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!!

My DS has just started Art Foundation at Leicester De Montfort.
The course sounds amazing with a 3 week initial 'Big Draw' project to get them away from photo realistic drawing. Lots of sketching from life, open air drawing, life drawing, colour theory and workshops. He is also being inducted into 9 different workshops (wood, ceramic, print etc etc)
He achieved an A star Fine Art A level but was advised by a few unis not to go straight to degree. Foundation is well thought of by degree admission tutors. Also my DS is not sure what sort of degree to do so hopefully this will help him decide.
It's a pain to apply to many though as they all have different requirements. The PS is not really that relevant and so I would make sure you find out what portfolio each uni/ college wants and focus on that. Some also require entrance projects on top of a portfolio eg Manchester Met and UAL.
Photographing work with good lighting, photo shopping the images and assembling them into the right format (different each time!), and writing captions incl titles, dimensions and media for each photo took an age.
In the end DS only had time for 2 applications and quickly discarded a dual foundation/ UCAS route. The time needed was too great. You can't really make a one size fits all portfolio.
He is living away from home and one thing to bear in mind is that a lot of people live locally to the uni and so there are less social interactions. Leicester starts 3 weeks before undergraduates and although this means the Foundation lot have the 11 floor art building to themselves it means he is rattling around in a hall with 3 girls. It's a bit surreal!! Don't think it's that usual though. Manchester Met was the same term dates as degree students.
My DS is v sporty and so that ruled out most specialist art schools for him hence a more main stream Uni. (For instance UAL has no sport at all!)

In case useful - Open day at Kingston Uni on Sat Sept 24th. It includes art foundation. Going to take a look with DS

@Lottsbiffandsmudge Just catching up with this thread. I agree about the endless time preparing different permutations of portfolios. My DD decided to focus on the two courses she was really interested in, too. She applied straight for degree because she already knew (and had experience in) her speciality of Illustration, and wanted a placement year.

She has now started at Cambridge School of Art at Anglia Ruskin, and initial reports are very favourable. She's been out drawing from life most days, with additional classes in digital methods and traditional printing/printmaking. Because it's part of a wider uni there are plenty of clubs and sports and she's signed up for one of each along with some coursemates who also happen to be close neighbours. The accommodation she chose is very reasonably priced, but next year might be a shock looking at Cambridge rents...

Good luck to all those currently going through the choice process; I'd be very happy to answer any questions if I can! OP is right that most discussion on Mumsnet is about academic subjects.

DD is enjoying her foundation course so far and has started some work for the portfolios. She is starting with Brighton, as it is probably her first choice, and the requirements are quite specific.She hasnt picked 5 yet.
We're going to the October open day at Bournemouth, and will try for a Brighton trip at half term.

Feedback from Kingston Uni Foundation is great so far. Lots of contact with tutors and they were very proactive wrt accommodating learning needs.
@PhotoDad thanks for that website to check out courses. It's very useful.
Just wondered if anyone has experience of costume design courses and which unis are well regarded?

Update from DS today. Loving the Art Foundation at Leicester DMU. lots of collaborative work this week (week 3). He's done new printing techniques, printed onto fabrics, loads of photography. All based off their drawings over last 2 weeks. He's already thinking of staying for degree! And the views are to die for!

@Lottsbiffandsmudge that's great news! I'm so intrigued by DD's course I really wish I could do it too! She keeps telling me off for trying to give her ideas 😬.
And the lovely thing about art departments is that they have great light and huge windows 😁

Me too... I would love this course. Tempted to get a portfolio together and do foundation at my local college. There's a 70 year old man on DS course!

My DD is interested in doing Interior Design. We r in Scotland so is looking at ECA, Napier & Dundee. She has the grades required and is studying Advanced Higher Art. Just now she is working on her Portfolio & learning different CAD techniques. I know last year ECA we’re quite late giving their offers. That is going to b hard when lots of her friends will b hearing about their places at Uni before her.

@Localher0 DS's tutor says Kingston is brilliant for art foundation. He said v competitive to get into and that they particularly look for good drawing and sketching skills in the portfolio so if DS likes it would need to think about adding some pieces to his sketchbook or portfolio. He said it is a v impressive course and the progression in the year is immense . I'm looking forward to seeing it tomorrow. Just have to remember to play it cool and not be too enthusiastic that I am annoying !

Looking at illustration and so far

Nottingham Trent - too businessy and didn't feel like the arts was embraced
Arts Uni Norwich - loved it, really good career support
Going to Arts uni Bournemouth and Anglia Ruskin soon for open days
I've ruled out Brighton as too expensive and too full of stag does / hen does and tourists

"I've ruled out Brighton as too expensive and too full of stag does / hen does and tourists"

Ive got the same worries about Brighton but DD is keen so we'll have a look.I think she's looking for somewhere with a similar vibe to Bristol ( lefty, alternative, LGBT friendly) but not Bristol as we live here. We are 15 mins walk from the UWE arts campus so its a bit close to home.
When i suggested Anglia Ruskin she was put off by the "other uni" in Cambridge.
We may look at Cardiff met. Still not decided on all of them.

DD was attracted to ARU partly because of the "other" uni; she is a big fan of ornate architecture and there is a lot of it!

There is a great bit of very cheeky advertising at Cambridge station; the signs say "Welcome to Cambridge, home of Anglia Ruskin University." 😀

Well so far Bournemouth is brilliant. We are taking a quick coffee break (need coffee after the early start) but it's great.

We are 15 mins walk from the UWE arts campus so its a bit close to home.

We ruled UWE out as all my daughters uni friends mentioned it was quite full on re: drugs. I know all unis have but it seemed to have a reputation - one of her party friends found it too much and left.

I'm not sure about ARU - we are thinking a year out as he's quite young but I can t imagine the vibe changing too much in 12 months anyway.

We're going to Bournemouth for a look in October. One of DD's best friends just started there and seems to have enjoyed freshers week.
Will book Brighton for November.

In case useful the art foundation open day at CSM is now on their website for Sat 19 Nov. Some slots already fully booked so worth signing up now if interested.

Have just discovered that UCA no longer offering art foundation which is disappointing as was local option for DS.

Visited Kingston today for foundation which DS really liked. He also looked at the Fashion BA which he also liked and is now pretty certain will do a foundation somewhere and apply for fashion next year. Gave him a good insight to how competitive the process will be so hopefully a timely kick up the backside to keep him on track!

Interesting the foundation choice - dc is doing art a level and isn't keen to do foundation, knows wants to do illustration. I feel like the portfolios are going to be a huge deal obviously and need to be stand out. But I can see not wanting to do an extra year maybe?

Some places (especially in London) seem to expect a foundation. Which personally I think is more important if you aren't quite sure of your specialism, but opinions upthread are different. ^

DD is happy that she picked the right illustration course for her. This term the weekly timetable is drawing from life (a full day), digital techniques (half day) and printmaking (half day) with the rest of the time to complete their homework assignments. She's made a lot of friends on the course already as several of them are aiming to do similar things (childrens' books and/or fantasy illustration). But places do vary widely in methods!

DS wasn't sure of a specialism but also it was stressed at every open day we went on that many people come in to foundation thinking they are one thing but end up another! Also a great many peolle DS spoke to said Foundation was their favourite year!
The A level course doesn't expose them to very many techniques. Even tho my DS is a printmaker he has already in 3 weeks tried 2 new printmaking techniques!!! So he doesn't feel able to pick a specialism as he hasn't tried many things which he may love more than Fine Art which he would have gone for if pushed to do a degree.
It was also explained that quite a number of degree courses are very independent from v early on and foundation helps bridge the gap between a level and that level of independent work. Although I guess degrees vary. As PP said some unis require a Foundation or build it into a 4 year course.
It's working for DS. It's a free course (if straight from A level) and if he lived at home and did it locally it would be v cheap!
I guess there are pros and cons each way.

Yes I'm quite pro a foundation course - ds I think feels he knows what he wants and some independence/ sees it as something 'less'. I loved the Norwich outline when we attended the talk. I've told him he needs to do more than a level (to be fair he does, I just worry!)

@TJworried I’m also in Scotland my dc decided not to apply straight from school and did an hnc at Glasgow Clyde first - it was a fantastic course and they got 5 art school offers based on the portfolio they created there, including. Dundee , ECA and Central St Martin’s. I’d recommend the course as a good back up for Scottish students.

if I recall correctly offer rates for ECA for Scottish students is <5%

Thanks for info. She went to Dundee for open day today and absolutely loved it. It’s gone from not on her radar to first choice just now. Napier open day still to come in October.

Lovely to see so many folk with DC considering art/design!

Just one more thing to throw into the foundation/straight-to-degree debate. DD wanted to go on a course which has a Placement Year, to gain some more real-world experience while still having a safety-net. That makes her course four years anyway, and she thought that having a foundation too would be less than ideal.

I completely agree that simply doing school-work isn't enough to create a wide-ranging portfolio; only five of the 15 pages in her Anglia Ruskin application were produced for her A-level, the rest were personal projects (including photography and crafts) or commissioned work.

However, there's no "right" answer to "foundation or not," it depends very much on personality and circumstances!

@Bratnews I think Advanced Higher Art takes such a lot of work that in combination with a full S6 timetable is really hard to devote enough time to do a proper portfolio (or maybe that's just DS3 who tends to be a bit overconfident and leave things to the last minute).
DS3 is on an HNC/HND course at Edinburgh College atm, it's good but I'm already concerned that he's not pushing himself hard enough as he's enjoying city life so much!