I'm Going to College...

Here in my senior year of high school, there is one question I get asked all too often:

Where are you going next year?

    It's a question I've been struggling to answer since I started this process last year. In my arts school the Digital Media program encompasses pretty much every digital art medium there is. We have aspiring filmmakers, animators, photographers, game designers, and graphic designers. All of these could be considered "new media," but some mediums are newer than others.

    Film seems to be the most established digital arts program in most schools and everyone already knows that NYU and UCLA are pretty much the top schools for it. To me, it seems like that's a pretty clear path and it at least gives film students a starting point in their college process.

    I started by looking at the bigger art schools offerings. To my surprise, there wasn't much to find. NYU didn't have any graphic design program at all, Pratt did offer a BFA program but it was difficult to find since it was under "communications design" and they also offered a program called "graphic design" but it was AOS degree not a BA or BFA. From there I moved on to look at Parsons, the UC system and others.

    This brings me to my next issue with this process, there just isn't enough information out there. I like to make well informed decisions and this feels like a big step in my life, so I want to know as much about the schools I apply to as I can. This includes housing, what the teachers are like, how much the students are enjoying the program, and what kind of work gets produced based on the skills taught in the program.

    Despite all of this, I have applied to a number of schools and gotten accepted into one. I know I'm going to college - I mean, I kinda have to if I want a good job in graphic design - I just don't know where yet. That's why, whenever a friend or family member asks where I'll be next year, I don't quite know how to answer... yet.