Faculty quality is one of the most important and most difficult factors to evaluate when comparing art schools. This RISD vs Parsons vs CalArts faculty comparison examines what each school’s faculty model looks like, what kinds of practitioners teach at each institution, and how to think about faculty as a factor in choosing where to study.
관련 글: RISD vs Parsons vs CalArts 비교 · 미국 미대 합격률 완전 가이드 · RISD 포트폴리오 완전 가이드
What Makes Art School Faculty Excellent
Before comparing faculty at specific schools, it is worth establishing what excellent art school faculty actually means. In the context of studio art and design education, the most valuable faculty are those who are actively engaged in their own creative practice — making work, showing it, building careers — while simultaneously being skilled teachers and mentors. Faculty who have retired into teaching without maintaining active practices tend to be less useful to developing artists and designers than those who are currently navigating the same creative challenges their students face.
Key Insight: CalArts
California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is unlike any other art school. Founded by Walt Disney, it maintains deep connections to animation, film, and performance while remaining a serious fine arts institution. The school values innovation, experimentation, and cross-disciplinary thinking above all traditional academic benchmarks.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What is CalArts actually like as a school?
California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is one of the most unique educational environments in the world. Founded by Walt Disney in 1961, it brought together artists across every discipline—visual arts, music, dance, film, theater, and creative writing—under one experimental roof in Valencia, California. CalArts is deliberately anti-hierarchical: no formal grades in most programs (Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory), student-designed curricula, and radical interdisciplinary mixing. It’s intense, unconventional, and not suitable for every student.
Q2. Is CalArts worth the high tuition cost?
For the right student—someone who thrives in experimental, self-directed environments—CalArts provides unmatched creative freedom and exceptional faculty connections to LA’s entertainment and contemporary art industries. The program’s value depends entirely on what you do with the freedom it offers. Students who need external structure often struggle. The $55,000+ annual tuition is justified by CalArts’ career outcomes in animation, film, performance, and contemporary art, but requires genuine self-motivation to realize.
Q3. What programs is CalArts strongest in?
CalArts is internationally recognized for its Character Animation program (produced directors of Finding Nemo, Big Hero 6, and numerous other major films), its Experimental Animation program, and its Film/Video program. The Art program (painting, drawing, sculpture) is highly regarded in the contemporary art world. Music (primarily contemporary/experimental) and Theater programs are also strong. For Korean students interested in animation or experimental film, CalArts is simply the best option in the world.
Q4. How competitive is CalArts admission?
CalArts’ overall acceptance rate is approximately 25-30%, but competition varies significantly by program. Character Animation is among the most competitive in the world—acceptance rates below 5-10%—with applicants from across the globe. Fine Arts and Experimental Animation are also highly selective. Music programs vary by instrument and specialization. The portfolio review is paramount: CalArts wants to see authentic creative vision and artistic risk-taking, not polished technical execution or work that mimics existing styles.
Q5. What should I put in a CalArts portfolio?
CalArts portfolios should demonstrate: authentic personal creative vision; willingness to experiment and take risks; evidence of genuine artistic development over time; and for animation, the CalArts Animation Test (a short drawn piece). Character Animation applicants need to show life drawing ability alongside character work. Fine Arts portfolios should reveal a developing conceptual practice. Avoid submitting technically polished but conceptually safe work—CalArts literally asks you to submit ‘your most experimental work.’
Q6. What is CalArts’ campus and community like?
CalArts’ campus in Valencia (40 minutes north of LA) is a deliberately isolated creative campus—studios, performance spaces, galleries, and dormitories in a single complex. The community is intensely interdisciplinary: animation students collaborate with musicians, visual artists perform with theater directors, and filmmakers work with dancers. The isolation creates intense creative focus but can feel claustrophobic. Most students live on or near campus. LA’s art scene, studios, and galleries are accessible on weekends.
Q7. What career outcomes do CalArts graduates achieve?
CalArts animation alumni have directed or led major films at Pixar, Disney, DreamWorks, and Illumination—the school’s influence on mainstream American animation is unmatched. Fine arts graduates include major contemporary gallery artists shown internationally. Experimental film and video graduates work in museum and gallery contexts globally. Music graduates perform at major venues and with leading ensembles. For Korean students, CalArts’ connections to global animation studios provide direct pathways to careers at studios with Korean operations or co-productions.
Q8. How does the ‘no grades’ culture at CalArts affect students?
CalArts’ alternative grading system (Satisfactory/No Credit in most programs) encourages creative risk-taking without fear of grade-based consequences. Students are evaluated through in-depth critiques, faculty reviews, and studio conversations rather than tests or quantitative measures. This system is highly effective for students who are internally motivated. Students accustomed to grade-based achievement metrics (common in Korean educational culture) often experience initial disorientation but many report that the freedom ultimately produces their best work.
Q9. What financial aid is available at CalArts?
CalArts offers merit scholarships ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 per year. The school provides need-based aid to domestic students and merit aid to both domestic and international applicants. Total annual cost (tuition + room/board) exceeds $70,000. CalArts’ financial aid office has a reputation for working creatively with students who demonstrate genuine need and exceptional talent. Korean international students should apply for the maximum scholarship amount and investigate external funding from Korean cultural arts organizations.
Q10. What should Korean students know before applying to CalArts?
CalArts is a genuinely unconventional educational experience that will challenge everything Korean students have learned about what ‘success’ looks like in education. The lack of grades, intense peer critique, and expectation of continuous creative output in a self-directed context is very different from Korean educational norms. Students who thrive are those who can embrace uncertainty and genuine creative experimentation. Korean students interested in animation have the additional advantage of strong drawing fundamentals from Korean art preparation programs—the CalArts Animation Test rewards this foundation.
Each of the three schools in this comparison has developed a faculty model that reflects its institutional identity. Understanding those models is more useful than trying to rank faculty quality abstractly.
RISD Faculty: Practitioners with Institutional Roots
RISD’s faculty model combines established artists and designers with long-term institutional commitments alongside visiting practitioners who bring current industry perspective. Many RISD faculty have taught at the school for years or decades, developing deep knowledge of the curriculum and student community. This continuity produces a stable, experienced teaching environment that students can rely on across their four years.
RISD faculty are typically working practitioners — showing work in galleries, maintaining design practices, publishing — alongside their teaching. The school’s emphasis on craft and material knowledge is reflected in faculty who have developed deep expertise in specific disciplines. Critics at RISD include visiting practitioners who provide current industry perspective to supplement the core faculty’s institutional knowledge.
Parsons Faculty: Industry Professionals in New York
Parsons’s faculty model is explicitly professional — the school prioritizes hiring working professionals rather than primarily academic practitioners. In design disciplines, this means faculty who are currently employed or recently employed in the New York design industry: working graphic designers, fashion industry professionals, UX designers, and related practitioners. In fine arts, faculty tend to be artists who are actively showing work and participating in the New York art world.
The advantage of this model is currency: Parsons faculty bring knowledge of what the current industry values, what skills are in demand, and how professional practice actually works in New York. The limitation is that professional practitioners are not always the best teachers — industry expertise does not automatically translate into pedagogical skill.
CalArts Faculty: Independent Artists with Strong Practices
CalArts’s faculty model is the most distinctive of the three. The school specifically recruits artists and designers whose own practices are genuinely experimental and independent — people who have built careers as artists rather than as designers or academics. Many CalArts faculty have international reputations as artists in their own right, and the school’s culture values this independence explicitly.
The CalArts faculty relationship with students is also distinctive: faculty at CalArts are more explicitly mentors and creative interlocutors than instructors of specific skills. The school’s self-directed model means that faculty spend more time in sustained one-on-one engagement with students than in structured instruction.
RISD vs Parsons vs CalArts Faculty: Comparison
| Factor | RISD | Parsons | CalArts |
| Faculty Model | Stable practitioners + institutional depth | Industry professionals in NYC | Independent artists + mentors |
| Teaching Style | Studio instruction + critique | Professional training + industry critique | Mentorship + creative dialogue |
| Practice Type | Working artists + designers | Industry professionals | Independent experimental artists |
| Visiting Critics | Significant visiting program | Active visiting program | Strong visiting artist program |
| Continuity | High — long-term faculty | Mixed — some turnover | Moderate |
| Best For | Craft, material disciplines | Professional design practice | Experimental, self-directed work |
How Faculty Should Factor into Your Decision
Rather than trying to determine which school has the best faculty in the abstract, Korean students should research the specific faculty in their intended department at each school. Most art schools publish faculty lists with bios and links to their practices. A student considering RISD Graphic Design should look at the faculty roster, read their bios, and look at their work — the same for Parsons Communication Design and CalArts Graphic Design.
The faculty whose work and approach most resonates with your own creative direction is a stronger signal than any general ranking. Royal Blue helps students research faculty as part of the school selection process.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can students request specific faculty as advisors at these schools?
The degree to which students can choose or request specific faculty advisors varies by school and program. CalArts’s mentorship model provides more direct student choice in faculty relationships. RISD and Parsons typically assign students to faculty based on program structure, with some ability to seek out specific faculty for critiques and independent study.
Does having famous faculty improve student outcomes?
Faculty fame does not automatically translate into teaching effectiveness. Some of the most celebrated artists are not the most useful teachers. What matters for student development is the quality of the pedagogical relationship — how well a faculty member can identify what a student needs and provide appropriate guidance. The most useful faculty are not always the most famous.
How do visiting critics contribute to faculty quality?
All three schools run active visiting critic programs that bring additional practitioners into the studio for reviews and critiques. These visits provide exposure to current practice and diverse perspectives that complement the core faculty. For students, visiting critics are opportunities to connect with practitioners outside the regular faculty.
Which school has the most internationally recognized faculty?
CalArts has the highest proportion of faculty with significant international reputations as independent artists. Yale MFA would be the strongest comparison point if prestige of faculty reputation is the primary criterion. Among RISD, Parsons, and CalArts, CalArts’s faculty have the most consistent independent artist reputation.
Should Korean students consider faculty when choosing between these schools?
Yes — but specifically, not generally. Research the faculty in your specific intended department, not the school’s overall reputation. The faculty you will actually work with in your specific program is what matters, not the average quality of the entire faculty roster.
Royal Blue Art & Design is a US art school admissions academy in Apgujeong, Seoul, with 19 years of experience helping Korean students gain acceptance to RISD, Parsons, CalArts, and other top programs. Contact us → royalblue-art.com
로얄블루 유학미술학원은 20년 이상 미국 명문 미대 입시를 전문으로 해온 최고의 유학 미술 전문 기관입니다. RISD, Parsons, ArtCenter, SVA, CalArts 등 미국 Top 30 미대에 매년 다수의 합격생을 배출하고 있으며, 강사진은 모두 미국 명문 미대를 직접 졸업한 전문가들로 구성되어 있습니다. 학생 한 명 한 명의 개성과 잠재력을 파악하여 맞춤형 포트폴리오 전략을 수립하고, 포트폴리오 제작부터 지원서 작성까지 합격에 필요한 모든 과정을 종합적으로 지원합니다. 지금 상담 신청하시면 무료로 맞춤 로드맵을 받으실 수 있습니다.
합격을 결정짓는 요소는 단 하나가 아닙니다. 포트폴리오 완성도, 아티스트 스테이트먼트의 설득력, 에세이의 진정성, 추천서의 신뢰도 이 모든 요소가 유기적으로 연결되어야 합니다. 로얄블루는 이 모든 요소를 종합적으로 관리하고 최적화하는 시스템을 갖추고 있습니다. 각 학교의 심사 기준과 선호 스타일을 분석하여 맞춤형 전략을 수립하고, 학생이 가장 강력한 지원자로 보일 수 있도록 모든 요소를 정밀하게 조율합니다. 단순히 포트폴리오를 만드는 것이 아니라, 합격을 설계하는 것이 로얄블루의 접근 방식입니다. 지금 상담을 신청하시고 로얄블루의 체계적인 합격 설계 시스템을 직접 경험해보세요.