Art Major

College Majors Visual Arts and Film Majors
1

<p>Im sorry to bring up such an old topic, but I am faced with the same dilemma this junior year. Last year, I posted a thread on my issue, whether I should seek out an art major or not. For those of you who have not read that thread, here is the dilemma:</p>

<p>Since I was young, I have always been passionate about art. Starting art lessons since I has 6 or 7 really improved my technical abilities. Now, art is part of me, Ive won plenty of school awards and even sold paintings to faculty members. </p>

<p>However, I currently attend an elite new england boarding prepatory school, ranked in the top 10 nationally. Here, about 30% of the class goes off to ivy league schools, etc. I also have great grades here in non-art subjects, and the SAT's should not be that big of a problem. I've also got plenty of EC's and volunteering opportunities. With all these opportunities, should I really pursue an art major?</p>

<p>Ive discussed this with many people, and my current idea is to take an art major as an UG, then maybe like an MBA for grad school so that I can expand into design and business. But to me, an art major seems a bit useless, even though I have a burning passion for art. </p>

<p>I researched many schools and posts, and found that many artsy people tend to apply to Yale, Cornell, Brown, or the Brown/RISD dual diploma program. These are all schools I will definitely consider, but are there any others?</p>

<p>It would be great if I could hear the ideas/ past experiences of other people, maybe people who have had a similar problem. Thank you again for your time.</p>

2

<p>luc,</p>

<p>I can see your previous post kind of got hijacked. But there was a very important piece of advice in there. Someone suggested you go visiting the schools you are interested in and check out their art departments. Of course you can apply to the big guns on your list but even someone like you has no guarantee they will be admitted. Especially if so many of your classmates will be applying to the same top schools. It is important that YOU connect to the school you end up at, not that anyone here or any rankings tell you it is the place to be. </p>

<p>There are numerous LAC’s that have been discussed here that have strong programs in art yet will allow you to have a broad enough education to be able to apply to graduate school in business if that ends up being your path: Wesleyan, Williams, Dartmouth, Skidmore, Kenyon, Oberlin, Bard etc.</p>

<p>If you are going to try for RISD/Brown you can take your portfolio to National Portfolio Day this year and get some feedback. RISD is going to care about your stats and EC’s but your portfolio needs to be strong and varied as well.</p>

<p>I forget if you mentioned having attended pre-college at an art school. Since you are a junior why not attend one next summer so that you can test run the immersive art experience to see if you want to go further with it.</p>

<p>Some people have answered you saying that, if you are even asking this question, you shouldn’t major in art. But I will tell you that when my son was a first semester junior I took him and a senior friend up to tour Brown and RISD. The friend’s father wanted him to study science and he is a naturally gifted photographer. I wanted the boy to know about the Brown/RISD program so that he might be able to meet both needs. My son came along because he had never done a college tour and I thought it would be a good experience for him even though he wasn’t even sure what he wanted to study or had given a thought to where he wanted to go. Well, we went on both tours and my son left that day saying he would never go to an art school and that he liked the Brown campus. OK two clues for further research. As the year went on and we explored more schools he thought he might want to explore architecture as an undergraduate. Another clue and we started looking only at schools with Arch. As we discussed his plans it emerged that he didn’t know about the field of industrial design and didn’t know that you could major in it. The summer after junior year he attended Pratt pre-college to explore industrial design. He came out of that program sure that he wanted to study ID. That put a new spin on the search. To make a long story short, we just dropped him off at RISD on Saturday…the very school he proclaimed he would never attend.</p>

<p>The reason I tell you this long story is give you the message that you have soooo much ahead of you these next two years. Not just the hard work you will do in school but more importantly the knowledge of self that will emerge during this time. Trust it…your gut will lead you where you are supposed to be. But put yourself out there so it can find you too. Hope that makes sense.</p>

3

<p>listen to good mama bear drae.
I am the hijacker bear.
I don’t usually check up on kids and haven’t read all of your past posts but I have this nagging feeling you are international? oil tycoon’s prince or something?
If so, I don’t know if you could but try Marie Walsh Sharpe summer program.
junior-senior year summer only, all free if accepted, very technical and brain-sh.
kids done this in the past have gone to prestigious schools, Yale Brown Penn Wes with actually, art as hook.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visual-arts-film-majors/316627-maria-walsh-sharpe-summer-seminar.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visual-arts-film-majors/316627-maria-walsh-sharpe-summer-seminar.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>Other schools to consider:
Carnegie Mellon (School of Art and Design…offers interdisciplinary programs with other schools at CMU if interested)
Stanford
Hampshire (create your own major)
Parsons (Design Management Degree - start off in foundation year immersed in drawing, 2d and 3d then move into the business side of things in the second year)
MCAD offers a BS: [MCAD:</a> Bachelor of Science Degree](<a href=“http://www.mcad.edu/showPage.php?pageID=1081]MCAD:”>http://www.mcad.edu/showPage.php?pageID=1081)</p>

5

<p>D goes to MCAD, but is not in Bachelor of Science Degree. PM me if you want some general info about the school.</p>

6

<p>@drae and @bears thanks for the list of other schools to consider and the wonderful advice. Actually you guess it, I am an international student, but definitely no oil tycoon’s son, but I dont need financial aid. This means its actually really hard for me to visit the National Portfolio day as drae suggested. My only opportunity is this spring break where my dad will pop over and we will visit some schools, but that is about it. </p>

<p>this previous year, I applied to the RISD pre-college program and got in, but instead, I took a trip to China’s expo and created a well documented sketching portfolio of many of the pavilions. I also used the summer for some volunteering/etc. But should I apply again this year? </p>

<p>If I am pursuing art, I will not attend a specialized art university such as RISD (though the brown RISD program would be optimal), MCAD, etc. I will probably enroll in the art department of a larger university. Its mainly because I dont want to limit myself on solely art. </p>

<p>Thanks again guys, more opinions welcome</p>

7

<p>Does your school offer days where they take you for college visits? Some schools like Oberlin (and Kenyon maybe) have weekends where they arrange special flights out of NY and Boston. There are always buses and trains as well.</p>

<p>It sounds like you might want to add WUSTL to your list as well. Maybe Rice and Reed too.</p>

<p>If you can attend RISD this summer it may help clarify for you if you even want to do the Brown/RISD dual degree. You could just do art at Brown and take classes at RISD.</p>

8

<p>Brown/RISD will have a set time that you have on the offer. Some schools leave the offer open for one year, enabling you to take a GAP year. Call or email them to see what procedures are on previose admissions.</p>

<p>Did you look at U of Chicago? They have a very unique art program, and then the MBA is one of the best.</p>

9

<p>Since your looking for a university with a large art department, I recommend:
University of Michigan
Syracuse University
Cal State Long Beach
Those all have very good art departments, especially University of Michigan. Im not sure which type of art you want to focus in, but there are many other schools out there that are really good for certain programs. A lot of the big state universities have large, great art departments in general, so look into that.</p>

<p>I am currently a senior, going to interlochen arts academy, an arts boarding high school, going through the college search/application process, and i have done so much research, and still continuing. haha.</p>