Comments on: OCAD – What’s In A Name?

By: First Year Student

First Year Student — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 03:42:02 +0000

This is just an opinion, because 2010/11 will be my first year at OCAD. I completed a degree at York, and I feel that I’m fully prepared to attend OCAD. I know what to expect, because I’m familiar with what a university life is and what it isn’t. I am not blinded that attending OCAD will be a mixed experience. I’m prepared do my own homework, and then ask appropriate questions to the teachers that will be available to me. I also aim to do my own research and intern without seeking guidance from OCAD.
OCAD looks to me like a perfect environment for those people who are self-starters, love to work independently not codependently, hanging on to teacher’s every suggestion.

I feel that pre/post transition, it looks like a school meant for mature students, who already possess mentors outside of the academia.

I agree that this school may provide me with little industry specifics, but it’s a perfect fit for people like me, mature students with another degree.

By: Honey Bunny

Honey Bunny — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 04:54:32 +0000

I’m currently an OCAD student and have attended several other Ontario universities in the past, so unlike Lauren and the people who have responded, I have something to compare my OCAD experience with. At the end of the day, OCAD is just like any other Canadian university. It has good points and bad points. No university will hold your hand and help you find a job in the real world. It’s all up to you… You get what you put into it.

By: Ian

Ian — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 21:43:17 +0000

@A. Mason, the original articles discussion of “guidance” isn’t about the teachers telling you what to photograph; take all the black and white shots of empty train tracks you want. It was about guidance and preparation for the real world AFTER art school.

Like most schools, ESPECIALLY art schools, students are taught in a bubble and essentially have to abandon much of what they learned and instead retrain on the job.

For example, the animation program I went through 5 years ago taught me virtually nothing about how an actual studio operates. Even today, when I do guest lectures, students are surprised to learn they won’t be doing character design, modeling, rigging, animation, rendering, compositing and final edit. Worse still, none of them are particularly good at ANY of those specific disciplines as the schools have trained them as jack of all trades and masters of none.

By: A. Mason

A. Mason — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:48:58 +0000

i’m a current student and i love OCAD. although I agree that you get what you put into it, but isn’t that the point? art is a tough competitive field and if you want to make it, you have to go the extra mile. I’m majoring in photography and i plan to minor in screenprinting, but i’ve also done material art and design and worked with programs like final cut express. i think if you expect people to tell you exactly what to do without thinking for yourself then don’t go to this school, but if you’re dedicated there are people here who will help you, and all of the teachers and monitors, even from programs i’m not in, have been willing to give me advice and teach me what i’m willing to learn. even in my first year i’ve had my work in a student gallery and i don’t think other schools could have offered me some of the experiences i’ve had.

By: w

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:12:45 +0000

As soon as ocad became a university, it lost it’s original concept of a studio art school. studnets became focused on liberal studies and forgot about their creative pursuits. The difficulty is most artists are not that interested in liberal studies, we want to create. I found myself saying, well, I’ll do the art, and skim through the liberal studies. to give you an idea, I went to 3 classes in a large class, and passed. All I did was the projects, they never took any attendance, so why go. Art schools are about art, not books. Plato was a cool guy, yet, Van Gogh was far more fun.

By: anika

anika — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 03:20:09 +0000

Interesting comments. I attended OCAD 20 years ago and it looks as though not much has changed. I and others found teachers provided next to no instruction and that instructor critiques were unhelpful and very subjective. I left after the second year of my program and felt that it was the best decision I ever made.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:19:19 +0000

OCAD is not a school worth going to in my opinion.
Complete waste of money.

By: Sarah Mulholland

Sarah Mulholland — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:17:09 +0000

Since Lauren graduated in 2006 she was not able to take advantage of OCAD’s new minors, launched in 2008. The minors are part of OCAD’s New Ecology of Learning. The NEL gives students more flexibility to construct a program of study that responds to their particular interests and needs, and the minor program was developed in response to students’ desires to study in a more cross-disciplinary environment. There are minors in Drawing & Painting, Integrated Media, Photography, and Printmaking within the Faculty of Art, but you can also take minors in the Faculty of Design in Communication Design, Furniture Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Industrial Ceramics, Material Art & Design (fibre, ceramics and jewellery) and Sustainablility in Design. Not to mention the minors in the Faculty of Liberal Studies in Art History, Creative Writing, Digital & Media Studies, English and Social Sciences. There are also Interdisciplinary Studies in Aboriginal Visual Culture, Digital Media
and On-Screen Media.