Edan: Prerequisites to the Fashion Design major? There are none; you can take the Summer Live courses (Most high school students do this) and take some courses but I don't believe they help you credit-wise. I have no idea what GCSE certificates are, you should call their admissions office for that one. I'm sure they'll have an instant answer for you. If you're talking about something along the lines of transfer credits; it's very hard to get those credits transfered if you didn't go to a SUNY or a NY community college. Sometimes they'll give it to you sometimes they won't. I've heard many varying stories but since FIT has very different requirements in terms of classes you have to take; 'normal college' classes sometimes fall through the cracks.
Rangerrick14: Home.... test...? I'm not very sure what you're talking about. Art and Design majors not within a certain distance from the school are not required to take the drawing test. (I didn't have to take it but it involves an interview of your portfolio by a current professor and you draw from live models.) On Fashion Design portfolios; I've met a few FD majors that couldn't sew but your portfolio should definitely include sketches and swatches. Lots of FD majors aren't used to the industry-grade sewing machines they have here so you won't be very behind... but you should start learning by yourself if you want to be better prepared.
So_jealous: Actually, I don't remember if they make you take the proficiency tests if you already have transfer credits.
Canada... It's really surprising to me but I do not recall ever meeting a Canadian student; ever. That's really weird... But anyway, I don't have any experience with the FIT job center yet. Most students don't think about that kind of stuff until senior year (2nd year Bachelors) where most of the classes are geared towards internship/job finding. The Job Center and the Job Fairs are all there but it's up to your own iniative. Some professors will push very hard for you and even pull strings to get you a job whereas some professors don't really care about you at all.
That's also one thing everyone should know about FIT. They don't hire professors unless they already have over 15 years of professional experience. (My Photo Media teacher seems to be the only exception because she's definitely fresh out of college and has NO idea what she's doing.) But there's a MAJOR fault to a hiring standard such as FIT's. There are A LOT of 70+ year old professors. Some are literally dying and don't teach you anything. One of my friend's professors goes into the class, tells them to draw and then falls asleep in the back. They can't be fired because they have tenure. A lot of them have been teaching for 40 years.
Now they aren't ALL like that but every student at FIT has had atleast 3 of them. There are some really amazing professors at FIT as well. Many of them also teach at Pratt and Parson's. Even a lot of the models work at Parsons as well. In the end school is what you make of it. If you enjoy it, you'll get a lot out of it. It's just that there's a few terrible professors thrown in the mix. Same goes for getting a job in the field... It takes a lot of effort. But actually I could give you guys a heads up on this. Menswear and Toy Design are supposedly the 'you're garunteed a job after you graduate.' I think there's another major that's like that too. Those two majors are pretty hardcore in terms of work. Basically you won't be able to leave your workspace for the whole semester. I have a few friends in menswear and ALL they talk about outside of school is menswear. Other than that they're at the school working until 3am.
By the way, you'll always see a handful of design students (Particularly Fashion design and Menswear) in the sewing/draping labs working until 3am; at school on holidays and also working for more than 9 hours straight. And this happens even before term garments. (When it's term garment season; people get crazy.)
Anyway hope that helps clear some things up at FIT.
