Fashion Design - Master's or Second Bachelor's?

ghost00
Tue, 13 May 2008 21:47:41 +0000

Thanks for your comment~ I actually considered about getting a degree at Parsons/CSM before, and I actually tried to apply to Parsons like one month ago, however, at that time, their BFA program was already closed since I was pretty late, and I’ll have to wait one more year because their program only starts in the fall. The advisor also told me that they kinda decided not to accept transfer students anymore, that said, no one can enter their fashion program as a junior, not even sophomore, everyone has to start as a freshman, no exception, no matter how many degrees you have before, you still need to take all those liberal art classes (they used to accept transfer students). To me, it’s just their excuse of making the students pay more, but they said it’s their style of teaching, either way, I don’t think I will want to spend another 4 year to get a fashion design BFA… so I gave up Parsons already. As for CSM, they do accept transfer students, but same thing, their program for overseas students is closed already, and they only accept home students. Their tuition fee for international students is like 3x as much as home students pay! I mean, I know international students need to pay more, but that’s like so much more considering CSM is not a private school. I know it doesn’t really matter since CSM is really famous for their fashion design program, but it kinda makes me wonder if this is something to go for as a person who already has a BA? I did ask some people from CSM, they don’t know each other but all of them said it’s not really worth it to get a BFA there, you don’t need to pay so much to be taught how to design, all you need is the skills, and of course, i know when a school is expensive to get into, they must have something really special that attracts people from all over the world to study there, for CSM, of course it’s the connection, and maybe the method of teaching… I don’t know. They did tell me it IS worth to get a Master’s degree there though, but every year they only consider accepting 3 overseas students, and these people need to be really good in fashion design, and have some professional experiences working with some big companies. So, I don’t think I can get it, like at all LOL. Since I don’t have any exp. in fashion design. So that’s what made me wanna get a degree in fashion 1st, then if possible, go for the MFA at CSM in the future.

I did hear some gd things about Otis, and I AM still considering Otis, because 1. I live in LA, 2. it’s not bad at all, probably one of the best on west coast. I also heard Academy of Art in SF is pretty gd, its the only school that has a show in NY during fashion week, and the show is mostly for their MFA students. I applied to both schools, the advisor from AAU told me to get an MFA since I already have a BA in Graphic Design, and also because of the show. The school hooked their students up with Zac Posen, Mcqueen, and John Galliano… and they also got scholarships from CFDA. To me it’s totally not bad. I’m not sure about the school itself, as many people said it’s a commercial school that would suck up all your money, somehow I think it’s true, but consider the exposure and paying cheaper tuition fee, and afterall, you just need that one chance to have your things shown to the public, no matter what school you go to, there are always many talented people that will be the “unlucky ones”, because they are “not as good”. Sad but true. And every school also has mediocre students, so it kinda makes me think if it’s really worth to go to a super prestigious school to study? I think it’s really hard to answer this question, as a lot of famous designers didn’t have proper education in fashion, but again, these people are extremely lucky and talented.

You said you dropped out this semester, so were you studying for a fashion BFA at Otis? Hm… how do you define “real education”? What do you want to go for now? But in order to have an MFA, you’ll need a BFA first anyway, btw, are you almost finishing your degree or just started?