Taking gap years for art school before attending an ivy league

[ucbalumnus]

@imjustastudent

I realize that it’s presumptuous to say I’m confident in my ability to get into an ivy league. It was mostly exaggeration, but my family has donated a lot of money and my parents were careful in raising me to look good on an application. And if that sounds like a sad childhood, that’s because it is.

Since your sister went to Yale, would it be correct to assume that they donated enough to Yale to give you a substantial advantage in admission there, and that is the school they are pushing you to attend?

If so, would you be satisfied doing a major in art (probably the filmmaking concentration) at Yale and including the animation courses (7, 185a, 285b) and related courses?
http://catalog.yale.edu/ycps/subjects-of-instruction/art/#text
http://catalog.yale.edu/ycps/subjects-of-instruction/art/#coursestext

@imjustastudent

An instructor at an animation seminar I went to shared that he was going to transfer into another school in order to study business after getting his degree in visual effects. He said that he hated sitting and staring at a screen for hours and would use the insight he got into the animation industry from art school to pursue a career in marketing. Though I respect him for his motivation and know that his case might be a very small minority in comparison to most art students, this shook my determination to study animation.

Perhaps he is looking at the reality that art is a high-Gini line of work where a few successful artists have high earnings, but most struggle as “starving artists” or have to find other types of work to pay the bills. However, many people do go into general business type of jobs without having business degrees. If you do study art, you may want to take out-of-major courses in the various social studies and statistics, as these subjects may be applicable if you need to seek non-art jobs.