The School of Visual Arts

Date: Apr 20 2008
Major: Other (This Major's Salary over time)
I'm finishing up my first year here, and hoping things will improve when I come back next year. Things aren't completely awful, but they've certainly been less than perfect. Currently I'm in the "Freshman Foundation" year, which is something of a mixed bag. I love the fact that I am living in New York City. Life outside of school is excellent. New York City has plenty to offer, including great restaurants and an excellent transportation system. However, I don't feel like I've really been learning much in school. While I do enjoy my art classes (Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture) despite this, I feel like the academic classes are mostly filled with busy work - namely an excess of essays, research papers, reading large passages from textbooks, and other things that people never really use outside of the realm of academia. The English teacher I have right now is clearly only doing her job for the money and doesn't seem to care much about her subject matter. The Art History department for freshmen isn't too great either- I've already had to switch Art History teachers twice (one of the teachers whose class I left almost immediately was also simply only interested in her paycheck). For the most part, the art teachers are pretty good, though.

I've found the social life at school to be difficult, despite many opportunities to interact with people. Maybe it's because I happen to be shy and socially awkward anyway, but a large portion of the students I've seen are either intimidating or downright rude.

The security guards in my dorm are usually helpful and even friendly. My dorm room, while it is supposedly a large single, is rather small, but since I live alone, there is enough space (albeit barely). My only real complaint about the dorms is all the NOISE from the people in the rooms around me! The walls are paper-thin here.

In person, the faculty is fairly accessible and helpful, but when I e-mail my teachers asking for help with something, they don't always respond.

For the most part, you have to buy your own art supplies. Sculpture is the only art class I have where materials are already provided. Add that to tuition costs and the price of living in NYC, and things get very expensive.

I think that covers pretty much everything. Again, this evaluation is mostly based only on the Freshman Foundation program, so maybe things will be better next year, when I officially begin working on my major.