Skyler -
02/21/2021The School of Visual Arts is a phenomenal school with inspiring people in it. Whether it is faculty, staff, or other students, someone is always willing to lend a hand and assist you in any way possible; everyone here is so caring and helpful. Despite classes being online for the year, it's still easy to communicate and make friends with people. All of my professors answer emails quickly and we even schedule one-on-one zoom sessions to work together in solving any issues I have.
I haven't had a bad professor yet. There are challenging projects, but as I mentioned before, as long as you communicate with your professors they'll help you out.
The location itself is also amazing. Being in New York City brings so many advantages and great opportunities. There's amazing food, plenty of people to meet and talk to, and there's always inspiration around.
lin -
04/28/2020If you want to be an artist without concerning about how much money you would get, here is the place. It is also depend on which major you are. I am a film major, and I found out I can learn more on Youtube than in the class, particular in the second and third year. The cinematography instructor barely teaches you some valuable knowledge, in another word, some practice knowledge such as some classic lighting set up. The content of each class is very random, no systematic designed. The instructor usually asks us what we want to do, which is something I never expected. The instructor should develop a consistent schedule throughout the whole semester, not some randomness. And just as you know, the advisor in the film departments (there are two) are hard to work with. The advisor in the photography department are very nice, but not film. Anyway, if you are someone that want to learn practical stuff from the first day of the school till the graduation, perhaps pick computer arts or animation. I feel like some instructors in the film department have lack of teaching skills. But again, this is an art school, so maybe don't expect learning practical thing everyday. The most valuable class I took is called film language. Many people agree with me, that one class, is perhaps what you will learn the most knowledge in SVA film dept. during the four years study (if you want to learn actual knowledge).
I transferred from photography department to film, in the photo department, most of the time you spend during the class is like this: shooting, critique, watching YouTube video. When you move into second and third year, perhaps watching YouTube video will take more time than the first two, especially on the video class. I expect learning from the instructor rather than watching YouTube video during class. That is the main reason that I transferred away to another dept. Enough for academic, you should get my point now.
Many people (student and instructor) will talk about how important it is to know people / build relationships during t he college, which is beneficial to the future career, which, I am totally agree. But they put too much emphasize on this thing that sometimes people, including instructor, thinks knowing people is more important than learning actual knowledge. THIS IS WRONG. You need to have knowledge, in order to know valuable people. Knowledge must go first. That is why you barely learn actual actual knowledge here in film department. I feel like I did not learn practical thing so I began learning visual effect online. I love film, I just don't feel like I am learning enough thing. How ironic I spend more time on learning online(self taught) in a school. DON'T GET ME WRONG, you will need to spend time to do the homework assigned by teacher, but it is a different story than LEARNING, which is supposed to take place in the classroom.
For campus life, like you must already knew, there is no campus, which is fine with me. But if you are the type of person that like to have a campus, SVA is not the right place. There are two major campus, one in the west of Manhattan, and one is in the east side, where is the main building (student center). There are shuttle bus, but if you schedule are tight, do not take the bus or you will be late. Walk is faster in most cases. Food is always easy to find, but expensive. But if you choose to eat Fast food everyday, that is another case. It is prohibited to bring food into studio, at least film dept., so don't expect to bring your lunch.
Lastly, student residential apartment. There are a few options, I picked "ludlow", which is in the downtown. You need to take bus(m15) or subway(f lane) everyday. The apartment is alright, but now perfect. The security is nice, but depends on what kind of person you are. Some of them are rude, when you say hello, they will not look up and say hello to you. And it takes a long time for them to fix a problem. They are not multi-task person. Signing three packages is considered busy to them. Once I asked them to copy a form for me, I asked them to make sure for three times, and I never got my copy. But beside this, the life in the room(single) is pretty good. You will share the bathroom with a suit mate. If you are the type of person that will stay inside the room from 24/7, you will enjoy it. RA is very responsible and will respond your question in a timely manner. The rules are very strict, do not bring outside furniture into the room, do not, they will throw it away or donate it, they will not give it back to you even you said you can send it to your family. I bought an electronic piano that comes with a stand and a chair. They said I can keep the piano and the stand, and I can't have the chair, I need to either return it or throw it away or give it to them. The chair is made by the SAME MATERIAL of the bed stand and the table, and they said the reason is that the chair will cause insect. Sometimes the rule is way too strict in a way that it does not make any sense - someone has guitar in their room. Guitar is made by wood in most cases, and it is more likely to cause insect problems than a piano chair that made with the same material than the school-provided-funiture. Sometimes people cannot use their brain to think, they like to stick with the rules. It is just a thing to bring up, so you can evaluate. Different people have different personality, someone can stand it, no problem.
Anyway, don't look at the rank of certain school, you need to actually feel it, experience it, then say whether you like it or not. I did look at the rank, which is pretty good. But after these years, I was a little bit regret of the decision.
Anyway, this is my thought, it does not represent anyone else's opinion.
