MCAD

I toured Minneapolis College of Art & Design last week and came away very impressed with their offerings. If you are considering graphic design schools right now, put MCAD on your list. Here's why:

They have a very strong curriculum; the course descriptions had me wishing I could go there. MCAD gives equal weight to teaching the real-world application of an art/design/advertising degree above and beyond teaching technical skills.

For instance, there's one class called Creating and Running a Business. From marketing yourself to estimating projects and invoicing clients, it's teaching job skills that I'm sure are a god send to beginning freelancers. Maybe this class is standard at other schools, but from my perspective the "how to run a business" ability is often lacking at the graduate level. We just think they'll learn business sense on the job. Yet for new graduates who, in the current economy, might be hard pressed to get hired, starting and running a freelance business may be their only option.

Add to that a hip city-wide art community, a just-right-sized campus, an impressive faculty list and some of the coolest hands on workshops I've ever seen, and you've got reason to consider MCAD.