Which art school should I pick?

Linzoy
Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:34:47 +0000

I don’t really doubt that RISD people are pretentious, but they are one of the least pretentious schools I visited. The jerks I met were professors. Partly because of those professors RISD has caused a hell of a lot of problems for me and I took a year of academic leave which is now going to become two years. I’m often tempted to transfer to an easier art school but part of me thinks I won’t be doing myself any favors by making things easier for myself. RISD is supposed to be modeled after the kind of work you have to do in the real art world and I want to be prepared for the real art world. I’m not trying to convince you that RISD is great, just sharing my indecision here. The problem with art is that technically you don’t need any education, you only need the skills, and the skills can be acquired anywhere.

I have to admit I love the prestige of RISD. When I tell people I go there they often react by saying “oh, that’s a great school, my brother/mother/whatever went there.” Nobody’s heard of Pratt. The self promotion RISD does means something. I have often heard that you shouldn’t pick a school based solely on it’s image but honestly I don’t know what else to pick a school by.