meandmyboys

My son is completing his freshman year at RISD and is planning on taking a class at Brown in the fall. He has taken advantage of the Brown/RISD connection and spends quite a bit of time on Brown's campus. While this year has been challenging with the demands of all the studio classes, he has loved it and is thrilled to be there!

louboutin_lover

I went to the RISD Pre-College program this past summer, and it was incredible. The teachers are so knowledgeable, and they are more than willing to help the students outside of class. Yes, it does have a rigorous curriculum, but it is only to prepare you for the "real world". My friend (who will be going to RISD next year!!!) went to the MICA Pre-College program this past summer, and did not like it at all. I do not know all of the details, but she did not even apply come fall. GO RISD!

osage77

mackinaw-My daughter (like meandmyboys son) is planning on taking a brown class next year in the fall. So I was interested as to what your daughter's take on Brown's classes was like. She's had an exhusting yet great year at RISD. Loved every minute. She's wrapping the year up and completing her two papers. She's gone to bed at 3 am and been up at 6 everyday this week. She has one presentation to complete and then finish up projects and start the finial exam week and after that Crit week. Whew! It exhust me just to think about it. Coming home is sounding pretty good to her at this point.

S.Dad

My d. chose MICA over RISD, and will start in the Fall. She also went to MICA's Pre-College Program for two years running and loved both years.

Whatever RISD may offer, it's certainly not much scholarship money, so you need to be ready to pay for nearly the full ride if you want RISD.

MICA offered her $17,500 per year and RISD $0. Only KCAI and SCAD were in the same range with scholarship offers. And it really did matter on the scholarship money, she needed as much as she could get.

If we had an unlimited income, I doubt that she would change her decision.

So I think it's up to the individual student and their preferences. I am sure RISD will provide as much to those that select it as the 400 or so new MICA undergraduates.

S.Dad

hellokitty721

apparently it's not just john's hopkins, it's 15 schools that participate with mica

bladeofgrass

Mica doesn't give scholarships, they give discounts.

Whenever I go to bloomindale's there rugs are always 75% off, which is of course the real cost of their rugs.

How many people post here that they receive the most amazing scholarship offers from Mica?

Does it really seem like comparing apples to apples when comparing the cost of MICA vs RISD?

Not saying Mica is not a great place, far from it. Maybe it's better than RISD. But it doesn't cost the same to go there. It's much cheaper because almost everybody gets a 'scholarship'

meandmyboys

I understand that RISD may not award the same number of scholarships each year as other art schools, however, it IS possible to be awarded a scholarship. My son received a very nice one and that added to being an RA, makes RISD very affordable.
(My son almost didn't apply due to what he heard on these boards - - it would have been a shame as RISD is a perfect fit for him.)

osage77

meandmyboys - At what year can you apply for the RA position at RISD? What do they offer in the way of a salary or money off living expenses? what kind of time does it take? Can you give some basic details about the RA job?

leiqeltk

Are you saying that everyone at MICA gets a scholarship??? Gee, they have a number of them ar varying amounts.

DGB

yes, they offer a lot of scholarships, but my impression is that far less than half of the incoming students are awarded substantial money. I base that on going to the accepted students (and families) tour and presentation they gave in April of my son's senior year in high school. Falvey Hall was about half full with FAMILIES of students awarded scholarships, whereas a MUCH larger contingent of families that day were attending other presentations.

I'm not sure what the point of calling MICA's scholarships "discounts" as opposed to scholarships, as if they jacked up the tuition only to make incoming students feel special when they got the "real" price.

The bottom line is that MICA is a GREAT school, and relatively affordable to many accepted students, regardless of their motives or methods.

gorr

It's my understanding that MICA tends to spread the money around to a larger pool of students rather than awarding fewer large scholarships to fewer students. I don't believe it is a scam or a "discount", it is just a different method (and philosophy) of dispensing available funds.

It is also my understanding that MICA's tuition and costs are comparable to RISD, SAIC, Pratt and other top tier art schools. Thus, it seems unlikely to me that they are jacking up the cost to trick the students into believing they are getting scholarships.

patois

considering that MICA probably gives the most full rides out of any other art schools, and it is still able to cost less than a lot of other colleges with far less resources, i don't think that it's a "trick scholarship".

Not only does MICA give out an amazing amount of full rides, but it also gives out significant scholarships to those whose portfolios deserve it - not "book fee scholarships" but real, legitimate, 'this makes a difference' money.

We have a lot of money coming in from alumni and other donors and a good amount of that money is specifically put towards making college affordable with scholarships for both incoming and returning students.

The scholarships that are available to returning students are ALL merit based and range from $850 to $30,000. Plus, less money is less money. You want to call it a discount? That's cool. At the end of the day, it's still less money we have to pay back in loans!

they keep the books on point here. It's a pretty tight ship.