Hello,
I'm currently a high school senior and need to make my college decisions soon. I have always loved science and art and am basing my college decision on a prospective career in scientific illustration. I have narrowed down my choices to three schools but I am not quite sure which one would benefit me the most and am looking for a little guidance.
I have put a lot of considerations into all three schools but in the interest of not writing a novella, the gist comes down to:
-One school has a medical illustration program (which I have been accepted into after a portfolio review--I do have a small illustration portfolio already, it needs work but everyone starts somewhere).
-One school is one I would attend for a biology major and possibly some sort of art minor.
-One school is one I would attend for an individualized major; the school is very large and offers plenty of biology, anatomy, and pre-med classes along with art classes. It barely has a core curriculum so I could shape it to mirror a medical/scientific illustration degree but make it very heavy in sciences. Sort of the best of both worlds but it has a hefty price tag and I worry a little about how individualized majors are perceived.
At this point I have no plans to attend graduate school but I do plan to become certified no matter what direction I take. An advantage to the last two schools is that both are in New York City and I could get my certification from the New York Botanical Garden whenever I could afford the time and money.
As a note: I'm not too picky as to scientific vs. medical illustration. To my understanding medical illustrators do have steadier, higher-paid work but I love both fields equally and in the end the pay is not important to me as long as I have enough to support myself.
From what I've seen, a lot of illustrators come out of illustration programs while others are science majors. I don't think I can really go wrong at any school but I'm hoping to pick the brains of a few seasoned illustrators just to make sure I'm on the right track--And if anyone wants to voice opinions about anything specific or steer me in a certain direction, I'm more than happy to listen. What sorts of things should I be doing and looking out for to put myself towards the best path, both in college and beyond?
Any tips or guidance are appreciated.
U of Georgia program
Hey All,
UGA's scientific illustration program is amazing. Gene is an extraordinary teacher, plus there's a lot of cool resources here like the botanical gardens, the museum of natural history, the herbarium, plus every professor in ecology/forestry/biology. There are also amazing study abroad programs to UGA costa rica, or Cortona, Italy, New Zealand, or pretty much anywhere you could want. Liz Nixon
Don't Forget Business!
Jennifer,
Get some small business courses in there if you plan to freelance or have a studio. With an interdisciplinary career choice, a curriculum with diversity will be an asset.
Capt. Suzan Wallace
School selection guidance
My daughter and I went through this decision three years ago. We looked at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rhode Island School of Design & Brown (joint program), Arcadia, Northern Georgia, Cleveland Institute of Art, University of Georgia, and Iowa State University. We also considered schools which offered interdisciplinary, individualized programs with a combination of Biology and Art courses available. The last type we dismissed for a few reasons: the lack of actual courses in scientific illustration which is distinctly different from other forms of art, the problem with individualized degree programs ending up with something that is not easily recognized by others without an explanation*, and the lack of peers with which to work.
After visits to many of these schools, long deliberation, and after being accepted to RIT, RISD, Brown, and ISU, my daughter limited her selection to RIT and ISU. Her final decision was ISU, though I have no doubt that RIT would also have been a good decision mainly because of Jim Perkins. She has been at ISU for three years and has received an excellent education, not just in Biology and Art, but in Scientific Illustration. The Biological and Pre-Medical Illustration (BPMI) degree program at ISU is very good with a small group of around 45 students. My daughter has had access to a wide variety of Biology and Art classes as well as the courses within BPMI. She has had research and internship opportunities which have given her a fair amount of experience in scientific illustration. (She is presently in Mexico on an archeological dig with Chicago Field Museum doing illustrations of artifacts as they are uncovered.) She has learned a great deal from working with the instructors and her classmates in the BPMI degree program and the BPMI Club.
I would recommend a school with an actual degree program of a decent sized student body in some form of scientific illustration and, then if interested in being certified, one of the programs which will lead to certification as a medical illustrator.
A small side note is that, as different from Jennifer, my daughter and I were not interested her going to school in a large city since she had been raised in a small village in rural Alaska. We felt that going away to college AND learning to live in a big city were too much for her to handle at once.
I hope that this provides some helpful information from someone who went through the same decision three years ago.
*My own major from Michigan State University: "Lyman Briggs College with a Field of Concentration in Environmental Science and a Co-ordinate Major in Zoology" does not fit on the blank on applications asking for major.
Annette McDonald, Alaska