a bit has changed in the last twenty years, he forgot the guy that does "street art" and flunks out in the first six minutes.
...and the guy that spent a few years making his own life (somewhat poorly, because he didn't "need" to go to school, he could make it on his own!) so he's given up chelsea in exchange for being the only twenty-five-year-old in the freshman class (and still finds a way to underperform).
also i think the level of competition has made the critique end a little more hilarious (but still more instructional). at least in my classes, group critiques have a one crying student minimum (even in the electives where there aren't any freshman....well, except me). Most people come away really pissed off but really inspired (in the "i'll show him! I'm the greatest artist in the universe! I just need to practice..." sorta way). Also the idea of the bullshit assignments isn't true of freshman year - maybe we'll earn that right later, but if you haven't bled on a project (figuratively) by the time it's done, you'll be sliding your way through with a C (or fail - we've lost this year maybe two or three from every class of 18).
electives makes me think, since we're on the topic of people looking to art schools - do not overload your credits without reason. 31 hours of class each week is a lot when half of your work (and all of your writing) is outside the studio. it's doable, and people have their reasons (they don't mind getting C's in 8 classes instead of A's in 6, they are trying to save a semester of tuition, or, like me, they are in a double-degree program and need to work on two separate theses at the same time and want to have an easier schedule senior year).
on the note of double-degree programs, i highly recommend the one I'm in at the moment as long as you can hack it (BA+BFA between parsons and lang), if for no other reason than that you have a wider range of opinions to draw on by going to two colleges and the additional skills (writing, WRITING) will help in the long run.
one last thing - IF YOU CANNOT WRITE, LEARN NOW!!!
College courses (yes, even studio art!) FAIL poorly written or conceptualized pieces. Perfect spelling/grammar is implied, as well as competent use of language and structural clarity. You'll also need to be at least interesting if not profound in your ideas - paraphrasing the textbook for five pages gets C's. You'll be writing at least 2 short (2-4 page) papers a week (i write a few more because of my liberal arts courses) and at least a dozen longer papers (8-12 pages) throughout the time. From what I hear of years beyond freshman, it doesn't slow down much either. If you have experience writing or are actively trying to gain it these assignments go nicely, but for some reason most people coming here weren't expecting that (and a lot of people get C's or fail each paper). The upside of these is that they actually help (in my opinion) a lot in that they require to student to become knowledgeable (to an extent) about the subject (and the professors are knowledgeable, for the most part, so don't expect to fudge anything like you might have in high school). In New York, papers also require the students to visit dozens of galleries they might not otherwise have gone to (ok, so the ideal student doesn't need to be told where to go or why they should, but the other 99% of people benefit from a little "positive stress".)
as a PS, I had to lol at the model thing. I've never been to a school (URI, RISD, Parsons, CCA) that had attarctive models on a regular basis (there have been exceptions, but typically the description is "a really interesting form". It doesn't matter because anybody who's done nude studies knows that it's completely clinical (even on the odd change that you get a looker, and those are usually men anyway), but on occasion you get handed someone really grotesque (women in excess of four hundred pounds that need to, when reclining, ensure that their breasts do not fall over their shoulder).
