“Just when I thought I was out…they keep pulling me back in” (Godfather III).
I refrained from responding to your last post @stones3 where you continue to hype programs and rankings at VCU that relate to graduate programs.As numerous posters have noted, there is no generally accepted ranking of undergraduate art schools. This seems to fall on deaf ears as you continue to post this misleading information. You topped even yourself when you suggested that because some of the VCU graduate professors teach at the undergrad, the rankings for the graduate schools simply transfer over.
Sadly, rather than respond positively or, preferably, not at all to @spoonyj 's clear and sensitive post, you just launched another diatribe of inaccurate and subjectively-motivated information and hype. Both the VCU da Vinci Center, as well as the VCU Brandcenter (not quite sure I would characterize it as “famous”) appear to be excellent, proactive institutions. However, once again, you are talking about graduate programs (da Vinci does offer some undergraduate certificates, but not an undergraduate degree). As an aside, when taking information from Wikipedia, read carefully and check their sources. The da Vinci Center itself is not “the first of its kind in the US.” The Masters in Product Innovation offered by the Center is apparently the first such offered in the US.
Despite your holier-than-thou tone, no one is excluding VCU from the conversation. Parsing through your ‘spin’ I am merely adding some perspective on the national and global reputations of some of these schools. I have seen many on-line lists presuming to rank the world’s top art schools. While again taking such lists with a grain of salt, the one thing they all have in common is that those schools included from the United States always come from a few select schools including RISD, Pratt, MICA, SAIC, Parsons and several others. VCU does not appear on any such list I have ever seen.
The importance of these schools national and international recognition is that it leads to greater potential for career advancement upon graduation. Since college is such a large financial investment, career placement was at the top of our list of questions and one we asked at every school we visited (unless, as often happened, another visitor beat us to it). We carried a list of our primary criteria questions with us to every school and took notes. The figures I cited were those given to us during our information session at VCU and at others I quoted above. You can find the figures for Pratt (91% within 6 months), RISD (96% within 1 year), and MICA (84%) on their respective websites. However, just for kicks, let’s use your logic of extrapolation. The “truly extraordinary” and “famous” Brandcenter is the jewel in the crown of the VCU Arts program. Accordingly, VCU Arts can at best hope to just match the Brandcenter’s post-graduation job placement rate. What do you think that number is? 25-45% as posted by the Brandcenter itself.
I am happy for you that you are happy with your choice. It sounds as if you did thorough due diligence including seeking opinions from art professionals and advertising executives. Your experience leads you to share in their opinions. Mine does not. I am quite certain I can find my own plethora of art-related professionals and executives who will rattle off the top art schools without ever getting to VCU. Kind of like dueling expert witnesses at a trial. It is ultimately not about rank. It is about “fit” and where each of our children can thrive and grow and be happy. My daughter struggled to make that decision because of how many great art schools we are fortunately to have in this country and, yes, her list included VCU. Our decision to cross VCU off our list, along with just about every other top art school on the East Coast, was personal to our daughter, not a degradation of the schools she turned down.