accepting just about anyone

[stormeffex]

in the past few years i've noticed that art schools (well mine at least) are accepting just about every application that comes through. why are the schools accepting anyone who has the slightest interest in the arts? i know that they're giving kids an opportunity to decide if they really want to go into the field but couldn't they just tell you at the portfolio review that you werent' good enough to save you all the money you'd be throwing away.

it just feels like talent doesn't really matter anymore, and money is what it's all about.

[Jason Manley]

this has been the case ever since the turn of the century.

it wont change either...as long as its climbing into the six figures for an education.


j

Not at RISD (Rhode Island School of Design). RISD has a low acceptance rate, so you get cream of the crop from the get go. And then freshmen year they push you to the breaking point to weed out even more students. I don't know a whole lot about the CA schools. I can only speak from my own experience.

[Jason Manley]

all the art schools tell you that. they sell thier prestige...tis how they justify the 100 grand they want from you to attend.

dont believe me..visit six or seven big name schools...I did....you will see the same talent at every one of them....basically what that means is that there is maybe ten or fifteen out of every hundred in art school who will actually do anything with art after they graduate....the number of focused students is less than 20 percent in my experience...the rest are people who simply think art is fun or cool or want to go to another state to get away from their parents and party a lot.

the art schools will tell you they get a 90 percent hiring rate...total BS...Id say that is actually more like ten percent immediately out of school...if that...

very few artists out of art school are ready to work in the art industry. part of that has to do with art school being less challenging than making it as an artist in the real world and the rest of it has to do with the fact that you cant become a great artist in just a couple years....even four years is too short to become proficient often times.

risd has no more talented of a group than art center or ringling or cleveland or sva or....it is also no more difficult to get into.



j

If that is truly the case, Jason, then I was lucky to be surrounded by that 20%. Freshman year I found those that didn't put their nose to the grindstone either barely passed, failed, or dropped out. I'm not going to say that when we all graduated we had jobs, or even had the right stuff in our portfolios, but RISD never layed out a dream world to us where we all would get jobs and live happily ever after. RISD focuses it's business education around the freelance route. The teachers paint, usually, a grim world of years of work before one hones their professional skills with little hope of being financially compensated during that time. And then, if you really stuck it out and continued your art, maybe you would succeed in being able to support with your art.

Anyway...I would like to go on. Because I have more to say but, time to go to work. I'll definetly post up more later. I guess I'm happy with my training.

[stormeffex]

thanks for the response guys.

it's true what jason says about the amount of people who actually get jobs right after college. not a lot of students understand that jobs aren't waiting for them after graduation. i have a lot of friends who graduated last year and maybe about two or three of them have the jobs they want. the others are all whining about how they were decieved by the school.

also here at school (milwaukee, wisconsin) the teachers aren't really giving honest critiques to us students. they keep on telling the bad students (artistically that is) that their work is great...but everyone (who's good) knows that it's total BS because that stuff wouldn't fly in the real world.

what my peev is, is that the teachers aren't being honest to the students who are wasting their money there. sure they've stuck around for the last three years...but afterwards their not getting their money's worth. how is that justified?

for me....i'm really glad to have found this forum to help motivate me to create, create, create......

[bonedog]

Before I went to the Academy of Art I was studying computer science at a large state school. If all art schools had high admission standards I wouldn't have been able to get in because I didn't have a background in art and therefore a big portfolio. I'm glad I did get in.

I spent a lot of my time there struggling... struggling because I didn't really know what I wanted to do and therefore had trouble focusing my energy. I graduated. I don't have a job that I want, but I haven't given up at all. I'm going to keep working until I make it.

It's helpful to be around a lot of students who share the same passion and interest... but ultimately *everything* comes down to your own effort. I honestly believe that if you're putting forth the effort then the right resources (teachers, friends, books) will come into your life.

Heh. I rambled. My point is that I'm glad that there are some schools that let just about anyone in.

-Bone

[prismacolor]

My 2 cents. I tend to agree with Jason...but I've also noticed if schools have a great rep they "tend" to get the most highly motivated students --that can set up some great competition and some great friendships and help push you further...to use a sports analogy...it raises the level of your game. It won't get you a job, but it can help make you better.

Not to put words in Jason's mouth, but I think he mentioned somewhere that it was the "mentoring" that helped push him along the fastest --regardless of schooling. I'd agree with that 100%. I think if you can find a mentoring situation with a professor you admire you will advance much faster than the average student. It's the mentoring and keeping the friendships you create that will help you in the real world the most -- you'll find it's "connections" that matter as much as talent, and I mean that in a positive way.

Again, just my humble opinion.

[ironfinger]

Yeah, Its all about the student. Its about talent and what they put into it. I've seen students slack and graduate just a little better off than they started. I've seen students nearly kill themselves and in return get major gigs right out of college.
When I started Art Center the average age of my freshman year was 24. I was maybe 1 out of 5 kids right out of highschool. So I think people were more serious about their education then. When I graduated there did seem to be quality decline in incoming students, or at least they were more younger. Slackers should be suspended!