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Sort By: [Date] [Major] [Rating] Other  Major Salary, Salary Trend, Satisfaction, Unemployment Bright All of the friends I made here, every single one, are leaving after one semester and so am I. Ringling may have once been a great school but it is no longer. Last year they changed the curriculum to make it even more challenging and segregated. They put freshmen families into place, which means you are stuck with the same group of people in every class all year. Like middle school. How is this a college experience? What makes this especially terrible is that peers in the media arts- that is students in animation, game art and design, and illustration, are especially egotistical and downright nasty. They will befriend you dependent on whether you are already amazing at drawing or not. But didn't we come here to learn to draw? A good friend of mine here left with good grades before the semester was up because she couldn't stand all the fake people who befriended her just because of her art. Credits you earn here won't transfer by the way, so don't stick it out all semester if you're as miserable as we were. Ringling is like purgatory. Or worse, it's like hell. There are no good clubs or activities; in fact, the main club here is Christian Club. At an art college? You are also surrounded by a ghetto. On weekends, this campus is pretty much a dead zone or wasteland. My friends and I had to resort to drinking Robitussin on the weekends because without a car, there is absolutely NOTHING else to do except for kill yourself. Seriously. No parties, nightlife, or events going on that aren't academic related. Every store and restaurant located in the ghetto closes at 10:00 PM. As if you could even make it to any of them by foot without getting killed. The dorms here are nice but not well maintained, at least not in Goldstein North Hall. A facilities employee came in to fix my air conditioner that was leaking, making a funny noise, and not cooling the room whatsoever. I complained to him that it was getting hot in there and becoming hard to breathe, but he would only fix the leak because a wrench icon had not appeared on the controls. Two days later, a wrench icon appeared and the room now smells of mold and mildew. I have complained many times about this and sent many facilities requests, but they have yet to do anything about it. I can not sleep in that room because it is hazardous to my health. Another thing hazardous to my health here is the food, which lacks nutrients of any kind. You only have three options on campus: Hammond Commons, the Brickman Cafe, and the Outtakes Cafe. Hammonds will make you fat very quickly. The Brickman Cafe actually has pretty good soups and sandwiches, but in very small portions that won't fill you up. The Outtakes Cafe is just junkfood with prices that are nothing short of scandalous. If you do insist on going to this godforsaken place, do not, and I repeat, DO NOT waste your money on the meal plan. It is only good for three meals a day at specific times with no rollover credit. How's that for a scam? Don't even get me started on the isolation. Ringling purposely isolates everyone with their extreme security system. "Fobs" are used to get to each individual floor in Goldstein, and each hall. This means even the long and short halls are separated on each floor! Forget having friends in other dormitories altogether because your "fob" won't get you in. In short, Ringling was the worst decision I have ever made in my entire life, and a big fat waste of precious life time and money. It was like a four month acid trip gone horribly, horribly, wrong, in which I lost all contact with reality. I'm even tempted to say high school was better but alas, I will not. Below I will list the types of people who should attend Ringling: If you are the type of person who cares only about curriculum and not college experience, or even having any friends, choose Ringling. If you are already fantastic at drawing and would like to have fake friends, choose Ringling. If you are so full of yourself that you think your college will make you famous, choose Ringling. If your idea of a party is watching a Dreamworks or Pixar film, choose Ringling. If you like anime (a lot) choose Ringling. If you consider yourself a member of the furry or brony community, choose Ringling. If you want to dye your hair to be unique and different but are too afraid to dye more than two strands of it, choose Ringling. If you are a christian, choose Ringling. If you want to lose all contact with the outside world and even other majors, choose Ringling. If you want to live a stressful, miserable life and never acquire a family, choose Ringling. If you don't care about having a love life whatsoever, choose Ringling. If you want to have no life at all, choose Ringling. If you already have years of experience in animation, can be the best in your class, and want to be a Pixar animator, choose Ringling. If you are a commuter, choose Ringling. If you do not fall into ALL of these categories than please, for the love of god, DO NOT CHOOSE RINGLING! You will end up wasting 40k a year to be locked up in a beautiful looking jail. Campus Aesthetics: A+, Collaboration/Competitive: F Have a Question? Your Response/Question:     To be informed when someone replies to your comment. (private)  More →  Nov 14 2012 1st Year Female -- Class 2016    Forward  Blog it! Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account: Just copy and paste! <script src='http://www.studentsreview.com/active/shared/sr_comment.js?sckey=90406&uid=295'></script> <a href='http://www.studentsreview.com' style='font-size:8pt;'>Data Source: StudentsReview!</a> Rate this comment: Useless (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Helpful       Save Art & Design Department  Major Salary, Salary Trend, Satisfaction, Unemployment Bright Let me start off with this school is not for everyone. I was pretty excited when I found out I could pull the loans to come here and work towards an illustration major (honestly the acceptance wasn't that surprising because I was positive they wanted my money). I felt privileged and lucky to have this opportunity and that my parents were so supportive. I can't say as much for the school. Hear me out, not everything here is terrible and not every is peachy. Even for someone with a lot of passion for art and who is willing to put petty faults aside for the bigger goal, the school is pretty weird. Starting with the obvious MLK ghetto surrounding you. NEVER WALK ALONE NO MATTER HOW SHORT THE TRIP. The people are really dangerous and there is a terrible history of violence and vandalism per year. The drivers around will hit-and-run and not even give it a second thought. The old men on golf carts don't really make me feel secure either and sometimes they actually almost run me over. Also the only place to go within walking distance for food is the ghetto Burger King across the street and a man kindly offered my friend a good deal on weed. So as a freshmen I expect basics, but their new and "improved" curriculum for the freshmen of 2012-2013 is beyond ridiculous. The completive nature of the school can be seen as positive but in all honesty I think they lose sight of what they are selling. We are required to take a regimented schedule of "Drawing I" (which is a brutal perspective class in disguise), Figure Drawing I, Writing, 2D Design, and Film & Narrative first semester which adds up to a recommended 56 hrs/week work schedule outside of class as said by the ARC. The school prides itself on wanting to be the best art school (wanting to be better than RISD that is) that they are willing to accept you for your money, knowing you're not prepared, and flunk for failing one course. Another big thing is the attendance policy which is unheard of. If you miss more than 4 classes per semester without an excuse, which would be along the lines of a medical emergency with a note from a physician (the flu doesn't count, must be bleeding out your eyeballs), you fail the course which again means you fail the year. Also don't trust the academic adviser, at least for illustration. My friend had a terrible experience with them along the lines of wanting to withdraw a course, which was extremely stressful for someone who didn't already have experience in the subject, but was told they specifically could not without failing out of Ringling. Later to find out that wasn't true when discussed with a higher up. They were allowed to drop it but got an "F" anyway because it was past the deadline to withdraw even though they had asked several times before the deadline. I have watched many of the students in my classes (which are all the same people in every class by the way, due to "freshmen families"=cliques) fail out or leave due to stress within the first semester. The academic advisor was of no help, and just pops up last minute to tell you that you failed and to leave within 24 hours. The teachers and students here can be pretty vicious and I think that lends itself to the completive nature and superiority complex of the school. There are nice people here but that doesn't mean they are not judgmental or close-minded. Same goes for teachers. Some try to help, others don't help at all, and some are just racist...white supremacy.I haven't even said everything but I think it's understood. This is by far the most left-brained art school I've ever encountered with a weird sense of values and not much promise for 40 grand a year. I am seriously considering leaving even though my grades are not poor. I can't imagine 4 years of this. Campus Aesthetics: A+, Collaboration/Competitive: F Have a Question? Your Response/Question:     To be informed when someone replies to your comment. (private)  More →  Nov 08 2012 1st Year Female -- Class 2016    Forward  Blog it! Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account: Just copy and paste! <script src='http://www.studentsreview.com/active/shared/sr_comment.js?sckey=90290&uid=295'></script> <a href='http://www.studentsreview.com' style='font-size:8pt;'>Data Source: StudentsReview!</a> Rate this comment: Useless (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Helpful       Save Art & Design Department  Major Salary, Salary Trend, Satisfaction, Unemployment Quite Bright Sorry for this re-upload, I did not realize it had defaulted me to "not so bright." I simply can not let that go, for I am very bright and have a gifted level i.q. Grr! It makes me angry that there are not very many good reviews of Ringling online. It is hard to do research before attending this school! I'll start with the curriculum itself. It's hard. No, not just hard, but GRUELING. Ringling seems to pride itself in being a very demanding school and teachers seem to just assign a lot of work simply to keep you busy most of the time. Ringling recently scrapped their entire program and started a new one. They made many changes to the already difficult curriculum, including placing an incredibly difficult perspectives class (cleverly named a "drawing" class THAT USED TO BE A JUNIOR AND SENIOR ELECTIVE) into the mandatory freshmen media arts curriculum. If I had known I would be forced to take a very advanced perspectives class as a freshman illustration major, there is no way in hell I would have chosen this school. To make matters worse, you never know what teacher and students you will get for your perspectives class. If all of the other students have had perspectives before, you can bet your teacher will move very quickly through the class and if you didn't understand the basics from the first day FORGET passing. On top of that, the school only offers group tutoring for this class which is completely useless and ON TOP OF THAT if you don't pass, you fail. Fail the class and take it in the spring or summer like at a normal school? NOPE! You fail OUT OF RINGLING. That's it. Game over. Over one class that shouldn't even be in the freshmen curriculum?? Another absolutely idiotic change they made is lumping freshmen into classes with the same people all day long in what they call a "freshmen family." As if the majors and floors of Goldstein and dorms weren't already segregated enough at this school through the extreme security system? These "freshmen families" also start a domino effect for all four years encouraging little cliques to form starting day one. It also encourages people to judge you by your work all day long every day. If you aren't already very good at drawing, forget ever making friends because yes, they will judge you as a person by your work and what you get done. They will label you as a slacker even if you work very hard and are unable to get all work done. Campus life is work and sleep. Having "fun" at Ringling is going over to someone's dorm room if they are there to let you in, and working while watching a movie (or just working). "Parties" at Ringling are anime or dress up parties with no alcohol involved whatsoever. With the work load you may not even be able to see other people without falling behind. The only people who have time for clubs, activities, Quidditch (the only sport they offer there), and working out, are the machines who came in very skillful already and are extremely fast at getting their work done and good. Not that the clubs are any fun anyway. There is no nightlife off campus whatsoever, unless you want to be attacked. The campus is located right in the middle of a disgusting ghetto. If you walk out at night alone prepare to be stalked or at least yelled at constantly. I was once followed to three separate stores by a man in a very big van. CREEPY. Even if you do dare to venture, the only things located nearby are shady bars, some dollar stores, a Goodwill, a Wal-mart, and a drug store and they all close at-get this-10:00 PM. That's right, a Wal-mart that closes at 10:00 PM. Don't waste money on the meal plan! It goes by time of day, meaning if you accidently use your lunch for breakfast, you can't eat again until 5 PM. The food served in the cafeterias at Ringling is just aweful. You can go to Hammond's and get unhealthy food that will make you gain weight very rapidly, or you can go to Harmond's and get soup or a sandwich, that will make you gain weight slightly less rapidly. Those are about your only options, aside from the Outakes cafe which is way over priced, and your meal card will only get you about $3.50 which is like, a muffin. As I said there is nowhere to eat off campus without a car or taking a bus, aside from a ghetto Burger King. Ringling is not for everyone and it definitely was not for me. If you expect work, no sleep, constant stress, and worry but don't expect a college experience whatsoever, then choose Ringling. If you would like to have a social life, make some good friends, and make memories you can always look back on fondly and cherish, do not go to Ringling. Think long and hard before you decide on Ringling, because once you are sent to the jail that you are paying 40 grand a year for, it is very hard to get out of it! Campus Aesthetics: A, Social Life: F Have a Question? Your Response/Question:     To be informed when someone replies to your comment. (private)  More →  Oct 27 2012 1st Year Female -- Class 2016    Forward  Blog it! Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account: Just copy and paste! <script src='http://www.studentsreview.com/active/shared/sr_comment.js?sckey=90094&uid=295'></script> <a href='http://www.studentsreview.com' style='font-size:8pt;'>Data Source: StudentsReview!</a> Rate this comment: Useless (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Helpful       Save  Prev    Select Page:  1  2  3  4    Next

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