Comparison of MICA with RISD

mackinaw
Tue, 29 Mar 2005 08:55:56 +0000

On course scheduling, there is no choice first year: all students have the same foundation program (each semester involves 3 studio courses, art and arch history, and English lit and comp; but the 6-week Wintersession has electives). The same is almost true second year: students are taking mainly foundation courses in their chosen major field (again, Wintersession is different) plus some humanities courses. After that there can be a bit more flexibility, but the main studio courses (2 or 3 per semester) are what students devote the majority of their time to.

In first year students are assigned an advisor from one of their Foundation Year faculty. So this advisor will become directly familiar with the student’s work and interests. But students pick up a lot of advice from other teachers and from advanced students. Choice of major is pretty much a constant topic of discussion during first year. In addition, it’s common for students to use the Wintersession to try out prospective fields in which they might not have experience. For example, my daughter took an Illustration course in that first Wintersession, decided that she liked it but also was advised by the Illustration prof that “she gets” this subject (narrative, conveying ideas is important as well as technical skill) but she might want to try something that would stretch her more. She had already decided, though, that she wanted to go into one of the applied/design fields rather than fine arts (though we were actively encouraging her to go either way, and to give serious consideration to sculpture). Also to help students to choose majors, all the departments do demos, slide shows, and “shows and tells” to inform and recruit students to their major.

RISD sends a pretty strong message that they want to counsel/advise students, not the parents. Of course, if issues come up related to health or wellbeing, finances, and so forth, inevitably parents will be involved to the extent needed or permissible.