Art Schools and LACs

College Search & Selection
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<p>Columbia is well known for its MFA program, not so much for undergraduate art. I’m not even sure that they offer an undergraduate studio art major. My son liked Yale very much too, but for him Williams was a better fit. The level of support from professors, both in art history and art studio, was amazing and enduring.</p>

<p>The problem with consortiums and cross registration is that art studio classes are extremely time intensive and are often difficult to incorporate into the primary academic schedule. The Brown/RISD program is unique in that it’s set up to accommodate both. The downside is that it’s too new to judge how successful it is (i.e., is it the best or worst of both worlds?) and that it’s also very, very selective.</p>

<p>Again, I wouldn’t worry about specialization as that comes later in the process. The more media he is exposed to the better. Most art departments encourage trying a wide range of media before choosing an area to concentrate in.</p>

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<p>I am sure you are doing this already, but we always made a point to go look at the studio space and also any student art around campus when visiting with D2, who is interested in physics & studio art. Her major is physics, though, with the art secondary – so it did not really drive her decision in the end.</p>

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Agree! I looked at 15 schools with my son and only two included the art department on the standard tour.</p>

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<p>Well I don’t know what I was thinking. Maybe I felt it was too much to ask the admissions front desk, or maybe it was because we tend to go on visits during vacations (hence not many profs or students)… I hate to admit that we visited Swat, Haverford, Wes and Vassar without going inside studio space.</p>

<p>I know, I know, duh.</p>

<p>Perhaps I am also a bit resistant to the thought that S really is committed to art – while I am only committed to getting him into a great LAC with great fin aid. Time to adjust my frame of thinking.</p>

<p>Okay so this past week has been a learning curve. With D it was all about money and how to make college happen. With S it is so different. Deep breath. </p>

<p>We need to go back and see STUDIOS! Just signed up for Wes and Vassar’s open houses (schedule specifically notes time at art facilities). RISD and Brown are upcoming.</p>

<p>As for the cross-registration bit, what an excellent point. A previous post noted that her son “schlepped” from Tufts to SMFA. S is not particularly street smart. And imagine kids working late hours into the night at studios. I remember how I liked the idea of the Five Colleges when I went to Smith…but never actually took a class anywhere else. Schedules, my own time management and the respective academic bureacracies didn’t always fit. </p>

<p>Thanks so much everyone I am getting a LOT from your responses.</p>

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<p>PS Thanks for pasting the past thread, BrownParent!</p>

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<p>Hello to anyone checking back in on this thread,</p>

<p>Have added Cornell U to the list. It has a combined BFA and BA program. Cornell is huge (which is why it wasn’t on the first list) but the Art, Arch and Planning School has only500 undergrads. Hoping it provides an intimate community. The College Of Arts and Sciences has 5,000 students. We hope to visit SOON.</p>

<p>As for the last couple to round out the list, they have to be both financially generous and probable admits for his stats. So looking into Bard and Skidmore (again, but from a different vantage point), Conn, Kenyon, Oberlin…any others? He’ll choose two of these.</p>

<p>Safeties, well, that is a problem. New Paltz isn’t strong enough in math, Purchase is definitely below his challenge level, Hunter is in the city and doesn’t hae that “college” feel. The state school we would have liked, Geneseo, and which S likes because a friend chose it over Princeton (!) does not have studio art at all! They cut the problem recently in a SUNY consolidation.</p>

<p>A final thank you to everyone for the very helpful posts.</p>

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<p>My son did his masters at Cornell. The art department is overwhelmingly driven by the architecture department. The studio art facilities are good, but I wouldn’t consider Cornell an art destination like some of the others in the Ivy League.</p>

<p>The other LAC that I would put up for consideration would be Hamilton.</p>

<p>Hopefully before he finalizes his list he’ll be able to do some more visiting. There’s a wide difference in personality among many of the college on his lisr, especially the LACs, which will be more apparent when he actually visits.</p>

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<p>Check out Johns Hopkins University.
It’s fairly small (6K undergrads). It seems to have a strong art history department. The Baltimore Museum of Art is located at the edge of the JHU campus. I would expect math to be strong at JHU as well. </p>

<p>[About</a> | Department of History of Art | Johns Hopkins University](<a href=“http://arthist.jhu.edu/about/index.html]About”>http://arthist.jhu.edu/about/index.html)
[The</a> Homewood Art Workshops at Johns Hopkins](<a href=“http://www.jhu.edu/artwork/]The”>http://www.jhu.edu/artwork/)</p>

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<p>There’s a newly added minor in Visual Arts at Hopkins [The</a> Homewood Art Workshops at Johns Hopkins](<a href=“http://www.jhu.edu/artwork/]The”>http://www.jhu.edu/artwork/), but not a major. My D, a junior, is also interested in an art/math double major or dual degree, and we’ve had to reluctantly cross Hopkins off the list. But especially with the chance to take courses at MICA, there may be a way to go well beyond the requirements for the new minor and do an unofficial double-major.</p>

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<p>Hi, Everyone!</p>

<p>Thanks for the suggestion tk29769, nad follow up hs2015mom. Yes that is what I got about Studio at JHU from the website – cross reg with MICA but no studio art major. Not sure it would be enough, he might end up pining to fully belong to the school across the street.</p>

<p>Thanks for the word re Cornell, momrath.</p>

<p>Will be interested to hear your D’s list, hs2-15mom!</p>

<p>Yes the personalities sound quite different esp at the LACs. One guidebook wrote that Hamilton’s student life is held up by two pillars, sports and alchohol. S is not into either. If there were a college town nearby and public transportation so he could get a break sometimes from the partying it would be worth considering, however doesn’t sound like Hamilton has either. </p>

<p>D has been glad to come home soemtimes to take a shower with hot water…while no one is throwing up in the toilet.</p>

<p>Would love to be provn wrong since they have great financial aid and S enjoys a preppier (as opposed to hippier) atmosphere. As a vegetarianartist who’s not into sports and comes from a lower-income family, he will soon realize however that a social mix would be really really nice. Our first priorities for “fit” are financial and academic. This said, avoiding extremes is kind of our view.</p>

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<p>My son liked Hamilton a lot. It is, however, quite isolated, similar to Kenyon. Clinton is a charming small town, but it’s a hike from campus. The surrounding area is beautiful though.</p>

<p>Hamilton has a split personality. In the late 70’s it incorporated Kirkland the nearby women’s college that focused on arts and humanities. Hamilton students affectionately refer to the Kirkland campus as The Dark Side.</p>

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<p>The academics are excellent though, and while I’m sure there’s no shortage of partying, the students are serious about their work.</p>

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<p>Momrath, thanks very much for your post. Hamilton keeps going off and on the list!</p>

<p>A former prof of mine is there, and as for academics I have only heard the same as your word, “excellent.”</p>

<p>On another track I am looking at Carnegie Mellon on the suggestion of previous posts. Quite a different setting from Hamilton or Williams! Possibly overwhelming, and possibly trickier to complete requirements for dual degrees, and I have no idea about financial aid. Will keep checking in, thanks again!</p>

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<p>CMU’s interdisciplinary BXA programs are intriguing, but they are very rigorously focused and don’t appear to allow a lot of room for experimentation. If your son is unclear of his eventual path (other than it will include art and math) he may find the structure of the BSA confining.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the advice, momrath. Will be seeing S’s art teacher tonight and hope to get further insight. He was an admin rep for MICA and also does consulting evaluating art schools so he really knows his stuff. As for non-art schools he promised to give us some tips for looking at LACs and universities.</p>

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<p>Sounds like our kids might be similar, momcinco. Mine is a vegetarian artist but otherwise not alternative, and not interested in sports or drinking. </p>

<p>To add to the complexities further, she’s adopted from China and would enjoy an environment with lots of Asians. But at Carleton and Oberlin she’d be a URM and eligible for diversity recruitment and whatever admissions advantage goes with that. At many of the most selective schools, she’s an ORM, and subject to the unofficial Asian quotas, except for Rice and Carnegie Mellon, who don’t seem to care. So her evolving list is shaped by those considerations, some balance of URM schools and ORM schools, and only those well-endowed enough to provide substantial scholarship money to a middle-income family.</p>

<p>We’re in the upper Midwest but with family in New England, so are looking at schools in both those places and in between. D wants not too small. not too rural. </p>

<p>She’s looking at some LACs, where double-majoring in art and math is no problem. Macalester is of interest because you can take a course a semester at Minneapolis College of Art & Design. Since LACs tend to teach mostly drawing, painting and sculpture, having access to an art school where they teach more vocational things like illustration and graphic design is a plus for her. St. Olaf has an option for a semester at MCAD, and has a great-sounding program where studio art majors can apply for a FREE fifth year to do intensive studio work and achieve a level of preparation closer to that of kids who’ve gotten BFAs. So these two, Carleton, Oberlin, maybe Denison, Brandeis. I’d been discounting BC as too rah-rah, but on a tip from momrath (thanks again) looked at their art course listing yesterday, and it‘s amazingly drawing-intensive, with more figure drawing than I’ve seen anywhere. That’s yet another wrinkle – D is interested in a more technique-focused rather than conceptual/theroretical art department. Williams if I can get her to consider the sophisticated boonies. Maybe Rice. Vanderbilt has very generous financial aid and d would love to be in Nashville, but the centrality of the greek scene may make it not a fit. </p>

<p>For universities with standalone art schools, we’re looking for those that either grant BAs as well as BFAs, making a double major possible, or who have a dual-degree program. So Brown/RISD, as the longest of long shots. Cornell, Carnegie Mellon (four-year dual degree program), WUStL, Illinois Wesleyan, BU. Universities of Minnesota and Kansas (both sticker price $32k for OOS, woo hoo) but not our own University of Illinois, where the art school grants only BFAs and there doesn’t appear to be a dual-degree option. Possibly some engineering schools like RPI, RIT…MIT as longshot. Case Western looked intriguing because Cleveland Institute of Art is right on their campus, but you can get only a minor, not a major, in studio art.</p>

<p>So currently, all over the map. I’m glad we started this whole thing while she’s a junior (actually, full disclosure…I started last year, but was somewhat closeted about it) because it’ll take some time to investigate and refine. D had great luck arranging to visit classes at CMU and wants to do that wherever she can, and has decided that campus tours are productive but info sessions are not. The road trips are a blast, but since there’s nowhere near enough time and money to see them all, much of the sorting and selecting has to be done remotely.</p>

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<p>hs2015 mom, wow, I am so happy to find a family in a similar situation! Originally I was completely sold on LACs. But isn’t the BFA is necessary if S does decide to pursue studio art? I think Yale for example requires a BFA for their MFA program.</p>

<p>I think I mentioned that we got D settled into a private college with an accelerated social work program. Her undergrad tuition, room and board are paid for with minimal loans. She can get her masters in one year, and with her opportunity program masters tuition is free at any state school.</p>

<p>She is not a scholar, she is a worker, and in her view the less school the better. She would rather just get the coursework done and start internships.</p>

<p>S is so different! We see him getting multiple degrees, he’s just that kind of kid.</p>

<p>I am not surprised you started for your D last year. Frankly unless your kid doesn’t need fin aid – and knows exactly what he/she wants to do – I don’t see how the college search can be put off until senior or even junior year.</p>

<p>I am a little nervous about sending S far away. Partly because I can’t imagine paying for gas and hotel rooms and juggling TWO days of travel (we have younger children). CMU is so far away…but S’s art teacher was happy it was on our radar. His other suggestions will echo many here. They were Brown/RISD (he showed the most enthusiasm at this one!), Yale, Cornell, CMU, Wesleyan. He was lukewarm about the others. He seems to think a BFA really is the way to go, hence, preference for dual degrees (except for Tufts/SMFA which he warned us emphasizes styles that S doesn’t like).</p>

<p>I have a hard time picturing Studio at MIT, what did you think? It is a longshot but it is not as far away as many others we wish we could consider.</p>

<p>S’s thing until now is drawing and painting, just starting sculpture. He tends toward the classical (I guess?) not sure what to call it. He likes other stuff but doesn’t get into it himself. Not into photography but loves to watch films.</p>

<p>Please keep in touch – I would loveto hear how your D’s search progresses.</p>

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<p>PS Oberlin, Carleton, Macalaster and St Olaf all sound great for your D!</p>

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<p>My understanding is that the Yale MFA program requires a bachelors, which could be a BA, BS or BFA. Yale itself offers the BA, not the BFA. The educational background of the students is [intentionally, I think] diverse.</p>

<p>Whether a BFA, MFA or any degree is necessary depends on what you mean by “pursue”. There are certainly plenty of successful practicing artists who don’t have distinguished academic credentials.</p>

<p>To teach on the college level, an MFA is expected, though you’ll see MAs and PhDs too. The undergraduate degree is variable. For example if you look at the bios of Yale’s art faculty you’ll see there’s a range of undergraduate degrees, mostly BAs and BFAs, and also a wide range of undergraduate institutions.</p>

<p>My impression is that a BFA program is more akin to art school, but within the context of a liberal arts college. The programs allow some electives, but are more narrowly structured than BA programs. For the incoming student who is interested in exploring other disciplines within the humanities, sciences, social sciences, the BA might be a better route.</p>

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<p>It’s kind of an art-world urban myth that Yale requires BFAs for entry into the MFA program - I’ve heard it many times already - but it’s not true: [Yale</a> University School of Art: Admissions](<a href=“http://art.yale.edu/Admissions]Yale”>Graduate Admission - Yale School of Art)</p>

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<p>MIT’s program isn’t studio art proper, but looks intriguing: [Courses</a> - ACT at MIT](<a href=“http://act.mit.edu/academic-program/courses/]Courses”>Courses – Art, Culture, and Technology (ACT)) and students can cross-register at Wellesley, which has very traditional art courses: [Curriculum</a> | Wellesley College](<a href=“http://www.wellesley.edu/art/studio/curriculum]Curriculum”>http://www.wellesley.edu/art/studio/curriculum) and Harvard, which falls somewhere in the middle: [VES</a> Course Listings Fall 2013](<a href=“http://www.ves.fas.harvard.edu/coursesFALL.html]VES”>http://www.ves.fas.harvard.edu/coursesFALL.html)</p>