MICA, CCA or VCUarts?

mbarq90
Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:13:36 +0000

CCA animation student here, yeah our teachers are awesome and not only are they Emmy award winners, but oscar award winners.

Honestly though, that means nothing to the student. Being a bit facetious here, but really, for the student/parent, it only functions as a guage to the caliber of talent and skill that the instructors have here- which is extrememly high.

That the teachers here work at Pixar, Dreamworks, Tippet, the now defunct Cinderbiter, etc. doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to get “hooked up” to any sort of internship. Sure you can schmooze up the teachers here, believe you me it happens a lot, but you still have to have the skills to do the work.

In otherwords, don’t come to this school believing you’re going to score that internship at Pixar just because your teacher is the director of a film there and you’ve been chatting him up about his diet- you’ll be disappoint.

Also, you wrote, 41k a year after scholarship? Last time I checked the tuition w/o scholarship was ~41k. I would also wait a couple of weeks to see what the final financial package is, you might get more- I know I did.

Overall CCA, is a good school, the teachers definitely know what they’re talking about since they’re the ones making those films you go to see opening weekends. It’s a very young program so it has no reputation and thus little to no connections. If you work hard though, soak in the knowledge you’ll get a lot of this small little school.

The program is getting larger every year though and the incoming classes I’ve seen come in with a stronger skill year after year- really can’t wait to see how it’ll be in just five years.

I’d visit the school if you can, despite its exponential growth, it’s still a very small school and program, everyone knows each other, and it’s very “art-schoolish” so make sure this is a flavor you can handle.

Here’s a short video form one of the beginning animation classes here at CCA:

https://vimeo.com/62513130

Dude’s an excellent teacher :)

He and some other teachers at the school also run this website:

[Reel Feedback | Professional Feedback on your Animation Reel](http://www.reelfeedback.com/)

which might be of interest if you still want feedback on your reel, but can’t afford a full year at w/e art school.

As for the other schools, when I researched them a couple of years back, they seemed ok. To be honest though, I dunno art school, for the insane price you’re paying, I think you should either go “all the way” or bust. Meaning, try and go for Calarts or Ringling, and if you don’t get in try again next year.

I’m at CCA because not only do they have great teachers, but they’re much more generous with their scholarships. So, risk vs. reward ratio. Check out the other school’s teachers, student work, program, location, and see if it’s worth that loan to you.

Good luck!