If you want to study abroad, do you want to change your major? Transfer? Will you fail to apply to the school if you compete with students with professional background in art design? No turning? It seems that he is unwilling to give up this opportunity. Is it feasible to apply for studying abroad by changing majors? What are the advantages and disadvantages of studying abroad after changing majors? How should students with different application situations change their majors to apply for studying abroad? I believe that this problem is confused by more than one student. Today, we have invited teacher Bao from the Natural Light Fashion Design Department. She is an art student who has changed her major. I am a designer who has many years of experience in creating and studying abroad. I participated in the quarterly clothing release of Tommy Zhong brand, and have a deeper understanding of the "inside story" of the change. Let's take a look at her interview!

Mr. Bao

London Fashion Institute LCF/Fashion creative tailoring

Good at: clothing design, three-dimensional tailoring

Mr. Bao graduated from LCF Fashion Creative Cutting Department of London Fashion College, and is familiar with three-dimensional cutting, plane plate making, garment technology and fabric. He studied at the China Academy of Fine Arts before going to the UK. He is good at using different media, has design thinking from different dimensions, and is good at converting design ideas and presenting them through creative formats. Worked as an intern in Tommy Zhong clothing brand and participated in the quarterly brand development. Be familiar with the whole process from design to fashion week release. His works were once included as school furnishings. I hope that I can use my learning and employment experience to help students of natural light realize their dreams.

　　 Teacher Bao:

　　 Because I am from a background of major change, I will understand the advantages of major change, that is, what you have learned, which is a skill that students majoring in fashion design do not have. Including myself, I studied film and television advertising before, but later I changed to the major of fashion design.

　　 So I am very good at software, including PS and AI. Even when I do my own clothing works, I will use some media, including video, lighting effects, and clothing. This in itself combines different professions.

　　 When you combine the knowledge in different fields, the works produced by them will be more special, so this is the advantage of students who change majors.

　　 Secondly, when it comes to employment, most students majoring in fashion design would like to create their own fashion brand, but it is not so simple to create a brand. To create your own brand, either you should have a very strong personal style or you should be very consistent with the market, that is, whether you want to be a designer who decides the market by design or a designer who is dominated by the market.

　　 Neither of these two directions is easy, so we often say that clothing design may not be as bright as it seems on the surface, or even just painting design drafts is enough. It may require you to make great efforts to do thinking training, including your fashion acumen and so on.

　　 When you finally finish the design draft, from the design draft to the garment production, there will be a very large amount of work. If you have a strong ability to make plates, it is possible that your final garment is no different from the design draft, but there are also possibilities. Your final garment is completely different from the design draft, Because in the process of implementation, you will encounter many problems.

　　 Maybe during the process of learning (fashion design), you will feel very tired, and will encounter many difficulties and problems, and even you may have countless times to give up the idea, but you must also adhere to, because when you really get the offer, you will feel that all that is worth it.

In the above interview, teacher Bao mainly talked about the advantages of applying for studying abroad in art and the employment situation of studying abroad in other majors. As for the change of major, I will also give you a detailed supplement based on what Mr. Bao said.

　　 Is it feasible to apply for art study abroad by changing majors?

　　 Of course, it is feasible to change majors, but it also depends on the specific application countries and colleges.

The biggest difference between studying abroad in art and studying abroad in large categories is probably the collection of works, which is the same in terms of changing majors. In fact, most of the major transfer of students studying abroad is based on application documents, transcripts and other materials, which is traceable. But studying abroad in art is different. A collection of works is enough for everyone to worry about. There is no template or routine that can be used directly.

In fact, a collection of works has already divided art study abroad into the most special part of the category of "changing majors".

The background of students studying abroad in arts is different from each other, but we can also roughly classify them by category. For example, from the perspective of application background, they can be divided into undergraduate application, master application, undergraduate transfer, etc; From the perspective of application countries and regions, it can also be divided into the United States, Britain, Australia, Japan, Germany, France, etc; From the perspective of the background of the applicants, it can be divided into original major application, intra department major transfer application, and inter department major transfer application.

Among all the application categories, it is really difficult to change majors, especially Zero basic application for studying abroad , the specialty span is very large. As the parent mentioned in the previous screenshot, the child is a clinical medicine major, but is ready to apply for animation. This is the application of zero foundation to major transfer.

However, although it is difficult to change your major, it does not mean that you cannot change your major! For example, in the application season of Natural Light 2019, 99 of the 292 students who have received offers so far have applied for majors, accounting for almost 1/3 of all students. Nearly half of these 1/3 students are zero foundation to professional students who have never been exposed to art design. Some of them have Chinese language and literature background, some have studied economics, journalism, medicine, etc. before, and some have music, sociology, psychology, etc.

Therefore, first of all, from the perspective of colleges and universities, as long as schools allow you to change majors, you can apply for changing majors. For example, most British and American art schools allow students to apply for a change of major. Even if you have never had a relevant professional foundation before, you can also choose to apply for a change of major.

For example, today's interviewee, teacher Bao, is allowed to change majors. Secondly, we can also take Harvard as an example. Harvard provides students with different professional backgrounds with different professional options Architectural Design Or if you have some experience in the field of architecture, you can choose to apply for the MArch II degree, which is specifically for undergraduate students with architectural background.

Screenshot from Harvard official website

But if you don't have an architectural background, don't worry. Harvard offers this kind of students the degree of MARCH I. Although one degree is I, and the other is II, there is no difference in nature between the two degrees, but in terms of curriculum arrangement, students will complete a basic PROJECT at the beginning stage as a foreshadowing, and then start the follow-up study.

Screenshot from Harvard official website

British and American countries have a wide range of requirements on the application for major transfer. Most colleges and universities allow students to change majors. No matter what your background, you can apply for major transfer as long as your standardized scores and portfolio are excellent and your application materials are complete. However, as I said earlier, changing majors also depends on countries and universities. For example, some countries in Europe are not getting better at changing majors, but that doesn't mean that you can't change majors at all.

Take Germany as an example, a colleague from our new media department changed his major when he was studying in Germany. When students apply to Germany (art colleges in some European countries), whether you change your major or not, you should actually check the course matching degree between the original major and the applied major.

What is the course matching degree is actually the number of cross courses between your major and the applied major. If the course matching degree is very high, it is possible to apply seamlessly, but if the course matching degree is not high, you may need to prepare for the specified course credits first, or consider rereading.

　　 What are the advantages and disadvantages of studying abroad after changing majors?

First of all, the advantages. In today's interview, Mr. Bao has also said enough.

　　 1. Your original major is a skill point that non major transfer students do not have.

Teacher Bao is a professional in film and television advertising, so her hard core software operation, shooting, lighting effect display and other skills help her to integrate more interesting image elements into the clothing design in her creation.

Taking the students of natural light as an example, Zhao applied for a change of major. He majored in geophysics at Tongji University for his undergraduate degree, but applied for a master's degree in British graphic design. Without any professional foundation, he obtained LCC, Goldsmiths, UCA, Pratt Kingston and other schools.

Works collection of natural light student Zhao

The original major was geophysics, so Zhao is very good at nature, data, etc. This advantage helped him make a good preparation in the early research stage, and his project inspiration and theme are all derived from his daily life. He wanted everyone to understand his determination to learn design, so he made a symbol of manifesto; He liked journalism, so he redefined the form and connotation of newspapers.

For example, when we look at his collection of works, we can see that he is really professional, meticulous and good at data analysis.

Works collection of natural light student Zhao

　　 2. When you integrate different majors in your creation, the output will be very "interesting", and even more advantageous in application in your portfolio.

On this point, students of natural light still made good examples, such as Huchi in the application season of 2019, who majored in graphic design at a domestic comprehensive university with a bachelor's degree and applied for the direction of interactive design with a master's degree, and finally got a double offer of RCA Digital Direction and Service Design, The offer of Digital Direction was obtained within a few minutes after the interview. In his collection of works, he added voice based interaction, as well as research on blockchain, code and programming.

In addition to Hu, the following Ruiqi is a student in the 2018 application season of Natural Light, who also applied for a change of major. The original professional product design, she has a very unique view on product design, but on the other hand, such a unique view, also let her find the limitations of the product profession, sometimes her ideas, can not be shown through a single product.

Therefore, when applying for the master's degree, she boldly chose an illustration major that was very different from her original major. In her collection of works, with the help of her unique understanding and cognition of the original profession, the teacher of Natural Light helped her put her unique advantages into illustration creation, and expressed her ideas through the interaction between product design and illustration:

The picture shows the works of Ruiqi, a student of natural light

This kind of creation also brought her many offers, including RCA, UAL and Kingston.

　　 3. In terms of future employment, cross majors may bring you more possibilities.

No matter what major you apply for, whether studying abroad in art or studying abroad in a broad category, employment is an unavoidable topic. Especially in the field of art and design, most of them are high investment majors, which also makes "employment" an influential factor when most students choose a major.

When considering this, many students will think that if my master's degree is changed to a major after four years of science, the first four years of study will be a waste of time and energy?

In fact, as teacher Bao said in the video, not only clothing designers, but also many other professional designers may have thought about creating their own brands. A brand can be realized and grow, not only a professional dimension can support it.

A student in 2015 majored in economics and majored in women's fashion design with a master's degree. During his master's degree, he took a short-term course of fashion buyer at school. Now he has become a fashion buyer and has opened a fashion buyer's shop in New York with his professional partners.

The foundation of undergraduate economics enables him to have a deeper understanding of economy and market. The master's study of women's dress design enables him to have a fashion acumen different from most people in aesthetics and design. The short-term course of fashion buyers during the master's period also enables him to better connect the three fields of economy, market and fashion. These early accumulation has become the foreshadowing of his employment.

　　 There are also disadvantages in the application for changing majors. Think carefully about the planning before making a decision

The application for changing majors has advantages, but it is undeniable that there are also disadvantages in the competition for art study abroad, otherwise, "changing majors" will not become a headache for so many students.

It should be relatively easy to transfer majors within the same department. For example, this science is women's clothing design, and the master wants to study men's clothing design or underwear design. In fact, this span is not too difficult to apply, because the majors are basically clothing design, but they are aimed at specific professional directions, but the general knowledge framework is the same.

Secondly, it will be difficult to apply for cross discipline transfer, such as graphic design transfer to interior design. At this time, we need to face the problem of supplementing professional foundation. But generally speaking, most of the students in this situation still have an artistic foundation. They have a certain aesthetic awareness and creative ability, and are confident in basic painting and the same aesthetic principles.

In fact, it is the most troublesome "0 Art Foundation to Major". Most of these students have never been exposed to art and design majors. Undergraduate students are not majors in art and design fields, let alone systematic study. What needs to be supplemented is not only the specific professional foundation, but also the foundation in the foundation - aesthetic and basic ability.

Most of them will involve changing majors. Generally, they are in the master application stage. At this time, the competitors you are facing are not the students in the undergraduate stage. At the undergraduate stage, everyone is basically zero based, which is still equal. But in the master's stage, you may be facing students who have studied art design for 4 years. It is true that the pressure will be greater and the application will be more difficult than others.

So if you are going to apply for a master's degree, I hope you can make a decision after careful consideration. In the usual consultation, I found that one of the most common problems for the students who changed their major is that "the reason why they chose art design is because they misunderstood the major in this field." As teacher Bao said, many students do not know about the major of fashion design, only see their scenery on the show, only see their charm in the fashion circle when they are busy shuttling around, They ignored the efforts behind them.

I also often meet such students, who are "crazy" and decide to study art design. They want to learn animation because they have loved watching animation since childhood; Want to learn fashion design, because you can enter the fashion circle; I want to learn film, because I think special effects are very powerful

For this kind of students, I generally suggest that we should first systematically understand the major of art and design, and then specifically understand what the major we want to apply for is, how we will learn, and what the professional teaching mode of overseas colleges and universities is, before making a decision. Because I met a student who insisted on learning interior design because of impulse. When working on a collection of works, I met a student who wanted to do research and field work, and burst into tears. Because this is totally different from the interior designer who imagined that she could design a room by using computers and drawing pictures in the studio.

　　 How should students with different application situations change their majors according to themselves?

Let's discuss it according to the situation.

　　 0 basic, undergraduate transfer to major

At the undergraduate stage, the curriculum focus of foreign art schools is also mainly focused on the comprehensive cultivation of artistic quality and creative thinking. Therefore, when applying, the admissions officer will not demand how good and perfect the project you must have. At this stage, the focus of the investigation is more biased towards your ideas and creative ability.

If you have zero foundation and time is short, for example, the preparation period is only more than half a year, then I suggest you not waste time, supplement the foundation as soon as possible, try to improve your thinking and creativity, and do some interesting projects to put into the collection. It is not that the foundation is not important, but that in the case of time constraints, you can no longer spend most of your time to lay the foundation like most art students, but you should prepare your portfolio with choices.

　　 Non zero foundation, undergraduate transfer to major

Most of the students who have experienced the domestic art examination have a good artistic foundation. What they lack may be the cultivation of thinking creativity and personal style. What you need to do at this time is to improve your cognition and understanding of comprehensive aesthetics and design thinking.

At this time, compared with the former students, you have more time and energy to explore and try some meaningful creative projects, express your ideas as much as possible, and deepen the depth and content of the portfolio projects.

Taking Meiqi, a student of Natural Light 2019, as an example, with the background of the fashion management major of the Affiliated Middle School of the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts+Meiben, he was preparing to apply for pure art in his freshman year.

Her solid foundation in painting has laid the foundation for her, but restricted by the long-term domestic painting teaching model, she does not have very divergent ideas on creativity. In the past, the teaching model of domestic teachers was that she drew a pen and the teacher looked at it. This is very different from the overseas teaching mode, so the teaching focus of the natural light teacher is to inspire her thinking, constantly guide, and constantly stimulate her creativity through the cooperation mode, so that she can find her own interests and highlights. In the final three months, she got offers from Parsons, MICA, SAIC, SVA and other universities. (For details, click: Change majors to apply for American illustration design, and get awards from Parsons, SVA, SAIC, MICA and other famous schools ）

　　 Fundamentals of Art, Master's degree transferred from the same department to another major

This kind of student is not very difficult to apply for because the professional span is not very large. As we mentioned earlier, the basic professional theory of the original women's clothing design application for men's clothing design has the same place.

　　 Fundamentals of Art, Master's Cross disciplinary Transfer

This is one of the types of master to major transfer, which has a certain professional foundation in art or design. For example, teacher Bao is like this. For undergraduate film and television advertising major, master applies for clothing design.

At this time, like teacher Bao, you can first supplement your basic knowledge in the applied professional field, such as typing, material understanding, body structure, and tailoring. Because the professional differences between different departments are relatively large, it is necessary to supplement your professional foundation before starting to create your portfolio.

After that, after having a certain foundation, you can, like teacher Bao, add your original professional ideas and advantages to your own works, and integrate your own creation into interdisciplinary ideas and practice.

　　 0 Basic, Master to Major

Different from the focus of undergraduate application requirements, the master stage is to investigate the comprehensive ability of students to complete a complete project, whether it is basic, creative, or skills, must be comprehensive.

At this stage, if you still can't keep up with your basic knowledge, it is absolutely impossible. Because at this time, your competitors are not like undergraduates. Most of them are students who have never studied art design. Most of the students who compete with you for the offer are those who have four years of professional foundation in art design.

If you decide to change your major to apply for a master's degree, especially if your major span is very large, such as business major change. Then we must make a good plan. The earlier we start to prepare, the greater the advantage will be. First consolidate the foundation, then optimize and upgrade your own collection of works.

When you have enough time to prepare, you will have more confidence to enter Dream School. Because this will become your professional advantage. The stronger your basic ability is, the higher the degree of completion and presentation of good ideas will be.

Overseas art colleges and universities attach importance to students' creativity and inspiration, but also to their foundation. For example, many art colleges and universities will regard the first year of their undergraduate students as the foundation year, and students will learn some courses such as painting foundation, aesthetics, and art history. Let students understand their own professional interests, form their own aesthetic concepts and cognitive systems, and gain their own style while improving their foundation.

Even if it is a master's degree, the school will not give up the basic courses, but most of the basic courses at this stage are integrated with professional content. These basic courses may be boring and may seem to consume a lot of time and energy, but they can help you shape and cultivate your creative awareness and ideas, as well as your cognition and understanding of comprehensive aesthetics and design thinking.

The basic teaching concept of natural light for students is the teaching standard of foreign universities, which focuses on cultivating students' independence and deep expression ability and consciousness in basic courses, and thinking with creative and analytical thinking. Let students acquire aesthetic and artistic cognitive systems, understand their own ideas and directions, and explore their own interests while improving their basic abilities.

In particular, overseas colleges and universities attach great importance to students' independent creation and practical ability, as well as independent thinking design thinking and creative logic, critical thinking, independent creation awareness, personal style, etc., which all need correct guidance and education in the early stage to lay a good foundation.

Today, we interviewed the teacher Bao of the Natural Light Fashion Design Department. She shared her experience of changing majors with us, and also talked about the creation, application advantages and future employment direction of fashion design brought by changing professional backgrounds. Changing majors is not an impossible choice, nor an absolute disadvantage step. On the contrary, sometimes, On the contrary, changing your major will become your application advantage, bringing you more interesting possibilities for creativity and expression. However, whether you choose to change your major or not, we all hope that this is your deliberate decision. After all, as teacher Bao said, any major may not be as bright as it shows, and they all need your efforts.

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