2023 uni applications for those pursuing art and creative routes

[Duchessofmuchness]

The other thread discussing Uni applications for RG and academic routes isn't so relevant for DS. He's considering Art Foundation year or direct entry to uni for fashion design.

Anyone care to join a thread on similar creative paths. (Not just fashion!)

He's looking at art foundation at Kingston, Central St Martin's, UCA,

For Fashion BA looking at Central St Martins, London College of Fashion, Manchester Met, Nottingham Trent, Liverpool John Moores, Leeds Beckett.
Most seem to accept without art foundation but he would need one to Central St Martin's so if he wants to try for that will need foundation.

Lots of open days coming up and hopefully school will give him some more advice next week. No start on his PS yet!!

[purfectpuss]

I will! My dd is planning to apply for an Art Foundation at Leeds Arts University and then look at doing a degree in Fine Art Sept 2024. We've looked at The Ruskin at Oxford Uni so far but need to look at others before she makes any decisions. Would love to know where to apply as most 'top' universities don't seem to have much on offer in terms of art.

[stardust101]

Yes, that would be helpful.

My DD is wanting to go directly into a Graphic Design BA in 2023. Looking at general uni's and art uni's.

If anyone has experience or knows of any good universities for Graphics that would be helpful.

Also if you can get into uni's like UAL St Martins etc without an Art Foundation.

I worry that its a lot to do during A Levels - visits, portfolio, statement etc. We will look round local college for foundation (but she is really not keen atm)

[Duchessofmuchness]

Hi Perfectpuss and Stardust

Ruskin looks amazing for fine art. Guess they definitely want a foundation?

Stardust - similar to your DD, DS thinks he'd rather go straight to uni for fashion but at least for fashion that would rule out central st martins for him. (They definitely require foundation - either their own or from somewhere else). Since its fashion programme is so well known (and also hard to get into) he feels like he ought to be aiming for that and see how it goes. He'll likely apply for both routes - fashion design at unis through UCAS and directly to the colleges for foundation. But also concerned about the portfolio prep along side A levels ETC. When we go on the uni tours he'll no doubt be judging the city and party opportunities and I'm going to try and gauge employment oops after uni and how they prepare them!

He's also not sure about the whole uni experience at central st Martin's. Very different to the experience of going to somewhere like Manchester Met he thinks. He'd like to play BUCS sport and doesn't look like they are well set up for that.

[Wbeezer]

Hi there, my DS has just started an HND in textiles and fashion at FE college (nearest we could find to a foundation year as seperate foundation courses aren't really a thing in Scotland). He didn't pull his finger out in time portfolio wise to stand much of a chance of getting onto one of the fashion degrees up here, at least not the ones he wants which is ECA (5% acceptance rate for Scottish applicants!). He would love to go to Central St Martins but the Scottish Student loans are really stingy with no London weighting and £5000 doesn't go far in London, he is working and saving just in case but I think its a bit unrealistic. If he turns out to be as much of a genius as he thinks he is he can always go to London for a Masters.

[Duchessofmuchness]

@Wbeezer
Is ECA part of Edinburgh Uni? That does sound popular course. Is it a large program? It wasn't on DS radar but Glasgow School of Art was. I noticed GSA ask for a 7 in English and DS has a 6 which I suspect was greatly helped by it being Covid TAG and used 2 years of assessments , essays etc. He was aiming for a pass and would felt lucky to get it if he'd had to do an exam. I imagine the GSA course might have heavy essay writing component since they require that. DS dyslexic and that kind of course wouldn't suit him, even if they could be persuaded to consider him.

As a Scottish student it's definitely a major financial consideration to come south ... good thought re masters instead!

[Wbeezer]

ECA is part of Edinburgh uni now (was independent in my day).
GSA trades on its reputation rather, it has really quite low student satisfaction relatively (my brother works there so I get inside info), fun student city but DS likes Edinburgh better. DS was impressed by the Glasgow student fashion show pre covid though.
Its not quite so hard for non Scots to get in, we have a low quota due to the free fees.
I don't think any of the art schools are essay heavy,, I seem to remember writing one essay a term, its sometimes worth pleading a case if someone' s grades are close but they have a recognised difficulty like dyslexia.

[Duchessofmuchness]

@Wbeezer - how do you find out acceptance rates?

I'm also curious about size of cohorts. 4 years ago DD was looking at courses and eliminated one after attending an open day and discovering they only had a handful of people on a creative course. She was concerned that they might not be able to run it and also that they wouldn't attract or retain staff , resources etc. She opted for unis with large cohorts /courses. Also her personal preference as she wanted group work, team environment. She probably wouldn't have gone to the open day if she'd known before hand.

[Wbeezer]

@Duchessofmuchness googling Edinburgh Uni acceptance rates for different degree courses. They have to make them available when people doFreedom of information requests so you can find tables of info online.

[Pourmeanotherwine]

DD is doing an art foundation this year. Considering applying for illustration for 2023. Maybe Bournemouth or Brighton. Doesnt fancy London. Other options could be Falmouth or UWE.
Anyone got experience of any of those? I did science at a Russel group uni and have no experience of art unis.

[PhotoDad]

@Pourmeanotherwine My DD is starting an illustration course at ARU next week if you have any questions! If you google "student illustration awards" you'll find that it punches well above its weight for a really small course. It's certainly up there with Falmouth.

FWIW, @Duchessofmuchness, my DD was advised by her school art teacher to look at small courses in long-established art schools. Said teacher had been to a big London institution and said it felt like a factory, with next to no feedback from the tutors. But obviously opinions on that differ!

[goldfinchonthelawn]

Worth looking at Kingston Uni for fashion too. It has an excellent reputation in the industry.

[Duchessofmuchness]

@PhotoDad - thanks for that insight. It's good to have that in mind. Thank you for sharing. Can see that could also be the case.

@goldfinchonthelawn - thanks for the info. We're going to the open day for art foundation at Kingston later in sept so will look at fashion course too. Its local to us so in that respect DS would prefer to go further afield. His perfect uni experience would probably be a big city like Manchester.

[Pourmeanotherwine]

Thanks photodad, another one to add to the list. Similar distance to Falmouth for us (in Bristol).

[PhotoDad]

@Pourmeanotherwine

Thanks photodad, another one to add to the list. Similar distance to Falmouth for us (in Bristol).

We're Up North, so ARU was at the southern end of our range -- DD looked at a different set of places to you! If you're Googling, within the art world the institution is known as "Cambridge School of Art" but outside it, it's always ARU so people don't think it's part of Cambridge Uni.

(CSA expanded to become ARU by absorbing other colleges, and the old CSA Victorian/Edwardian buildings now form one section of the modern campus. DD fell in love with it, and with Cambridge.)

[Wbeezer]

I went to art school myself (as did DM, SIL, and DH), I taught at one many years ago as do many of my friends, including one who runs a design foundation.
The consensus is that it is always worth doing a foundation, students who have tend to do better. Art school is not like a normal uni experience, the hours are longer, it's very immersive and often very competitive.(we didn't have extra curricular clubs, studios were open late!) Skills building takes time. A good foundation course is good training to help you get the most out of your degree.

[PhotoDad]

@Wbeezer

I went to art school myself (as did DM, SIL, and DH), I taught at one many years ago as do many of my friends, including one who runs a design foundation.
The consensus is that it is always worth doing a foundation, students who have tend to do better. Art school is not like a normal uni experience, the hours are longer, it's very immersive and often very competitive.(we didn't have extra curricular clubs, studios were open late!) Skills building takes time. A good foundation course is good training to help you get the most out of your degree.

That's good to know. Too late for DD... she opted to go straight into Year 1 of a sandwich course with placement year, as she already knew her speciality and had experience of working on live briefs. She thought that adding a foundation as well would make the whole process take a bit too long? Hope that wasn't a bad call. She has a good work ethic (at least for art) spending hours every day over the summer.

[Wbeezer]

There are exceptions to every rule and personality comes into it, some young people are more focused and sure of themselves than others.

[PhotoDad]

@Wbeezer

There are exceptions to every rule and personality comes into it, some young people are more focused and sure of themselves than others.

Thanks for that! We'll see how it goes. Happy to report back about the illustration course at ARU/CSA after a few weeks.

[DorotheaDiamond]

Keeping an eye open for info on graphic design for my god daughter. Currently doing a foundation year at local college.

[Localher0]

My DD has just started the Foundation course at Kingston. She applied for Textiles design at Uni and got offers based on her A level portfolio so could have gone directly but decided the foundation would be a great year to try new disciplines. She's deferred her place for 2023.

[PhotoDad]

@DorotheaDiamond

Keeping an eye open for info on graphic design for my god daughter. Currently doing a foundation year at local college.

My DD will be living next door to a Graphic Designer but I don't know how much she'll find out about the course!

[kiwi17]

Just here as a textiles teacher - but I went to Art University Bournemouth and cannot recommend it enough- amazing place to study! I studied costume design but lived with and had friends on all courses including fine art, fashion, animation and illustration. It's such a collaborative place and Bournemouth is a great uni town. Happy to try and answer questions!

[Duchessofmuchness]

@Localher0
Congrats to your DD on her place at Kingston. I know it's v competitive. DS has booked for an open day in sept - I think it's actually for the fashion BA but he couldn't see an open day for the foundation so hopefully he'll get a feel for it.

[Localher0]

@Duchessofmuchness I think the art foundation has a separate open day. They expect you to have gone to it if you then want to apply to get on it. If you're local then they also run foundation prep short courses which are great. Google KSA short courses.
She also looked at Bournemouth, Loughborough, NTU & Southampton (Winchester) for degrees.
I agree that RG is not the traditional route for art/creative and the ranking tables can be a bit hit or miss depending on what course you're looking at.....

[PhotoDad]

@Localher0

@Duchessofmuchness I think the art foundation has a separate open day. They expect you to have gone to it if you then want to apply to get on it. If you're local then they also run foundation prep short courses which are great. Google KSA short courses.
She also looked at Bournemouth, Loughborough, NTU & Southampton (Winchester) for degrees.
I agree that RG is not the traditional route for art/creative and the ranking tables can be a bit hit or miss depending on what course you're looking at.....

League tables are awful for really small courses, which get lumped in with other subjects. You can get course-level data here, which we found helpful:
discoveruni.gov.uk/