fogdragon replied to your post “kind of odd and probably silly question for those of you who’ve gone...”
It really depends on what you're used to and what you get involved in. My college has a relatively small campus and I feel like that does have a big impact on how the college builds its a community. I made friends with a lot of people in my dorm, but I was also in special interest housing so it was a little bit different. Also, student organizations and activities were a big part of my socialization, so I don't know how that would work on a college without a campus. I have a friend who went to NYU which doesn't really have a campus and she got her friend group mainly through her activities such as her film group. It really depends on how you socialize, although it might be harder in a college without a campus because a campus makes it easier to travel and connect with people. In a college without a campus you run the risk of having a hard time leaving your dorm for other activities besides classes.
(I'm also responding to the two messages I got with this post, since everyone's said similar things and it's easier to reply to them all at once)
I think that a small campus would definitely be ideal, but from what I can tell, most art schools are pretty large, and some don't have dorms at all, so I doubt I can find a good art school with a small campus.
I went to an open house at this college a couple days ago and toured their illustration department and some of their housing, so I got a bit of an idea of what it's like? They've got twenty different large dorm buildings scattered around downtown San Fransisco (I think most of them were hotels that they bought and turned into dorms), and I know that they have at least some buildings for people with some common interests. They have a few other places that they've bought for students to hang out in, and the one we saw on the housing tour was basically a large coffee shop plus lounge.
I know that they have some student clubs based on common interest and such, but idk how many or how prevalent it is. They said that the classes are pretty small (about 25 people each), so that should help. Some of the majors also kind of work together (the illustration, game design, and animation majors, for example), and all their classes are in one building and you have to take some classes in all three to major in one of them, so I know that the illustration and game design and animation majors work together a lot.
But yeah, I don't know a ton about the social environment there other than that. I do sort of know a couple of teachers who work there, though, so I could probably ask them more about what the social environment is like. The lack of campus and how that will effect social stuff is one of my biggest concerns about the college (the other one being money--it's not anywhere near RISD level expensive, but it is definitely one of the pricier schools I've looked into), so I should definitely try to get that figured out.
