My son and I recently compared several industrial design undergraduate schools. This site was extremely helpful in researching the schools. My son is a high school senior interested in product design, not transportation. He would like to explore furniture design, photography, fine arts and maybe UX / UI. Here’s a summary of our findings. Many of the comments here have been previously stated by others and confirmed by me.
He applied , visited, and was accepted to : CMU, U of Cincinnati, Pratt, RISD, RIT. The facilities such as the woodshops, studios, model shops looked good at all the schools.
CMU
Pros- Graduates are getting very high paying jobs mostly in the field of UX/UI. Flexible program that allows students to explore product, communications and environment paths within the design department. Small program with a total of about 40 design students (including communication & environment design too) . Strong computing and engineering programs allow students to minor in human computer interface. Opportunities to take fine arts classes. Majority of students get summer internships junior and senior year.
Cons- Student portfolios and design studios show little evidence of high level physical consumer product design.
UC
Pros- Outstanding student portfolios showing high level product design, model making and manufacturing skills. Extensive co-op opportunities in the US , Europe, Asia. Students are well prepared with marketable skills and work experience.
Cons- UX/UI opportunities are in Communications Design major. Not sure if it’s available for ID majors. My son prefers a smaller school. Largest school of the group. It is also the furthest from our home in upstate NY.
Pratt
Pros- My son liked the art focus of the student work. Well presented displays of student work. Proximity to NYC for culture and internships. Faculty consists mostly of working designers.
Cons- My sons interaction with the school administration was not good. Campus tour dates were very restricted, tours left out a view of the dorms, faculty presentations were not well organized, follow up by the admissions staff was poor. These administrative missteps eventually changed my son’s opinion of the school.
RISD
Pros - Outstanding student portfolios with artistic focus. Opportunities to take fine arts classes and academic classes at Brown. Focuses on traditional skill and aspects of ID.
Cons- Tour of the ID department was weak so we didn’t get too many details. Very high cost and no merit scholarships eventually took this school off our list.
RIT
Pros- Well presented displays of student work. Lots of evidence of high quality product design. Strong photography program and large variety of academic selections.
Cons- UX/UI opportunities are in another major. Not sure if it’s available for ID majors. Co-op isn’t mandatory and not as well established as UC’s.
Son’s Choice
After many months of visiting, applying, researching the schools, he chose to attend UC. When we started this process we knew very little about UC. The more we learned about it the better it looked. UC is also the lowest cost school of the group. I think he made the right choice!