Why did you choose your school?

Design Discussions students and schools
41

From the other side of the world, Im a kiwi,(new zealand) theres a few schools to go to here, I choose to go to Massey university in wellington, its a pretty sweet set up, the school spent around $45mill setting up the id dept., we have got acces to pretty good equipment workshops - wood, metal, plastics, spray booths etc - and good comps theschools provides all the latest apple comps and programs (as they damn well should). Studying id over here away from the majority of the action, makes u very determined to be successful and to gain overseas experience.

The course program is well structured covering pretty much every thing there is, the tutors are well experienced in the international design community so it helps with contacts for employment etc.

As far as fees go, Im paying around 4k a year (thats nz dollars too) and living is cheap as chips and at the end of the day u only get out wot ya put in,

thought id share my opinion any way, any other id kiwis out there? :laughing:

42

I am currently a senior at the ohio state university. and while i have loved every minute of my time here, GO BUCKS, i dont know if i would have made the same choice knowing what i know now. Since i only have experience with schools in the area, i will put in my two cents on Ohio.

OSU very research oriented. the co op program is nearly non existant, but study abroad provides great oppertunities. i love to sketch, but if you dont sketch on your own, you probably wont learn…it is less expensive then private schools which is nice, but the curriculum has not been geared towards what i would like to do with design after college. ( you learn the process of design, what is good design vs. bad, and a lot about initial stages of design…the tradeoff is that you dont have the time in studio to develop the aesthetics of your work…which can be frustrating )

CCAD (columbus college of art and design) somewhat expensive, but very good. pretty decent co-ops. unlike osu or cincy, your general ed classes are apparently not that important, and do not require much thinking.lol.

DAAP (cincy) this was the other program that i was accepted into. looking back its hard to understand why i would pass up the oppertunity to go somewhere that helps you set up so many great co ops. their student work is always impressive and something that i see as a standard in this area for what, at least aesthetically, your work should be. that being said, i did not like the campus at all, and the faculty that i met was not nearly as friendly as those at osu. ( things that as a high school senior i felt were important, but could quickly overlook now as a college senior

OSU is a great school, and i hope that i do not offend anyone with my comments, but that has been my experience with these schools and what others have shared with me. I think this thread is a great resource for high school seniors and i hope that ppl read through everyones comments because every school rep that you talk to will tell you their school is the best, but you need to find what school is the best for you

43

let me tell you. . .Tom is a friend of mine here in my class of Senior ID at OSU. He does well by his school here, possibly too well. . .

Tom (hartings) draws, non stop, 24/7 and wants to work at Nike. Good luck right. . .Nike’s huge, no chance. And that’s what i first thought. Getting to know Tom however, i KNOW he will be something to deal with in the shoe industry within 5 years. I don’t doubt a few of you will be shootin hoopla in a pair of his shoes come 2010.

What he said about OSU? Well, it is not inaccurate. However, some things need stressed I feel that were not stressed. OSU’s co-op program IS non-existant. This is mainly the reason OSU students lose jobs/internships to UC students. A firm will take experience if they can get it, and by having done various internships, and seeing a few of your concepts go to manufacturing, you are guarunteed a job over someone who has done ONE co-op. The reason you are only allowed to do ONE co-op at OSU, (which you have to locate, apply, meet and interview ENTIRELY on your own) is due to OSU’s poor curriculum. The first year here you don’t have any studio’s. You have general design courses, and your GEC’s. 2nd year, NO design studios. . .once again you take design courses, but no studios just yet. 3rd year, AH HA!, a STU STU STUDIO! You have three that year. 4th year, ALAS!, 2 more studios and then a thesis. All in all 5 studios if you DON"T do a co-op. Do a co-op and you get 4. Now does that sound like a design education to you?

There are certain faculty that are intersted in changing this problem, and starting studios a year earlier, resulting in 8 studios, (7 with a co-op), however, due to low funding within the Design school, and some faculties ho hum attitude towards certain topics, the students continue to struggle through.

So, would I choose OSU again? Man, i don’t know. So i guess that means no. If you pay nearly $50,000 dollars for something, wouldn’t you like to say you’d do it again in a heartbeat if given the chance? Where would i go??? Pfsh. I don’t know what either. Maybe i’ll complete the BFA here at OSU and then head to Cinci for 4 more years.

Now in my offense, (that’s right, OFfense, i’m going to rip on myself here), i don’t feel ready due to my late coming to design. Throughout highschool i never thought that this job even existed. I was from a small town where any major other than business, football or a medical career meant you’d end up a nobody. i didn’t even know what photoshop was until the end of my Freshman year here, and i didn’t learn how to use it until the beginning of my Sophmore year. This all leads to my difficulties in aesthetics and sketching. Drawing was for starving artists, nothing more. So some of this is just a lack of better judgement on my highschool’s part due to the corn fed hillbillies running the town. Regardless, if i would draw as much as tom, i’d be more competent, but the skill comes rough if you just started 3 years ago.

So, all in all, if you are willing to accept that unless you draw constantly and teach yourself aesthetic value you will have problems getting jobs/internships ahead of UC, then go to OSU. Because they won’t teach you a pinch of it.

44

Thats a rough one. If I can suggest something (which I will) I would recomend transfering to UC or CIA. I did an exchange semester at CIA the first semester of my senior year, and if I had to do it again I would have just transfered there. It is a 5 year program (like UC I think) and they where willing to transfer me in as a 1st semester 4th years, setting me back just one semester. So I would have gotten 3 years of RISD and 2.5 of CIA. Only on BFA but the best of both educations. These schools seem more amicable to transfers vs art center which is going to set you back years.

Why continue to wastee time if you are not satisfied? Just food for thought.

45

I chose The Art Institute of Pittsburgh because they said:

  • they had 99% job placement! → LIE

  • they have the best professors/teachers → LIE

  • they have the best computer software → LIE (nobody uses Form-Z)

  • overall time spent in school was cut down because it was a year round program → burned me out

  • family influence

  • I love art

  • I was young and stupid and did not do the research I do now.

  • My parents did not go to college, so they thought it was great just because I was going.

If I could take it all back I would have went to the DAAP program at UC.

But I won’t. I would have never met my girlfriend/future wife if I went to UC.

46

I’m regret that I come from China :frowning:
In my opinion ,in chinese colleage ,the subject as advertisement art and so on is not good .So I want to study abroad~
Who can give me a suggestion?? :blush:
Who can help me~~~

47

I’ve studied art for many years.
Frankly speaking, at that moment I was not very excellent in this field. So I choose this university to learn advertisment.
This choose to me is not a bad thing, I like my major.
But now more and more people are engaging in advertisment. So there is some difficult for us to get a job. In a word, this major fills with challange.
But if you gave me another chance to choose, I would not choose this uni.

48

You said too exaggerate ，small nunu.I do not agree with your excuse。
I believe that you can do it by yours ability 。So long as you are diligenting.Your better than mine. I have not thought that I can go to college.Because of my high school`s prestige is notorious. :sunglasses: :laughing: :laughing:

49

Hi!

I chose my art school because it was a close commute to my home and the school had a good reputation. I was also, of course, impressed by the artwork on display when I went for my portfolio review; but I was merely 17 back then…& at that age only extreme photo-realism impressed me.
However, looking back now, & if only I knew what I know now, I would’ve ventured out of state to NY or even Montreal.
I feel as if my former, traditional art school is “going down the tubes”. I feel that the instructors (for the most part) are a bunch of dinosaurs & more importantly, OUT OF TOUCH with todays commercial art & design world! When I visit the school’s site, I cringe because it is so non-innovative…so non-trendy…so non-contemporary design. They don’t even update it! They’ve got a former student to design & host it, probably for free to save a few $$ here & there…and it is just a poor representation of what could be. Marketing wise, the school fails.
The quality of the students coming out of there nowadays is poor as well. An instructor who is a working designer / illustrator told me so. They seem to let anybody in who can pay without being selective, as they should.

Look for a school that offers real-life classes & includes the business of art & design as that will be one of your greatest assets when you graduate – the ability to promote & market your skillset(s).

50

Hey team,
I am currently studing at Brunel Uni nearish London (on placement at the moment) I had the option of a couple of other places, but at the time I joined, Brunel had a wonderful design community due to all the designers being on one site.

Which meant that you learnt alot from each other. You would interact with people from different stages of the course. It was a hudge amount of fun and very useful.

But recently they have moved the design part on to the same campus as the rest of the university, the sense of community has gone and I dont like to say it but I think Brunel design courses are loosing the edge that they were once renouned for.

51

I determined through talking to other people and my own experiencse that I didn’t want to study design at an art/design specific school.

I applied to colleges half for Mechanical Engineering, half for ID, however all the ID schools also offered ME. Those were Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, and Syracuse. Syracuse deferred me from the ID program due to my portfolio, which had been ruined by my teacher. (She took our slide photos and took mine with the focus on the camera wrong, all the slides she took were basically unintelligible and I was only able to replace 25% of them for my actual portfolio)

I ended up picking Virginia Tech for a few reasons.

  1. Price: Syracuse was $35K a year for 5 years. VT is under 20 a year for 4. A large majority of the students are people going to it as a state school, and its much more of a “working mans” environment.

  2. Big School Atmosphere: Most of the people I know at art schools are “artsy” people. They have crazy hair, crazy clothes, listen to bad emo music, etc. I like having a big environment where there is a large diversity. Football season at a big school has given me some of the best moments of my college career.

  3. Location: Georgia Tech was too far, Syracuse was too cold. Georgia Tech also had roughly an 80/20 male:female ratio when I applied which was a legitimate concern, if shallow at best.

I’m happy with my decision for the most part. A lot of people seem to really resent the faculty at their colleges and I’ve never felt that way about my teachers even if I’ve had different opinions on things. Ron Kemnitzer (president of IDSA) is currently our senior studio professor, which I consider to be a pretty good example of having good faculty.

I don’t think our school has very well rooted connections yet however. There are a few ID companies that stay involved with the school, but there typically isn’t an outpouring of jobs or internships. The program is very young though.

52

I chose Columbus College of Art and Design because of the scholarship and the ID display when I visited. Probably not the best of reasons but I stayed even after the programs short comings became obvious because i felt like I was improving at a reasonable pace.[/b]

53

I chose to attend Penn Foster school simply because I work full time and they have a correspondence course that fits into my current schedule of going to school in the evenings (BA in business Admin) and that my job won’t let me go to classes during the day.

Graphic design is what I really want to do, to give myself a foundation to my other artistic endeavors, such as comic illustration, animation, website design, etc.

This course meets my needs and affords me the time to learn, without going through the hassle of general ed courses, which suck anyway.

54

Syracuse Univ.
Close to home. 4 hours tops.
A ranked school. Great campus.
Top 10 ID program, can’t go wrong.
Love the sports, the people.
5 Yeah program ID unlike other 4 year programs.
Wanted to experience the 5 years.

55

As a recruiter at a large architectural firm, I would definately emphasize considering a design program that encourages or requires Co-Op’s as part of their curriculum. It will definately set you apart from the rest of the crowd of applicants, if you have balanced your education with strong Co-Op’s.

56

Chose UIC - Univ. of IL at Chicago
probably one of the cheapsest…tuitionwise…for design…great Graphic Design Program…and an Industrial Design program that is improving…

I would do it all over again…but would listen a lot more to counselors and scheduling advisors…

Also I would self modivate myself a lot more which is what you HAVE TO HAVE TO DO AT UIC…

-GHOST-

57

If I knew more about Umea Design Institute, Sweden, I would have not applied.

This school is the worst design school!!!

58

So WHY did you chose it?
What made you change your opinion?
What are you going to do about it?

Be specific and don’t just slam the school without reasoning if you don’t want your post’s deleted. Most people have great things to say about the school, so I think the opposite opinion will be valuable if it is backed up with facts.

Thanks

Michael

59

Before I studied at Umea Design Institute, I had seen many articles on this school on famous design web sites, like core77. So, I thought Umea Design Institute could be the school, where I can learn so many things during my master study. When I was in Umea, I realised that Umea Design Institute has many relationship with media, so this school has used media for advetising Umea Design Institute. Also, some designers grasuating from that school have advertised this school indirectly here. Be careful!!! Umea design institute is the worst!!! Even in Sweden this school is rated on third stage.

60

The town of Umea is located far and far away from Stockholm, the capital city of Sweden. It takes about 13hours to get there by a bus from Stockholm. Umea town is an educational town, small population in a small area. Most big buildings belong to Umea university. Umea is a very calm town and isolated in north of Sweden. The weather in Umea is very unstable and worst, for example, sunny in the morning, raining afternoon, and snowing in the evening in a day. In the winter the sun goes down around 3 or 4p.m., and goes up about 6 or 7a.m. In the summer the sun goes down around 11 or 12a.m., and goes up 2 or 3a.m. This weather condition makes people mad, hardly see people smiling especially in the winter.