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Product Description: Introduction from the Author

Rhode Island School of Design is like the Harvard of art schools. ThatÂ’s the line that almost every student at RISD has had to employ to soothe at least one family member. Once the skeptics get past the initial terror, they swoop in with the flood of questions. Yes, it is a four-year program that gives its students a professional degree. Yes, it will help students get a job doing what they love. Yes, artists and designers do need training because raw talent isnÂ’t the whole package. Yes, RISD really is considered one of the top art schools in America. No, students canÂ’t just go to Harvard, or even Yale, and expect to get the same quality of art education. Now weÂ’re past the pleasantries.

Ranging from majors in design to fine art, with concentrations in liberal arts, there is a major and program combination that will suit nearly every serious art student. The thing to keep in mind about RISD is that it will not be an easy ride. To give more perspective, think of it this way: one Freshman Foundations Drawing course lasts eight hours. During these eight hours (with a break for lunch, and whatever other break the individual professor may give), students are expected to stay standing up with focus on life drawing at the same level as solving complex math problems. Before they show up to class the following week, they are expected to do 15 hours of drawing homework for a group critique. One year of this class is required, with students earning three credits per semester for their hard work. Compare this situation with an Ivy League student, who goes to English 101 for a weekly total of 90 minutes, has perhaps five hours of reading and studying to do, and is also provided with three credits per semester. Obviously, the comparison is not quite so simple, but it does illustrate the tremendous time commitment and dedication that it takes to be a RISD student.

The same qualities that make RISD so difficult for students are also what make it a top art school. Professors are dedicated and professional members of their field who push their students to full capacity and prepare them for careers that will support them financially and artistically. The resources afforded a RISD student range from top of the line computer labs to specialized equipment only found in the field to the RISD Museum. Lastly, every part of the school’s environment, from academics to the social scene, pushes students to be who they are as fully as possible at the samet time enables them to make work that is personal and original. That is one of the reasons why RISD alumni are so successful. Aside from the weight of the RISD name and the tremendous skill range built up over the course of a student’s stay, RISD students are original thinkers and problem solvers and graduate to become leaders of their fields, not following standards, but setting them. When considering an art education and trying to decipher between another art school and the Rhode Island School of Design, the truly important question to ask is not, “Is art the best I can do?” but “How good can I really be?”

Brooke Ackerley, Author
Rhode Island School of Design