So I’ll be going to RISD as a freshman come fall, and I was initially absurdly excited and thrilled to be accepted in the first place. I’m planning on going into industrial design, and as far as I was aware RISD has an excellent reputation in that field. I know reputation matters little once I actually have to search for a job and all that, but when I stumbled across this forum and saw all the trash talk against RISD from industry professionals, well, it worried me slightly.
Obviously, money is an issue for me, and although I don’t have to take out any seriously hefty loans, I didn’t receive any finaid and I’d prefer not to bankrupt my parents or slash my credit. Is RISD truly worth it? Or should I not bother with such a supposedly “prestigious” school and wait a year and go to a state college instead? Would there be a notable difference between them? Is the trash talk against RISD on this forum just a lot of hot air blown between RISD rejects, or should it be a cause for concern?
Also, a question to RISD alumni or current students : Is foundation year really that hard or is everybody just exaggerating?
Just like any other school, there are good points and bad. Just don’t expect to be babied, you have to push yourself. And I would advise you to make sure you see what technical skills you should have (by searching corefolios, design firm sites, etc…) and if you see that you aren’t being taught those things, learn them on your own.
Take advantage of the computer labs, wood and metal shops, you’re paying for it and you probably won’t have access to anything that nice after graduating. The metcalf store is a nice place to get your 3d materials, extremely convenient.
A lot of the hardness depends on you and what teachers you may happen to get, just like any other school. That along with the competition between you and your classmates. That will probably push you the most.
Going to freshman classes in the winter will be brutal (steep hills, wavy brick “historic” sidewalks, and ice don’t go together well!)
There’s not one school that doesn’t get bashed. Even the top ranked school Art Center constantly gets bashed at IDSA conferences (heard from a ACCD professor I’m taking a class with) for over styling their presentations, that there stuff has little substance and is all just really well done illustrations.
If you’ve already made a commitment then try it out. There’s always time for transferring later. The thing that made me not want to go to an art school was the fact that it was an art school: spending my life 24/7 surrounded by artsy fartsy douchebags/people who think they’re the shit wasn’t my idea of an enjoyable college experience. But some people really like it and it’s up to you. Have you visited? Have you hung out with some RISD kids? The school life makes it or breaks it.
Not only can foundation year be very difficult depending on your instructors, but for me it was the best year in the program in that it was rigorous, conceptually challenging, multidisciplinary, and filled with hard base line skill building. Looking back on it, it was the most valuable year of the 4 when I was there.
Connection with Brown:
As a transfer student I really appreciated having a full-fledged university near by (not to say I didn’t love the art school experience). I enjoyed having a larger selection of classes to choose from, the facilities, and the students. What I feel to be one of the most rewarding projects I’ve done was a collaborative one with the engineering department, not only was it great to have a completely different project scope but it was also eye opening to be the only designer on a team of 20 engineers.
Multidisciplinary Studios:
There are a few multidisciplinary studios with Babson College and MIT that give you a chance to work with business and engineering students. Like my experience at Brown, I enjoyed the time to broaden my perspective and get a better understanding of how business/design/engineering interact.
Hands on emphasis:
I can’t say I’m familiar with how other schools go about this but there’s a strong emphasis learning materials and building with your hands to design along with 3 floors of shops (wood, metal, model) and some amazingly informative shop techs.
Skinny had some great points, what you walk out of RISD with depends more on how hard you push yourself and what path you create while you’re there (the variety in studios along with other courses allow for many completely different ‘career’ paths within ID).
what you walk out of RISD with depends more on how hard you push yourself and what path you create while you’re there (the variety in studios along with other courses allow for many completely different ‘career’ paths within ID).
if as suggested (and I agree with) the result of your school career is what you make of it, then is RISD at 5X cost of in-state tuition at UC, 5X a better education?
I guess what I meant by that was going in, I never realized how much variation was possible based on the 4 studios I chose to take (as freshman/sophomore year was near identical for everyone). With that in mind, people from the same department could have fairly different perspectives based on whether or not they spent their time with the furniture and ceramics studios vs nano tech/nasa, etc. Just an example of what you do matters more than the school you go to. I suppose I’m just stating the obvious though…
if as suggested (and I agree with) the result of your school career is what you make of it, then is RISD at 5X cost of in-state tuition at UC, 5X a better education?
what do you think?
I’ve been wondering about this as well, I’m not quite sure what I think. I could be way off base here, but it seems that if you went to a big name school for business lets say (assuming the same student), you’d be more likely to walk out with a high paying job from the start, that might quickly recover the cost of the high tuition vs the ordinary state school? In that instance there’s not so much to judge the skill of the person aside from the degree, but in our case we have the portfolio. The RISD name might help you connect with other RISD alums but if your portfolio is weak it wouldn’t matter. So a motivated person from a state school with a strong portfolio would have a much more level playing field in art/design perhaps?
No school is perfect. My time at RISD was flawed, but I would not trade it. The freshman year there is probably the best, and one of the hardest, in the country if not the world.
I recommend:
you do a minimum of 2 internships and not for RISD grads.
you do an exchange semester your junior year at a school like Art Center, UC or CCS to balance your education.