Having
experienced three majors here, Illustration, Painting and Graphic Design, I
really wish I had gone to a different school.
I can fairly say that about 1/3 of the teachers
that I've had are terribly difficult to understand. Hardly
any have degrees in teaching, they are hired due to
their performance in the field. While I am glad
that they have field experience, this does not translate at
all to their teaching. The only teachers that demonstrate
any teaching ability have been the foundations professors. All
of the major classes I have been in have followed
this same structure: in ten weeks you have 3-5 (one
class had 8) projects. This means you have three
classes before a project is due and one critique day
(two classes a week for 2.5 hours each). The
three classes are normally “work days” in which the teacher
goes around to the different students in the class. However,
teachers rarely get around to the whole class or if
they do, it is rushed. I do not feel
that this is adequate teaching. Even in painting there
is little to no discussion about modeling form or edge
quality. Most is based on the conceptual idea behind
your painting. While that is important, there is very
little help for you to execute it. Keep in
mind you have two weeks to produce a finished piece
for each of your two studio classes (one piece a
week).
This is the same way that I have
felt in every major class that I have taken.
For example, in Illustration we were frequently given posters to
make that include hand done typography. Yet we were
taught nothing of the basic principles of typography (layouts, kerning,
etc), yet we were expected to do it anyway.
What is also frustrating is that there are no
pluses or minuses in the grading. You are required
to get an average of 3.0 in your major GPA
to graduate and your GPA regulates your scholarship, it can
be taken away at any point. The difference between
an 80 and an 89.9 is huge. Most teachers
do not round up, so even if you get an
89.7, you get a B. Teachers still believe that
C's are average, and grade accordingly. There is no
regulation in department of grading, it is entirely up to
the teacher. I have gotten everything from rubrics on
the grading breakdown, to a number on a post it
note.
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