Saturday, October 24, 2009

Post-Secondary Panic

I figured I'd get an early start on this so I can get it out of the way.

Is it just me or are school websites designed to be as impossible to navigate as humanly possible? They do not allow for BROWSING. AT ALL. You need to know exactly what you want and then google it. Ugh. Anyways.

So, the priorities for me in a college/university are as follows:
- MUST be in Canada I don't have the money, and I refuse to take American History. I don't care.
- Close to home. I want to live at home. I don't want to live in a dorm, or by myself anywhere in the near future. Maybe after I learn how to cook so I don't have to survive on scrambled eggs and cereal.
- Close enough so I can go to TKD OR has a good TKD club close by Because I have my priorities :3
- Good program DUH.

I've finally figured what I might apply for LOL. I guess I kind of knew all along but hey.
Illustration or Graphic Design. I realized that this is what I want to do with my life. I think.

Major major flaw to this? Canada doesn't have many schools that offer Illustration. They are ALL in the U.S. of A.
Which makes me really really sad since that cuts off a lot of schools from my potential list.

But here we go, the schools I decided on and their pros and cons.

Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning.
Program: Bachelor of Applied Arts (Illustration)

Requirements:
- Grade 12 English credit
- 1 senior level Visual Arts credit at M or O level
- 4 Grade 12 credits at U or M level
- Minimum 65% average
- Portfolio

Pros:
- Close to home!
- I've always wanted at least a Bachelors degree, and all the schools I've looked at for the programs I want only offer (at most) an Advanced Diploma. Just a weird thing of mine.
- I've heard great things about this program from a few people that I've asked, they all love it.

Cons:
- Uhm. Other than the fact that my parents would like me to go to a University, there are none that I have found.

Program: Bachelor of Design (Honours)

Requirements:
- OSSD
- Grade 12 English credit
- 6 Grade 12 credits at U or M level including one Grade 12 (U or M) course from one of the following disciplines: Canadian and World Studies; Classical Languages and International Languages; French: Mathematics; Social Science and Humanities or Native Studies.
- Portfolio

Pros:
- Also close to home!
- Also a Bachelors degree!
- It's offered in conjunction with York University which is cool :]

Cons:
- 6 GRADE 12 CREDITS AT U or M LEVEL? WHAT. THAT'S CRAZY TALK. no seriously, I was planning on taking mostly art courses with are OPEN courses. Thank GOD RAP courses are M courses.

Ryerson University
Program: Graphic Design

Requirements:
- I'm assuming something like grade 12 English and a portfolio.

Pros:
- Close to home

Cons:
- NO INFORMATION ON THE PROGRAM AT ALL. WTF.

George Brown College
Program: Graphic Design (Advanced Diploma)

Requirements:
- OSSD
- Grade 12 English credit
- Portfolio

Pros:
- Close to home
- Advanced Diploma
- Looking through the compulsory courses, I see I am given a LOT of electives. 4 for semester4 and 5, and then 2 in semester 6

Cons:
- Honestly the curriculum sounds remarkably dull. Things like "Design" "Drawing" "College English" "Design Culture" "Typography" and a lot of electives apparently.

Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning
Program: Graphic Design (Advanced Diploma)

Requirements:
- OSSD
- Grade 12 English Credit
- 3 Grade 12 credits at U or M level
- Portfolio

Pros:
- Close to home
- If Amy decides to take her Bachelors of Industrial Design there, I'll have Amy there :]
- Advanced Diploma

Cons:
- Looking at the compulsory courses, they seem really....business oriented. And dull. As well as advertisement oriented.

St. Lawrence College
Program: Graphic Design (Advanced Diploma)

Requirements:
- OSSD
- Grade 12 English credit
- MAJORITY of Grade 11 and 12 courses must be of C, M or U level. (god knows what majority means. Hopefully 5)

Pros:
- Looking through the compulsory courses, I'm in love. This sounds amazing. "Digital photography" "Design Illustration" "Life Drawing" "Colour Theory and Perception" "Design Typography" "Advanced Layout"

Cons:
- It's too far. 3 hours too far actually. I won't be able to live at home. I need to look into TKD clubs.

PHEW.

That's all for now. And that's plenty.
Advice, comments, insights are all welcome and appreciated. Oh and help. Help would be nice.

~Lenny

2 comments:

Sinthu said...

Next year's problem, yo.

Lenny said...

Gack not even D:

I need to start figuring out what courses to take so I don't have to end up with summer school or the like.