RISD Class of 2013?

worried_mom
Thu, 14 May 2009 20:18:35 +0000

My son will be graduating from RISD this month and I have had much the same experience with the school as Alia has. RISD does have some superior facilities and resources that just aren’t available at many art schools – the RISD Museum, the electronic loom, 3-D copiers, etc. and all that costs money. I am a huge fan of the school, BUT as I have posted on these boards before, there is no way that I would advise anyone to take out $100K+ in loans to attend RISD when there are other fine art schools that cost considerably less. We were indeed fortunate that our son was able to attend RISD by taking out just a very modest amount in loans. And like Alia, we firmly believe that it was worth every penny to us and we have absolutely no regrets.

As for this whole “snotty rich kid” image, let’s just agree to disagree. Every school has some percentage of kids who feel that the world owes them something, and that includes RISD (and MICA and Pratt, too!). But I have come across relatively few of these kids at RISD, and over the past four years, I have had the opportunity to personally interact with 20-25 RISD students so I have a much bigger sample set than most people. Actually, the only two students that I met there who came across as “arrogant” were both Brown students!

As they say, YMMV – your mileage may vary.