<p>I am currently a junior in high school that has recently begun the dreaded college search in preparation for next year. I am very strong in the art department and am planning on majoring in animation. I am also strong in other areas, like math, english, and somewhat science. I am unsure as to whether I should attend an art college or a liberal arts college. I've heard that LACs are much more rounded in their education and I would prefer that over a limited education at an arts college. However I feel like many LACs dont have art programs as in depth as to teach animation. I also would really like to study a language, preferably Chinese, and most art colleges probably don't offer language courses. I live in New York and am planning on attending a college in the northeast region. </p>
<p>If anyone has any advice on art colleges vs LACs or on good NE colleges that provide animation courses, that would be great!</p>
<p>This topic gets a bit of attention here, so there are other threads you should research. I think one of them is no more than a week old, but I don’t have it at hand.</p>
<p>The general consensus is that liberal arts schools are a better choice for most students than arts schools. It is also the general consensus that one should major in something other than art and double major or minor in art. </p>
<p>However, everyone is different and you should definitely do more research, OP.</p>
<p>Well, it depends on what you really want to do. Some students are very into their art and intend to make a professional career out of it, and they don’t want the “distraction” of other classes nor are they particularly interested in a “well-rounded” education, so they choose an art school. Other students want to be professional artists but really want to have a more traditional “college experience,” or want a liberal arts education, so they go to a liberal arts college/university.</p>
<p>I’m not sure about any “general consensus,” but I guess I’m the odd woman out - perhaps a few years ago I would’ve said the same, but I don’t necessarily agree that it’s overall better that students should major in something other than art, and then double-major or minor in art. It depends on the student really. Many students claim to loooooove art but really it’s more of a hobby for them, and for them they probably should major in something else. But for students who really want to make it their career - they should major in art, if they want to. Jobs are less determined by major these days and more by skill set, and there’s no reason an art major can’t also do a summer internship and/or work a part-time job and gain experience that puts them in competition for non-art jobs, should they need to pay the bills while trying to find an art job. Many artists work one job and then consult or freelance.</p>
<p>If you have the grades and test scores, you may be interested in the 5-year combined Brown/RISD program (<a href=“http://risd.brown.edu/”>Home | Brown | RISD Dual Degree Program | Brown University). You could study film/animation at RISD and something else at Brown and get a BA and a BFA. You also may be able to design a joint program like this at the New School, which has both an undergraduate liberal arts college and a school of art and design. NYU is also a place where you could potentially do this.</p>
<p>The School of Visual Arts in NYC has a non-degree humanities and sciences program that allows you to get a more well-rounded education while seriously studying art; they do have an animation major.</p>
<p>Good for you OP that you are considering different choices. S is in a similar position – strong student, hoping to double major (math is his other passion). Unfortunately most LACs simply do not offer facilities/faculty comparable to those of an art school so be prepared to be disappointed until you find some LACs that take art more seriously My impression is that full-time art students go to art schools so the pool of possible majors isn’t as big as say, economics. Which leads to a spiral because if there aren’t a lot of majors, there won’t be a lot of staff, which means the department won’t attract many art students, which means the school won’t invest in it etc…</p>
<p>Here are some ideas. These are based on research and also purely personal </p>
<p>Joint BFA and BA programs:
Brown-RISD (mentioned above) extremely competitive
Wash U
Cornell U
Tufts and SMFA
Temple
Carnegie Mellon</p>
<p>Strong art at LACs/small universities
Williams
Kenyon
Skidmore
Connecticut
Wesleyan
Brandeis (post-bachelor program to prepare portfolios for MFA apps)
Manhattanville
Yale (good luck with that)</p>
<p>Occidental students can take classes at Art Center College – animation is big there.</p>
<p>There are good possibilities in the Midwest but we aren’t looking at that area other than Kenyon, Not sure but Macalaster (?) allows cross reg with an art school.</p>
<p>Whatever you do, make a tour of the studios and equipment an absolute must for any school you choose. You wouldn’t believe how crappy some art students have it, esp. compared to the STEM students. Any time you go to a campus, make sure they open the studios and facilities to your inspection. </p>
<p>I knew a few serious art students in HS who wound up at art schools. I have a nephew who graduated from one; he’s now a professional mural painter. I can’t imagine that these folks would have seriously considered LACs or that their career paths would have been the same if they had attended LACs. They are the kind of people who from an early age lived and breathed art, and probably never seriously considered any other calling. It’s almost like a gender orientation. You don’t choose it. You don’t run away from it just because the income is no good. It’s who you are. If you don’t have that kind of single-minded passion and commitment to studio art, you’d probably do better to pick a LAC. </p>
<p>If you’re unable to pay full price (or nearly so) that may also influence your decision. Most art schools -especially RISD- have very little in the way of financial aid. On the other hand, if you have the grades and test scores to get into a good LAC, and have a low EFC, you may qualify for a ton of financial aid. I would highly recommend that you try the Net Price Calculators for a variety of the schools you’re considering and see what results you get.</p>
<p>We went through this with my daughter. We found that if she attended an art school, she’d wind up with over $80,000 in loans. As someone who majored in painting and had my own student loans to pay off, knowing what the job market for a fine artist is like when you graduate, I definitely don’t recommend that!</p>
<p>On the east coast you might also consider a place like Tisch at NYU. That way you can be in a specialized art program that is part of a larger and well rounded school.</p>
<p>A few east coast LACs I can think of offhand that might be good for art are Skidmore, Bard, Hampsire, and Wesleyan (I’m sure there are others, you need to start researching).</p>
<p>I think the first decision you have to make is how important it is to you to major or concentrate in animation. I think you’ll be challenged to find animation offered in a significant way at many small LACs, even ones with strong visual arts departments. </p>
<p>You could look at medium sized universities that offer BFA or BA in visual arts and that have good digital/animation reputations. These would also offer the opportunity to take electives in other disciplines, though the degree of flexibility would vary. Look at CMU, MICA, Tisch. Plus the technical schools – RIT, Worcester, Rensselaer, even MIT.</p>
<p>As mentioned the Brown/RISD combination would suit your needs, but it’s insanely difficult to get into. You could also look at Tufts/SMFA, BU/CDIA, Eugene Lang/Parsons.</p>
<p>Another option would be to choose an LAC with a good art department, get a balanced liberal arts education then get a supplementary 1 or 2 year degree in animation. Momcinco gave you a good list to start with.</p>
<p>A lot depends on your financial situation and your academic credentials. And, to me, the most important consideration is the culture and atmosphere that you envision for your undergraduate years. Do you want to be surrounded by kids who eat/breathe art 24/7 or do you want a mix of intellectual disciplines? It’s a purely personal decision.</p>
I took a lot of art classes as an undergraduate, taught for 15 years at universities and liberal arts colleges, and have taught at RISD for decades more, so I know more about RISD than other schools. Whether or not art school is a good investment, and whether or not it is essential to a career in art or design, I don’t think there is any comparison between the quality of the art instruction at any of the top art schools and that which is available to undergraduates at any liberal arts school or university either, for that matter – most of the acclaimed art programs at universities are for graduate students. RISD and perhaps a dozen other schools offer stellar studio programs with large numbers of highly qualified specialist faculty, extensive technical resources, and a cohort of brilliant artist/designers to work and learn with in rigorous courses. Each school has its own strengths, but even the weakest major programs at these art schools are stronger than their LAC or university counterparts. There are excellent instructors at some non-art schools, and brilliant students, and some have pretty decent facilities to support one or another kind of art instruction, but I don’t know of any that offer all three, much less all three in a dozen or more art or design departments.
And although it gets a lot of publicity, the Brown-RISD dual degree program is not the only way, or even a very good way, to combine first-rate education in art and design with extensive high-quality liberal arts coursework. RISD, like several other top arts schools, has a very substantial Liberal Arts Division that is comparable in quality (though not in scope) with what one would find at a top liberal arts college. Many of its courses are aimed at students who are looking to apply historical, theoretical, and philosophicall knowledge to art practice. RISD’s Art History, English, and Social Science offerings are extensive, and students can “concentrate” (minor) in several liberal arts or hybrid LA/studio subjects; not long ago a RISD English concentrator received a Ph.D. in English Literature. While it is weak on the harder sciences, math, and foreign languages, the sciences are growing slowly at RISD; further, all RISD students can take as many Brown classes as they can fit into their schedules. One need not give up strong liberal arts to study art and design at the highest level – students whose goals are to combine the two should scrutinize the non-arts offerings and the qualifications of the liberal arts faculty at the art schools that interest them and pick the school that seems most likely to provide appropriate liberal arts and art/design courses.
The Brown-RISD Dual Degree program is designed for students who know in high school that for true fulfillment they need something like a full major in both art/design AND a full major experience in a non-art subject such as international relations or computer science. It could be argued that the five-year BRDD program is not so much “the best of both worlds” as it is “both worlds lite,” providing neither a complete and focused art and design education nor a coherent and thorough university major. The students who have come out of the program are as amazing and smart as when they went in, but I don’t think many of them will ever really combine the skills and knowledge from both programs of study. In contrast, there have been many regular RISD students who have put together careers in which they draw upon the skills and knowledge from their liberal arts courses as much as those acquired in studio classes.
On June 30th the SFMA will officially become part of Tufts. Some integration activities have started, but more details are expected to be released after the 30th…
This adds several hundred studio art majors (at the Batchelors, Masters and Honorary Doctoral levels) to the Tufts community.
This should be a good thing, effectively pumping more money into the greater Boston arts community…
I wonder if the new “SFMA at Tufts” will be able to offer more financial aid than the old “stand-alone SFMA”?
Here is the information that has been released so far: