<p>I mean even for non-state residents, public universities are relatively inexpensive compared to an average dedicated art college. Is the difference in education quality that significant? What's the difference anyway?
It's kinda of a catch-22. You only get decent financial aid from the schools with higher tuition costs, but even then, the net price is still higher in private art schools.</p>
<p>Whether they’re better or not depends on what you’re looking for in your college experience and major. The difference is the types of majors offered, and the rest of the college experience. A public university art department usually (but not always) focuses on fine arts to display rather than commercial art, while an art college usually (but not always) focuses on or offers an assortment of majors in commercial art – a wide range of artistic and often computer-based majors that prepare you to put together a portfolio, and to get a job somewhere in advertising, design, film, tv, special effects, illustration, etc. The other difference is the college experience overall including the people. A major university may have a more gender balanced student body, as art colleges are primarily female; it will have a larger and more diverse student body of people with a wide range of interests and abilities; it may have more school spirit and sports teams and an entire college town feel around it; it will have more alumni to network with; and it will have more options for you to change majors if you decide you don’t like art after all. What an art college can offer you that a big state school may or may not be able to offer you, aside from the range of art majors, is prestige and reputation for art if it is well-known. I would suggest applying to both types of programs, and seeing which is more affordable after the offers come in. Let me add that if you are interested in film specifically, some of the best film programs are at major universities, not art schools.</p>
<p>Thank you. I’m actually planing on graphic design. And yeah I don’t often find it or other specified art majors in a major university. Another thing I often hear is that larger universities are more likely to have a BA degree (as opposed to BFA) which will tend to be more focused on theory than actual practice. I mean I’m not sure about that, but if that’s the case it would be a huge bummer. I’m way more interested in hand-on focused program, than sitting in a lecture hall for two hours listening to a guy talk about colour theory.</p>
<p>My son is a freshman @ Tyler which is part of Temple U. He wanted the ‘university experience’ vs art school and is very happy. His art teacher in h.s. said he could have gotten into RISD or MICA but he chose not to apply to either of those schools. He is in their BFA program and plans to apply for the graphic design major next year. He will need to submit a portfolio then as there are a limited number of spots in that program. (He also needed a strong portfolio just to be admitted to the school.) DS had 3 studio courses this semester - drawing, 2D & 3D, along with an Into to A&D seminar, art history and an english comp class. </p>
<p>You really have to get to know the art department at a state university and need to have a sense of what is needed in an art career.</p>
<p>Not all art departments are created equal. Tyler at Temple has a very strong, high quality art program. Some schools lack resources and tools needed to really learn but call it an art program just the same.</p>
<p>If you tour a private university, you will find industry standard equipment, industry standard computers with industry standard software and tons of studio space.</p>
<p>Then go check out art programs at other colleges and compare.</p>
<p>I agree with #Madaboutx that not all art depts are created equal. DS was told early on that a good rule-of-thumb is to only consider art programs that require a portfolio for admission (many universities do not) which usually indicates a higher caliber program. </p>
<p>I also think it depends on how sure you are of yourself. I went back and fourth on where I should apply and ultimately decided that I’d rather skip college than go to a public school with an art department. It’s not that they’re bad, I just feel like private schools are high caliber (as mom4cw stated) and are full of students who are sure they want to make art their life. </p>
<p>This also applied to me as I am going to major in fiber/textiles. For graphic design I’m not so sure. For all I know the most highly regarded programs could be in public colleges. It all boils down to where you want to spend your time and who you want to be surrounded by.</p>