<p>I get it katy
I think taxguy had mellowed considerably recent years and might not come to own defense.
this is taxguy of 2005 we are seeing, when CC art forum was barely started.
his D was a brain kid who had no idea wanted to do artschool till junior year end. taxguy is not art heli-parents we got around here. he is a money counting guy (as his name suggests)
and here is the secret, he was not aware of RISD MICA pre college back then when sent D to disappointing pre college which promised portfolio prep in its publication.
As for private tutor, if you got money but no time, why not? it is same as hiring private college counselor or essay editor. his D had no time to prepare and nurture her interests or portfolio in stretch of years. I admire this art-less dad stepping in, researched like crazy ( really) helped D in any way he could possibly to find perfect financial/ post grad real paid job prep/ school spirit, activities for/with his D in the end.<br>
PLUS not only that, stay faithful to the school forever, after all these years helped countless novice parents by sharing his vast knowledge of anything about the school, asked or un-asked. amen.
He is THE guru. leave him alone.
As for worried_mom, one RISD summer did all what needed for her S to ditch prestigious universities he could easily gotten in to become engineer or scientist or musician, whatever he otherwise aspired to be. BUT chose RISD to make fabulous chairs, and brought to us biggest RISD gate-keeping advocate mom in the CC land. </p>
<p>It does not really help debating what all these old timer said about their kids’ experience unless you know the outcome of their ultimate choice, and the end result, which still ongoing for most kids of these parents after UG done or almost done.
And it will not really apply to your (kid) experience from now on. Schools change so are pre-colleges, more majors, concentrations are added or ditched, price gone up big for some schools in last few years, grants or housing policy changed.<br>
Research and read up, then decide which school, what kind of environment is best for your own unique situation.
I liked fun art camp, not an artschool trial, because my kid makes better work when playing around and his old HS put 2-3 period a day for conventional goody goody art making, really no need building portfolio during summer.
It all depends.</p>
<p>Jkolko notes,"Taxguy, based on your posts, it seems that you have quite the problem with “ill-structured” situations. Can you not see the value in an experience as an end rather than a means? "</p>
<p>Response; Actually, I wanted both. However, Bears and dogs, said it well. When my daughter attended the pre-college program at both Syracuse and Corcoran many years ago, they were both promoted as “portfolio development programs” along with other skills. I simply took them at their word,which was a mistake.</p>
<p>This is the problem with dredging up old posts. Things could have changed.</p>
<p>Maybe it isn’t bad to revisit this and have students and parents reflect on the value of the pre-college portfolio programs now that student is going (or not) to art school. My son was strongly encouraged by his art teacher to do a portfolio prep before his senior year because his portfolio was very small and very spotty (couple of really strong pieces, rest not so). My S did the corcoran prep program for two weeks last year. A program at VCU would have been much cheaper and probably just as good but the scheduling didn’t work out. </p>
<p>Pros:
–he got a small taste of what art school might be like full time.
–he tried a couple of things he hadn’t been exposed to before.
–he started the senior year very sure he wante to apply to art schools and understanding that he had to work hard to finalize his portfolio
–he had fun
–the figure drawing classes were very good and some pieces were used immediately for portfolio; he completed a small-scale figurative sculpture; one still life also; …having this variety of pieces was really helpful since most of his portfolio prior to this was animation/video. The portfolio prep class forced him to have some good work in these media and, I think, helped a lot at application time…clearly he wasn’t one-dimensional art student but could hold his own in drawing/painting/etc. </p>
<p>Cons
–no one accepts the credit except the corcoran
–most of the students were less experienced and many were lazy/not serious
–the final show was a bit depressing since most of the work was pretty feeble (even to my very inexperienced and naive eyes).
–EXPENSIVE</p>
<p>My son attended Pratt Pre-college the summer before Senior Year. It was important for him because he was not sure he wanted to pursue art school. He had been interested in Architecture and only recently had discovered Industrial Design and was becoming more and more curious about the field. We looked at a variety of programs and almost chose one at Cleveland Institute of the Arts, but it conflicted with something else he was doing that summer. </p>
<p>In terms of building a portfolio the Pratt ID experience was invaluable. It is not a subject matter that most high school students are exposed to. The syllabus took them through an intro to ID course. They were exposed to the process of research, sketching, model making and presentation (involving graphic design). He made small paper models, an egg drop design, a free form sculpture and two lamps. All of this work went into his portfolio. </p>
<p>He came out of that 4 week program sure that he wanted to study ID and more at ease about choosing an art school over a liberal arts school. He was able to gauge himself in relation to other students not in a competitive way but in terms of self awareness and self evaluation. He worked very hard and his teacher was impressed with his work, enough so that he wrote a recommendation letter for my son’s applications. My son was able to write about his experience in his application essays and I think it added depth to his application. If a student is demonstrating independence, deep enthusiasm and engagement, it can only help.</p>
<p>In the fall of senior year, my son attended Cooper Union’s Saturday outreach program. They had a drawing class, mono-printing class and an art criticism class. Besides some beautiful prints he did not get any portfolio pieces out of this experience (the drawing class was not focused on end results, more on loosening up and trying different approaches and mediums) but the process was very important and showed up in the work he was doing independently outside of the program. I think it really helped when it came time to do those 3 RISD drawings.</p>
<p>All in all I would say if the only reason to go to pre-college is to come out with portfolio pieces then take a local class or get a mentor. If the student really has a passion and the experience will help them immerse themselves more deeply or help them know more about the direction they want to take after high school, then it is valuable. Most of these programs are A LOT of money. If you don’t have endless funds I would approach them very carefully. </p>
<p>Walmer- if you want to PM me, we can talk about ID schools and the process.</p>
<p>let me pipe in, since drae would never brag
her S got in many amazing schools with aid money each including CMU but chose RISD (yes, RISD payed enough to made him come)
drae is the one of the nicest, hard-est researched, generously share-est mama bear around here.
one drawback for me is now I can not openly badmouth RISD anymore because he is going.</p>
<p>D went to pre-college at NHIA, not so much as to add to her portfolio, but to get some great instruction that was unavailable at her high school. It was also a good opportunity to get an idea of what art school was, living in a dorm environment, etc. It was reasonably priced (relatively!) and she had a scholarship to attend. There were kids who were serious (like her) and the kids there for the “art camp” experience. She took every assignment and expanded on it, and ended up with several portfolio pieces from the 2 week course. I saw what she did when compared to some of the others and it was like I’ve said all along - it’s all in what you make of it.</p>
<p>I’ll stay around here for the next few years and give you all the inside scoop on RISD. We can start a new site all together: RISD Confidential. </p>
<p>What is John Maeda really like? Is he an evil doing operative trying to take over the world or just a mild mannered geek who can’t believe he landed in the spot he’s in, in this lifetime?
Is everyone there trying to date Hermione Granger? Or are they too full of themselves to even admit they know who she is?</p>
<p>We’ll be going up in October for parent’s weekend. I’ll start my reporting then.</p>
<p>PS. Thanks for the love, Bears. Too kind, too kind.</p>
<p>^NOT!
All I know is Dr Maeda went to do terminal degree at Tukuba U (Japanese national nerd U, say, MIT with steroid) in the remote mountain where right minded Japanese artist would never think of going.
then again, chinese fireworks gunpowder guy was there too, something to do with returning/somewhat Asian artsy club?
and
looking awful young but has five daughters ( or are there six?) no, they did not keep having baby wishing next one’d be a baby boy, he simply adores girls and no worry affording future hi maintenance each, thus his neck is covered with hicky, so he can not take off those scarves.
I am not going so far to say he is a Michiko Kakutani of Providence but that’s what we twisted Japanese art moms suspect.
nonetheless, quite an achievement, or RISD could be in bit of desperation after the bad rep of tycoon geezer prez to “refresh” image all together.
Ooooo, I just badmouthed aton.
Yes, artmommy, worried_ and numerous others, I am just jealous because my kid has no manners, scores nor skill to make those fabulous bike drawing. he was totally interested in those pretty girls thou, not necessary the movie star next door.</p>
<p>In my humbly biased opinion, I think John Maeda is great. He has been very visible all year and definitely communicated with the students - there are town-hall-style meetings every month or so where he encourages students to bring complaints directly to him. There was a bit of a snafu earlier this spring about closing and merging some administrative departments, but Maeda listened and the closings were stayed. I’ve passed the guy a few times in the administrative buildings, and he’s always said hello to me. He’s pretty popular with all the students I know. Honestly, he seems very sweet.</p>
<p>I think most Brown students like to pretend they don’t care about Emma Watson, but RISD students openly gossip. The sort of people who like to party love talking about when they’ve hung out with her.</p>
<p>One distant friend of a friend said he accidentally (supposedly) ran into her on the street and that she was “warm and soft” - ew.</p>