  3. Reputation (was suppose to be very respectable back in the day the original program founders still taught)

I would say that that it met and 1 and 2 very well, and was a disappointment in 3. All in all, I would say its an “ok” school. I’ve certainly heard stories of worse programs, and there are some exceptional faculty there. But there are also career professors who don’t have much field experience, and many professors have cycled out in my 5 years there. Some of them were quite good, but there weren’t enough classes to go around when full timers get priority. I’ve also never understood how they match professors with classes, as there were many instances where an otherwise capable teacher was required to teach a subject they were woefully unqualified for. The tools have improved during my stay, but the state of the shop was pretty embarrassing when I started, and it took a student petition to get things changed. However the program has doubled in size (20->40), and I think it will soon outgrow the facilities. I’ve always joked that the design program is the redheaded ginger of the college of the arts, as the fine arts get way better facilities and free foam.

It’s got a few things going for it though. It’s geographically close to a number of community colleges, art schools, and public programs that are very affordable, allowing you to expand your skillset in almost any direction. It’s part of a larger liberal arts campus, so you can get involved with other things besides design 24/7. It’s got a handful of great professors. The Duncan Anderson lectures do sometimes bring in very cool speakers. And its cheap.

There are a few cases where I would say LB is the place for you:

  1. You are poor. Did I mention its cheap? Its very cheap for a BS (~$3000 tuition per semester x 10 semesters)

  2. You came from HS and have never drawn in your life. If you’re starting from scratch and don’t want to spend years training up to apply for ACCD, then LB is the place to go. Many of the students are new to design, and the program will usually keep pace with your learning if you are starting from zero.

  3. You want a degree and a “life”. The program is honestly not that strenuous nor selective if you just want to graduate with a degree. There are some miserable semesters, but if you can put together a slide deck and a presentation, it’s pretty hard to fail. So we get a number of older students who are parents and they need a degree to advance their career and a workload that isn’t as brutal as ACCD.

There are a few cases where I would absolutely not recommend LB.

  1. You have a lot of talent and skills coming in. Chances are, you will draw better, model better, and CAD better than most of your teachers and peers. It is not hard to outgrow the program and plateau. I’ve seen quite a few very talented classmates either drop out from boredom, or barely improve until they got the right teacher.

  2. You want to be among the best and have the drive to do it. Most of your classmates are coming straight from HS and will go through a phase of dicking around (I sure did). Most will not be as serious as you and will not help you get better.

  3. You absolutely need a good environment to learn. This is mostly up to chance, but once you pass portfolio and enter studio, the faculty expects your class to police yourselves. I’ve argued against this to no avail, but if you have classmates that trash the workspace and leave food out, you better get used to the smell.

So would I do it all over again? Let’s just say I wouldn’t want to. I didn’t come from money and I wasn’t exposed to design until late in college, so it’s unlikely I could have gone to any other school and graduated at the same time. But there were many semesters where I felt like I was learning more on youtube than in class, so I think it’s important to manage your expectations. You definitely get more than what you pay for, but I’m a believer that anyone with a good work ethic and a modicum of talent will make more money for the rest of their lives, but nothing will get back lost time. So take that for what you will.

Because it was a renownd school in the city.Nice campus,nice building,close to home,also good result.Considering everything it was perfect school for study.

because reputation

Because of location.

Because my parent had not enough money to get me to normal school…

nyc post :wink:

We don’t really get to choose schools here, its the desire of our parents.

  1. I chose my school based on how the I.D. program complemented my existing skill set. I’d gone to art school so I didn’t need the visual/aesthetic training. The school I chose for I.D. was the only school (at the time) in Canada that taught Solidworks… so I went for the technical training.
  2. There was a 3rd year co-op.
  3. I wasn’t willing to move cities so that limited my choice to 2 schools.

In the same situation, I would make the same choice. Every school has it’s way of teaching and placing emphasis on different aspects of design. If you are trying to decide, go to the open house and look at student projects. In Toronto, there is something called the Rocket show. It’s a competition that brings together the thesis projects from graduating students from 3 or 4 schools. I’d highly recommend checking it out if you are trying to decide which school to go to. There may be something like it in other cities.

At the end of the day, school is a small step to becoming an industrial designer. Once you start working, there is a lot to learn on the job.

Hello anyone!! :smiley:

I always wanted to get in to ID but, I took other routes and now I want to go back to school and do what I really want. DESIGN. I live in Houston TX and I have been looking for a Good school to start my education. I know We have UH, but I have nothing to compare and if I go with what WWW have to say, It sounds like if you are not in the East coast or abroad you have no chance get a good career. I also read about Denver U. and some of the Art institutes.

If possible I would like to have a fresh opinion on this schools the bad the Good and the … no just the bad and the Good.

Thanks