Anyone here been to or know anyone from SCAD?

Tidus53

Hey guys my name is Ross and through an unfortunate turn of circumstance and shoddy Q&A by my university, I've withdrawn from Texas A&M University. The circumstances behind such an event are a little personal and would dissuade most readers due to my tendency to ramble. What I will say is that my reasons for withdrawal were the result of the Corps of Cadets, a required 17 credit hours, and 3.0 GPA to be a full-time student at TAMU.

Since then I have enrolled in community college and have started up studying again, but I've been reconsidering my college prospects lately. I originally went to TAMU in the hopes of enrolling in the Visualization program (it's like the Computer animation equivalent of Oxford) but that didn't work out. The long term game plan has been to try and re-enroll back in TAMU, but now I'm questioning if there's some place better to go?

Lately I've been looking at SCAD as some place to further my education and become a better artist and I've been looking for personal accounts from people that went there. I'm planning to attend a class at SCAD over the summer as a non-degree seeking student to see what school over there would be like. One thing I learned from TAMU and the Corps is to not make a commitment without a firsthand account alongside the opinions from others, so I'm not really committing until I get more on it that isn't from the site itself or people that do work there ( I know that doesn't make a lot of sense).

I was thinking of taking a class in Sequential Arts but from an exchange I had with a former student (Yamino), the Sequential Art program's teachers she had when she was there had left.

So anyone have anything to say?

Enc

Its accredited by SACS so academically the degree is worth something, accreditation-wise.

Typically the gospel is to go where your community college system has a direct connect program if your GPA isn't solid since you are guaranteed admittance and public institutions are substantially cheaper than private. If your GPA is under a 3.0 right now jumping at a rigorous private institution might not be the best path to finishing a degree without a mountain of student debt.

As an academic advisor by trade my recommendation would be to find an in-state tuition school, part of your state public system, that has a relevant and funded program in the field you want. Most colleges are essentially the same in the day to day, and hardass professors are everywhere. Q&A at univerities are always poor simply by numbers: students who take initiative to find out the rules and read the catalog are rewarded while students who are reactionary and don't look into the policies tend to drop out or get placed on probation.

Readmission into your old institution probably depends more on how you left to see if it is worthwhile. Typically you will return as you left (on probation, for example) with the same institutional GPA meaning you will likely jump back into red tape, while going to a new school often means a clean slate on your institituional GPA but potentially losing some of the classes you took at the last school due to equivalency problems or residency.

There are a lot of things that go into this, but I would ask you what you want from your degree. You can learn art without college, and often much cheaper, though local ateliers and practice. A BFA rarely will get you a job more than a solid portfolio will, unless you intend to teach art or work in a specific software environment where credentialing is a thing.

ceres

I know someone who went to SCAD. He seemed to feel like the most valuable thing he got out of it was the people he met, but he also had just so much talent that time and practice and a little bit of structure doing what he loved was all he needed. IIRC he didn't even graduate, just took a few classes, decided he didn't need it, and when on to be absolutely huge in the costuming world.

TychoCelchuuu

I have a friend who got a sequential art degree from SCAD. Similar to what @ceres‌ said, the most valuable part of it was meeting people. As you note in your OP, a lot of the neatest professors aren't there anymore, at least in terms of sequential art, so that cuts down a bit on the appeal. Like @enc says, there are cheaper ways to get good at art than going to art school - that's not to say art school isn't going to help you get better, it's just to say that if you can be a good artist, you can be one without a degree from art school.

I don't want to say too much, because I don't know much about the topic (I'm not an artist and I've never been to art school) but my impression from talking with artists and with people who went to art school and aren't artists is that it's rarely worth it if you have any other options, and it's almost never the case that you are lacking any other options.