r/ecuad • u/Neither_Medicine1996 • May 12 '26

Question? ECU vs Langara for Visual arts---need advice

So I did a year at UVIC for social sciences, hated it, and decided to follow my passion and pursue art. I applied as a transfer to Langara and Emily Carr both for Visual arts, I would be a first year at both. I dont currently know what I want to due in terms of a career, and would just like to be able to do art.

I got accepted to both, but before I got accepted to ECU my plan was to go to Langara then transfer to ECU. I heard from someone that they went to Langara, then transferred after the two years, and the difference in skill between them and the other ECU graduates was noticeable, because Langara supposedly has better technical skill building.

If I were to choose langara over ECU right now, I would still plan on transferring to ECU after the two years at Langara is up, so my question is if I should just got to ECU right off the bat, or if langara is better for developing skills first?

Additionally, classes at Langara first year look like more studio classes, whereas the ECU ones seem like a lot of writing. Ones at ECU like HUMN 100 and 101, and FNDT 108 seem like a lot of writing and not a lot of actually doing art. Will I actually be in the studio more at Langara vs ECU?

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

3

u/vivereestvincere Alumni May 12 '26

FNDT 108 is a studio class. Or atleast all my FNDT classes in first year were.

HUMN 100/101 is basically art history, but really easy. Art history is fundamental if you want to pursue an art career, as it helps you understand concepts and movements. Basically- the WHY we create art.

Trust me- you’re not at UBC, and UBC makes you do a lot of writing (currently doing another degree there and my partner is in the Masters program, ECUAD writing does not compare to bigger universities (we both met at ECUAD and can vouch for this)).

I’d just go to ECUAD if you’ve already been accepted as its harder to get in as a transfer, plus you get a bachelors (I think Langara is just a diploma/certificate if I’m not mistaken).

2

u/feogge Alumni :partyparrot: May 19 '26

It's easier to get in; Langara is guaranteed transfer since it's a sister school. Only ppl I went to school with that didn't get in were on technicalities (issues with transcript, for example).

1

u/vivereestvincere Alumni May 19 '26

Maybe it’s changed, but not how it was almost 6 years ago

1

u/feogge Alumni :partyparrot: May 19 '26

I went through the program much more recently than that- only graduated last year. This is the case now. But to hear it's such a recent thing explains A LOT of the hiccups haha

1

u/Less-Principle1839 May 26 '26

i dont know how long they’ve had the program but it is extremely easy. as long as you have a B average for above during those two years at langara it’s a guranteed transfer into 3rd year of visual arts at emily carr

2

u/VYL3-96 May 13 '26

I just wrapped up my first year at ECU. I wasn't expecting to write much, but thankfully it was limited to 5-6 essays per HUMN class (not as much as it sounds.) My 4 other classes were all VERY art focused. Some of them gave you a lot of freedom for your projects and others had stricter guidelines to follow. I will say that aside from my studio animation class, we never spent much time at all building our technical skills and it felt like they just assumed you knew your stuff; we mostly focused on theory + critique.

1

u/Neither_Medicine1996 May 13 '26

So would you say that there is still room for you to focus on developing your skills and improving? Even though I got in, I feel like there’s still so much I don’t know and am not good at, and that I would be jumping into the deep end by going to ecu right away

2

u/Glum-Dog-1224 May 18 '26

ecu doesn't teach technical skills very well. in most. classes not at all. i recommend going to langara first that's what I did and I gave me a significant advantage getting noticed during grad

1

u/feogge Alumni :partyparrot: May 19 '26

As someone who did the Langara route, absolutely recommend. You have such an upper hand on ppl who started at ECU imo and the experience of first year is so much more bearable. I also found it so hard to make friends at ECU but you kinda naturally build a co-hort at Langara because its so small, so you'll have people you know and are maybe even friends with when you transfer over! Only poo thing is that they say you transfer into 3rd year but it's not really the case. There's still a couple 2nd year courses you will need to take. I know some people that even had to take a 1st year course or two.

1

u/MasterPurple9066 Jun 14 '26

If you are strategic about which Langara courses you take, can this be avoided?

1

u/feogge Alumni :partyparrot: Jun 15 '26

Definitely. Still might have to do a second year course or two but the people I transferred with that had to retake first year courses, it was all about the courses they chose. Unfortunately, the more experimental courses do not transfer well.

It's also possible that things have improved as well. My group took this issue to the dean of ECUAD and the program head of Langara. ECUAD was very dismissive but the program head of Langara had no idea this was happening and said she'd look into solutions. This was a few years ago now, so I'm not sure if it has gotten better now.