Art School or University with Art program

Parents Forum
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<p>First Post </p>

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<p>I am posting this for a new member, who originally placed the post in the Parent Cafe Welcome thread. Her screen name is Honeypi
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Hi,
I have lurked at the forums in this site a bit but decided I should post at least once so here goes:</p>

<p>I am a parent of a high school senior who wants to attend an Art school or a university with a good Art & Design program. She has applied to both public and private schools & waiting to hear about acceptance or denial. She has had 2 portfolio reviews so far which have gone well. She definitely got into one so far based on her portfolio (pending other documents, but she has good grades and great SAT scores - which it seems that most Art schools don't care much about anyway), but this is to a very expensive private school so I don't think we are willing to shell out that much for an education in Art (not to mention, we will really be hurting in the retirement savings). Are there any other parents out there with this situation (Art school etc)?

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<p>I don't know how much I can help but I will try by example.
My D was interested in attending art school, and submitted portfolios during National Portfolio Day ( won awards at her school etc).
She really liked Emily Carr in British Columbia & a local community college has a * very* well thought of graphic design program.
Her high school has an excellent arts dept, and several students go on to art schools, in her class students went to RISD, Kansas City Art Institute & SCAD.
Skidmore and Bard are also known I think for having strong art programs.</p>

<p>For our family, we felt that attending a college that offered other majors besides art was not only more affordable, but more practical in the case of a change of major. ( and she ultimately did decide on a college- where she could do art, even if she didnt major in it- however she found that her major- biology was too time consuming to spend time in the art studio, so she filled her creative side with music)</p>

<p>Depending on the state- if money is really a problem, you should look at the art dept of your flagship U. Often times they are quite good. In Seattle for instance not only does the community really support art, but the instructors may have someone of the caliber of the late great Jacob Lawrence who was a professor at the University of Washington for many years.</p>

<p>Also many states have a exchange agreement with neighboring states- so if she likes a public university across the state border better, she might be eligible to attend at just 50% more of instate tuition.</p>

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<p>Jmmom, this post should be made in the art major forum. You would get more and probably better responses.</p>

<p>First, I would need to know what area of art your daughter is interested in, If it is studio art such as painting, printmaking, sculpture etc., she would certainly find some good programs in a number of LACs as well as in stand alone art schools.</p>

<p>However, if her interest is in applied art such as graphic design, digital design, industrial design, fashion design,urban planning, and maybe architecture, I know of few LACs ( except for Alfred University) that are strong in these programs. </p>

<p>A stand alone art school has some advantages and disadvantages:</p>

<p>Pros: More courses offered in each art major
Many more art students to bouce ideas off
Strong facilites in art
Large number of studios</p>

<p>Cons:
Usually liberal arts offerings aren't usually as good as that of a good university
(although many art schools have arrangements with nearby colleges for kids to take courses. Thus, MICA has an arrangement with Johns Hopkins and RISD has an arrangement with Brown)</p>

<p>Only meet other art students,which can be quite insular
Usually, doesn't have the same number of artistic courses choices as found in stand alone art schools.</p>

<p>If a kid doesn't want art or wants to switch to a non-artistic major, they would have to transfer schools.</p>

<p>Also, with stand alone art schools, usually 70-75% or more of the courses taken are in art related topics. With universities, it is usually 60-65% of courses are taken in art related topics. With LACs, it is usually about 50-60% of courses are in art related topics.</p>

<p>Some universities have some strong art programs that rival that of stand alone art schools. University of Cincinnati has a very well known applied art program.Syracuse university also has a very repudable art program in many facets of art.</p>

<p>You should check out both the course offerings, placement center and general educations requirements at each school.</p>

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<p>My son struggled with the same questions about art school vs. LAC. We decided to send him to Rhode Island School of Design for their summer program the summer after his junior year in high school. This helped him decide to go to a LAC (Bard) so he can take classes other than art.</p>

<p>Although RISD says you can take classes at Brown, it is very difficult b/c their semesters don't start/stop at the same time. Plus, only one class per year can be taken.</p>

<p>He loved RISD, but is happy at Bard.</p>