Birthday Soup

Same here. Its still a great program with a great legacy, and i don't see that changing. It has issues for sure, but I agree that this negative publicity should have a positive effect going forward. I spoke with a 2nd year graduating columbia student yesterday, and he confirmed that it was still a great experience altogether, though the past semester had been difficult. It was suggested that new polices were being drawn to limit the length of time a fulltime faculty can go on leave or sabbatical and still come back. Also heard that they are taking the replacement hire for thomas roma (recently resigned photo chair) very seriously and there are some big names in the mix. whatever the short comings may have been I've decided to stick with it and I'm excited about starting at columbia in the fall.

Did you apply this year? A faculty member told you that this year ? Where did u decide on going good instead ?

I feel ya. I’ve been thinking about it too, and I think I will talk to my admissions interview contact and let them know that I am aware of these issues and concerned about them. To be fair I knew that there were several studios that didn’t have windows or air conditioning and I can cope with that. I haven’t had a/c in 10+ years anyway and space heaters will be ok in the winter. Also knew about the ceiling flaking or chipping away in prentis hall which is unfortunate but not a big concern. The flooding is a pretty legit issue and also lack of faculty is a big issue, which was also mentioned when talking to a current student... ie too many faculty on sabbatical at once.. etc... now I see Columbia has details on their full time faculty bios such as on leave 2017-2018, which seems to be the case for a lot of faculty, or reduced reaching load. It’s definitely good they are trying to be upfront about that stuff now, but really feel for students who have been there during this years and missed all the faculty, and now worrying about whaat my experience might be like, Though it looks like a lot of the faculty should be back from leave after 2018. It is a lot of debt and a lot s money and big established faculty memebers who they are advertising as part of their program need to be there or it’s no wonder students are asking for a tuition refund. All that being said, I have talked to several people who have attended in recent years and were happy with their decision and their community of peers. I do feel obligated to email and talk to someone to let them know I am privy to these issues and concerned. I don’t think it could add to the flurry or make things any worse than they are... we deserve to know exactly what faculties and faculty we will be working with. I’m probably gonna ask for a course schedule of classes or something like that and ask about specific faculty.. but for real seems crazy to have to be thinking about all this stuff when your about to go $120k in debt for this school...

Niceee.... some of the current students clued me into some of these issues when I toured the campus... We'll see what happens I guess.. Anyone else committed to Columbia for starting Fall 2018?

First Time applying Applied to 8 schools with sculpture portfolio Yale-rejected Bard-rejected VCU-rejected UCLA-rejected Rutgers-rejected SAIC- interviewed and accepted but declined offer Hunter-Interviewed and accepted Columbia University-Interviewed, wait listed and accepted last week Currently trying to decide between Hunter and Columbia. Trying to crunch all the numbers and see if it makes sense to go into this kinda of debt for Columbia. My gut instinct is telling me to go for it. Hunter seems like good program with good faculty, but the facilities for sculpture seem lacking. Not for metal working facilities. Also Hunter seems more geared toward painters. I was much more interested in the student work I saw at Columbia than the student work at Hunter. To be fair Hunter's new building is really nice, and the studios seem great, and I really enjoyed the interview, but I'm more excited about Columbia, the mentor week, and the faculty and the peers I'd be working with. Tough decision to make, but I'm leaning toward Columbia...any advice from Columbia or Hunter people?