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The Maryland Institute College of Art

How this student rated the school
Educational QualityF Faculty AccessibilityF
Useful SchoolworkF Excess CompetitionF
Academic SuccessF Creativity/ InnovationB
Individual ValueF University Resource UseF
Campus Aesthetics/ BeautyF FriendlinessF
Campus MaintenanceF Social LifeF
Surrounding CityF Extra CurricularsF
SafetyF
Describes the student body as:
Afraid, Arrogant, Broken Spirit, Snooty, Closeminded

Describes the faculty as:
Arrogant, Unhelpful, Self Absorbed

Female
SAT1850
Bright
Lowest Rating
Educational Quality
F
Highest Rating
Creativity/ Innovation
B
She cares more about Friendliness than the average student.
Date: Feb 15 2015
Major: Unknown (This Major's Salary over time)
Obviously this is a personal account of my experience at MICA. I graduated from a diverse public school with about the same amount of kids that attend MICA. I went through high school with a normal social life. I obviously have interest in art, but also in writing and other classes that require some sort of thought. That being said, if you are anything like me, do not attend this school.

To address the topic of diversity: there is none. The student population (as well as staff for that matter) can be described as pretentious, self centered, and white. They're all white or asian. To address the social aspect: as I said, I'm used to having a normal teenage social life. At MICA, there are no options. If your idea of a fun time is sitting in a circle smoking cigarettes talking about indie rock, then you'll be fine. If you enjoy going to an occasional party, you're fucked. There are none. It's a city campus so parties are extremely rare and if there are any they'll be in a tiny dorm in Leake Hall with no music and probably a total of 15 people max. To touch on the bit about classes: it's a pain in the ass to push to get any academic classes your freshman year. They give you critical inquiry and art matters but you won't learn anything in those two classes. They're basically there to make the school look good and impress the parents who are sending their trust fund babies to MICA. It's foundations year so this might not be a concern for most anyways, but I've heard it doesn't get easier as you progress in your education at MICA. A lot of the interesting academic classes are set up so that they're only available to humanistic studies majors, and in order to obtain that major you must also major in something else. When you're learning about the school they'll boast about how classes are available for MICA students at Johns Hopkins, but I've tried to contact my advisor to figure that out and somehow that fell through the cracks. I have never met a foundations student who actually does take outside classes at Johns Hopkins.

STAFF: The staff is totally incompetent. They're all spacey artists who have no idea which way is up. You could imagine asking a person like this to help you drop or switch a class is not very easy, and you will end up essentially making it happen on your own through a different staff member who has nothing to do with academic advising.

CAMPUS: UGLY AS HELL. Everyone calls it the bubble. I know somebody who took the social shuttle (which is a yellow school bus by the way) to target by herself and sat there for three hours just to get out of the bubble.

SAFETY: If you do decide to attend, you'll receive messages from Campus Safety once a week or more about a MICA student getting mugged or robbed.

Lastly but most importantly,

EDUCATION: I pay 50,000 dollars a year to teach myself at this school. Your art will progress, but that's only because you're spending all of your time doing that and nothing else. The professors grade based on how much they like you. If you want to do well in a class, suck up to them and come up with outrageous conceptual stories for every piece you complete. The education just isn't worth the money. If you're not planning to be a studio artist who shows their work at galleries, and you're looking for a practical job (I plan on majoring in GD so I can eventually own my own business and market myself), you are valueless in the eyes of staff and your peers. I really wouldn't advise you to waste your money just because everyone has told you that MICA is the Harvard of art schools. It most certainly is not.

ALSO,

they require for you to live on campus both freshman and sophomore year to suck as much money out of you as possible. If you attend this school you will find right away, that apparently 50,000 dollar tuition is not enough for them, and they will do anything they can do get the additional dollar out of you.

HOUSING: Housing is nice

FOOD: food is good

Moral of the story: don't go to MICA

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