California College of the Arts Top Questions

What is the stereotype of students at your school? Is this stereotype accurate?

Ariana

The stereotype of Art School students is that they are all hippies. Lazy, vegan, pot heads. Although many students here are vegan, they are defintiley not lazy. There is no way you will get by at CCA if you are not motivated. Majority of students are very intelligent, unique, and interesting to talk to. The course load is rigorous, but if pursuing a career in Art is your passion then you will thrive here.

Ana

Everyone is different and produces different art. There are groups according to major because the people in your concentration are the ones you spend most of your time with, but there is a great amount of intermingling as well. CCA encourages individualism and unique artwork.

Rani

I attend an art school and there are two stereotypes that come to mind, the design students and the artsy-fartsy students. Design students are thought of as up-tight, rigid, and elitist. While artsy-fartsy students are flaky, pseudo intellectuals, and also elitist. These two stereotypes can be subdivided by majors or departments as well but those are just more refined versions of the two branches of art students.

Kellie

The stereotype of an art school is pretty straight forward. It's that were all a bunch artsy kids doing artsy things. And yeah, we are all art students, we do artsy things, but were all different. I would say the one unifying trait could be that were all pretty liberal minded people.

R

I am not aware of a specific stereotype of students at CCA

Eric

I would say the stereotypes of students at CCA is that they are all artsy which is not accurate at all because when one talks about someone being artsy it has to do more with being into the fine arts scene and the majority of CCA is design based i.e. architecture, industrial design, fashion, etc...

Michael

yes, we are all art geeks and proud of it.

Em

As a graduate student from across the country, I didn't have too many preconceived notions about CCA before coming here. I know that in recent years the school dropped "and Crafts" from the end of its name, so I was a little concerned about an overwhelming emphasis on craft movements and theories. I find the program to be really balanced, with the room for students to shift towards any aspect of contemporary fine arts, whether their interests are more design oriented, craft based, etc. In my experience attending the school I haven't come across any generalizations or stereotypes that would really fit the diverse population of students here. I'd say an interest in art's potential for social impact and the role of the artist in a community are common threads that unite the student body and the faculty on an intellectual level.

Kryshana

I think there are people who associate students at my school with the stereotypes of "hippies," "hipsters" etc. I don't think this stereotype is accurate at all. Just because it's an art school, doesn't mean its filled with hippies. I think that's completely untrue and that the stereotype does not in any way accurately define the students at my school. CCA is composed of a wide range of diverse students from all sorts of different backgrounds and with a varied set of opinions. The same way, art is diverse in its many styles, colors etc, so are the students at the art school. We all have one thing in common and that is, we definitely have talent. But, we have different opinions, different goals, different styles and different things that make us uniquely individual. The greatest thing I find, about being at CCA is that there is so much diversity and that you can't really narrow the student population down to one stereotype or another. There are so many different characters and people with different opinions that make the school as different and exciting as it is.

Vincent

Smokers and non-smokers