Visual Communications at Washington University in St. Louis?

taxguy
Mon, 12 May 2008 09:33:57 +0000

amptron2x, thank you for showing how to access course offerings. I always had a hard time with that.

I still stand by my prior posts. It shows for fall semester exactly ONe web page for ALL art electives. In Spring, they also had one web page but with a full one third devoted to independent study. If you compare this to either RISD, MICA or University of Cincinnati you will see many, many more art elective offered. That is NOT to say that WASH U doesn’t offer top quality, intensive courses because I believe that they do. However, there is no question, based on sheer number of courses offered and studio hours required, there is a huge difference. This can also be shown by the fact that schools akin to RISD don’t allow second majors because of the extreme time requirements of their majors.

Take a look at the RISD offerings, University of Cincinnati DAAP offerings, MICA offerings and compare to the electives at WASH U. It is a HUGE difference.

For example, I went into the DAAP ( University of Cincinnati) offerings for art and design. If I subtract out all of the architecture,interior design, and foudation courses, there are still 40-50 pages of offerings vs. 2 at Wash U (fall and spring)! RISD and MICA have at least as much as UC too and probably more.

By the way, I do agree that your foundation program at least equals that of any other art school in terms of offerings and quality.

See [Course Descriptions, University of Cincinnati](http://www.uc.edu/courses/)

Instructions: click on school of design, art, architecture and planning.

RISD had 37 Non- grad courses in graphic design and 15 in apparal design. Count up the electives at WASH U. Moreover RISD has a minimester where kids take an extra two courses each year,which adds to the studio requirements. I also didn’t count the graduate courses offered at RISD that kids can take.

Bottom line: I am NOT demeaning the quality of Wash U. I think it is a fabulous school in many ways! I don’t think, however, that you get the same amount of art and design elective offerings that you would get at most other well-known art programs.