the new summer-time masthead is fantastic.

Posted by: matt at May 31, 2005 2:17 AM

Kyle, why did you choose to attend The Art Institute of Washington D.C. considering all of the other options? Are you happy with your choice? What other Colleges/Universities/Art Schools did you consider? Just curious.

Posted by: Christopher at May 31, 2005 4:51 PM

When I was 14 we toured CalArts, but I never really thought I was going to go there, so it didn't really enter into my decision making 4 years later.

I chose AiW after attending the Art Inst. of Houston for a year. AiH wasn't yet accredited for a Bachelor's degree (which I wanted after 2 years at UNT), so I knew I was transferring within the system to finish my degree. There's 26 Ai's in the US, but not all of them were accredited, so that narrowed the field.

I only seriously visited Chicago, but at that time in my life I was pretty overwhelmed. I'd visited DC numerous times because my best friend Megan had gone to AU since we graduated high school. I knew the city, which to me was more important than the school.

I never really wanted to go to college, which is why I went to UNT, basically following a high school friend. It had a good art reputation, but I wasn't really focused on that, and (probably not for the best) never really have been. School to me was always about people and not exactly the education, since art itself is such a weird and subjective field. I think the only time an art degree carries a lot of weight is, let's say if you were doing industrial design and going to Pratt, or wanting to be an animator and going to CalArts. Otherwise i think it's all about portfolio and the schools are interchangable unless you're going into a really really specified field.

I really should've sucked it up after high school and gone to Savannah (Collge of Art & Design), but in retrospect I was surprsingly paranoid of being so far away from home. Humorous, since each time i've successively moved it's been further and further away.

I don't really regret any of my choices when it comes to my education, because each school has given me something different. Different people, different relationships, and experiences. I think that most of my real education was done outside the confines of class, be it interacting with my teachers after hours and exploring the art and design world on my own. Frankly DC gets major bonus points simply because of its proximity to New York and the free magical access to the Smithsonian, which is something I miss.

The romantic academic in me wished I'd gone to a "4" year college, like NYU, but I'm obviously not built that way and probably would've hated it (I dropped out twice during the course of my education).

We used to mock the Art institutes when they would come to the high school and give presentations, but I eventually found myself there, which I'm fairly indiffernt about.

I went to school, got better at software, and essentailly got 5 years to develope my style (which is STILL Developing).

I think if I had gone to Chicago I'd have a completely different life right now, and that's really the only big thing about school that looms over me. If there was a "parallel Kyle universe" I could see, I'm 100% certain that Chicago would be the turning point.

did that make any sense at all?

Posted by: kyle at May 31, 2005 5:23 PM

as another person who went to the art institute of washington.... if you live near it and can't really afford to move away, (or just don't want to.) go ahead and go there. but do not move to DC for the sole purpose of going to AIW. it isn't a bad school.... but it isn't worth rerouting your life over.

Posted by: andrew at May 31, 2005 7:16 PM

i lived in chicago,i dont know why my parents moved here to indiana (it is boring)

Posted by: carlos at May 31, 2005 10:52 PM