Hello all of you soon to be RISD freshmen-and all of you who are still contemplating being a soon to be RISD freshmen. Your new life is less then 5 months away and I’m sure one of the many things you’ve been excitedly wondering about is living on campus at RISD.  Dorm life is one of the most important aspects of being a freshman.  This is because you are finally completely and unequivocally immersed in a community that is devoted to art. At the end of a long wonderful day of rigorously excercising your creative brains, you get to make your way up the steep, tree lined College Hill to the freshman dorms where 400 of your new family members reside. There you will eat together, play together, hang out together, do your homework together, and the next morning you will start the whole process all over again. You will work harder then you have ever worked before and you will meet your best friends in the process-it will be the most fun and exciting time of your life!
Now let’s talk about what your actual dorm room may be like. The picture above shows a fairly typical freshman dorm room. All of the rooms are spacious with a good amount of natural light.  You will get your own bed, large dresser, drafting table and fire safe trashcan. The rooms have enough space for you to bring a mini fridge, TV and a computer, but before you haul all of that stuff into the family van, you might want to chat with your future roommate first about what they are bringing.  Another thing that you should know about is that throughout the freshman dorms there are large workrooms with workbenches, high ceilings and empty white walls.  These spaces are there for you to work in at any time of day or night. Also, the Met (the main dining hall) is located within the freshman quad area so it’s convenient to eat on the run if you need to. If you don’t feel like venturing over to the Met and you want to whip up a feast to share with your friends, there are a handful of kitchen spaces equipped with fridges, microwaves and stoves in the dorms for you to use. And, if everyone in your hall feels like watching a movie and eating delicious snacks, there are a handful of lounges with comfy couches and TV’s.  There are more then enough bathrooms and showers to go around and there are washers and dryers in several places if you are so inclined to do some laundry.  The freshman dorms will be your home away from home!

Well, I hope this information satisfies your curiosity for now. Once you send in your matriculation fee, we will send you another packet, which includes more information about living at RISD.  If you have any questions about the dorms in the mean time, you can contact Residence Life at 401-454-6650.

Lee Ann Scotto, Admissions Officer, 401-454-6324

April at RISD brings daffodils, throngs of students enjoying warm weather on the RISD beach, and senior shows.

Senior shows are a chance to show off the results of the 4 years (or 5 for you architects) of hard work you put in as a RISD student. For us admissions officers, it’s gratifying to see the final projects of students we first met as applicants. It’s a great opportunity to see how their artistic skills and style developed during the time that they were here at RISD.

Most senior shows are up for about a week, so there are constantly new things to see in the various campus galleries. One of the shows that we recently visited featured the work of five different Illustration seniors. Their pieces ranged from loose, large-scale figure paintings to small acrylic and cut paper children’s book illustrations.

At the show opening last Thursday, we caught up with two of the artists, Kate (who you may remember from Leon’s post about waiting for decision letters) and Sam. They were kind enough to let us photograph them in front of their work.

Most of Kate’s work at RISD has been children’s book illustration, but she’s looking into a couple of different options for work after she graduates.

Sam has done a lot of computer illustration and plans to work for a game design company in Providence.

The Illustration gallery is in the ISB building, and is open from 12pm-4pm every weekday.

If you have any questions about the show, feel free to contact us anytime.

Meryn Hall
mhall@risd.edu

Antonio Peters
apeters@risd.edu

 Welcome admitted freshmen! Our first open house was this past Wednesday April 15 and it was great to see you all. Having the pleasure of meeting and greeting all of the admitted freshmen here on our campus brings the process full circle. Its a full  day of presentations from the Dean of Foundation Studies, the Liberal Arts Department, Career Services and more. This is a great opportunity to tour the campus and get all of your questions answered as you prepare to join the RISD family! Speaking of family; the Admitted Freshman Open House gives us a chance to also say hello to all the Moms, Dads, brothers, sisters, Aunts, and Uncles who have supported you through the application process. They are so proud of your accomplishment and we know that its often a full family effort that helped you make this far to RISD.

The next Open House is today, Friday April 17 and the last one will be held next Friday April 24. If you have been admitted and haven’t arranged to attend call the Admissions Office and we will schedule a visit. See you there! 

Leon Paul Hovanesian II
Admissions Officer
lhovanes@risd.edu 

RISD’s campus will be a beehive of activity tomorrow as students and many others participate in a student-organized sharefest of their personal work, projects and interests.  If you’re here, stop by and enjoy, or be sure to visit the site to see what’s going on.  If you join us at RISD, you’ll always be encouraged to challenge the usual, stretch your capabilities and reach beyond the easy stopping points.  So, let us know… Ed Newhall, Director of Admissions,  contact me at enewhall@risd.edu 

In the last post you learned that the decision letters have finally been mailed. We know you have been waiting patiently for a while and we want to thank you for giving us time to complete out reviews. As those letters travel through out the country and around the world we know there are those of you that have made personal friends with the mail carrier in your neighborhood, checking daily for a letter from RISD. Those of you who are still waiting…hold tight, it will get there soon!

To help you through these final days and hours I have interviewed two RISD seniors about their application experiences. They have experience and insight into this whole process and a little advice to offer.

Susanna Vagt is a senior from the Chicago area and Kate Selbert is from Bridgeport Connecticut.

 Tell us about the experience of sending in the application? How did it feel to finally send it in the mail?

Susanna: 

I brought my bike drawing to Portfolio Reviews in Chicago (hometown), for feedback.  The admission officer I met with suggested I rework it and study more from life.  So I did!  The moment of folding the drawings into quarters stand out painfully in my mind, and I still remember writing out “2 College Street” on the envelope.  I sent all the materials at once so the moment had some serious gravitas.  
 


Kate:

I was most excited about the bike drawing. Motorcycle? Tricycle? Can it be a car? Or just a bike. A friend’s mom let me borrow her antique pink bike from the 50s. It was pretty sweet. It had tinsel on the handles AND a basket. I should have just sent in the bike itself (the admissions committee would not have been impressed). Folding the drawings was a bit painful but finally sliding my application into the mailbox was gratifying. 
 


Did you visit the campus prior to applying?

Susanna:

I did visit. My first impression was how joyful all the students were. I watched people carrying canvases and lugging pieces of wood.  There were beaming charcoal-covered faces coming out of freshman drawing studios.  Students at RISD are not angst-ridden, they are glad to be making and studying art.  What could be better?
 


Kate:

I came in the spring so I distinctly remember walking up the incredibly steep hills for the first time, looking at all the magnolia blossoms (there are a lot of magnolia blossoms. My tour visited the apparel department and we saw the lines of dress forms and in textiles; the loom room and shelves filled with spools of yarn. There was a lot to see, I enjoyed it. 
 

How did you feel while waiting for the decision? Were you nervous, excited, relaxed?
 


Kate:

I got my decision pretty quickly because I applied for the early December 15th deadline. I knew by late January so while most of my classmates were still panicking I was sitting around, relieved, waiting for September. I had to wait a while, since it was January. I think I was more stressed waiting for September than when I was applying. While I was waiting for decision I was applying to Cooper Union, but stopped as soon as I got my acceptance letter. That may seem pretty ridiculous, but it saved me a few years on my life (there are a lot more than three drawings due for the Cooper Union application).

Susanna: 

I, too, applied for the early deadline, but I was waitlisted to the second deadline.  It was really difficult when I got the letter from Ed Newhall that my application had been put on hold until April.  So as not to freak out, I used the waiting time to continue making art and re-consider whether RISD was the best fit for me.  By the time the second letter came, I’d calmed down and reassured that my future wasn’t doomed.  But only slightly.
 

Where were you when you finally found out? Explain your experience.

Susanna: 

I was in English class when my mother called.  We’d agreed beforehand that I would open the mail from schools, but with RISD’s letter there was no need: ‘CONGRATULATIONS’ was spelled across the envelope.  
 

Kate:

My mom called my high school guidance office and paged me to the front desk. When I called home there was no answer and I immediately figured something was wrong and that someone was in the hospital. I spent all day panicking and wanting to go home. When I got there, of course, there was the ‘CONGRATULATIONS’ envelope on the kitchen table. I figured out why she had called me pretty quickly. 
 

What advice do you have for those applicants checking their mailboxes right now about the whole process?

Susanna:

Put the time to good use: cultivate a new hobby, learn to play the nose flute, study tree-identification.  (Some people’s definitions of ‘good use’ vary.)  Waiting for the envelope actually was a valuable time for me.  It helped me evaluate my interests and work on art more. RISD doesn’t exist to determine a person’s life; it’s here to fuel a passion for art that already exists and hone skills.   
 

Kate:

Sue is right. I’ve found while being here it’s important to have other things to be passionate about besides art. These interests feed back into your art and make it richer. I know a lot of kids here who join the Brown choir, learn archery, crew, learn Chinese, go running on the weekends or learn semaphore (flag language fyi). This is less advice for waiting for your letter, and more general advice. As for waiting for your letter: learn to knit (it’s more relaxing than you may think). 

Many Thanks to Kate and Susanna for their advice. If you wish to see some more of their art work check out their websites here:

Susanna:  www.susannavagt.com

Kate:   www.coroflot.com/kathryn_selbert

Good Luck everyone!

Leon Paul Hovanesian II

Contact me:

lhovanes@risd.edu

All of our freshman decision letters went in the mail a few days ago and everyone in the Admissions Office is now taking a deep breath.  There were so many wonderful candidates in the applicant pool this year and, as always, we could not admit everyone we felt was deserving, and prepared,  for the possibility of joining us at RISD.  Whether the news you receive from us is positive, or not, or somewhere in the middle (don’t give up you waiting list people), we want to extend our sincere thanks to everyone who made the big effort to apply and share your work and interests and aspirations with us.   For everyone in the Admissions Office and on our faculty Admissions Committee, it is always an inspiring time to see all the energy, talent and hope among this emerging group of artists and designers.  We’ll be in touch!

Ed Newhall, Director of Admissions, contact me at enewhall@risd.edu