Things you learn the first week of fashion school:
1) From your neighbor to your dentist, everyone will ask you if you are going there to be a designer.. I wish I could yell at people that ask me this question. The fashion industry is a BILLION dollar industry, there is a lot more to it then just designing. FIT offers other majors, not fashion related, like fragrance, toy design, graphic design, and entrepreneurship.
2) You may think that you are eccentric and edgy, but in reality you are probably not. I used to think I had an edgy streak with my all black, combat boots, or leather jacket. This is nothing compared to what you will see around campus. Colored hair, piercing, ripped clothes, and prints are casual. This means you must step up your game when going to class. Everyone will silently judge your look as if the classroom is a runway.
3) You can usually tell which major a person is in. The trend for designers now is to look homeless and grungy. The business majors are usually a bit more conservative. Of course there's exceptions to every rule!
3) It seems as though the entire school is from somewhere in NY or another country. It almost feels like I am the only one from NJ! I know this is false but every person I've introduced myself to is from NY. Also, they have a lot of foreigners at the school and there are several people in my class that I can't pronounce their names. I found this quite surprising but we are at the Harvard of Fashion.
3) This will not be your "normal" college experience. The cliche of dorms, hookups, tons of boys, and parties is not entirely what you will be getting. The majority of the boys are gay so hooking up is usually out of the equation. I was ecstatic to see that I had five, yes five (I wish I could make this more dramatic) guys in my class. Also, the majority of the students commute so dorming isn't the same experience as living with your entire school. Having a city dorm is much different then being in the suburbs. There doesn't seem to be any parties at the school, you have the entire city at your disposal. If you want your college experience to be straight out of a movie, fashion school is not the place to go.
5) Everyone knows someone that went to the school. This usually involves some awkward "oh really" chit chat. I know that FIT offers pre-college classes, non-credit classes, seminars, and a one year program. We are a 2+2 year school which means you have to reapply for your bachelors. When someone says they want there, take it with a grain of salt. You never know if they want for a BA/BS, AAS, or just a pre-college/ seminar course.
6) If you think you are going to a fashion school to just study fashion, you are very wrong. You are required to take a certain amount of liberal classes in order to graduate. These consist of English, Social Science, Math, Art History, Science, and Gym. Along with knowing how to drape, draw, buy, you will go back to your high school ways of learning statistics or psych. I was not to fond of this at first. Once you break down the industry, there's a whole lot of numbers that go into that final garment that you see on the shelf.
7) You must have a passion for your major, fashion, and trends. FIT is actually very hard to get into and every student accepted should live for this industry. There's no point in going to this school unless you breathe fashion or art. In a way, only the strong survive this school. There a lot of people that go to this school because they like to sew or like to shop. However, most of these people never actually graduate because they can't handle the pressure. This is a school that prepares you for this cut throat industry and it takes a thick skin to make it out alive.
