How to Get Accepted to Top Art and Design Colleges
Kerri Medina, Director of College Advising at International College Counselors, discusses the unique art/design application requirements and helps demystify the application portfolio. After this webinar participants will understand:
- How to continue pushing their art making & portfolio
- How to get portfolio reviews from college representatives
- Where and how to research art and design programs at specialty art colleges and comprehensive universities
- How to plan summer activities, including pre-college programs
- How to get started with and stand out using school-based activities, personal interests, work experience, and more
- Why quality is more important than quantity
Take a look at our upcoming free college admissions webinars.
WEBINAR TRANSCRIPT
00:00:05–> 00:00:26
Thank you so much for joining me tonight. This, of course, is about how to get accepted to top art and design colleges. It covers things that you need to know about getting into any art and design college. I also will cover things regarding BA and arts, applications, and things like that as well.
00:00:35–> 00:00:44
Okay, so a little bit about me. I am Kerri Medina, Director of College Advising at International College Counselors, and I have been working with ICC, as we like to call International College Counselors, since 2013
00:00:45–> 00:00:49
I will be starting my 13th year with ICC on July first.
00:00:49–> 00:01:02
I have worked in undergrad and graduate admissions consulting since 2001. I worked for Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the fourth largest school district in the country for a number of years.
00:01:02–> 00:01:29
I am fully English and Spanish bilingual. So if there is something that you don’t understand, feel free to contact me separately, and we can have a conversation in Spanish, if that’s what you need. I have helped a ton of students. Somebody asked me once how many students have you worked with? And it’s impossible to say. I mean one of the high schools that I worked at had 1,200 seniors at a time, and in some way or another I helped all of them.
00:01:29–> 00:01:49
I have worked with lots and lots of art school applicants. I love artists. I am not an artist myself, but I love the creative process, and I love art and the expressive nature of it. So I’m always very happy and excited to work with an artist. And I do understand this process very well.
00:01:51–> 00:02:15
So who are we? We are International College Counselors. We help students from all over the world. And I really do mean that when I say it. I’ve worked with ICC students from everywhere, in Latin and South America, to Europe, to different parts of Asia, as far as Kazakhstan.
00:02:16–> 00:02:38
I have a nice family there that I’ve worked with several members of the family. And you know, we just we do have a wide reaching impact. In terms of college admissions we help with everything you can imagine in the college admissions process from selecting a school and making a school list to extracurricular and academic interest refinement to essay editing and revision, to application reviews.
00:02:38–> 00:03:1
We do interview prep and we edit application portfolio components. Those are the written components. We definitely will help make sure that all of these things get put together and that students submit the best applications possible. And we do stay on top of all of the changes in admissions and keeping families informed about those changes. And if you know anything about college admissions, you know that it’s constantly changing.
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00:03:14–> 00:04:02
Why study art and design? There’s a lot of people who get very nervous about their kids going into an arts based field. But there’s a trillion dollar contribution to the US Creative economy. Obviously, we consume lots of creative things in terms of movies. And-or film and television and all kinds of other things and jobs in these design fields are expected to grow about 8% through 2032, which is a pretty exciting thing if you are either a student going into these fields, or a parent of a student going into a creative field.
00:04:03–> 00:04:17
About almost 100, I mean, close to 100% of design degree alumni are very happy with what they do. If you know creative people well, you know that they are not happy unless they’re creating. So that makes sense to me.
00:04:18–> 00:04:51
Creative thinking ranks in the top three of employer desired skills. Seeing things outside the box is an expression that people use all the time. It is really important to be able to take a creative and different approach to things, especially in terms of problem solving and making sure that you’re seeing things from multiple perspectives. So having that background, it definitely helps STEAM integration and STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art and math.
00:04:52–> 00:05:02
art skills, complement, technical and engineering sectors. And it is so true. We’ll talk about that in a minute about how these things intertwine.
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00:05:04–> 00:05:34
BA versus BFA. So a Bachelor of Arts versus a Bachelor of Fine Arts. What is the difference. A lot of people ask this question. A BA is about 40 percent studio time, meaning 40 percent doing the actual art. And then 60 percent liberal arts, academics. This is great for people who want to study abroad, or if they are planning on pursuing a double major. This is actually kind of an ideal scenario.
00:05:34–> 00:05:41
A Bachelor of Fine Arts is greater or less than it depends on the
00:05:41–> 00:05:57
I mean, greater or equal to. Sorry. It depends on the school, 65 percent studio work, which is the vast majority of what they’re doing. It culminates in a Senior thesis exhibition or a capstone project.
00:05:58–> 00:06:15
Art programs at universities are generally very prolific, and they love to show off their student work so that exhibition or the capstone is a huge part of what a student is doing in these programs. Portfolio depth is much heavier for BFA admission.
00:06:15–> 00:06:30
In fact, not all BA programs require a portfolio. So that’s something to know. Portfolios, can, you know, lead to scholarship money. So we’ll talk about that, and how to put one together in a little bit
00:06:30–> 00:06:43
Career paths for Bachelor of Arts, Arts Management, education, a whole bunch of other things, too, but those are very specific to the BA. For a BFA, a professional artist or designer.
00:06:43–> 00:07:01
Obviously there’s a lot more you can do with it than just that. But these are like the direct career paths. Both of these degrees can lead to a Master of Fine Arts or a Master of Design in Graduate Studies. And definitely, I have worked with master’s programs for both.
00:07:02–> 00:07:09
And there are so many amazing opportunities for students through these kinds of degrees.
00:07:10–> 00:07:30
What types of colleges can a student who is pursuing art and design go to. Liberal arts colleges. I want to explain that Liberal Arts colleges are all about a holistic education process where they allow students to pursue interests in a variety of disciplines.
00:07:31–> 00:07:42
There’s a lot of integrated curriculum, meaning that classes that they’re taking, even if they’re not specific to the field that they’re pursuing overlap which is the cross disciplinary culture.
00:07:42–> 00:08:06
There are amazing opportunities through liberal arts colleges. And I have a lot of families that ask, well, what’s the like? Liberal arts sounds like it’s not a serious degree. It’s not a serious place, but that’s really not true. And employers love liberal arts grads because they do have much more than just a specialized skill set.
00:08:06–> 00:08:37
They come out as a well-rounded student who has explored a variety of disciplines and learned from different ways of thinking in different perspectives. Some of the top programs for art are Williams and Skidmore. But there’s a whole lot more. There’s a lot of liberal arts schools. There’s amazing opportunities through the liberal arts. So I don’t want you to discredit this idea of liberal arts.
00:08:37–> 00:09:02
It doesn’t mean that you’re going and floating around and can’t figure out what you want. It actually provides students a great opportunity to really explore their interests in a deep, rich, and meaningful way. There are universities with art schools. They offer BAs BFAs, Bachelors of Design, plus also research resources.
00:09:02–> 00:09:24
So there are a whole bunch more opportunities in terms of if they want to go further with their art. A lot of these larger schools, larger universities offer those kinds of resources. Some examples here are Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Michigan. If you’re in South Florida, the University of Miami has an amazing art program.
00:09:24–> 00:09:31
And then there are specialized art schools. These are the RISD, Pratt, Cal Arts.
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There’s MICA. There’s all kinds of these. Unfortunately, some of them, UArts in Philadelphia actually closed recently, which made me very sad.
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I’ve sent several students there and they had a great education, but the funding just wasn’t there for them. Unfortunately.
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So for these specialized art schools, you’re going to get a lot more heavy art focus. There’s not going to be nearly as many opportunities in terms of academic pursuits as at other schools. That doesn’t mean you’re not getting some academics, but definitely the specialized art schools are much more art intensive.
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If you really want to pursue art, the industry connections at those schools is incredible.
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I can tell you, because I have several friends who’ve graduated from these top art programs, and they are professional artists, and they have been wildly successful partially because of those industry connections.
00:10:36–> 00:11:03
Cost variables are things that you should think about. Private art schools offer higher tuition, most of the time, but they do also have a lot of merit aid, especially the art specific schools, the art specialized schools. They do offer a lot of merit scholarships in particular for students who demonstrate real promise and skill.
00:11:04–> 00:11:35
You should consider location. Proximity to creative hubs. New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Seattle. All of those places where the arts are highly recognized and favored, meaning that there are more internship opportunities, more direct internship opportunities. That doesn’t mean you can’t find internships if you’re going to a school somewhere else. But it does mean that there’s usually more direct options at those kinds of places.
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Application requirements. So what do these schools look for? They’re going to ask for an application plus the fee. They will evaluate transcripts.
00:11:46–> 00:11:52
The transcript can be very important, depending on the school. Obviously.
00:11:52–> 00:12:12
They’re absolutely looking for students to have done as well as possible, however, academics for the art specific schools or specialized art schools aren’t always the top consideration unlike the universities and the liberal arts schools which are looking for essays.
00:12:13–> 00:12:58
Usually those are via the Common App. Most schools now are on the Common Application with a few exceptions. Some of the art specialized schools are not on common app and have their own individual application platforms. It’s important to note that difference.
00:12:30–> 00:12:58
When creating that college list make sure you know what the different application platforms are that you’ll need to use. They require letters of recommendation for most of these programs, you’re going to need letters of recommendation for academics. But then, also, you’re going to need letters of recommendation from art teachers. That’s an important component. Usually that’s included in the portfolio part, but not always.
00:12:58–> 00:13:12
Test scores can be a useful tool for students if they have high test scores, but they are optional at most art schools and at many other kinds of schools.
00:13:13–> 00:13:25
However, there are some programs and some schools now that are requiring test scores. Be sure to look at each school that you or your child are looking at, applying to, to make sure what the requirement is.
00:13:25–> 00:13:33
And then there’s the portfolio, generally 10 to 20 pieces. Those are critical, especially for the specialized art schools.
00:13:33–> 00:13:41
There are a few exceptions without that portfolio.
00:13:43–> 00:13:47
What is the portfolio? We do keep talking about it.
00:13:48–> 00:14:08
It’s 10 to 20 finished pieces, plus five to 10 sketchbook and process pages, meaning they want to see kind of the creative process behind the artist. They’re not just looking at the finished piece. They want to see what steps a student took to get to that place.
00:14:08–> 00:14:29
A student artist needs to demonstrate fundamental skills, drawing from observation, color theory, 3D. Form. All of those things are really, really important in terms of the application. They are looking for artists who are skilled in those areas. They also need to show conceptual range.
00:14:29–> 00:14:46
They need to have a good personal narrative, social, commentary, experimental media. They need to be able to talk about their art and demonstrate how that art applies to their personality and what they’re trying to evoke through that art.
00:14:47–> 00:15:11
Part of the portfolio is going to be an artist statement. Applicants are going to have to write one. And then they’re going to have to explain the motivation behind their art. What they’re trying to get from the audience in who views their art, and then also the mediums that they’re using to create that art.
00:15:12–> 00:15:33
Quality over quantity. It’s really not always about how many pieces you have. It’s about the strength of those pieces, you should always remove the weaker pieces, even if that means it drops below 15 works, because a weak piece can really hurt your overall portfolio.
00:15:34–> 00:15:53
When choosing the pieces that you are putting into your portfolio, it’s important to talk to teachers, mentors, people who know your work, and or know your child’s work, and have some experience in this process in terms of what makes for great art.
00:15:53–> 00:16:25
For the portfolio you’re going to include brief captions with your pieces. You’re going to talk about the medium. Add the size of the piece the year that you made it, and a one sentence description. What are you capturing in this in this work? What is it that you’re trying to convey? Try to keep it very brief, though, because obviously, if you’ve got 15 works, that’s a lot for the committee to take in.
00:16:27–> 00:16:56
Preparing early. It is important to prepare early. We talk all the time about how a lot of the anxiety about this process can be removed from it if you do prepare early. So for those who are interested in art and design, specifically ways to prepare early are to take art classes in high school. I know that sounds basic. But it seems strange if you’re applying to art programs. And you’ve never taken art classes in high school.
00:16:57–> 00:17:39
Attend summer programs. There are amazing summer art programs, and a lot of them offer scholarship opportunities and can be such a great way for students to kind of figure out: Do I want the specialized art program? Do I want a larger university? Or do I want a Liberal Arts school? If you’re doing summer programs at colleges, you get that sort of hands on campus experience that can give you some insight on that visit. Museums. I know that sounds crazy, but they’re not just looking for artists who know how to do art. You should know about art and you should know about artists.
00:17:39–> 00:17:59
And it shouldn’t be just one era or time period or genre, right? You should have a broad knowledge. A broad, basic knowledge of art. You don’t need to have necessarily super in depth knowledge about every artist that ever existed.
00:17:59–> 00:18:32
But really you should have a good background in art in general, and the different genres and different time periods, and all of those kinds of things. Another thing you should do is visit college campuses. A lot of college campuses have amazing art museums where they display all kinds of things, including some pieces from their own students. Art pieces. They display alumni art pieces. Sometimes they have community art pieces. There’s all kinds of things that they display in these museums. Most of them are free.
00:18:33–> 00:19:01
Or if they aren’t free, they’re extremely low cost. So take advantage of that. Make sure that when you’re visiting these college campuses, try to get a glimpse into what the art program facilities look like. So that way you can know. Where are you going to be studying? Where are you going to be creating art? Where are you going to be learning, and what kinds of facilities do they offer?
00:19:01–> 00:19:22
Another thing you should do is explore different mediums. You should definitely experiment as an artist and see if you can push your artistic and creative senses further than just what you’re learning in your classroom setting, or just what feels comfortable to you as an artist.
00:19:23–> 00:19:26
It’s really important to get feedback when possible.
00:19:27–> 00:19:56
You can get feedback from teachers and from community members. I encourage students to enter scholastic art contests and other localized art contests and other things like that, because the more work you submit and the more feedback you get, the more you can grow as an artist and learn about how to perfect what it is that you’re trying to do.
00:19:56–> 00:20:30
We also want you to work closely with mentors. If you have a good artistic mentor, they can help guide you, not only in the art school admissions process, but also in career or with potential career guidance and ways to kind of help. You figure out how to take this love for art and turn it into something that you can pursue as a lifelong endeavor.
00:20:31–> 00:21:00
We really feel like art teachers can be some of the best, the best mentors. They’re the ones that really…they’ve been through this process. They kind of understand it. And a lot of art teachers are also, artists in other ways, not just teaching. They’re not just teaching but also researching art and design programs.
00:21:00–> 00:21:31
We usually encourage students to start early, ideally by their sophomore year. One of the reasons that we want you to start early is because it’s important to figure out what you’re looking for. And if you start early, you can sort of figure out. Are you looking for those specialized art schools where your primary focus is going to be art? Are you looking for BA programs where you can do art, but also explore academics and other career paths?
00:21:32–> 00:21:46
Are you looking for that liberal arts campus where you can explore everything and sort of figure out how you want all of that to connect together? The only way to do that is to start researching and looking into things.
00:21:47. –> 00:22:04
I have worked with students who have started out with one idea, and then completely changed. I’ll give the best example I can think of offhand. A student that I worked with a few years ago was a musician.
00:22:04–> 00:22:18
When I first met him he was all about the University of Michigan. He wanted to do music, but wanted to go to the University of Michigan because he’s a huge sports fan and said, I need that rah, rah campus experience, and all of that.
00:22:19–> 00:22:33
His whole perspective changed when he went to visit the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, and he ended up there. That’s where he ended up going for undergrad. Now he is doing amazing things.
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But that that visit completely changed his life and his perspective, and he realized that even though he loves sports and loves that feeling of enthusiastic campus, and all of that, for what he wanted musically, he wasn’t going to get that at anywhere else but a conservatory. So going to visit those campuses and feeling what it’s like, and seeing what that experience is, is really a very helpful thing.
00:23:07–> 00:23:31
Not all schools offer majors in art or design. So be careful before you’re like, oh, I’m super committed to whatever university. Make sure, you know whether or not it offers what you want. Fewer schools than you can imagine offer professional degrees like a BFA, a Bachelor in Design, a Bachelor in Architecture. Those are not offered at every place.
00:23:33–> 00:23:47
Look for professional degrees and graduate programs also, just to see. Is there a way to continue on this path? Is there a way to seek out these programs that are going to set me on a specific career path?
00:23:48–> 00:24:20
Focus on National Association of Schools of Art and Design: NASAD. NASAD accredited schools are amazing. Not every school that has a great art program is NASAD accredited so don’t just run away from the non NASAD programs. But if you’re really looking for these schools that have that interconnection and those sort of channels to internships and things like that. NASAD schools tend to be the best.
00:24:21–> 00:24:55
Explore the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. Those are other schools that are really fantastic and also very well connected. And then look into the National Portfolio Day Association. You should take advantage of National Portfolio Day, and we’ll talk about that in a minute also. We really think you should attend National Portfolio day events, so that you can get some feedback and exposure. And again, it’s a great place to get sort of some critiques on your work.
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Outcomes with an art and design degree Median entry level salary for a graphic designer is $50,000. For UX, which is web development or web design, it is $77,000.
00:25:09–> 00:25:26
96 percent of 2023 Pratt grads were employed or in grad school within nine months. That is a huge number, people think, oh, if I get a degree in art, I can’t do anything afterwards, and that is just simply not true.
00:25:26–> 00:25:34
So it is really it’s important to keep these things in mind, oops. Let me go back. I apologize.
00:25:35–> 00:25:49
UX and UI are huge growing fields. Motion graphics. Game art is massive. I cannot tell you the number of students I have now that are super interested in video, game, art and design.
00:25:51–> 00:26:02
Sustainable product design with a heavier focus on the environment and ways to promote sustainability. That is also a huge growing field.
00:26:03–> 00:26:18
One of the things that I that I tell my students all the time is that the artist as a business person, is a big, big thing. So one in five art school alumni start their own studio or brand that is huge, huge
00:26:19–> 00:26:25
And a lot of these specialized art programs teach students how to do that.
00:26:26–> 00:26:57
But I can say this, that if your student is an artist and wanting to go to a university for art taking business classes is a really great idea, and they can also do that at a liberal arts school. But the the specialized art programs also have classes in business to teach artists how to be an entrepreneur and promote themselves and make a living off of their art. There’s also really great transferable skills that come with an art or design degree rapid, prototyping.
00:26:57–> 00:27:13
Fantastic, I mean, that’s a big thing. You can do that a whole lot better now with all of the technology involved visual storytelling client pitching. I mean, really, the the possibilities are endless with art.
00:27:14–> 00:27:24
Here there’s some portfolio examples. A strong sequence could start with some observational drawing and then going on to digital illustration. And then 3D work.
00:27:25–> 00:27:54
If you’re going to use, or you have to. So for for these portfolios, you’re not sending your actual pieces. So you’re taking pictures of them. And so you want to use high resolution photos. You want natural light, neutral background. You don’t want to detract from the actual art itself. If you have any time based work, meaning animation or film, make sure that you include a 1 min reel, and then also some still frames. Okay.
00:27:54.700 –> 00:28:03.579
You want to organize your PDF or slide deck in whatever way that they’re asking you to. If they’re not specific, choose a way
00:28:03–> 00:28:28
chronologically or thematically, and make sure that you label everything very, very clearly, and you want to limit the file size and follow. You know, whatever it is that each school requires in terms of upload specs, but also in in terms of pieces. Some schools are very specific. Some schools are kind of like pick whichever things you want to show us.
00:28:30–> 00:28:39
But make sure you, you know, pick a few within these contexts. But some schools are extremely specific about the things you need to send in.
00:28:40–> 00:28:42
What’s the value of an art degree?
00:28:44–> 00:28:59
It’s hard to quantify this in numbers. But I can tell you critical thinking is huge. If you have noticed anything about the way that we are as a people right now.
00:28:59–> 00:29:14
critical thinking seems to be something that that a lot of people are lacking. And maybe we’re not doing a great job teaching students how to think critically. But artists just do this naturally.
00:29:16–> 00:29:26
and one of the things that they can do is kind of go through all these different ideas and then find a way to to fall upon the best solution.
00:29:27–> 00:29:31
Empathy is absolutely present in art.
00:29:32–> 00:29:49
A lot of artists research. You know, the media or the subjects that they’re conveying, and all of that, and a lot of times art conveys such intense feelings, and there is a lot of empathy involved in it.
00:29:49–> 00:30:05
And one of the things that they can do is have big community impact by designing meaningful experiences just based on understanding and empathizing with the community that they’re trying to reach. Project. Management is huge for artists.
00:30:06–> 00:30:17
They understand budgets, timelines, and you know, review cycles and all of those kinds of things. I mean being able to go through all of those things
00:30:17–> 00:30:31
and lead a team is a big, big thing, especially if the art that they’re making is collaborative. And then, of course, collaboration. That means building on a team oriented mindset
00:30:31–> 00:30:53
working together to create things. One of the things that comes with collaboration is is the ability to get instant feedback from your team members and artists do that a lot, especially when they’re working on projects together. And all of that. And it’s kind of a nice way to build that like team oriented mindset
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resilience. If if you are the parent of an artist, or if you are an artist, you know that not everything you do turns out the way that you want it to right and learning from failure helps to create those adaptive problem solving skills that are so critical in terms of being successful, not just in in a career, but in life. You know, we we have to solve problems all the time. So an art degree can help you learn how to be adaptive in problem solving. And that is really, you know, like I said, it’s a very critical skill to have
00:31:35–> 00:31:37
How do you prepare for National Portfolio day.
00:31:38–> 00:31:46
You want to look at the school list at the event that you’re going to and go to at least 6 schools for feedback.
00:31:48–> 00:32:13
keeping in mind that some of the schools that are really really popular are going to take a lot longer for you to get in for feedback. So if you’re, you know, maybe include a couple of those on your list, but not not too many of them that you only get to one or 2. Bring extra work on a tablet just in case reviewers want to see more. It’s it’s always nice when they ask to see more of your art. So that’s a good thing.
00:32:14–> 00:32:27
Make sure that you get there early. Like, I said. Some of the most popular schools can take a lot of time. So you don’t wanna be stuck in those lines for too long. So getting there early can really help with that.
00:32:27–> 00:32:44
And then make sure when people are looking at your artwork, ask them which 2 pieces are the weakest. And why do you feel that way? It will help you in trimming down your portfolio, or maybe seeing where you have a need to fill it in with more things.
00:32:44–> 00:32:55
Make sure that you write down what you heard immediately after you? You meet with someone right? So that that way you don’t forget what they said.
00:32:55–> 00:33:04
That way, and then you can take what they’ve said, and go back and work on the things that they gave you feedback on that need working on.
00:33:05–> 00:33:08
What are some next steps. I love this little cartoon.
00:33:09–> 00:33:27
I don’t know if you can read it. It’s the woman is saying, how do you draw so well? And the person says practice, and she says it must be an innate gift, a gift from God. And the student says Practice, it’s practice, and she says I’ll never understand how some people are so talented a mystery.
00:33:28–> 00:33:44
And the student says, Practice that really is key in all of this. So how do you practice? How do you do these things? You make art regularly. Don’t just do art every once in a while, or only for your class.
00:33:44–> 00:34:16
You have to do art regularly. It’s sort of like a sport or an instrument or vocals right? Without practice. You can’t develop all of your skills. So make sure that you’re making art regularly gather feedback. I know I talked about that quite a bit, but it is so important because one of the ways that you can grow as an artist is to learn where you maybe have some deficiencies and things that you need to improve.
00:34:17–> 00:34:38.
And you know that feedback is really invaluable and helping you grow as an artist. Research and narrow down your school list. Make sure that you aren’t focusing only on the top programs that a small percentage of students get into, but also expand that list and add other schools that are of interest.
00:34:38–> 00:35:02
Make sure you’re tracking deadlines and requirements. You should definitely start applications early waiting until the week of is never going to work. If you’re an art applicant because you have to have all of these pieces put together prior to submission. I know, I said Feedback again. But get feedback from mentors or teachers. Make sure that you’re asking them for insight and help.
00:35:03–> 00:35:26
A lot of teachers and a lot of high schools have a portfolio component built into senior art classes. So if they offer that taking that class would be a really great thing. Start building that portfolio early, make sure that you save pieces that you might use for portfolios something that you’ve really excelled in. If you’ve won an award for it, absolutely make sure you keep that
00:35:27–> 00:35:50
and then seek expert help in the admissions process there. There, there’s no such thing as getting too much help in this process, really. And and I think more and more families are starting to understand how pivotal help can be, because it is a lot of information to process and gather and go over and and retain
00:35:52–> 00:36:03
And then, if we have any questions, I do see there’s one question right now in the question and answer section. And then I had some questions that I received ahead of time.
00:36:07–> 00:36:31
Okay. So this question is, can you recommend any research resources to research universities with reputable visual arts programs, not a traditional art school. Everyone knows, for example, who has a great business school, for example, Wharton, Ross, Kelly, etc. We are trying to find the colleges with the reputable art programs. Okay, so
00:36:31–> 00:36:47
yes, you can. One of the things that you can do is I’m going back through here to show you. You can go through to the National Association of Schools of Art and design website.
00:36:48–> 00:37:06
so that you can get information on these programs. You can also go through. There’s great lists through believe it or not, through like us. News and world report. There’s also niche, which is a pretty decent resource.
00:37:06–> 00:37:33
And obviously going to a college counselor to get more information is a great idea. There are definitely amazing reputable art schools that are parts of larger universities. Look at the stamps, scholarships, and fellowships. Those stamps schools are highly rated, both for academics as well as for arts programs.
00:37:33–> 00:37:42
So that’s a great place to look also, and and stamps offers amazing fellowships and and scholarships, and all of those things, too.
00:37:42–> 00:37:55
The national endowment of the arts also has, you know, resources, and they can plug you into potential scholarship opportunities and things like that for reputable arts. Programs.
00:37:55–> 00:38:03
Truth be told, almost every university has an art program. There, you know. Like, if it’s a if it’s a
00:38:06.770 –> 00:38:32
you know, if it’s an accredited college or university. Then, generally speaking, their arts program is at least a decent art program doesn’t mean that it’s I mean, it’s reputable in the sense that you’re going to get a legitimate degree from that school doesn’t mean it’s top rated program, though. So those two things are kind of a little different.
00:38:35–> 00:38:40
Okay, do you? Somebody asked. Do you think your essay should be about art?
00:38:40–> 00:38:59
So yeah, probably. I mean, if you’re applying to art school. If you’re applying for art, generally speaking, artists, and then it fits that 1st common app questions our question, which is about a student who has a talent, interest.
00:38:59–> 00:39:16
Or a talent or an interest that is so much a part of who they are, that that their story would be incomplete without that. So I I think definitely, if you’re an artist, it would be almost a mistake not to talk about your art. It would seem off
00:39:16–> 00:39:47
a little bit if you didn’t talk about art in some way. Doesn’t have to be that 1st essay. Maybe maybe you don’t want to tell that story. Maybe you want to talk about a time that you experienced a setback or a failure, and how you learned from that experience. You know there’s a variety of things that you can answer, but they but you should talk about your art if you’re applying for art, because art is such a central part of who an artist is. It’s very difficult generally to separate the person from the artist.
00:39:48–> 00:39:53
And you can talk about art doesn’t have to be necessarily.
00:39:54.610 –> 00:40:09.
you know the specific art that you do. It can be. I mean, I had a student last year who we did write about art, and she got into every single school we applied to, including all of the top art programs in the country.
00:40:10-> 00:40:44
And we didn’t talk specifically about her art in terms of the mediums that she uses, or any of those kinds of things. We saved that for the portfolio. But we instead talked about how art kind of has surrounded her, her entire life, and how that art has impacted her and helped heal some of the difficulties of her childhood. It’s helped her build relationships and bridge relationships that maybe have had some challenges.
00:40:44–> 00:40:56
I mean, it was a a fantastic essay that really gave a window into her soul, and why art is so meaningful to her as opposed to the kind of art that she does?
00:40:59–> 00:41:19
They want me to know. Can I share the stats, grade scores, etc. of the student that I was just talking about? Her grades were good, her grades weren’t I mean she had really good strong grades. She didn’t have a lot of rigor in her curriculum. She had some, but not as much as as she probably could have.
00:41:20–> 00:41:24
I think she had like a 3.7 GPA.
181
00:41:24–> 00:41:35
Unweighted. I cannot remember what her weighted Gpa. Was. She did not submit test scores. So we never submitted test scores for any of the schools that she was applying to.
00:41:35–> 00:42:03
Her test scores weren’t great. She had some specific learning challenges, and it was difficult for her, because she sought. And this is a student that I started working with, you know, months before the application process. Began. So like I started working with her in the summer, and and applications opened August first, st and so I I didn’t have time to help her figure out that she needed to get accommodations
00:42:03–> 00:42:23
for the SAT or ACT. If you are someone who has learning challenges, or your student does make sure that you seek out those accommodations as early as possible, because if you wait until they’re either the end of their junior year or their senior year to get the accommodations. It is almost impossible to do
00:42:24–> 00:42:28.
which sounds horrible, but they’ve become very.
00:42:28–> 00:42:49
UN. Unfortunately, there were a lot of people who were kind of abusing the accommodations system and getting accommodations when they really didn’t necessarily need them. So she ended up not being able to get the accommodations, and so we just chose to submit test optional. And she still did fantastically well, I mean
00:42:49–> 00:42:55.
RISD Micah School of the Art Institute in Chicago.
00:42:56 –> 00:43:01
Drawing a blank, Pratt Parsons, which got into all of them.
00:43:03–> 00:43:07
She’s going to sky.
00:43:07–> 00:43:14
I think she’s going to RISD, she got a lot of she got a lot of money from RISD. So yeah, that’s where she’s going.
00:43:15–> 00:43:25
Risky is a little more difficult to get into in terms of academics than other than the other specialized art schools. It just does have sort of a higher
00:43:27–> 00:43:46
expectation of students. But she, like I said she had a really solid GPA. She didn’t necessarily pursue all of the academic rigor, but she went to a specific art art and design school in Miami, that you know they have a lot of students who end up at Risd. So I think that also helped her
00:43:48.388 –> 00:44:12
in in terms of whether or not you need to submit test scores. One of the things that I you know that we help students do is figure out what’s going to be beneficial to them. How are we? You know? How will those test scores either help or sometimes depending on what they are even hurt you in the admissions process and and help them to determine whether or not to submit those scores.
00:44:14–> 00:44:35
we are almost at 50 min. I know. I said that we’d be 30 to 45 min. We did start a little bit late, so I I kind of met my my timeframe if you have more specific questions that you’d like to ask. Please feel free to shoot me an email. You can also go onto our website. And there is a
00:44:35–> 00:44:57
a form you can fill out to get more information. We are happy to answer further questions, and by attending this webinar you are entitled to a free 20 min meet and greet with me to answer questions and see if you know I can help in some way.
00:44:59. –> 00:45:21
Anyone else have a quick question? And if not, I think we’re ready to end the webinar. But we appreciate so much. You joining us tonight, and hopefully. You learned something from this and and like, I said, if you have more questions, feel free to reach out, we’re happy to answer your questions.
00:45:22–> 00:45:26
We’re here to help guide families through this process.
00:45:27–> 00:45:32
So thank you very much, and we hope you have a great night.