April 23, 2011 11:15:10 AM PDT
I thought I might talk about new student day here because I just read Ambar commenting about how no one else has. Sorry Ambar! Here's how my day at the Accepted Student Event went:
When my sister and I first arrived there was a student walking on stilts welcoming all of the guests. Inside they had some faculty handing out some papers and name tags to the students of the individual programs. After grabbing some coffee and muffins from the refreshments table my sister and I sat down in the main hall where some students from the music department were playing an assortment of instruments (mostly drums, it was very cool). At the end of their performance, all of the students and parents took their seats and the various heads of the schools gave us a speech congratulating us on our acceptance, then a little background of how the school operates and what they want from their students.
At around 10 they gathered all of the students were divided into their programs and ushered away into different parts of the school. The film/video students filed into the Bijou Theater. While that was happening the parents stayed where they were and spent the next hour having a question and answering session. Inside the Bijou Theater we met the film/video teachers who gave us an overview of the program. We then watched an hour of student films. I think they were 4 from Character Animation and 2 or 3 from the other programs. The four CA films that they showed us were Work by Michael Rianda, Crater Face by Skyler Page, SunGuy by Michelle Xin and The Hardest Jigsaw by Eric Anderson. Like most of you guys, I've seen these films over on YouTube buy seeing them on a big screen was a real treat. I can't remember the titles of the other films, except one Experiment Animation film that had that Snowman and Sandman exchange items by dropping them in a bottle and sending them off into the ocean. I can't seem to remember the title of the one. Once the final film ended, the teachers asked us if we had any questions, which no one really asked except maybe one or two people.
At 11 they took us to the room where they held the guest lectures. Some current students were there already and had the newly accepted students walk underneath their raised arms upon entering. Our parents (my sister) met up with us in that room as well. While there we had the chance to meet some of our teachers, a couple of the bfa4s and a handful of other students. They basically gave us a more concetrated overview of the CA program and how lucky we all were to be here (skill and talent aside). It was all pretty straightforward stuff so I won't go into too much detail.
After all that, we had lunch and everyone sort of went about their own way, either going to financial aid, picking up your portfolio, seeing the dorms or just taking a look around the campus. Two current bfa1s were nice enough to show me, my sister and another accepted student (Juston) around the CA area. Overall, the day was a lot of fun. Having dreamed of standing there at the campus for the past year and a half made the experience that much more surreal to experience.
Anyways, that's what happened for me during the Accepted Student Event. It was a lot of fun. I can't wait to get back there in the Fall.
