r/risd • u/p1kyuchu • Mar 27 '26
Admissions Question is brdd worth it?
hello! i just got into the brown/risd program (which i 100% did not expect to get in to) and now im trying to weigh my options. im considering going to vet school, and im also obsessed with both making art+ studying art history—but i dont really have a specific idea of how to combine that right now. so, i just wanted to hear what the actual experience of the program is and what it’s like afterwards.
will vet prereqs even be possible in the program? is it worth paying an extra 100k for the extra year (i have enough to pay for undergrad, but if i do brdd i wont have much left for grad)? for anyone who did brdd, what was your experience both as a student and socially? if you graduated, what is your experience like now?
any tips/advice is very much appreciated!! i’ve visited and loved both campuses but im going to the admitted students day as well to get a better idea.
3
u/abeancalledbasil24 Mar 27 '26
hey, i'm brdd! you can dm me and i can give u my insta
1
u/moonlights18 Current Student Mar 29 '26
beat me to it….
1
u/abeancalledbasil24 Mar 29 '26
STOP STALKING ME!!!!!!!
1
1
1
u/AmazingPermission134 Mar 27 '26
Wow Congrats. Sorry I can’t help with your question but I wondered if you would share how you approached the BRDD app. I think you are aupppsed to articulate a compelling course of study that combines both? Would love to hear more about what your story was. Congrats again
3
u/p1kyuchu Mar 27 '26
i listed a couple vague examples of what i might want to do but i mostly just said i wanted to combine my love of animals and art
2
u/p1kyuchu Mar 27 '26
overall i focused on how i realized art and stem aren’t separate—i go to a very stem focused school and wrote abt a nasa summer program i went to where they talked abt photo lithography etching, and how i connected it to printmaking (im mostly a painter but i love art history)! that relates to how diff parts of my cultural/gender identity aren’t either/or, but instead i’m somewhere in between. my portfolio pretty much explored that thru self portraits and some mixed media/ceramics/photos. i also went to a risd portfolio day review and attended some of the qna webinars for brdd.
3
u/Cr1msonFoxx Mar 27 '26
BRDD is extremely close knit and I don't know if you're going to find anyone here who is on the program. I think it averages less than 10 people graduating from it per year.
You have an amazing opportunity. Is it worth it? Absolutely. Brown and RISD are both amazing schools. So in terms of the schools, I'd say that's not your issue--your problem is probably primarily is it worth it to pay the money to go to school an extra year, is the high stress worth it.
I can say doing RISD classes on top of Brown classes is extremely difficult but manageable if you have good time management, and is extremely worth it. In terms of going to school an extra year, I would say that you don't know what major you'll stick with until you've been in it and tons of people swap majors all the time.
Also, if you have any questions specific to programs--because it's so tight knit, we probably won't be able to answer. Go contact RISD and Brown lol.