Minneapolis college of art and design.

[Storyline]

Did or does anyone attend this school? I am very much interested since they specialize in cartooning/comic illustration.
How was it applying? Did they care much about other grades? Was your porfolio completely mixed? Are the courses great?

I'm sorry for all the questions but this just seems like a great school. :)

[SeraphSword]

Hey, I don't go there but I have looked into it a bit. Right now I'm brushing up my portfolio to send to the few schools in the US that have a comic art program. As far as MCAD goes though, of the four schools it's fourth on my list. First Kubert, then SCAD, then SVA, and then MCAD. Couple reasons for this: the high tuition/cost (totals around $30K per year, thus 4 years=$120,000!), and also I haven't seen what their electives are, but the curriculum they show on the website only shows 3 required comic-specific classes.

The cost is a big issue if you want to get into comic books (if you just want a comic-book style for things like advertising or something, you might be okay), since it's not really a market where: a.) a degree even matters, and b.) even if you land a job, you won't be making $40K a year to start, not even close.
:(
Anyways, a grad or current student can probably give you more specific info, but I'd definitely at least look into the others if you haven't already. Good Luck.:thumbsup:

[Storyline]

Haha yeah I'm well aware of the tuition :mad: Though still I will definately try.
So those schools also have sequential art classes? My I have the web address of these schools? :)
And also about the whole getting hired with a degree. An internship, even though it won't be big, could help me start out well.
Thanks and good luck to you too ^__^

[carpal]

I went to MCAD night courses all last year and used to go to their open life drawing on sundays.

I don't have much good to say about the place really. The student body is pretty "artsy fartsy" and the amount of people in the painting program that put tubes of paint up their butts and squeeze to call it art is quite high.

I could never believe that they had a FREE open model drawing session for 4 hours on sunday and NOBODY ever showed up. I would drive from an hour away to take part and it would just be me and a couple people that didn't go to the school. It has always seemed like kind of a deadbeat place.

I am going to apply there for next year though :xx: they have a huge amount of money to give away for scholarships and financial aid, and not many students. (even though tuition is higher it COULD end up being cheaper to attend with aid) If financial aid came through and I could go for cheap I would do it. I am pretty sure even comic art majors can get their own 24 hour studio after first year.

It always rubbed me the wrong way there, It could have been just me. With those few comic classes you will probably learn fairly well how to make comics plus you can dabble in the illustration electives which would definitely be beneficial. The electives for drawing and painting though are very sparce. It is definitely a DESIGN school.

If you have any other questions please ask.

[SeraphSword]

Hey, what pz says is true about the fin aid, they apparently have a lot to give away, and sometimes a school with higher tuition can be cheaper because of disparities in the aid allocations.

As for the other school websites:
Savannah College of Art and Design: SCAD.edu (http://www.scad.edu)

School of Visual Arts:schoolofvisualarts.com (http://www.schoolofvisualarts.edu)

Kubert School:kubertsworld.com (http://www.kubertsworld.com)

Kuberts school is almost entirely dedicated to comic art, you will have some foundation stuff the first year, but basically the curriculum there has you strapped to a drawing board 60 hours a week trying to get better. The intructors there are all industry professionals(including Joe Kubert and his sons Adam and Andy). You won't get a degree there, it's more of a trade school so you get a diploma or a certificate, but if you are interested in doing comics, no place can beat it. They also have some correspondence course you can take through the mail.

I don't know as much about SVA or SCAD, but they are both a bit more rounded in curriculum (you'll have art history courses and general education courses[bleh!]), and they also hire industry pros. I believe Will Eisner used to teach at SVA, but I'm not sure if he still does. Anyway, check them all out and good luck.

[SeraphSword]

Couple more things on Kubert:

Tuition is(at last count) $13,350 and it's a max 3 year program. I think with room, board and other expenses, it winds up around $60,000 for the three year total.

Couple possible negatives( just to be even-handed): Housing generally isn't very pretty or spacious. And genreally speaking the workload will prevent you from doing anything else, like a job or a social life. Although, as I said before, if you are going to Kubert is to hone your craft to its max potential, thus where you are living or your social life should be secondary. If you have to party, or play video games all night, you won't last. Kubert is a very small school, total number of students is usually around 200, most of them being 1st year. As I understand it, 1st year class usually numbers around 125-150, and the size of graduating class is usually around 20-25. Its more rigorous than most people are prepared for, but if you graduate from there, you'll have the skills and ability you need to succeed. (Goddamn, they should be paying me for this :p )

One last note: they have lots of industry big-shots that do guest lectures and they do a portfolio review with the graduating class at DC Comics.

Ok, enough whoring for them, back to the drawing board.

[Storyline]

Seraph, .PZ.
I can not thank you guys both enough for helping me out here.
Thanks .PZ. I never really focused on finacial aid. I sort of tried to steer clear of that but I really want to at least try this college so I might as well :) Haha and I see they have a lot of abstract artist but I never thought it was that much of a design school. Interesting. Your lucky you live so close compared to me :o
Thanks again.

Seraph, I was really scratching my head when you mentioned SCAD. It was bugging me all night trying to figure out why I once knew that school and then you told me it was Savannah. That was the first art school I ever wanted to go to. Last year when I was in highschool a representative came over and looked at our art. She said she liked mine and that I should definately go there but over time I forgot about it and then came Minneapolis. Savannah is a great school.... And CLOSER haha. But yeah I think I found my second choice :D

I'll look into the other school thanks. Kubert does sound very interesting and great.
Thank you.

[Storyline]

.PZ. I meant to ask, are you applying for spring or fall at Mcad?
I'm going for fall.

[Gyst Hyu]

Hmmm... well i dunno quite where you guys are getting the numbers for MCAD... but on th website it says tuition with room and board is $13 - 15,000 which if I remember right is about 5,000 less than Savannah. Someone clarrify?

And I don't know how anyone would pass up an opportunity for a 4 hour open lifedrawing session every week. Idiots an hour and a half every week which i have to pay for, but i almost never miss a night.:bash:

[carpal]

Originally posted by Gyst Hyu
Hmmm... well i dunno quite where you guys are getting the numbers for MCAD... but on th website it says tuition with room and board is $13 - 15,000 which if I remember right is about 5,000 less than Savannah. Someone clarrify?

And I don't know how anyone would pass up an opportunity for a 4 hour open lifedrawing session every week. Idiots an hour and a half every week which i have to pay for, but i almost never miss a night.:bash:

yeah I can clarify that! that 13,000 to 15,000 is semester not year. so it actually comes to 26-30,000 a year. sorry.

and yes I am applying for next fall.

[Storyline]

Haha. Looks like I should quit my one of two jobs and get a new better one. Good thing there is Financial Aid :p