Thank you for the quick reply and also (unexpected) but apt analysis of my hesitation. I think the fears I have when considering between the two options are either:
- I’ll go to art school but change my mind about pursuing a career in animation and have no other readily available backup plans or resources
Or - I’ll go to a regular undergraduate university, feel miserable and unsure of what I do the whole time, and graduate with a degree I don’t want and an incredible amount of regrets
These fears are backed up by two experiences people close to me have had that influenced my determination to choose between either path
- My sister, though she did well at Yale and was able to find a job because of my father's connections, constantly complained while she was there, saying that she wished she had chosen a smaller liberal arts college that would have been more suitable for her. She always resented my parents for "brainwashing" her into thinking that because of its prestige, Yale was automatically the best option. Recently she got in a huge fight with them over her choice of major, insisting that she should have pursued something completely different and accusing them of being why she is still insecure about her career choice. I'm afraid that I'll have the same thoughts if I decide to follow my parents wishes and ditch animation.
- One of my favorite instructors at an animation seminar said that after he gets his bachelor degree in visual effects, he's immediately ditching art school to study marketing. He said that over time, he found sitting for hours and hours at a computer working on an animation felt too antisocial and isolated for him, and he would rather be out and about interacting with people. Granted, he didn't completely condemn his art school education, because he said it gave him a great insight of the industry that would be helpful to him in his hopes of being a marketer for a film or animation company. But aside from also being an extroverted person who might grow unhappy in a field where you spend most of your time sitting and staring at a screen, what struck me was that he was transferring from a nationally ranked art school to a public state school in order to study business. Though I have nothing against his ernest pursuit of his dreams or public state schools, I can't help but feel that if I go to art school and have the same change of heart, I'll regret not going to one of the nation's best universities to get an undergraduate degree rather than waiting till after art school, when the chances of me getting accepted will be much slimmer, as the first answer to my question said, since I won't be "frosh."
And as a side note, as much as I would like to believe that my parents would welcome my passion with open arms, I grew up in the kind of household where nearly everything I did was for the sake of a better looking college resumé, so even if they don’t full-on reject my ideas, they’ll at least be very angry on the basis that they’ve spent so much time and money on me only to have me choose something else. That’s most of the reason why i posted on this forum, because if I do decide to present my argument for art school, I want to be 100% sure that it’s what I want.