Profile: Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY

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1 Profile: Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY Background Founded in 1944, the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) was originally one of the first community colleges of the State University of New York (SUNY), authorized to grant the Associate in Applied Science (AAS) in several subjects related to the fashion industry. From 1951 through 1975, the school added degree programs in business, communications and other design subjects including communication design, graphic design, interior design, packaging design and toy design. By 1980, FIT was authorized by the state to grant Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) and Bachelor of Science (BS) degrees as well as master s degrees. Today, FIT educates more than 10,000 students who are enrolled in 44 degree programs. The school also offers pre-college programs for high school students,summer programs for college students and continuing education for working professionals. Although FIT is a relatively young institution, its alumni roster is a who s-who s of noted leaders in the fashion industry as well as design, communications and publishing, among other fields. Fashion alumni include Calvin Klein, Michael Kors, Nanette Lepore and Norma Kamali, among others. Design alumni, outside of fashion include international restaurant designer Tony Chi and Dave Voss, vice president design, boys entertainment, and new business, Mattel, Inc. Media alumni include Nina Garcia, fashion director of Marie Claire, Edward Menisheschi, vice president and publisher, Vanity Fair and James Rothwell, vice president and creative director, McCann Erickson, global advertising agency. While Lifetime s fashion reality show, Project Runway, takes place at the crosstown Parsons School of Design, four FIT alumni: Victor Luna, Joshua McKinley, Austin Scarlett and Daniel Vosovic, have reached the final rounds during different seasons of the competition while one, Kimberly Goldson, came very close to showing a line in the finale in the show s ninth season. While FIT, like most four-year colleges, grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, it stays true to its roots as a two-year college. All entering freshmen, as well as most transfer students, first pursue an associates degree. About 70 percent of those who receive the associates continue on to a bachelors degree program at FIT. The majority of the remaining 30 percent seek employment; they may decide to continue their education part-time or transfer. This appeals to the career-oriented students who come to FIT knowing where they want to go. FIT, unlike most publicly supported schools can be considered a destination school. Students who have planned on careers in fashion before or during high school have their sights set on FIT much like prospective engineers set sights on MIT and future business leaders aim for admission to Wharton.

2 Competition FIT requires all applicants to declare a major when they apply. FIT uses the SUNY system application. Students can apply to other SUNY schools as well. While FIT makes admissions decisions around April 1, students are advised to apply early. Those considered to be at the top of the applicant pool will be notified earlier. FIT, unlike most publicly-supported schools, notifies all applicants by mail. Each design student s chances of admission depend not only on their body of work as shown in their portfolio (for design-related majors) or their academic transcript (for nondesign majors), but also the space available in the major. While about 40 percent of all applicants to FIT are accepted, admission to some majors is far more competitive than others. For example, each year there are around 2,500 applications for 275 seats in the Fashion Design program. The student body, including an entering class, is split almost evenly between the School of Art and Design and the School of Business and Technology. Given the popularity of the degree programs, FIT has an overall yield rate of 64 percent for entering freshmen. For transfers, it is 76 percent. For some majors, including fashion design, the yield may be closer to 100 percent. Even the most selective state universities such as the University of Virginia or the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill have yield rates that approach, but do not exceed, 60 percent. There are several reasons why yield rates are so high says Laura Arbogast, FIT s Director of Admissions. These include the quality of the faculty, their connections with industry, the New York City location, cost and available international programs. In addition, 41 percent of FIT students come from New York City; their best break into the jobs they want and their least-cost option are close to home. In addition, more than a third of FIT students come from outside New York, highest among SUNY schools. Twenty five percent come from other U.S. states while seven to eight percent will be international students. The largest numbers of transfer applicants from outside New York come from the Philadelphia metropolitan area, New Jersey, Florida, Texas and California. Students who apply to FIT often apply to Parsons, Pratt Institute and the School of Visual Arts if they are interested in studying in a design field and attending college in New York City. Other schools that applicants consider include the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising, located in New York s Upper East Side and the University of Texas- Austin. Another competitor, the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising has campuses in Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. The Los Angeles campus was host to the sixth season of Project Runway. Completion FIT has a freshman retention rate of 87 percent for the class that entered in 2009, extremely high considering the rigor of the degree programs. Among the students who entered in the fall of 2004, 63 percent completed their associates degree within three year. Sixty percent of the bachelors degree candidates completed their degree on time. However, FIT is a very difficult school to evaluate on traditional measures. Students who complete an associates degree program must apply to be allowed to continue on towards a bachelors degree in their major. Foundation courses are being modified to

3 allow transfers into more programs, but opportunities to continue an education while changing a major are few at FIT. SUNY mandates that all FIT students fulfill General Education requirements in ten subjects; courses in the first seven: Basic Communication, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Western Civilization and The Arts and Humanities are usually taken at the associates degree level. Completing these courses early should allow a dissatisfied students to accumulate credits to transfer to another SUNY campus. FIT has a 12 percent transfer-out rate, according to College Navigator, the college database managed by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). However, such students will have also accumulated 30 or more credits in a design program or specialized subject where there may not be equivalent courses at other schools. This makes FIT a better choice for the confident student who knows what s/he wants from the school as opposed to someone who is more uncertain. Another factor that affects graduation rates at FIT more than most other schools is that students want to work. Students are more anxious to secure internships early here than at more traditional colleges, says Andrew Cronan, Director of the Career and Internship Center. Most majors require a fourth-semester internship for credit towards the associates degree and nearly all require an internship towards the bachelors. This does not prohibit students from freelancing or working part-time in a career-related fields. Costs FIT is one of the best buys in American higher education for New Yorkers as well as outof-state students. In-state students were asked to pay less than $4,500 in tuition and mandatory fees for the school year, while out-of-state students paid around $12,500, less than Penn State, Rutgers-New Brunswick, Temple and the University of Michigan, among others, charged their in-state students. Tuition and fees for in-state and out-of-state students increased by seven percent, according to the DOE The DOE s College Navigator estimated that in-state students were asked to pay less than $21,000 for all expenses including tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies and other incidentals. Out-of-state students were asked to pay less than $29,000. These prices are extremely low, especially considering the costs of living in New York City, one of the most expensive places to live in the world. Presuming that tuition and mandatory fees increase by seven percent per year, entering in-state students would be expected to pay less than $21,000 total over the next four years. Out-of-state students would be expected to pay around $56,500, still less than the costs of attending Parsons for only one year. However, although FIT is reasonably priced relative to privately-supported art and design schools, and even relative to SUNY campuses outside of New York City, merit-based aid is extremely limited. Presidential Scholarships awarded to honors students carry only a $500 award, says Laura Arbogast, FIT s Director of Admissions, though students are recognized on the diploma as Presidential Scholars while also receiving access to honors-level liberal arts classes and prior registration for classes.t he State of New York is likely to be the major source of financial aid for in-state students through student loans and the tuition aid grant program. FIT reported an endowment of just under $26 million to U.S News for inclusion in their 2012 college guide. This is low

4 for a school that has produced so many successful alumni. However SUNY schools have not, until very recently, been overly aggressive at fundraising. Even with this in mind, FIT is a better value than other educational options. For example, in , the last year DOE data is available, the total costs for attending Parsons, the New School for Design were approximately $54,500. The Average Net Price, tuition and fees, room and board and incidentals less grants and scholarships, for all students was quite close to $35,000, for a discount of 36 percent. The Average Net Price for students from families with incomes between $75,000 and $110,000 was approximately $35,600; for those families with incomes over $110,000 it was approximately $41,800. The costs for attending FIT were lower than they were to attend Parsons for students in all but the lowest income bracket ($0 to $30,000 per year). Another measure of costs is the debt-to-credentials ratio. Developed by Education Sector, a Washington D.C-based non-partisan, non-profit education policy organization, the ratio measures the average amount of debt that a student needed to take on in order to complete their degree. The lower the tuition and fees, the more generous the financial aid programs and the more likely that students will graduate on time, the lower the ratio will be. For FIT this ratio for bachelors degree recipients was just under $8,100 in 2009, the last year data was collected. By comparison, students who graduated from SUNY-Geneseo, the most selective liberal arts college in the SUNY system, had a ratio of around $14,500. Those who graduated from Binghamton University, the most selective research university, had a ratio of around $14,700. The lower charges towards the associates degree had to help to alleviate some of the debt for FIT students. One caveat. While FIT has majors that are extremely unique, including those related to fashion design (this includes accessories, jewelry, menswear and women s wear and fabric styling), fashion production management and cosmetics and fragrances, it also has majors that could be completed within an undergraduate business or communications program (fashion merchandising, advertising and marketing) or an art and design program at another school (graphic design, interior design, packaging design and photography are some examples). Those majors can also be completed at schools, including state colleges and universities, that are more likely to be a least-cost option than FIT. As one example, The Cooper Union, also located in Manhattan, is a privatelysupported institution that offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in the visual arts including film/video, graphic design and photography. The Union also admits each student with a full-tuition scholarship that is valued at $37,500, though students also pay nearly $1,700 in mandatory fees. Curriculum As previously mentioned, FIT asks students to immediately immerse themselves in a specialized degree program, starting at the associates degree level. Associates degree programs can have as many as 71 credits, well beyond the course loads to complete most two-year degrees. In addition to SUNY s mandated liberal arts courses, all students must complete an additional eight to nine credits in the arts, as required by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, of which FIT is a member. One downside is that degree programs run in lockstep; students cannot take a course without completing one or more pre-requisites. Liberal arts courses, some of which have

5 pre-requisites of their own, must be fitted around the lockstep sequence. This severely limits the number of electives available outside of the major. While FIT offers several liberal arts oriented minors it is impossible to carry a double major. And, unlike traditional schools, FIT does not offer First Year Experience courses, small-group seminars organized around topics of interest to faculty members. FIT offers two internship courses, one at the 200 level for associates degree students, the other at the 400 level for students pursuing a bachelors degree. They may take as few as two internship credits and as many as four; the number of credits is tied to the number of hours worked. The 400 level course requires a self-marketing plan as a final presentation, among other career-related assignments. While only two associates degree programs, Production Management and Menswear, require an internship, most students will take one anyway. In past years, Andrew Cronan, the Director of the Career and Internship Center adds, a FIT associates degree holders often convert their internship into a part-time employment opportunity while they pursued their bachelors degree. Thirty eight of the 44 bachelors degree programs have an internship programs that are run through the Career and Internship Center; the other six run programs on their own. Around half of FIT students are likely to complete more than one internship before they graduate, Cronan says. Internship courses are taken very seriously. While a student spends only 12 hours in a class that is associated with the internship, the class work counts for half of the grade. Online evaluations are conducted at the middle of the semester as well as at the end;they represent the balance of the grade. The Career and Internship Center assists students in finding internships, though faculty help as well. The Center s staff also draft and enforce the learning contract between the student, the employer and the school. The contract is intended to protect the student as well as the employer, to help assure that students are not misused or underutilized as well as to define expectations and work products. Instructors, who are usually adjunct faculty with industry experience, work closely with internship supervisors. These classes are mixed by major, with assignments that they will complete on their own as well as working in groups. These courses may be taken in person or online. Enrollments in the online classes are capped at 17 students; the cap is 25 students in the in-person classes. The majority of students who enroll in the internship courses take them in the spring semester. Around 1,000 students will do credit-bearing internships in the spring, says Andrew Cronan. Most classes at FIT have between 20 and 29 students though studios and courses in the majors with smaller enrollments will be more tight knit. No classes have more than 29 students, according to the school s enrollment data. Comforts FIT houses about a quarter of its student body on campus or in Kaufman Hall, an apartment complex about four blocks away. While FIT does not formally guarantee housing beyond the freshmen year, students have a reasonable chance of receiving housing in subsequent years, provided that they turn in their application in a timely manner. FIT does not require students to live on campus, even if they are not originally from New York.

6 Freshmen who live on-campus are assigned to one of three residence halls: Alumni, Coed and Nagler. Nagler, the oldest of the three residence halls, is all-female and a traditional corridor-style building--one bathroom shared off a floor or wing-- with double, triple and quad room arrangements. It is also the only residence hall that lacks air conditioning and mini-refrigerators are not permitted,. Alumni and Co-ed are suite style arrangements; they also have mini-refrigerators. All residence hall rooms are WiFi enabled. Students will usually live in a residence hall for one year then move over to Kaufman, a high-rise apartment-style building with rooftop views of the Hudson River waterfront and the Empire State Building. With approximately 1,500 beds, Kaufman is the second largest single residence hall on any college campus in the country. An older building that was acquired by the school and renovated in 2006, Kaufman has workout space as well as student work space on the lower floors. The workspace has desktop computers preloaded with the software required by the various design programs. Unlike traditional colleges, FIT has no learning communities in the residence halls. The students are already very focused, says Anne Marie Grappo, FIT s Director of Residential Life. Commonalities (meaning career orientation and academic interests) are already there. While commenters on student review sites such as Campus Discovery, Students Review and Unigo say that FIT is a very demanding place and that students are very competitive, they add that they are quite accepting in terms of race and sexual orientation. Students will alert me if a classmate is not well, says Grappo, even if they do not know the person at all. Given the New York City location, as well as an enrollment that is 85 percent female, FIT takes extra steps to help new students become acclimated to the area. The residence life office hosts several programs to help students become more familiar with the city, including, but not limited to, cultural opportunities and the subway system. Unlike most schools which place students as ID checkers at the front desks, FIT posts both security guards and resident assistants. Desktop computers are also placed in the lobbies to help students contact classmates in the residence hall or to check . While FIT provides reasonably-priced and convenient living accommodations in a very expensive neighborhood--rents for studio apartments in Chelsea, where the school is located, can run around $3,000 per month-- students still move away from campus to live elsewhere in Manhattan or the outer boroughs, says Anne Marie Grappo. It is understandable that students might want to explore other neighborhoods. New York is one of the most creative and diverse communities in the world. However, FIT programs involve more than using books and laptops. There are many materials to handle as well. It makes little sense to commute, unless you can live rent free. Community Unlike Parsons, which is scattered across several buildings in Manhattan, FIT is located on a single campus. FIT occupies three blocks bordered by 26th and 28th Streets and 7th and 8th Avenue. The school closes 27th Street to vehicular traffic during the week while school is in session. Benches and tables placed along both sides of 27th Street make the area feel more like a busy urban park than a campus street. Students sit not only on seating but atop or against low-rise walls that front buildings when the weather is nice. Flea markets also take place twice a month. The campus looks and feels quieter

7 than the surrounding neighborhood which is dominated by busy commercial traffic along 7th Avenue and high-rise residences across 8th Avenue. Students can travel practically anywhere from here. The campus is only four blocks from New York s Penn Station and is served by its own subway stop. The #1 line, which runs along 7th Avenue, is one of the busiest in the city. It stops along Fashion Avenue--the stars in the sidewalk appear in the 40s blocks--as well as Brooklyn and the Wall Street area. FIT is the eighth-safest college campus in the country, says Eric Kneubuehl, FIT s Assistant Vice President and Dean of Students for Enrollment Management. The school s security statistics back this up. There were only three sexually-related offenses reported on campus between 2008 and 2010, only two robberies, five burglaries and no drug or liquor law violations that resulted in arrests. In addition, there were only 42 liquor law violations and 14 drug-related violations referred for disciplinary action. The school is installing blue lights on 26th and 28th Streets, adds Kneubuehl. Those streets are less trafficked than 27th Street, though the subway entrance and the entrance to the Continuing Education division are located on 28th Street. FIT has approximately 65 approved student organizations and competes in 14 varsity sports, five for men and nine for women. Fitness facilities on campus are more extensive than expected for a community where only 1,200 residents live on campus everyday. Students may also swim at Chelsea Piers, a nearby recreational facility by the New York waterfront. Fashion merchandising students also operate their own store, the Style Shop, on campus, creating a unique opportunity for students in the major. The campus also hosts New York s only fashion museum and is a popular stop for industry luminaries, alumni and non-alumni alike. Connections FIT has approximately 80,000 alumni, including those who completed continuing education programs as well as degrees. The vast majority of alumni live in the New York area, though the school also has large alumni communities in Seoul and Tokyo. A recent seminar hosted in Tokyo was live-streamed to a reception for alumni in New York as well as to students on campus, says Allison Oldehoff, FIT s Manager of Alumni and Faculty Relations. The New York location makes it easy to gather alumni for on-campus events and networking receptions. Given that five FIT alumni have gone far in the competition in Project Runway, watch party events are also popular.the alumni relations office also sponsors joint panels with the Career and Internship Center. FIT is unique in that its alumni association is independent of its alumni relations office. While they each run their own programs, they also host joint events. The school also hosts an annual gala, an industry-wide event to raise funds for scholarships. The most recent event raised nearly $2 million. FIT s alumni relations office entered quickly into social media when it opened two years ago. In addition to a monthly e-zine, the school s Facebook community has 4,000 members as does its LinkedIn network. FIT alumni also make use of Etsy, a EBay-like site where hand-made designs are auctioned. The alumni office will start making use of Pinterest.com for alumni to display creative work.

8 Prominent alumni attend graduation, says Allison Oldehoff, and will turn student s tassels from left to right to signify that they have successfully completed their degrees. The alumni relations office has also sponsored a De-stress program, offering students massages during finals as well as a reception at the BFA Fashion Show before finals. They also sponsor the senior awards dinner before commencement. Graduating seniors at FIT face a more compressed schedule than their peers at more traditional schools. Their graduation ceremony takes places within a week after they take their last final; traditional schools usually wait at least two weeks and host social events for the students who are about to graduate. In addition to coordinating the previously described internship programs, the Career and Internship Center hosts Fall and Spring Job Fairs for graduating students. The maximum number of employers that can participate is 54, due to space restrictions. There is always a waiting list of employers, says Andrew Cronan, director of the Center. Another 50 employers recruit graduating seniors on campus. More than 3,000 postings for paid positions appear in the school s job board while faculty also work their industry contacts on behalf of their students. While alumni cannot participate in on-campus interviewing after graduation they receive counseling and access to the job board for life. Conclusion FIT is a destination school for students interested in the fashion world though it also has strengths in other design fields, visual arts, advertising and marketing. It is also a rare school that is a least-cost option for New Yorkers and out-of-state students alike. FIT is not a school where a large community of students and alumni bond around nonacademic experiences such as football games or fraternity parties. However, it is a place where students are expected to prepare for their first jobs out of school from the first day they are there. Students accept this of themselves as well as their classmates, making FIT a more collegial and more accepting institution than most traditional colleges and universities. While students also receive a liberal arts education, the primary reason for students choose FIT is the opportunity to work closely with faculty who know their fields and have contacts to help them find internships and jobs. While other schools may also offer some of the majors offered by FIT, the smaller classes and the New York location, combined with the price are very difficult advantages to beat.

9 REPORT CARD: FASHION INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Costs: A 20 points Pluses Extremely reasonable in-state and out-of-state tuition rates Best value for students who want the academics the school has to offer Minuses Merit-based scholarship aid is extremely limited Some of the non-fashion programs may not always be the least-cost option Comforts: B+ 16 points Pluses Freshmen live at the heart of campus Kaufman residential complex is comprehensive and well-located All residence halls are Wi-Fi enabled All residence halls have student workrooms All students who want on-campus housing can usually get it All residence halls have highly visible security Minuses Nagler, the only all-female residence hall has no air conditioning Community: B+ 16 points Pluses Campus community is competitive, but also accepting and cooperative Exceptionally safe, well located campus More things to do in New York than any other major city Administration does a great deal to help students become acclimated Fashion museum on campus Campus is a regular stop for industry luminaries Minuses Hard to bond a greater community when so many students are working Living in New York, outside of campus walls, is extremely expensive Curriculum: A 20 points Pluses If you want a career in fashion, this is where you go Faculty have strong industry ties. Connections and teaching ability are valued over research Other degree programs capitalize on access to creative communities within New York City Internships are highly structured and taken quite seriously by students, faculty, administrators and sponsors

10 Minuses Programs run in lock-step, making it difficult to schedule liberal arts electives The workloads are larger than students will find at most traditional colleges Students must re-apply to continue in programs in their junior and senior years; they don t need to do this at traditional colleges Transfer students must often pursue an associates degree before they can enter a bachelors degree program; accelerated degree programs are exceptionally demanding Connections: A 20 points Pluses Who s-who roster in the fashion industry as well as advertising, media and other design fields Associates level internships often turn into part-time jobs in junior and senior years Numerous industry luminaries come to speak and network with students Students established a shadowing program to complement the internship programs Faculty have strong industry ties, including adjuncts who lead internship courses Alumni relations office makes aggressive use of social media Minuses Alumni association is a dues-charging organization Prominent alumni base only recently contributing to scholarship programs TOTAL SCORE: 92 points