Hello and welcome to my blog!
My name is Allie Jennings and I am a sophomore Communications Design major hailing from near Cleveland, Ohio. I think this is a wonderful way for you to get a feel for what life in this major is like. I hope you find this blog helpful.
I chose Syracuse because it seemed at the time to be the best fit for what I wanted to get out of college. I still believe this to be true. When I was college searching I looked at in state schools, art schools and liberal art schools with a solid art program. I knew I wanted to do design. I had been very active in my school newspaper and I fell in love with typography and image as well as the challenge of communicating visually. I'm a design dork. I know it.
At first I really wanted to go to an art school. My mom didn't feel the same way but I had convinced her to look with me as long as I looked at other schools with her. I even attended the Maryland Institute of Art Precollege program between my junior and senior year to get a feel of art school. It was my high school counselor that threw out the name of Syracuse University and I decided to give it a glance. What I saw blew my socks off.
Out of all the other colleges I looked at- art and liberal arts alike - Syracuse had the most specific program for what I wanted to do. Just the fact that it's named Communications Design rather than Graphic Design showed that it talked more to what I was looking for. I saw pictures of letterheads and packaging designs as well as layouts and page design. Syracuse gave the most specific and inspiring description of what exactly I was going to be trained to do.
My visit to Syracuse only served to reinforce my positive feelings towards the program. I got a tour of the main facilities, the Warehouse, by a ComDesign student. On the bus ride there he told my mom and I that the major was very intense and that sophomore year was "like boot camp for graphic design." When I give tours today I make sure to tell kids and their families the same thing. This is a very intense program, but I've found that for real passionate students (like I was) it only makes them more excited to come here.
Anyways, Syracuse was my obvious match. It's an art school AND a university. It's an intense program with passionate professors as well as peers. I feel confident that I will graduate as a quality designer with the ability to get a job that I enjoy. I think that's the most important thing. I feel that of kids go into art with a kind of acceptance of an uncertain future after they graduate. Not me. This major will give me the training I need to be amazing at a career that I love.
I hope the rest of this blog is useful in giving you insight into my life in this major. Good luck in your college search!
