<p>My son would like to become a video game artist, but has little interest in the programing side of producing video games. CMU was on our short list of colleges we were considering. </p>
<p>Recently we attended an video game production exhibition and had a chance to talk to one of the founders of the video game company, who also happened to be a graduate of CMU. When trying to get recommendations on colleges that his company would like to hire from, the founder seemed to imply that his company would prefer their artist come from a “pure” art school, and that CMU might have a rep for being more of a technical art school.</p>
<p>Seeing as Juilliiard is the only school comparable to CMU’s CFA programs (well besides maybe Tisch), I think CMU is seen as very well balanced by people that care. Perhaps a CS and Design/Artsy double major would be the best choice for your son. </p>
<p>Or perhaps you can try Info Systems. That major had a 60,000 avg starting salary (not including bonuses) for the postgrad survey of the class of 2006 and sends plenty of consultants (soft-core) as well as the more technical kids to top firms/companies every year.</p>
<p>CMU School of Fine Arts is very much a pure fine arts school.</p>
<p>My D went to the pre-college art program there and was accepeted to te Fine Arts program with a merit scholarship.</p>
<p>From our perspective, the Fine Arts program is appealing because the class size is small, leading to individualized attention. Focus is on painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.</p>
<p>For those interested, students can receive BFA/BA or BFA/BS dual degrees.</p>
<p>It depends on which area of arts. For performing arts, how can you say that CMU is comparable to Juilliard? Besides Juilliard does not have visual arts. Your are comparing apples to oranges.</p>
<p>“For those interested, students can receive BFA/BA or BFA/BS dual degrees”.</p>
<p>It will only work if you choose the major in BS/BA carefully. I have talked to CMU Music admission person. It was a put off.</p>
<p>My impression (I’m an alum, but from, ah, a while back) is that the core of the art department is still pretty traditional (“pure art”). But they offer three concentrations, and it’s the third (ETB) that sounds like it’s the one that your son would be in:</p>
<p>Painting, Drawing, and Printmaking (PDP)
Sculpture, Installation, and Site-Work (SIS)
Electronic and Time-Based Work (ETB)</p>
<p>Remember that there’s also a Design Department within the school of Fine Arts, and some kind of work that involved courses in that department would make a lot of sense, too. Anyway, I think he’d get the best of both worlds, good grounding in foundations in a dept. that’s overall pretty traditional, yet also access to state-of-the art instruction in computer side of things (at a school noted for being cutting edge in computer and information systems).</p>
<p>At the end of CMU mention…Newsweek article quote: “Overlap schools: Cornell and MIT. Business students sometimes overlap with University of Pennsylvania; music students with Julliard and the Eastman School of Music.”</p>
<p>Good luck. MY D ended up at MICA, where she received equivalent merit money. I still wonder of she would have considered CMU more seriously it wasn’t in her own backyard. CMU’s campus and location trumps MICA’s, and Pittsburgh is a safer city than Baltimore.</p>
<p>M&S mom & dad,
How did the admissions process happen for your d? Was she pre-accepted
to art after pre-summer? ie admitted to CFA with her scores from pre-summer and then submitted the regular university app? When did she
actually find out about the merit offer?
Thanks!</p>
<p>D follwed the standard process. Applied regular decision, scheduled a campus visit with portfolio review. Brought artwork, like everyone else, and did the assemble in the grid of masking tape thing.</p>
<p>Pre-college may have helped if the pre-college program administrator mentioned her to the key department folk, but don’t know that for sure. She did have a strong portfolio and an unweighted 4.0 average. We were told that merit for art was based equally on portfolio and academics.</p>
<p>Found out about the scholarship in April I think.</p>