Hi, I’m a junior in high school and my top school (so far) is Vassar. I haven’t applied anywhere yet, but I’m interested in majoring in something biology related. I don’t necessarily want to minor in Studio Art, but I definitely want to have good/challenging classes available to take. I know Vassar has an art department, but when I visited, my tour guide said there were three separate buildings for it (?) and when my mom and I tried to find them, we could BARELY figure out where they were, and when we eventually found one of them (IN the security building??) we couldn’t find any way inside, much less a front door.
Everything about Vassar is pretty much perfect, and I would really hate for the art program to be a major downside. Is there anyone who can tell me more about the art department at Vassar, either a current or former student? How challenging were the classes? Is the department disappointing, like it seemed on the tour, or should I not judge a book by its cover? Please help!!
@kalive7 Hamilton has stunning new arts facilities, and on the accepted students day we were very impressed by the warmth of the head of the program, the students, and the work. (Both of D’s parents went to RISD, so we are hard to impress in this arena).
We toured Vassar twice and never saw the arts facilities, and to me that says something about how important that program is to the institutional priorities of the school. I get the feeling Vassar is trying to move away from its arty image to be more mainstream, vs Hamilton which is moving artier. Wesleyan has lovely architecture for the arts buildings but we never went inside on our tour, D didn’t like the vibe enough to explore off the beaten track.
Vassar is a gorgeous campus, however!
@4junior Hmm, interesting… I’ll definitely take a look at both Hamilton and Wesleyan. Thank you!
Vassar indeed has art studios inside the same building as the security building. They are surprisingly spacious and get good light. The entrance is on the side of the building near the dumpster 
I know because my son used to TA an independent art school summer program and they rented the facilities.
The museum has a separate life apart from the art department.
If you are looking for an art school quality education, it will be difficult to find at any LAC. If you are only looking to minor in art, it won’t dominate your search. My son had a similar challenge and ended up with a list that looked roughly like this: RISD/Brown, WashU, Yale, Swarthmore (there’s an incredible painter there), Williams, Amherst, Carnegie Mellon, Skidmore (really liked the art department), and was trying to feel out Wesleyan. Often schools do senior shows and the work may be photographed and put online.
You can count up the profs who teach studio art, look at their work, get an idea of how many and which classes actually run each year, and figure out if there would be enough to keep you challenged. I would even focus on faculty more than facilities,
As it happens, schools along the Hudson – Vassar, Skidmore, Bard, Sarah Lawrence – tend to be strong in studio art, but so are others such as Willams, Brown, Hamilton, Kenyon, Wheaton (MA) and Scripps. I’d encourage you to explore widely, even if your exploration might lead you back to Vassar.
@momcinco Thank you SO much. I actually have a similar college list, and I know how good Skidmore’s art program is because my sister goes there! I’ll definitely look up some of Vassar’s art professors to get a sense of the opportunities available for me there.