<p>Hi. This is my first post (anywhere ever) so please forgive me if I'm doing it incorrectly. I wanted to know if anyone can tell me about studio arts at Boston University. My son is interested in majoring in painting. He thought BU had a good program, but I'm having trouble finding information. Can anyone help? Thank you!</p>
<p>Admittedly, people have to take rankings with some further investigation and probably some cynicism.</p>
<p>That said, I have never seen any ranking of fine art programs mention Boston University.</p>
<p>If you are interested in a college program that has a strong artistic reputation, you might want to consider Wash U St. Louis, Syracuse University and a number of liberal arts colleges such as Williams, Skidmore, Alfred University etc., all of whom have good reputation in the arts.</p>
<p>Obviously there are some stand alone art schools that have strong reputations in painting such as SAIC in Chicago, RISD, MICA,and I am sure others as well.</p>
<p>You might also want to consider studying at an Atlier center. These are usually headed by a "master painter" who works with assistants to help develop their work. They specialize in classical, detailed painting as you woud expect to see from Michaelangelo and others. The URL that you would need to find the Atlier programs is :<a href="http://www.artrenewal.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.artrenewal.org/</a></p>
<p>I'm sure other posters. can lead you into other good programs. Good luck</p>
<p>Thank you taxguy for your reply. We're trying to finalize the list of schools to apply to, and the fact that no one had heard about the art department there gave me pause. I've read a lot of your posts, they're always so informative. It's very generous of you to share so much of what you've learned with all of us out here. My son is also now talking about applying to Pratt-- I remember you said something about it literally falling apart. I wonder if it's improved any?</p>
<p>Lori, go to Pratt University threads. I have writen a lot about my visits there.I have heard that they have improved the condition of their facilities. I guess you would have to investigate it for yourself.</p>
<p>Yes, I'll investigate that. Thanks again!</p>
<p>I'm using BU as a safety for my grad school applications (graphic design). If he is a motivated kid and the curriculum suits him, there's no reason he can't be successful there. It will just take a bit more effort on his part to make the connections that help you succeed in the art world.</p>
<p>This was on my son's list, so we looked at it pretty carefully. We were impressed by the quality of student work. Facilities were old, but functional. I have no idea how it's rated, but my clear sense was that it was a major player as a university based art school.</p>
<p>My daughter also visited BU and considered applying. She was turned off by the facilities. Also we had a kind of funny session in the admissions office in which the speaker was describing to a fairly large group of students and parents what sort of preparation students should have in high school. One of her points was that if you want to be admitted to BU, when you make your choices of elective courses in high school you should always choose a science or other core course over a course in theater or art. Ummmm. There were were SEVERAL prospies in the audience who are visiting BU because of their theater and art! And the dictum that they should always choose some other core course over theater or art was a turnoff, and also seemed to be saying that the admissions office itself wasn't tuned in to what some of the more attractive programs (in this otherwise pretty mediocre university) are.</p>
<p>So . . . my daughter and a friend of hers who was visiting with us to look into the theater program both scratched BU off the list.</p>
<p>This is really interesting. My son visited, but without me, and said he liked the students' work at BU better than UMass, but that was about all the info I got out of him. Thanks, everyone, for helping.</p>