OSU students! admissions question

Design Discussions students and schools
1

i am thinking of applying to OSU for fall 2011, among other schools. can anyone verify whether the following things are true?

  1. you can apply to the major of your choosing (ID in my case) directly, before enrollment, by completing the entrance exam for that major and submitting all the other documentation required. if you are accepted, you still have to take all the required pre-req’s in foundation year, and then you enter your major in 2nd year.

  2. if you aren’t accepted directly, you can apply to the foundation year program (i believe OSU states this as applying “to OSU as well as to the department”) and try the entrance exam again a year later, about half way through 1st year, to try and get into your desired major.

  3. it’s not hard to get into the foundation year program (fingers crossed that this is true…). the majors are more selective, with 18 students accepted to each major on average every year.

thanks for your help in advance!

2

There are several “OSU’s” -which one are you referring to?

3

Assuming you are referring to the Ohio State University and the undergraduate degree, I was there for mechanical engineering and decided to switch majors to industrial design. The process was a big hassle. They had no ID related classes outside of the major so I had to officially be in the major before they allowed me to take any classes. Their entrance exam was a quarter or two away so I ended up taking some foundation art classes, which did not help me prepare for the entrance exam whatsoever.

At that time (2005 or 2006), the entrance exams for ID were in the winter,and I believe and there were 80-ish applicants and approximately 15 students got in every year. If you got rejected, you had an opportunity to retake the exam the following year, but after you’re rejected twice, you aren’t given a third chance (if you’re willing to wait another year). The exam I took that year was a take home exam, several short essay questions, “What is ID to you?”, “Who is the most influential designer to you and why?”, etc, and then they asked for 2 redesigns of a kitchen utensil and a tool (hammer, etc) with sketches, call-outs, and descriptions. They also wanted a portfolio with previous works, etc. With no ID experience, I didn’t make it into the program and rather than wait an entire year taking unrelated classes, I applied for schools elsewhere and left OSU.

I’ve always thought they’ve had a ridiculous system set up for ID. Rather than filter out students before they’ve even been given a chance to learn, they should have put the exams 1-2 years into the major.

4

referring to Ohio State University

thanks for the responses, keep 'em coming

5

If you like Columbus why not go to CCAD? I’ll go look at the OSU ID program this weekend (Halloween in Columbus should be fun too). If I were in your shoes I’d apply to other schools too, and they would have higher priority for me as well.

CCS
Kindell in Grand Rapids
Pratt
UIUC
CIA (Cleveland)
Look at the state schools in Wisconsin
Cincinnati
these are all around the same price point, well range maybe.

Are you a transfer or in High School?

6

i’m a transfer (previous degree) student. i graduated from Engineering this year

those are interesting suggestions. i couldn’t find Kindell, other than a furniture company. also i couldn’t find any state schools in Wisconsin that have ID programs. which schools were you thinking of?

what were your impressions of the OSU ID program from you visit?

7

I am a freshman there right now but was also a transfer (already finished a BA in Biology from another university). I will be taking the design entrance exam in Dec so I am not in the program yet. About the questions you had in the OP.

  1. Yes, I have heard you can do that.
  2. Yes, I believe this is also correct. You “apply” into their design program your 1st year (more specifically they give you the design entrance exam in Dec and you have over winter break to do it and hand it in, along with other stuff, in Jan). They tell you whether you got in about a month after that (so you will already have started winter quarter).
  3. Yes, you’re essentially right … getting into the foundation year program (1st year design classes) doesn’t require anything. Anyone can take any of the 1st year design classes. But as you probably already know … you aren’t really “in” the design program until you take the entrance exam and are accepted into a particular design track (one of 3: industrial design, visual communication/graphic design, and interior design). Just to let you know, usually vis comm is the most competitive (this year it’s extremely competitive), ID is usually next competitive-wise (this year there are a few less applying than in the past … I think usually around 60ish apply), and interior design is last (there less than 10 applying this year I think). You need to do an interview if you pass the first round of their screening (after they evaluate everyone’s design entrance exam). Note, they look at your grades also during the fall quarter.

Karen Dimmick is the lady at OSU who probably can answer a lot of your questions, but if you post up some I’ll try to answer them to the best of my knowledge.