Today I met with one of my freshmen advisees at MIT. She wanted to know what major she should take. I told her to choose the major that offered her the most options to explore her horizons, a la Rule #9. If you haven’t seen Prof. Pausch’s last lecture, you should.

A word of welcome to the class of 2012 - from the other end of the tuition bill - you just pimped yourselves out to one of the best art schools in the country (what what), so go ahead- wrap your arms around ya body, somebody, and give a little hug. The governing forces at RISD thought it would be helpful to have a student perspective on here so here I am, blogging to give you the benefit of my (iota more) experience here. My name’s You You (really, yeah), BFA ID 2011 (this major means I don’t like to sleep and like plastic, alot.) and I’m here to give you the down low–

here goes:

eat:
@ school: the Met (cafe-met-eria), Jolly Roger (sammiches), the Break, the Watermark Cafe, the Portfolio (classy-er)

not school: Thayer ($ are ok), downtown (more expensive), Providence Place Mall (a combo of fastfood and restaurants

play:
regular stuff includes music venues (AS220, Lupos), mall, Thayer St, Wickedon St, skating rink, zoo, some stuff to check out downtown are the Big Nazo Labs (huge puppets) and the boutiques (they carry stuff made by RISD alum)

sleep:
you wont depends on what section you get put into (consequently what professors you get), your work habits (you have some?), but generally there’s a lack of it freshman year.

want more detail? some helpful links to frequent:

RISD Intranet: home to the Classifieds, a sweet little blackmarket of goods and services and the Mugbook (stalk your peers!) an online yearbook [note: the Mugbook is password protected, so only people with a risd.edu email address can access it — something to look forward to when you’re assigned your RISD email!]

Daily Jolt: A student-run website, really helpful for everything (sophisticated version of this post). The name is, coincidentally (it’s only a branch of the national Jolt website which serves a network of different colleges) weather related- Rhode Island is the “Ocean State” and apparently all the surrounding water makes it susceptible to weather phenomena (wikipedia), you may also have heard of Lightning Bolt, a noise band started at RISD which used to play at Fort Thunder (now defunct, destroyed actually).

Oh, it’s cold up here so bring a sweater, or five. And hilly, so maybe a sherpa too.

Good luck!

In which our intrepid future president discovers the many wonders and spectacular design of RISD’s library. Have a look!

JM Note: The library really is spectacular. When you come to campus I suggest it be your very first stop.

Congratulations! You are headed for an exciting journey I will be taking together with you at RISD. I’m the incoming president of RISD and am still discovering bits and pieces about our new institution. When you arrive on campus I will still be settling in just like you.

Thus far my perception is that the campus is not too big and not too small. The facilities are expansive and yet still homey enough that you can create your own community. Much of my interest in our first few years at RISD is to see if we can build the foundations for a RISD that will define our new century of art and design. Where will this all go? I’m not sure. And that’s what makes it exciting!

Please visit our.risd.edu from time to time to get an update on what’s happening at RISD right now. Hopefully by the time you folks get to campus we’ll have some groundwork in place for more possibilities we can create together online. And of course everything isn’t about just online interactions so we’ll have plenty of opportunity to create face-to-face happenings to make it all real.

The folks in RISD Admissions have worked extremely hard to orchestrate the complex process of bringing the Class of 2012 to RISD. Director of Admissions Mr. Edward Newhall (enewhall *at* risd.edu) and his talented team are here to help get you situated as the days tick down to your arrival on RISD campus.

Stay tuned for more info to come from the RISD network! And again, my heartfelt congratulations to you! – John Maeda, President- Elect