Choosing a College
This post is mostly me writing down my thoughts.
All of my college application results are in as of today. I came up 3 for 4, accepted to Oregon, Puget Sound, and MCAD and rejected from CU. I’ve heard about financial aid from everyone but MCAD, but should be getting information by the end of the week.
These 3 schools are all incredibly different. Oregon is a fairly large state school, Puget Sound is a smallish liberal arts school and MCAD is a very small art school. I know that Oregon is about the same cost as Puget Sound with all the aid applied, and, for the sake of argument, I’ll assume that MCAD also comes out roughly the same. This does not by any means make my choice any easier. Because price won’t vary much, it is not really a factor any more. I need to weigh these schools based almost entirely on what I’ll get out of them.
I never actually wanted to apply to Oregon. My parents made me. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad school by any means. It’s more or less CU away from home. I don’t know if that’s a good thing though. Eugene is supposedly the same thing as Boulder, and I’ve grown sick of this place in the last while. The school is more personal than CU, but that’s not saying too much. I can do well in just about any social setting, but I have a hard time seeing myself in a big university setting. Oregon has a vary varied class offering, and, being a west coast school, good Japanese program. Like CU, I’m expecting a lackluster art program taught by TAs and grad students. I’ll find out when I tour later this month. I thin the bottom-line thing I’ll get from this school is a very academic education.
Puget Sound, I hear, is an amazing place. I have friends from school and camp who will be going there for sure. I’m a rain guy, weather isn’t a big deal for me. However, I’m very unsure of their art program since they’re a small liberal arts school. I toured Macalester, a similar school and was very disappointed in their art facilities. I’ll find out more once I tour, of course. Puget Sound is very into bonding and stuff. I think it’s a great place for “finding yourself” and whatnot, but I’m not positive it’ll give me the right kind of education for me. I’m not sure I’d like to end up in Tacoma after college. I think the bottom-line thing I’ll get from this school is a “great experience”.
MCAD has for a while been my top choice. I had to convince my parents to let me apply to any art schools, and I’m glad I did. I really like the Twin Cities, and would be very happy to end up there after college. everyone in minnesota is really nice. The faculty is made up of practicing professionals, which I really like, because I don’t want to be taught by TAs or grad students. MCAD is just shy of 1000 students, some of which are obviously weird artsy kids. That’s ok with me, and I have a lot of other friends in the cities. I want to continue studying Japanese in college, and I can do that at Macalester while attending MCAD. I very much like the way they go about teaching you over four years and that you have to have an internship as a senior. MCAD by far has the nicest facilities for art, though small. I’m a bit uncertain about the size of the school pertaining to social life, as well as academic roundedness. The bottom-line thing I think I’ll get from this school is experience and practice.
It comes down to three things: Academic education, finding myself, and practical experience.
My dad once told me I should go to the hardest school I can, compete against everyone and try to be the best no matter what and be a CEO or something. I think I could do this at Oregon. The thing is, I’m not really a competitive person and I don’t want to be a CEO or anything. It’s very important to find yourself and whatnot, but I’m not sure college is the right place to do it for me. I can always take a year off for that. I’m sure I would come out of Puget Sound with a great experience and a good deal of wisdom, but I don’t know about getting a job out of there. I tell myself a lot that I want to become a great artist, and the best way to do that, I think, is to draw/paint/etc a lot. MCAD would force me to do that. I have a minor fear that’ I’ll get sick of it at some point. Surely MCAD will be the best opportunity for art and practical experience in it, and it probably won’t be so hard getting a job with a degree there. MCAD would give me a very good taste of living on my own as well. MCAD seems to me like just the kind of change of pace I need in a college because the others seem a lot more like extensions of high school (especially CU, but I don’t need to worry about that.)
As of right now, I’m favoring MCAD. I can’t really make a fair judgement until I’ve received financial aid information from them and toured Oregon and Puget Sound later this month.