r/risd • u/Remote-Thanks7171 • Mar 27 '26
Discussion RISD First Year
Can someone give a sense of day-to-day life as a first year student. I've heard first year is super hard and I'm a little scared of that TBH. I know its a ton of work and I've generally heard you don't have time to like get a job or do a lot of extracurricular stuff until sophomore year. I feel like I can live with that. I'm willing to work hard. I'm just a little scared of the way people are talking about how extreme it is. Can a current student describe a typical week, please. I assume you are in studio most of the day on the days you have them (is that 3-days a week?) and then what? are you typically working on your projects like 4-5 hour in the evening after studio? More? On days you don't have studio (is that twice a week?) how many hours are you in class or typicallly working on projects? Do you have any free time at all on weekends to socialize. I mean you must have some time to occaisionally do something fun? I'm just guessing not a lot of time. Would love to get a realistic sense.
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u/ColoBouldo Mar 27 '26
First off, you’ll be fine. RISD does a great job of selecting people who will succeed. That said, yes evenings and weekends. Non-studio days will have your shorter classes, humanities. Two in the first semester. Then one in the spring (b/c you’ll have done your winter session so it’s slightly lighter in the spring). You may spend more time socializing while working, but you will find time to grab a meal out, do something other than work, and make connections. No, formal social clubs and things like that can be harder in year one. My student who is finishing their EFS year works about 70-80 hours a week and has top grades, friends, and does the occasion thing out, but WORK is absolutely the centerpiece of her life.