<p>So, I am basically in love with the building, but I was wondering if freshmen can occupy the dorms there, or is it upper classmen?
Does anyone know of any sites with pictures/floor planes of other dorms at MICA?
The student life part of their site is down, thus I can’t research the living.</p>
<p>When my daughter toured MICA last fall, they were pretty clear that the Gateway building was only for upperclass living; no freshman space.</p>
<p>Freshman are housed at the Commons, which as I recall were apartment-style with VERY tiny individual bedroom spaces for roommates (four to an apartment) and a common area for sofa/table/chairs. A kitchenette was also in the space.</p>
<p>OK, so I’d have a separate thread for this but I’m really stupid with computers, so here goes-- We’ve just returned from the SCholarship Finalist open house and here are the impressions…Drumroll…</p>
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<li><p>Gateway building. Yeah, it’s totally gorgeous. Brown Building was also stunning. My D is not sure, but doesn’t think it’s for freshman, however, she also says that there are a couple of buildings for freshmen and that they try to group people according to likes/dislikes/personality style. My D thought the dorms were really nice. She has only NYU to compare with but those dorms are also beautifully located and pretty good size. She thought Mica’s dorm rooms were better.</p></li>
<li><p>Someone said that everyone got the scholarship finalist thing. That is completely untrue. The Finalists had a completely different schedule from everyone else and were far smaller in number. My D was one of about 50-75. The rest of the open house acceptances were easily at least quadruple the size. This is a real scholarship. They will let my D know y April 10 when they mail out the info.</p></li>
<li><p>My D thought the quality of paintings was very high, although they obviously pulled from the top few students. (My impressions of Risd can’t compare, because when we visited there we went on our own tour; the paintings were those we happened to see in classes–definitely not those that the college officials selected as cream of the crop.) She thought they successfully worked with whatever strengths they each had. She did say that they were very into content–getting more into your art so that it says something (that it’s not just technically proficient, cool for the sake of being cool, shocking merely for the sake of shock to the point of cliche, and lacking any depth at all). She agrees with that emphasis but she worries that Mica’s pleas to ‘make your art mean something’ are due to the relative youth and privilege of the artists—if you haven’t experienced much in life, you’re not going to be able to say much. She includes herself in this, and is therefore tilting toward taking the year off to gain more experience. She’s not sure about this though. SHe did like their emphasis on art having depth and communication, though.</p></li>
<li><p>She liked the kids. SHe asked around and for what it’s worth, students pretty much uniformally said they got along well together, were not that competitive with each other, that there weren’t that many cliques, and so on. At least, that’s what they said when she met them.</p></li>
<li><p>She couldn’t really talk ot the professors–it was way too crowded. Seh ended up talking to an illustration professor because it was less crowded there, and said he seemed passionate and knowledgable. She is possibly interested in book illlustration as a minor.</p></li>
<li><p>Brianm, I know you mentioned you want to teach; I hear their teaching program is excellent, so that would certainly be something to think of.</p></li>
<li><p>“Campus” is very small, only a few buildings–but they are very beautiful buildings and the small grounds around them were pleasing too, grass, tulips, daffodils. Very nice. </p></li>
<li><p>I went with my other kids to the Aquarium. It was a five minute walk (or less) to the light rail, $3.20 round trip to the Bay area. The train took about 15 minjutes to get there, and everything was easy and - in the middle of a Sunday - safe. I don’t know how it would be at night. But the Bay is very touristy, in a nice way. Gorgeous buildings, obviously Baltimore is spending a lot on this, right on the water, safe, lots of restaurants, a beautiful barnes and nobles, plus a lot of nice enough chains - espn, hard rock cafe, cheesecake factory- all right on the water. The aquarium was gorgeous, but you’d go maybe twice and that would be that. However, you could definitely go on the train to the waterfront for a Sunday afternoon if you wanted. I can’t say how it would be at night. I mean, the waterfront would be fine at night (not sure till how late), but not sure about getting there.</p></li>
<li><p>All in all it was actually very nice. I asked my D if money were not a factor, which would she choose, Risd or Mica (considering she’s a painter), and she said she really didn’t know. She did love Providence. But she thought Mica was good. Alas, money is a factor. We’re waiting for the scholarship info on Mica and then she’ll decide what she wants to do. Lots of decisions. </p></li>
<li><p>Brianm, I think you’d like Mica, from what I can tell. You probably already know this, but the proportion of men to women is like 1 to 10. One more thing – the official speaker made an odd comment (we thought) how it’s art 24/7. Unlike other colleges, he said, no one talks about politics or philosophy in the hallways. It’s just art, art, art, 24/7. We thought that was weird (our own taste) and very stifling. Not sure it’s true. My D thought that actually the students did talk about other things and the college rep was exaggerating. There was one student she was really impressed by–she had won this summer abroad with this Norwegian painter, and had already been accepted to a grad school for art, but was deferring for a year for a Fullbright in Germany. She wanted to see this girl’s art, but couldn’t find it. </p></li>
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<p>I think that’s it. I’m trying to give all our impressions but obviously she’s different from you. She is academic like you, though, 800 verbal SAT and number 6 in class, lots of Aps etc. Hope this help and good luck–</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the valueable information, hoveringmom!
It seems to me that the choice is between MCIA and Pratt now. RISD is basically out of the picture unless the want to give me alot of aid, haha.</p>
<p>I’m really going to work on my mom about going to visit Pratt on their open house. If she can’t go, I may see if she’s willing to let me and a friend go. It seems that you and your daughter learn so much about the schools during these visits and I really need to try and make it to one.</p>