Miss Perceived

Post High School Education for the Frantic Senior

Monday, 29. September 2008, 19:19:09

Why can't it be as easy as picking socks?

Well I was sick yesterday, and even though I feel fine today, mom made me stay home from school >_< But hey, it gave me an opportunity to look at some colleges. I am graduating next year, and really gotta figure out what I want to do with my life.

At first I was thinking of taking a year off after high school to explore my options and take on a full-time job. I mean, my parents are already paying for my sister to go to college- I'd hate for them to waste their money on something I might not do. Plus, considering they're helping my sister pay college, I need to start standing on my own two feet. Thing is though, when I told people about this, they were all like "Don't do that!!!". According to them, I'll "lose the feeling of school", and besides, I can "get the degree that much faster". Hmmph. Fine.

My second theory was to go to community college to get my core classes out of the way, then go to a bigger college. But I dunno, it seems like just more money to spend when these classes would be included in the tuition for the bigger school I go to. Then again, gives me more time to explore career options. I dunno.

Right now, my big idea is to go to school for graphic design. My second choice would probably be photography. So with that in mind, I started my trek to look at some good graphic design schools...

ART INSTITUTE OF PHOENIX (first choice)
-Hands on campus
-$26,000
-Can get my bachelor degree in 3 years, instead of 4
-Close to home
-They don't focus so much on your GPA and SAT scores, they're more interested in your artistic ability
-Housing= expensive!!!
-Not very diverse with organizations and stuff (what school doesn't have a drama club?!)
-Small classrooms
-Help you find a job after getting your degree
-Hell, they help you get a job even while you're enrolled!
-Internships are offered
-Every time I write "institute", I come close to writing "prostitute"... how's that going to look when I start writing this school's name?!

RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN (it's just an idea in the air)
-It's in Rhode Island... I grew up there!
-Tuition is $34,000 (is this per year?!)
-Rated top graphic design school in the country
-You can't pick your major in freshman year (considering how I am right now, that might not be such a bad thing)
-Another 3 year program! Huzzah!
-It's wicked tough to get into

"I have to turn my head until my darkness goes"WHAT I LEARNED IN SCHOOL TODAY

Comments

britthomsan # 30. September 2008, 10:36

Good luck.

SoNota_GirlyGrl # 3. October 2008, 00:18

erm....the $26,000 is a bad thing? I admit it's not the best price, but that's like the cheapest you're going to find other than state or community colleges. And is that plus room and board?

RIchick91 # 3. October 2008, 00:27

That doesn't include room and board. I'm pretty sure THAT'S another $1500 per year.

A lot of colleges are really cheap out west- I mean, AI is a private art school.

SoNota_GirlyGrl # 4. October 2008, 08:36

I know...that's what I mean. You found a private art school for that little? I know that's not a small amount of money, but it's so much less than anything you're going to find around here. If you have the opportunity to go there and you like the school, you should definitely take it. RISD is amazing, and maybe you could get a scholarship or something, but Matt told me it's like $50,000 when it gets into room&board and everything.

RIchick91 # 4. October 2008, 16:43

It's insane how much it costs to go to college. It'll probably only get worse with the economy...

When you guys were looking at colleges, how did you do it? Like, how did you determine which one was the school you wanted to go to?

Anonymous # 16. October 2008, 21:35

Becky writes:

RISD would be FUN! =)

You'd have to check up on scholarships tho..that's wicked expensive...o.O

SoNota_GirlyGrl # 17. October 2008, 08:08

The most important thing I can possibly say is: VISIT SCHOOLS!

I had two schools, Bard and Drew, that I was looking at last fall when I went to NYC to visit colleges. At the time, I was very interested in Bard, and Drew was just kinda an 'eh, I'll go see it since it's near New York' thing. Bard was okay, but when I went to Drew, I fell in love. You just get this sense that this is the school you need to go to. It'll just feel right. So that's how I got to this place