Ringling College of Art and Design — Attraction in Sarasota

I am a product designer who went back to school to study motion design at Ringling College. I was particularly drawn to Ringling because it's ranked as the #1 School of Motion Design in the World by "The Rookies," and I was also offered a substantial scholarship. However, after my first year in the program, I decided not to continue for several reasons.

While most of the instructors are excellent, like any school, there are a few who seem to be just going through the motions. Some of the standout teachers for me were Jared, Hunter Huang, Rob Tarbell, and Josh Funk, among others.

The level of instruction at Ringling is actually quite high, but having previously taken similar classes at community college, School Of Motion, Domestika, and Skillshare, I couldn't justify the $100K price tag ($250K without the scholarship). For that kind of investment, I'd expect a guarantee of a job making at least $80K/year. Or at least the guarantee of a job, period.There are coding boot camps that can offer that assurance, at a fraction of the cost and time commitment. Unfortunately, Ringling couldn't provide anything comparable, even with the hefty price tag. In fact, Ringling's job placement record isn't better than that of other more affordable four-year colleges. Considering my family's future, I know the challenges of affording a home, raising kids, and having enough for leisure activities. With the expected income from a motion design job, buying a nice house seems out of reach. While I might be able to afford a subpar dwelling eventually, I wouldn't want my children to grow up in such a place. I've heard of graduates landing 40K internships in cities like New York or LA. In comparison, I could work as a grocery delivery person at Target and live in Florida just as comfortably, if not more so, without the burden of student loans.

I empathize with those who are attending without a scholarship. I've seen how AI advancements are affecting entry-level motion design positions. Platforms like Fiverr, Toptal, and Upwork are becoming oversaturated with designers. It's crucial to thoroughly research job availability, salaries, cost of living in your desired location, and how much of your earnings will be left after taxes and paying off your school debt. You can easily calculate this with ChatGPT. For example, paying $1,000 per month toward a $144,000 loan at a 5% interest rate would take approximately 18 years and 5 months to repay.

Another reason for my departure from Ringling is the outdated facilities. For the exorbitant cost, I expected better. While there are some new buildings, most of the school is antiquated. The unreliable AC units and frequently malfunctioning elevators are just the beginning. The projectors in classrooms don't accurately display colors due to age. Simple solutions like using affordable TVs would be a significant improvement. The quality of the printers is subpar; I have a better printer at home. The school's bathrooms are often out of order, and soap is frequently unavailable. It's truly disheartening to see such a prestigious institution be so poorly maintained despite its high cost. The computers provided are inadequate; I had to use my own 4 year old Mac for my work. Even after paying $36K for one year, I had to return the equipment they provided. For those skeptical of my experiences, I urge you to witness it firsthand in your first year. Remember, "don't say I didn't warn you." Personally, it was a $36K lesson learned the hard way. While I am passionate about motion design, hearing from industry professionals about taking on unfulfilling projects makes me reconsider. I hope my experience can serve as a cautionary tale for those considering taking on a substantial loan for any career path without adequate pay prospects.

Having money in your pocket today is far better than being burdened with a massive debt and the uncertainty of landing a fulfilling job. I personally enjoy having financial stability and being...

I was there for two years until I had to take a gap year. I studied Game design.

It's a good school in general and people do come out with an amazing portfolio. But I want to point out some things.

The school is unnecessarily expensive. Yes, it's a private school that provides technology for their students, but so do community colleges and universities where a tuition for a year there would total just a semester in ringling. Not being able to obtain a loan for the year will guarantee being forced to take a gap year. They don't accept payments per semester in terms of student loans.

As a game art major, the labs are limited and they all close at 2 am. And you would think that's not so bad. It's bad if you have a lot to do with deadlines so close to one another. The one thing that's always asked for is a 24 hour lab, which never happens. The education is amazing, but to know some more experimental stuff or to get better at specific things (like lighting and VFX) that's something you have to do on your own time which is something not a lot of people have in this major. The teachers there are amazing at what they do since they've been in the industry themselves. The education feels like giving the basics and people experiment with it to see how they can do it better.

Faculty and administration wise tends to vary. I've heard a lot of people tell me that there are people who are of jo help and would give attitude, but my encounters with them are quite pleasant. If you know what you need and how to ask for help, it will be given to you. But that's also hard to distinguish sometimes.

Housing here is descent. Comes with a bed, closet or wardrobe, drawers, and a desk for you to work in. Some of these places have mold and shouldn't have people in it and yet they still put people in. And there's new housing that is brand spanking new and very pleasant to live in. For people with an ESA (emotional/emergency support animal) it is quite hard to get that covered and have to fight quite hard to get the acceptance in for your pet. I would assume it would be different for specific people. Some of my friends struggled to get their pets in.

A good amount of activities for students who have time to connect with others. Student run and they're fun to be a part of. And for those out there: don't bother trying to start a fraternity and/or a sorority group here. Never happened here.

And last but not least: food here definitely sucks. With the exception of the mac and cheese and the ox tail they serve a few times. Their cafeteria has cause a lot of health issues and are not always well cooked. Sometimes serving undercooked meat. From when I was there there are 4 food locations: Hammonds (main cafeteria, and where most of the trouble happens), outtakes (serves snacks and bottled drinks. Please check for expiration dates. Sometimes they're not removed so keep an eye out for that. Also be cool with a guy name Pete, he's a cool guy), Roberta's cafe (haven't had anything there), and Brickman's cafe (they serve sandwiches and soup. Probably the best source of food from on campus prepared by staff, but also has had their problems). One of the problems that occurred was the upbringing of the nobora virus because people would serve with unwashed and un-gloved hands. I had a few friends affected by it.

As many universities, it is full of high schoolers who just graduated and along comes some drama. I was part of a graduation class that has so many problems and drama, i had more friends from other years than my own.

In general, it's a good school. I would not recommend coming here if you want a more detailed education if it's not Computer Animation or Illustration (the most prefers majors; yes there's favoritism in majors as well). I would also not recommend coming here if money is an issue. Can probably get way better education at an affordable price somewhere else. But power to you if you do decide...

I do in fact feel unjustified by two certain instructors, which brought me to the academic dismissal. I performed my work in one of these classes, but the instructor's decision to fail me was not on my art, but my presentation, which required drawing a straight line with a knife on bristol board, which was all I could afford at the time instead of matte. When I e-mailed him about retrying either of the projects, he did not respond. I found out in the last day of finals from a classmate that I was able to redo one project. However, by the time I knew about it, it was already too late and I was handling withdrawals from a medication that I was taking for my Fibromyalgia and was causing serious depression and suicidal thoughts the entire semester, which were affecting my will to finish anything, including projects I was very excited about doing. He suggested during a mental breakdown(which was caused by his saying I didn't have a chance in his class) that I try switching to Visual Arts as he still felt like I was viable as an artist, just not in Illustration. I talked to my advisor the next day about it and we got the signature from the head of Visual Arts and everything. I felt like I still had a chance at Ringling, for my classes were much different than this major and I even got into a very difficult to get into class with my advisor's help.

The second instructor was from last year, which I feel caused a lot of problems this semester. This instructor, who was my perspective teacher never did demonstrations and only critiqued on the day the project was due. After a few weeks of this class, half of the class stopped listening to him because we all felt the same about him. My apartment mate is one of the survivors of this class and is a witness to what I'm telling you about him. The only way I ever got anything accomplished in his class was my tutors, who taught me everything I know about perspective.

I had another incident with another instructor the same semester, however, because I got some help from both my tutors and an instructor the next semester who knew how to work with my skill level and boosted me to the place I needed to be, I feel he did not have much of an effect on this semester. However, he did have a small part in my motivation, as he was one who questioned how I managed to get into Illustration to begin with.

With everything that went down with my experience at Ringling, no matter how much fun I had learning there and how much love I had for it due to the amazing staff that did know how to do their jobs, I feel like I did not get my money's worth and I certainly do not feel like I would try again next year to get back in. I feel I would only run into the same type of people who doubted me and only put me down to the point I questioned how I got into the school to begin with. However, this is not the end of the road for me, as I will continue to pursue my dreams in the Illustration community. Art has always been my life and will continue to be so until the day I die.

I have lost all respect for my dream college within a year and a half and was only given a week to get my stuff from the school after I was dismissed. I fought the dismissal and lost after believing from the advice of both an instructor and my advisor I would be able to get back in once I changed majors. My home is in Ohio and money is tight after the holidays and my parents...