Thank you for the quick responses and suggestions.
To Emsmom1 and justdreaming, though I do think I could get into an art school, I think RISD might be a bit out of my reach. Not to dismiss your ideas, but I want to be realistic in my abilities.
To ucbalumnus, 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.
To NashvilletoTexas, thank you for the advice and the (unexpected) but apt analysis of my hesitation. I think I’m using gap years as a frame of reference because I’m afraid of committing to either option, so a gap year, to me, would be a way for me to try and make both choices work. But it’s true, my definition isn’t concrete. When I’m saying “gap year” for the university, I mean the school would have to accept me and sanction a break before my freshman year for me to finish 1-2 years of art school. Whereas “gap years” for art school would be more like dropping out halfway through my bachelor’s education and having to reapply to the art school after completing an undergrad program at a normal university.
But my fears can basically be distilled into two recent experiences that people close to me have had that influenced my views on choosing either side.
- My sister, who graduated this year, got into a huge fight with my parents, blaming them for brainwashing her into going to Yale. She claimed that she had no idea what she wanted to do after college, would have been better off at a smaller liberal arts college, and was miserable with the degree she earned at Yale. Though I am dubious of this because she has been fickle about her passions in the past and, up until this point, she seemed happy at Yale, I have to acknowledge that I might end up feeling the same way if I go to a university and ditch animation.
- 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. Especially because he was going to be moving from a renowned art school to a public state school to get a degree in business. I’m afraid that if I go to art school, I might also have second thoughts and want to get a degree at a better school, but will have to deal with my parents’ many “I told you so’s” as I try and transfer to a regular university.
Also, as much as they love me, as I mentioned before, my parents spent a lot of time, energy, and money to get me to the point where I can be debating over ivy league education. Before I go to them to defend animation, I want to be 100% sure of my decision, because there will definitely be some sort of argument regarding how much effort will have gone to waste if I choose art school.