Pratt Institute

Date: Feb 19 2003
Major: Art & Design Department (This Major's Salary over time)
almost no one has anything good to say about PRATT and i'm sure if you're on this site you've noticed. well guess what? i think pratt is great. sure, it costs a lot… but i got a little scholarship from them. yes, the administration (bursar, registration, etc) is unorganized and stil done without the use of the internet, but i personally have never had a problem signing up for classes… oh wait, i did once. but it was my fault. ok, some of the teachers aren't too good - they either aren't that talented to begin with or are too near-sighted to be helpful to all students. you knw what i did? i asked upper classmen who to take. and yes, there've been teachers i didn't like, but the ones who i did like are so good, they more than made up for it. all these points i just made, i'm willing to bet can apply to almost any school (just change PRATT up top there to where your parents went to college and ask them what problems their school had). but remember, i'm talking in generalities here. if you notice, the mitigating factor to all those negative aspects was that I was involved in making it better. I didn't sit back and expect pratt to do everything for me. I don't sit in my room and complain. I bet the so called real world isn't much better. you're going to have to put up with crap like this all your life, (you just won't be paing lots of money to do it, hopefully). and, what i think is the most important factor, is that YOU make PRATT good or bad. YOUR ATTITUDE determines what you get out of it. I treated my schoolwork with respect, i took criticism with respect, and i dealt with the school's shortcomings with respect. maybe all these arty-types like to be all down and depressed and angry to help their art or something, but i got a lot out of my time hear. i have about 10 weeks until i graduate, and what i see when i look back is that i learned the most when i put forth the effort. this isn't study-equations-for-a-calculus-test kind of school. this is stay-up-all-night-painting-a-picture-that-didn't-come-out-the-way-you-want-but-you-still-go-to-class-and-listen-to-what-people-say-and-then-go-back-to-your-room-and-do-it-all-over-again-for-your-other-classes kind of school. and it's fun. but it's up to the individual to make it work. there is no formula to art. the teacher's are there, but it's up to you to make it work. self motivation is an important part of a successful pratt student.

that said, i just want to point out that PRATT is not perfect. you shouldn't expect it to be. every problem you hear of is most likely a legitimate claim, it just seems to me like a lot of my friends and classmates take it to the extreme. but that's our nature. we're artist's. everything gotta be all dramatic and high and mighty. i wouldn't have it any other way.