<p>What schools have good art history programs?? I'm not really sure how to start looking =</p>
<p>cimmoresque, for art history I'd recommend the following:</p>
<p>LACs: Williams, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Skidmore, Conn College, Vassar, Kenyon. If female, Smith and Bryn Mawr.</p>
<p>Ivies: Brown, Yale</p>
<p>Big Univerisities: Most large schools have decent art history programs. I would mention University of Michigan, but there are many others.</p>
<p>To research an art history department some of the things you can do are to look for museums on or near campus, peruse the course catalog to see what they offer each semester, compare number of faculty and number of majors. A good art studio department often goes hand in hand with art history so you could look at that area as well.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info! I'm glad three of the schools I'm looking into are on there. do you know if UVA has a decent art history program?</p>
<p>I'll try to keep that method in mind when I'm researching colleges =]</p>
<p>cimmor, I don't know anything about UVA's progam, but since it's an otherwise excellent school it wouldn't surprise me if it was strong in art history as well.</p>
<p>Which three are your choices? I'd like to put in a special plug for Williams -- one of the best, probably THE best, art history programs in the country. So many of the curators and directors of major museums are Williams grads that they call them the Williams mafia. They offer access to three world class museums on or near campus and excellent internship opportunities as well.</p>
<p>Smith & Brown are definite, and I'm looking into Wesleyan at the moment.</p>
<p>I was considering Williams too, but it's incredibly hard to get into and expensive (not that Brown isn't, heh). My grades aren't the best so I might have to leave both Brown and Williams out of my 'final apps' list. </p>
<p>Again, thanks for the information! The stuff about Williams is especially interesting, too.</p>
<p>cimmoresque, you are right that both Brown and Williams are highly selective. They both, however, tend to look at the whole applicant, not just her/his statistics (within a reasonable range, of course).</p>
<p>Also, both, especially Williams, are interested in recruiting kids with talent and achievement in the arts. Tell me more about yourself and I'll try to give you more input.</p>
<p>All of these schools are equally expensive. Will you qualify for need based aid or will you require merit aid as well? This is the FIRST question that you need to answer before you go any further on your list making as many do not offer merit aid.</p>
<p>My GPA is 3.44 uw cumulative right now :/ so it's not <em>awful</em>, but out of range for the average Brown or Williams applicant.</p>
<p>A lot of my extracurriculars point towards the arts - art club, art honor society, and for three years, I went to Institute for the Arts over the summer (a sort of daycamp for performing and visual arts). I'm working on a portfolio too, and so far there's a strong Asian/Indian focus - but my technique isn't amazing or anything, it's just better than average, I'd say. </p>
<p>I doubt I'd qualify for need based aid because my dad makes ~120k a year, but we live in a fairly expensive county so he opted for a prepaid instate plan and doesn't have a lot saved up for out of state.</p>
<p>Cimmoresque, Before you go any further, I’d say you really need to probe further into how you are going to finance your education. This is closely related to where you should apply. First, ask your parents to try one of those on-line financial aid calculators so that you can get an idea of what your family’s EFC might be. Then sit down and have a heart to heart talk: You must have a clear idea of how much your family is willing or able to spend on your education. </p>
<p>If you need merit aid or in-state tuition to make up the balance then don’t focus on schools like Brown, Wesleyan or Williams that only offer need based aid. This just leads to heartache later and is doubly true for Early Decision. Is UVA your in-state school and has your family committed to prepayment? I’m not sure how these programs work, but you need to clearly understand what your family can and will do in the money area.</p>
<p>Brown, Wesleyan and Williams do not offer merit aid, so clear the financial thing up before you even consider them further. </p>
<p>Although your GPA is on the low side for either, it’s not impossibly low. What are your scores and rank?</p>
<p>A strong portfolio is critical. It doesn’t have to be museum quality but should show a variety of media plus creativity.</p>
<p>Are you ethnic Asian/Indian? If yes, then this could be an asset at some schools that have difficulty recruiting and matriculating minorities. Williams, Skidmore, Hamilton, Conn College, Kenyon would fall into this category. Brown and Wesleyan would not.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm going to sit down and have a talk with them within the next week. I definitely won't apply to colleges we can't afford. The biggest problem with colleges is that my parents are willing to shell out money for Brown or another Ivy League, but they're very iffy about LACs. </p>
<p>My SATs were 2040, and I'm retaking them and taking the SAT IIs (US History, Japanese w/Listening, and maybe World History) this fall. My school doesn't rank, which is a plus. </p>
<p>Yeah, I'm Indian. I'm actually surprised that Williams has trouble recruiting a lot of Asians/Indians, though I guess a lot of them are like my parents and prefer the 'big name' Ivy Leagues as opposed to the liberal arts colleges.</p>
<p>Williams gets a high number of Asian/Indian applicants but they often choose to matriculate at urban schools or big name schools. That's why Asians are considered URMs at Williams (and many other remote LACs) while they wouldn't be at urban schools of similar calibre.</p>
<p>LACs, like big universities, are not all created equal. The ones we've been talking about offer good to profoundly good educations and career opportunities-- at least as good as the ivies and in some cases even better. But I think you know that. Convincing your parents may be another story. Good luck and let us know how you do.</p>
<p>definitely check out conn college. awesome department, there is a museum right on the edge of campus, and they also have a museum studies certificate program. conn also loves non-white students!</p>