The Delaware College of Art and Design

Date: Jun 08 2015
Major: Fine Arts - Painting/Sculpture/Photography/etc (This Major's Salary over time)
While I am an illustration student just entering my second year at DCAD, I think it's safe to say that DCAD is an all-around decent school. Nothing super amazing, but nothing terribly bad. For a super skilled art student this probably shouldn't be you're first-choice school, but if you're looking for a pretty decent and moderately easy school then it won't hurt to check DCAD out. For a student who still considers themselves a beginner, or maybe someone who wants to set a solid foundation for themselves in the art world, DCAD would probably be the perfect place for you.

Foundation year is pretty standard. Everyone gets pretty much the same classes, but depending on the teachers you get you could have different assignments (but even if they're different the teachers usually design them so they all have the same idea/focus). All the teachers that I've had are well-established in what they do and they know what they're talking about. Most of them are pretty helpful and since classes usually range from 15-25 people it's more personal.

Although I haven't started classes for my second year yet, I can see from previous second-years that you start to focus on things that relate more towards your major. During the year they also start having other art colleges visit so you can start planning whether or not you want to transfer to another art college. From what I've heard transferring is pretty easy as long as you pass all of your classes (even though Pratt and Corcoran are DCAD's partners you can go to pretty much any art school afterwards).

And lastly student life at DCAD is OK. Nothing too exciting goes on around in the city of Wilmington except the Art Loop, that happens every first Friday of each month, or any other small events that the school may or may not tell you about. The school itself has a good number of events happen throughout the year, like Spirit Week, the Egg Drop, the all-day drawing marathon, the 24-hour animation competition, parties, and gallery shows+visits. Overall nothing super exciting but if you have ideas for something the faculty is always open to suggestions. There are some clubs available like music, d&d, exercise, yoga, student gallery, etc. but you can always start a new club if you want to. If you live in the dorms then good for you, the dorms in the 707 are pretty nice (having been renovated from an old hotel building). Pretty much all the first-years live in the 707 and the second years live over in the Saville. The Saville is a bit older than the 707 but is still decent since it's right next to the main school building (although you have to walk to the 707 to get food). The food in the 707 is good. They have a nice variety of foods to choose from each day and do their best to have options available to people with certain food allergies/preferences.

But yeah DCAD is a decent school. I don't think it's a waste of money; if you compare it to other more popular art schools, DCAD is cheaper. It's also smaller and more personal if you're interested in that over a bigger school where you're only 1 out of thousands. The school is also growing and changing to make things better. Definitely check out the school if you're interested after reading all of this.