Animation Programs with best foundational prep & job placement stats

cag60093
Thu, 05 Apr 2018 03:06:49 +0000

@midcoastmom My HS junior D and I visited RIT yesterday. Though the schools is more remote and much larger than she ideally wants; we were both impressed with the college of art and the school environment as a whole. We also met with the illustration department chair and the animation department chair. They were both very generous with their time with us and gave my D a lot of fruit for thought advice to consider as she considers her path in the next year. They also spent a good deal of time looking at her work to date and gave her high remarks. So many students were friendly and welcoming to us, even outside of the art school. We left RIT feeling that it’ll be a solid match/safety school for her in many aspects. I highly recommend a visit.

One take away, at least for me since I’m a novice about art programs, animation at RIT is less drawing than illustration and more learning the technical side of animation from the beginning to the end. (Same goes for Game Design - less art and more coding.). The department chair explained that RIT graduates RIT are well trained to jobs/opportunities in various animation roles. He said the industry know that RIT grads can do any job in the pipeline of animation production and not just one aspect. I assume that’s similar at SVA and Ringling. It would be helpful if @moonpie and @gouf78 can elaborate on their D’s respective schools.

Another take away we got from talking to a grad student is that there aren’t as many staff as needed to teach the animation courses. She said many staff members are excellent and have worked in the industry, but more are needed and space availability in classes are a little limited. For example, illustration students can take animation classes, but often there just isn’t space available. Again, since I’m a novice about all of this, I don’t know if this is fairly normal or not. I get the sense that Ringlng’s CA is limited only to CA majors.

We also liked that the college of art was right in the center of the main campus, unlike Stamps School of Art at Michigan which is very far from the main campus. We did not stay to do a full campus tour because it was an exhausting day after the various meetings. We were there from 9 am and 12:30 pm just with the art staff and students. The info session was at 1 pm; fairly typical but we appreciated that the admission person kept the info practical and real.

Hope you let us know your D’s decision as she considers all her options.