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Hi @bhavika.aggarwal! Not sure if is this unethical (wanted to wait until you made yr decision), but can I ask: when did Yale ask for acceptance / decline decisions? I'm on the waitlist... desperately trying to gauge some kind of timeframe so I can anticipate moving on with my life. p.s. all rca observations are totally honest!

P.S. I couldn't see your friends work! Is there another link?

No worries! I actually went to visit some friends there at the RCA the other day and actually something I didn't say – the campus is amazing. Bit OTT on the health and safety but we managed to sit on the balcony overlooking Hyde Park (for 15 min before getting kicked out), and the cafe looks over the garden and Royal Albert Hall. Pretty amazing and the atmosphere with the students follows. Let us know what you decide. I'd be curious to know about SVA (or Pratt) if you end up going – for next year application! Good luck! R

Okay, just a note before this, I'm not at the RCA, this is only from friends who have been there or are there at the moment. ALSO – reading back, this is definitely marred by my locality to the college, having did my undergrad here, living here, having a LOT of friends who went/are there. It's really just not for me. Though this is what friends have said. I think klp is right though – it's a good place to ask: where do you want to be when it's over? (and can you stay there afterwards?) I can firmly say that London is an amazing place to be, the opportunities, resources, people, possibilities... And I get the feeling that that's what the RCA is good for: the environment. That the students make the course, and the students are amongst the best. A lot of international students making an interesting environment. You'll meet people and start things and get a reputation that I think will definitely help in the future. This sounds like of lame, but actually, I think about all of the opportunities I've had and they've been directly from the University I was at, affiliates of that, friends and communities made... It could be a very wise tactical move. I think though (some) of my friends find the lack of criticality frustrating, one in particular who has spoken about the real reluctance to address any facet of feminism or sexism there. Often she finds an imbalance and no real desire to question it. That the majority of the faculty are of a very particular perspective (read: a lot of old white guys) and have also been there for a long time. (So apparently someone like Teal Triggs, it SOUNDS good, but she doesn't really DO anything. Like, I think some people are actually confused about what her job is!) And talking to another friend who graduated a few years previous, she said the same thing. Her example was that one person had been doing the same work for two years and at the end of the two years everyone was still congratulating him and in no way interrogating what it was or why it was that he was doing. He went on to work at the RCA. Though I think that's why you see things like Department 21 (http://www.department21.net/). Maybe that's a good thing in a way, it really prompts people to ask what they are doing and react against it. And I don't think that's something across all departments – another friend is on the critical writing course and says it's amazing. Then another thing I've heard is the first year you take 2 (?) electives, but then the year after that you're pretty much left alone. I think that can work for people, but can also feel a bit limitless (in a bad way). Though – most or all of my friends who went there or are there did/do think it was an amazing place! That's something that I can never really get based on conversations, but I think that the environment is very special somehow, and they're all working really hard, learning, challenging themselves – having a great time! I hope I'm not throwing you off, but maybe good to have another perspective... I hope it's in some way useful. Let me know if I can help / elaborate. Maybe you should just email some people who are there right now also? R

Hi! I really don't know anything about SVA or Pratt (I'm from the UK, could help a bit with the RCA though!?), but – and you've probably seen this – I just saw this thread from last year, which could help?