As the summer draws to a close, college students everywhere anxiously await going back to school. For the most part, it’s the first time any of us have ever felt this way about school, and that’s exciting. It’s exciting to plan your apartment or suite with all your closest friends and to get ready for all your new classes. It’s especially exciting when you go to a school as quirky as Pratt. In addition to going to an art school, where most of the students there are just as artistic, weird and meme-savvy as you are, they also understand the trials of going to such a bizarre school. Hope all you Pratt kids out there get where I’m coming from.
1. Architorture
Have an architecture major for a roommate or suite mate? Prepare to only see them a few nights a week. I was lucky enough to have an awesome, super hard-working architecture major for a roommate last year (and suite mate this year), so I got to see her almost every night. For some of my friends though, it wasn’t out of the ordinary to never see their roommate more than once or twice a week as they nearly lived at Higgins.
2. Foundation Year instead of general education
Trying to explain why Pratt does Foundation Year rather than regular general education to relatives is hard, especially if those relatives place a much higher priority on math and science than art.
“It’s like gen ed, except with the kind of information that’s valuable to artists.”
“So… You don’t learn math?”
3. Six hour studio classes
Taking a three hour class seems like an eternity, especially since most of us came from high school where classes were only an hour or so long. At the end of a three hour block, lunch seems a welcome haven, but then have to go back to the same studio class for another three hours? It’s torture sometimes, especially if the current topic isn’t something you’re thrilled about.
4. Babies/cats everywhere
Going to class is an adventure when you like babies and cats as much as I do. Will there be a small toddler just learning how to walk waddling along in the grass in his tiny overalls and even tinier booty shoes? Will a cat approach you while you’re eating in the courtyard? Who knows. It’s truly an adventure.
5. Figuring out if Clinton-Washington or Classon is closer to where you’re going on campus
When coming back to campus from the subway, there’s always that awkward moment when you’re with friends while you figure out what stop everyone is getting off at. Willoughby, Stabile or the Can? Classon it is. Pantas or the dining hall? Clinton-Washington. Eventually, everyone gets to be the one going that extra stop when everyone else leaves.
6. Waza vs. Yamashiro
Like sushi? Planning a squad outing? The next step is choosing the restaurant. While Waza and Yamashiro are both fantastic sushi places on Myrtle, everyone has a preference, and it’s always entertaining to fight it out with your friends while on the walk over.
7. Being intimidated by all the beautiful people
I’m not sure what it is about art school, but everyone, at all times, is way hotter than you’ll ever be. No matter how hard you try, when you walk out of your dorm, you’ll almost immediately be struck by some beautiful human that makes you never want to leave your room again. It’s intimidating, and scary.
8. Pinning Up on a Concrete Wall
Do you love your fingers? Well, don’t get used to them. The only thing worse than having to pin up for portfolio review is having to pin up for portfolio review on a concrete wall that wasn’t made for pinning up. Your thumbs will be covered in little red circles for hours. Remember, pin up at an angle!
9. Debbie Does Dallas
There’s always that faint reminder in the back of your mind when you’re in that spot in the library about what went down there.
10. Having a favorite Pratt cat
Maybe it’s just an aesthetic thing, maybe you shared some of your chicken from dinner once, but everyone on campus has a favorite Pratt Cat. You’ll defend your cat till the end, even if she is the antichrist (I’m talking about Benches. She’s a troublemaker, and you all can fight me).
11. Cannoneers?
Literally no one hates the Pratt mascot more than Pratt students. Why are we not the Pratt Cats? We have cats on campus! Recently, the mascot was redesigned to be a cat who is a cannoneer. Why not just make the full leap?
12. Hating on the Can
I lived in the Cannoneer Court my freshman year, and I’m glad I did. It was a quality “college dorm” experience, and I met some of my closest friends due to proximity in the communal bathroom alone. Even so, I still hated on the Can with all my non-Can friends. It’s just something you do as a Pratt student.
13. Leaving for class 20 minutes early to avoid missing the elevator
There is nothing worse than walking to the main building and realizing that the single elevator you need to take you up six flights of stairs is full. Even the most athletic of my friends get winded after going up just four flights of those steep stairs, and I shudder to think of the state my out-of-shape, asthmatic ass would be in after climbing all six flights.
14. Having non-artistic friends and relatives who think art school is a cakewalk
Everything else in this piece has been pretty jokey. Ha ha, classes are long, we have too many good restaurants right off campus, the Can is the worst dorm. This, however, is a struggle that every artistic person has or will face at some point in their lives. For whatever reason, for reasons I can’t even understand, the artistic field isn’t seen as a legitimate one. It’s seen as an “easy out”. I’m friends with a lot of people much smarter than me, and several of them have made comments to me about how easy my college experience must be since I go to an art school. Art school is not easy. Art school is hours and hours of physical and mental work that your heart and soul needs to go into for it to even be considered for critique. It’s not something bullshitable. Those of you who know me know I very rarely get angry, but comments like these are incredibly maddening to me personally. I could write an entire article about this point alone. Maybe I will at some point. For now, though, this will be enough.
I can’t wait to go back to the cooky home I have away from home in Brooklyn that I’ve found in Brooklyn. I can’t wait to have all new projects and meet new people and discover more and more quirks about this bizarre campus I love so much. Only a month to go.
