Hey everyone!
So just to update you all on what's been happening, my best friend Kendall and I have traveled down to Austin, Texas to check out the University of Texas at Austin and to a tour of the city as well as the arts department for a college visit.
Going into this, I presumed that I would fall in love with UT Austin, I liked the eclectic and odd city and culture of Austin and thought that would translate nicely into the college as well. Being an art major as well, I thought it would liven up the college feel and help bring some color to the town.
What really changed my mind was the rain we had that day. It made the city cold, dreary, and difficult. We saw the college at its worst. It was insanely hard to find our way around, and ended up getting lost several times. (The numerous one way streets didn't help much either) In addition, the college was HUGE. I expected this college to be fairly big, but the sheer size of the campus as well as the amount of students, tourists, and residents there was overwhelming. I felt like we were always crammed for space, and never on time because we were always turned around. We saw UT Austin at its worst.
Now, this contrasts from UNT in many different ways. One: UNT was smaller and more personal, where as UT was immensely larger and never had that sense of camaraderie and friendliness to it that UNT did. Secondly, the arts departments. Both had their similarities, but what set them apart most was their programs. UT Austin, had an amazing building and architecture that felt modern, and had a sense of sophistication to them, however they lacked real content. I was enthralled with the aesthetics of the building that it wasn't until my friend mentioned how it differed from the UNT program that I realized it was more of a facade than anything. They had rooms for live drawings and studios, and galleries. But the tour guide said that they had majors for Design, Painting and Drawing and Sculpture. To me this just sounded way to broad. How would you get specific skills for a career you were aiming towards? UNT showed exactly what classes we would be taking, what projects we would do and how the teachers would teach it to us. Not only that but UNT had a greater access to equipment and had the opportunity to make a portfolio at the end of the year to give future employers. It seemed obvious to me at that point that UNT was more focused on us being successful in the real world by preparing us for certain jobs and UT Austin was more involved with making multiple artworks with the phrase "I went to UT Austin so I must be good."
I don't like that certain schools and colleges have a stigma on how smart or how successful one is. Yes, UNT is a smaller, lesser known school, but if they have a better program will it matter that I am not going to a State or better known college? In my opinion, not at all. But that's for you to determine.
Also, something I would like to mention is that recently my AP 2D Design class decide to make an in-house art gallery at our school. This was extremely exciting for me and my classmates. It was something that has never been done before in our school, and because we are in the arts department of our school, we unfortunately don't get much representation like some other departments.
However, it gives us a great opportunity and chance to showcase our work to the rest of the school and show what we have worked so hard on. Just a few days ago we finished painting the ( used to be storage) room and now we are just finishing up our artworks to be displayed. Here are a few pictures of the process of painting the gallery.
So just to update you all on what's been happening, my best friend Kendall and I have traveled down to Austin, Texas to check out the University of Texas at Austin and to a tour of the city as well as the arts department for a college visit.
Going into this, I presumed that I would fall in love with UT Austin, I liked the eclectic and odd city and culture of Austin and thought that would translate nicely into the college as well. Being an art major as well, I thought it would liven up the college feel and help bring some color to the town.
What really changed my mind was the rain we had that day. It made the city cold, dreary, and difficult. We saw the college at its worst. It was insanely hard to find our way around, and ended up getting lost several times. (The numerous one way streets didn't help much either) In addition, the college was HUGE. I expected this college to be fairly big, but the sheer size of the campus as well as the amount of students, tourists, and residents there was overwhelming. I felt like we were always crammed for space, and never on time because we were always turned around. We saw UT Austin at its worst.
Now, this contrasts from UNT in many different ways. One: UNT was smaller and more personal, where as UT was immensely larger and never had that sense of camaraderie and friendliness to it that UNT did. Secondly, the arts departments. Both had their similarities, but what set them apart most was their programs. UT Austin, had an amazing building and architecture that felt modern, and had a sense of sophistication to them, however they lacked real content. I was enthralled with the aesthetics of the building that it wasn't until my friend mentioned how it differed from the UNT program that I realized it was more of a facade than anything. They had rooms for live drawings and studios, and galleries. But the tour guide said that they had majors for Design, Painting and Drawing and Sculpture. To me this just sounded way to broad. How would you get specific skills for a career you were aiming towards? UNT showed exactly what classes we would be taking, what projects we would do and how the teachers would teach it to us. Not only that but UNT had a greater access to equipment and had the opportunity to make a portfolio at the end of the year to give future employers. It seemed obvious to me at that point that UNT was more focused on us being successful in the real world by preparing us for certain jobs and UT Austin was more involved with making multiple artworks with the phrase "I went to UT Austin so I must be good."
I don't like that certain schools and colleges have a stigma on how smart or how successful one is. Yes, UNT is a smaller, lesser known school, but if they have a better program will it matter that I am not going to a State or better known college? In my opinion, not at all. But that's for you to determine.
Also, something I would like to mention is that recently my AP 2D Design class decide to make an in-house art gallery at our school. This was extremely exciting for me and my classmates. It was something that has never been done before in our school, and because we are in the arts department of our school, we unfortunately don't get much representation like some other departments.
However, it gives us a great opportunity and chance to showcase our work to the rest of the school and show what we have worked so hard on. Just a few days ago we finished painting the ( used to be storage) room and now we are just finishing up our artworks to be displayed. Here are a few pictures of the process of painting the gallery.