M C A D

[MyEvilTwin66]

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Anyone attending here? What do you like/dislike? Do you recommend it over another? Just wondering...:medusachow:

[Matsign]

MCAD is close to me, and I'm applying, but I don't currently go there.

[ember42]

I attended a precollege program there. I was there for two weeks during the summer with some other high school students.

One thing I didn't like about the school was that it was all enclosed in one building, or two buildings connected by sky walk. Its a relatively small school, its either 800 per class or for the school, I forgot...

The comic art major is really popular there as it is one of the few that offer it. That means that there are a lot of comic book geeks there...

Their food isn't that bad from the cafeteria. The buildings and rooms are really open, there are few rooms that have no windows in them. Everything is pretty modern also. The dorms are pretty nice, I stayed in an apartment type dorm, which is a freshman dorm right across from the main building.

From my observations, the community there is very liberal...Community outside of campus isn't the best, but you SHOULD be fine if you stay in groups. And there is a really nice coffee shop two blocks away from campus.

That is the majority of what I know, but if you want to know more, feel free to ask as I might be able to give you an answer....

[Matsign]

I'm applying for the comic art major. I'm a not big comic book reader but love graphic novels. I know there is a list for getting into it. I'm not too fond of the instructors history, but they could be great teachers.

Only way to find out is to visit.

Another thing is I didn't see a lot of figure drawing classes for the comic art major. The only place I noticed it as a specific class was Drawing/Painting.

Are you in MN ember or Iowa?

[stevethebunny]

So I just recently graduated from MCAD so I can give you some insight. First and foremost MCAD is a design school and not a fine arts school. They do offer quite a bit of fine art courses but a majority of the students going there will tell you there is a strong push towards digital design. Secondly getting a good four years out of MCAD is completely dependent on your major. Like I said previously MCAD is a design school so you will get a lot out of it if you want to be a graphic designer, interactive designer, or advertising major. Comics is another strong major at MCAD, however most students will either tell you they love it or hate it. Now if you want to go to school for illustration, MCAD offers a great illustration program, if you like traditional media. But if your like me and paint digitally I would steer away from MCAD (at least until I get a job teaching there haha). MCAD does have a good animation program but its one of the smaller majors so be prepared to be self motivated. And they do offer a lot of financial aid to their students.

Over all MCAD is an ok school but you really have to think about what you want to do at the school your going to. However my final note is that MCAD has one of the WORST career services departments I know and the dorms are kinda crappy.

[Matsign]

Hey Steve, good to see an alumni on here to share their experiences. If you had the choice, would you have chosen a more digitally-oriented illustration program. Were the faculty biased against digital art at MCAD? Did you get what you wanted out of the program? I took a look at your sketchbook and website, and your stuff is great. It sounds like you would want to introduce some digital painting classes if you ever were to teach there.

I would love to be about to pick and choose some of the courses out of other programs. Right now it comes down to illustration or comic art for MCAD.

How about the student body? In your opinion would you say many are very self-motivated and pushing the norm? Or is it pretty stagnant, creatively speaking?

[ember42]

I think they incorporate figure drawing in their drawing classes, but I am sure you can take it as an elective if you really want it...[i would suggest it]...

I do know that they have quite a few successful graduates, such as Nikki [i want to say king]...she is/was working with a popular comic artist... So they do have people who go on and work at a coporately/professionally...I forgot the word for it...

Their comic program is geared towards American comics, but there are still plenty there who like manga and Japanese comics...and even more who love both...I went to the session that had comic art in it... so I got hit hard with comics....One of my teachers there presented a speech at comic con the week after we left...

I am from Iowa, by the way...

[DustyDustin]

I'm not sure what I can contribute exactly to this conversation, but I'm a second semester Freshman at MCAD.

Let's see...

I'm thinking about going into Comics, or Illustration, or Animation. =/ Not really sure yet.

Just recently they had the Junior Review and Merit stuff being exhibited, almost all of which I thought looked very good. I saw three or four Illustration students who did digital illustration, including a couple who had only digital illustrations being displayed (one named Allison Strom; and the other did some fantasy/sci-fi themed work). I have also heard that the Illustration program is very good, and that Tom Garrett, chair of the Design department, is a fantastic instructor, and that the program really gets you ready for going into the job world. My [twin] brother is currently in Introduction to Illustration and I think he likes it so far (though in terms of skill, both him and I could probably do with more practice).

There are free figure drawing co-ops for MCAD students Sunday afternoons and Monday nights, and Figure Drawing courses you can choose to take. So, even if you don't take the Figure Drawing courses, there's still basically like an unstructured, though free studio figure drawing class is available to you every week.

I'm in a dorm and wouldn't say they're crappy, though I have only really been in a couple other dorms I guess. They're MUCH better than the usual college dorm, much larger, more like an apartment unit. Maybe if you're from a rich family and lived in some pristine house all your life, you won't like it. I think even then you could get used to it, and you should consider yourself lucky that you're living on campus and only have to walk for 45 seconds to get to the building(s) =P

OK...so I kind of responded to some stuff some people have said...I'll stop for now and see if I think of anything else...

[DustyDustin]

Oh, and as for some Comics info...the comics people had their stuff up recently, for the Merit Scholarship Competition, and it all looked really dang good.

Also, I don't know if this is a given for an art school, but I'm pretty positive every instructor (at least, all the non Liberal Arts ones) is a practicing artist. My instructor for Introduction to Comics is especially, and extremely, passionate about comics, and I think has been a good instructor so far (this is his first year teaching at MCAD I believe).

As for the people here: I've had a very positive experience with most of the Freshmen here. Very modest about their art and stuff. I have very ingrained social anxiety/shyness, but there's a lot of nice people here, from what I can tell. Some nice upper-classmen from what I can tell, too.

Also, they have lectures and guest speakers fairly often, which can be interesting and usually are insightful to some extent.

I guess if you have a lot of money and don't mind moving really far away from home, then there could be other colleges for you to choose from. I know of one girl who came here for a semester, but really wanted to get into Pixar I guess, so she moved to California and is going to some arts college in San Francisco or somewhere. Personally, I kind of don't have a lot of other choices, because of my parents' income. I'm fortunate to have a tuition exchange benefit, so that my brother and I can go here. Otherwise, I guess there might have been a couple of other college choices that are involved in the tuition exchange program, but I'm kind of unsure about moving so far away from home (I live in Minnesota).

[Matsign]

Dusty! Thanks for the responses man, good to hear from someone within the college.

I'm accepted and should be transferring into MCAD this fall. I'm glad to hear there are, in fact, other students who practice digital art. I enjoy multiple medias, both dry, wet, and of course digital.

Hopefully I'll see you there.