Contrasting UArts

MichaelNKat
Sat, 03 Mar 2007 15:59:37 +0000

Sax, you don’t indicate when your daughter was there, and I don’t know much about the FA program, but I wonder whether there have been changes since your daughter’s experience. In this regard, included in the tuition package now is a Mac Pro computer configured with software for the specific program a student is in. My daughter received a letter from UArts advising that freshman students will receive the computers and the program is being rolled out to existing students. I wonder how this impacts on the issue of computer usage. As to art supplies, there are a load of art supply houses in center city Phila. To the extent that prices are “high”, I suspect it is a function of center city Phila prices and not UArts specific.

As to a lack of a meal plan and food, UArts makes it clear up front that there is no meal plan. Each dorm room is a converted apartment with a full kitchen and there are supermarkets in center city Phila, within walking distance of the dorms, including a Whole Foods which specializes in organic and other "healthy foods. In addition, there is a large food court in the Bellevue Hotel on Avenue of the Arts (Broad Street) which offers a wide variety of foods at reasonable prices, including healthy salads, sandwiches, pasta, stir fry etc. There is also the Reading Terminal Farmers Market about 5 blocks from the UArts Campus. After having visited many college campuses over the last few months, the quality, variety and cost of food available to UArts students certainly does not appear to be any worse than at any other school (and in many respects offers opportunities for far greater variety and healthy eating). What differs is the “delivery system” and I can understand some students prefering the convenience of a meal plan. Other students prefer the independence and flexibility of not being tied into a meal plan (most of which are overpriced in my view, offer foods that make healthy eating difficult and are more expensive than shopping for your own food).

With respect to the drug scene, you are going to find that on most college campuses with perhaps a skewed percentage of involvement by creative/performing arts students. I have had the opportunity to have very candid conversations about this with 3 current UArts students in 3 different majors, who are close friends of my daughter, who have advised that recreational drugs and alcohol are available for those who are inclined to partake. They have been equally emphatic, however, that there is an equal number of students who choose not to partake and that none of the 3 felt any “pressure” to do drugs and drink in order to be included socially. It seems that there is a “live and let live” attitude among the students