I’ve had two schools on my dream list for quite a while. One is the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City, and the other is the Academy of Art University (AAU) in San Francisco. Those of you that have been following my posts regarding my college decisions know how much I want to go to both of these schools, and how genuinely torn between them I’ve been.

First I was leaning toward SVA for several months, and then I started to lean toward AAU, then I went back to leaning toward SVA, and then I started to lean toward AAU again. I’ve got a lot of people that have been lobbying me in both directions (family, friends, and even some of my clients), which naturally did nothing to help me make up my mind.

I knew that either way, I’d be happy since they were both such good schools in every way imaginable, from reputation and prestige to location and housing accomodations. And since they both had “rolling admissions” systems, I had more time to wait and think than usual.

Many months passed, over the course of which I’ve gotten to visit both schools and invesitage them to my heart’s content. So basically, since I’ve been accepted, I just need to choose!

Finally, with my mother’s help, I’ve come up with my college plan that will make everybody happy, especially me. To make a long story short, I’ve decided to spend one year at AAU and three years at SVA. I mentioned this plan in the last college decision status post, and so now that I’ve thought it over, I’ve decided that it really is the ideal way to go, and here’s why.

I was very impressed by both of their four-year Graphic Design programs. At the end of the day though, I felt that SVA’s was a little bit better, but the admissions officer told me that the director of the Graphic Design program didn’t actually like the first year of his program but the president of the college wasn’t letting him modify it, and so people were being told to sign up for Advertising for their first year and then switch at the start of their second year. By going to AAU one year, I get to avoid that issue and still have all four of my years actually be in Graphic Design.

One of the other benefits of doing it this way is that in the future when I’m getting a job and stuff, I’ll be able to take advantages of the awesome services and connections that both of these schools offer. Because they both separately have so much eminince in the industry, they both have unique arrangements with different high profile studios and employers; I’ll be able to enjoy both of their special job placement offerings and services.

Another is that I’ll get to experience both cities. Both New York City and San Francisco are unquestinably major art and design hubs, so I already knew that there was a very good chance that my career would eventually lead me to live in either city. With the path I’m going to take, I will have had a chance to live in both of them before having to pick a job and tie myself to either.

I also think it’s worth mentioning that I’ll get to enjoy a couple things that I’ve always wanted to do that I’d never get to do if I just went to SVA since AAU is a bit bigger. In particular, I’ll finally get to be on a swim team. Now, before you roll your eyes at me, I totally agree that something like that really shouldn’t affect this decision, and it didn’t. But if I said it wasn’t in the back of my mind, I’d be lying. I missed out on a lot of things in high school because of my medical situation, and being able to do some of them — like being on a swim team — for just one year makes me very happy.

After I’ve received my bachelor’s degree, I’d like to continue as a graduate student and get my master’s. Both AAU and SVA have graduate programs, but that’s another decision for another time. It’s just nice to have this one made, and it’s a relief to be “committing” to it publicly by posting it, too. Thank you to everybody who expressed interest!

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 11th, 2008 at 11:13 am and is filed under My Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.