Hi, I am a senior in High School and have been admitted to RISD, Pratt, CCS, and CCA.
I am currently trying to figure out which program would best suit me and my pursuits after college. I am looking for a program which will help give me the fundementals of drawing for ID and basic form understanding. Also I would like whatever program I go into to spend a great deal of time, or let me focus on a table top aspect of product design, and not delve to far into Transportation design. Lastly, while In school I would like to be able to gain good skills in models making, in which I would have the ability to buff up my portfolio. After school I would to either go to graduate school at art center or obtain a job at nicely sized design firm, hopefully in NY or San Fran.
While these are the schools I am looking at now, I can always transfer next year, so any suggestions for other schools is greatly appritiated.
If anyone has any ideas let me know, ive toured all of the schools and am completely torn.
Couple things to think about_ just some thoughts to consider:
[1] transferring is not easy and you won’t get into ID until your sophomore year anyway.
[2] a lot of the qualities you are looking for are practically mutually exclusive. CCS will teach you how to draw and understand form, but RISD will teach you how to make prototypes and work more on tabletop product.
[3] if you want to be in NY or San Fran with a job right out of school, best to go to school in one of those cities and network while a student
[4] most design firms that do tabletop are miniscule if they are even more than one person (with a few exceptions)
If you were in my position right now, what type of design besides trans do you think would help me be obtain or be recruted for a job (anywhere, not just NY or san fran)? Which schools do you belive have the best ability to place a product design major into a job?
Each place you have been accepted to (which CCA are you talking about?) are all established with strong networks and attract good talent (both students and teachers). Each one is also very different.
I’d say it’s time to go back to the schools (more than a tour), talk to both teachers and students, and really scope the place out. Be a detective and try to find the weakspots of each. Be sure to really understand what kind of fabrication facilities that they have. Look to see if you can make things at the extremes of scale (Tiny to huge).
Yo is right about UC- they have worked hard to make a school where recent graduates have a lot of internship experience and strong presentations.
You may also want to lookup Bruce Tharp (he’s a contributer to core77) about the new program at SAIC (Art Institute of Chicago). Very different take than other schools.
Good luck and don’t worry so much about being employable on the other end of school. There are still other things for you to figure out.
try thinking about it from the perspective of location, size of school, type of school (public uni. vs. art school), or anything else that will affect your experience outside of the classroom. The courses you will take are only a part of your education. No matter what school you go to, you can develop your skills as you see fit. I’ve met talented designers from ‘no-name’ schools as well as crap designers from ‘top-5’ programs.