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!!

Oh! And @ArtGarfield, no, ARU has two loooooong terms rather than three, and then a three-month summer break. Her 40-week accommodation covers Christmas and Easter, so no moving out.

Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful DDs journey to art school PhotoDad. I’m familiar with the poor mental health, friendship issues and finding solace in art. It is indeed reassuring to know that it can all work out so well. I want to go to Cambridge and sketch!

@ArtGarfield I have no artistic talent at all in any area. (I sing loudly but inaccurately in choirs.) So I'm a bit in awe of my DD. She has inherited my love of ornate architecture, and so Cambridge is a great city for her (but not for everyone!)

Maybe she'll even turn it into a career. Another selling point for ARU (I'm not on commission, honest) is that they get taught in their final year about the business side of design (taxes, invoices, etc).

I'm just glad she's so happy now, whatever the future brings. Right?

Right indeed! The future can look after itself. They’ve all had such a tough late teens, they need to enjoy life.

Amen.
Here's a night-time ink-drawing from DD of suburban Cambridge house and cars. Not something she would ever have done off her own bat. She was quite excited to head off with some mates late at night to do that! 🎨

Lovely image and lovely to be out with friends making art on a Friday night!

Aargh just managed to hide this thread! Had to dig out laptop to get on to desktop to refine it (right at the bottom of 475 hidden ones!).
I love how proud you are of your dd’s artwork. My mum still has some of mine around the house and I have dcs as a screensaver

Excellent @PhotoDad. You've actually convinced me to give ARU a look - my daughter has a thing for old buildings but says the art departments always tend to be in modern blocks! She was thinking of Uni of Edinburgh until she saw the art block. What's it like at ARU? Superficial reason to like or reject a university I know!

Up way too early, things to do this weekend. @OneFrenchEgg My screensaver and desktop are photos by my DD, wildlife photography was her hobby for many years but she thought it would be even more difficult to turn that into a job than illustration. And there are only a couple of courses for that anywhere (she has no interest in fine-art photography, for whatever reason).

@mondaytosunday It's part of that 'vibe' for a city and university! And that's important. The art school is an Edwardian red-brick complex with huge windows. (It is the oldest part of the uni; the rest of the campus is steel-and-glass. Cambridge School of Art took over various other technical schools to become Anglia Polytechnic, and then Anglia Ruskin University. The link with John Ruskin is rather tenuous; he opened the art school!)

Anyone else got a DC looking at Manchester Metropolitan for the open day today? It's her top choice based on reading course details. Really hope that she has a good day.

Haven't RTFT but joining here as DD is studying 2 art based subjects at A level and (at this stage) plans to do an art or graphics degree.

Good to find this thread will real life experience of both students and teachers.
Loosely considering ARU as its probably only an hour away from us but also Bournemouth and Brighton which would both be ok to get to.

Good luck to those on open days, it's very much the season!

Just found this thread as my DD wants to study 3D Design as really enjoying it at A level. Some really useful tips particularly around foundation years which I find a bit confusing re funding etc! She's working on her portfolio - we are also off to the MMU open day today, and have Brighton, Northumbria, Leicester De Montfort booked soon. I may suggest ARU to her although we've missed the open day. If anyone has any other suggestions for her to look at that would be great!

Hi @DesignDD, there's another open day for ARU next month... but as far as I know they don't really do 3D design.

I found it very confusing that "foundation" can refer to two different things. There's the stand-alone one-year course, with no tuition fees for school-leavers, but also no maintenance loan available. This is what most PPs have been discussing here, and leads to a Foundation Diploma. But also universities sometimes offer a "foundation year" which is counted as part of the degree; that has normal fees and is eligible for loans, but you are expected to continue at the same uni for the rest of the course.

Enjoy the open day!

@DesignDD I was confused by the foundation year variations too. My DD is at the local university for the no fees foundation year, so the cost to us - food and electricity 😁- is the same as an extra year of school. She is loving the experience so far, very happy and lots of wonderful and varied art opportunities on offer which she is fully engaged in. It's a joy to see her so happy. I'll be blunt, we saw the art foundation as a gap year that would be good for her confidence and mental health and weren't too worried about the content of the course. She was very unhappy at sixth form and needed a breathing space. The fact that it's at university rather than our local FE college was a bonus in terms of quality of teaching and resources.

That’s so interesting Philandbill as it resonances so much with how our family feel about the experience.Where is your DD? You’ve probably said but this threads getting so long.

also the Camberwell UAL foundation course is open for visits.

Foundation is pretty good to do for graphic design because so many other art disciplines can influence your design and most students aren't really ready conceptually straight from A levels. It also gives breathing space and allows you to develop more fully which the pressure of A levels doesn't always allow.

Those buildings look gorgeous - will show to DD and maybe add another place for our open days - so far we've been to Falmouth, Nottingham Trent, and Manchester Met (SODA) and going up to look at Leeds next month - looked at lots of others online but I think those are the shortlist so far...

@PerkyBlinder Hello! You'll see upthread that my DD is very happy at ARU. I don't know anything at all about the photography course there, though. She had considered a Foundation Diploma, but was also keen to do a placement year, and thought it was worth applying direct to degrees as she already knew exactly what she wanted to do. (She is already considering the 18-month ARU MA in Children's Book Illustration, which is genuinely world famous in the field. We'll see when we get there!)

Unfortunately all was not plain sailing for the last year or so for her, which is why I'm so happy that she's happy. Eight months ago she barely left the house due to panic attacks. Today she and her friends have gone to a vintage "kilo" shop, drunk bubble tea, and are now sketching in a park. Moving was a big throw of the dice and they came up sixes! So there's no "one size fits all" solution. A local foundation course is perfect for many people.

@PerkyBlinder Yes, DD loves old and quirky buildings and things (including clothes and music!) What really clinched the deal for her was that ARU's Print Room has several functioning Victorian letterpresses (all with faux-classical motifs and coats-of-arms) and a room full of metal type. Maybe she should be doing graphic design instead..? 😀

My DD loves old and quirky too but I know also is keen for somewhere with opportunities for urban street photography - she's done a lot round London so far. She loved the staff and course at Falmouth but it's just so remote and we're rural now so I think she'd like to experience an urban environment for a bit.

Manchester had a good mix of urban and red brick architecture with some amazing public library spaces with lots of books and quirky ancient architecture so I think that's her first choice at the moment and she's shortlisted for their photography/digital art competition so hoping she'll get an offer. She also got shortlisted for Norwich's Beyond The Frame competition and London Met's photography competition - People, Places, Things. But not sure she's that taken with Norwich or London to live in so not applying there.

Now just trying to make sure that she's considered all possible choices before putting down the choices on UCAS and of course starting on the portfolio prep.

I did my graphic design degree at Camberwell which had a massive room full of cases of type as they had the Camberwell Press. The technician there used to work typesetting newspapers and the speed he could set the metal type was phenomenal - felt quite privileged to see him at work. The technicians were all brilliant at Camberwell and incredibly helpful - I learnt so much from them. There were some great tutors too with a wide range of professional practice.

Camberwell sounds fantastic! My DD didn't want a big city, which ruled out most of the places you mention, but I can see that for urban/street photography that's very important. (We did visit Norwich.) Even Cambridge is a little larger/busier than her ideal. Her pipe-dream is to live in a tiny cottage in the Highlands and work on illustration commissions by email. (That would also be good for her wildlife photography!)

Congratulations to your DD on those shortlists. That will give a real boost to applications.

We’re just back from open day at Portsmouth and my daughter loved it. The Eldon building for Arts subjects was great and so far She prefers it to Bournemouth arts uni.

@mumma24 Always interesting (for me) to hear about "all points South." We didn't put anywhere more than 4 hours' drive away on our shortlist (we're Oop North). As it happened that worked out well as, due to Covid changing our plans, I unexpectedly had to drop DD off and get home in a day last month. I am still vaguely scarred by that! So I think your plan for "under 3 hours" is very sensible.

Enjoy other open days! I love to hear about other illustrators as I don't know any except through these threads.

We were impressed with MMU yesterday - the facilities and workshops etc are great! The course leaders also seem really engaging and DD is def going to apply. Only downside is how small the cohort is compared to the numbers applying so chances of getting in are fairly low. We still have a few open days to go so will see where else to apply...