<p>I looked for a thread with this topic, but there wasn't one, so here it is. </p>
<p>I'm looking for good art schools that offer <em>4-year programs</em> in Graphic Design, Communication Design, or anything digital really. </p>
<p>Prestige isn't too important, but I definitely don't mind. Anywhere in the country is fine. Preferably somewhere near water, but beggars can't be choosers. </p>
<p>If you have any suggestions, let me know. Thanks. And if you know someone that's gotten into said art school, knowing their stats would be fabulous.</p>
<p>(If it helps any, I have pretty decent stats, am going into my fourth year of high school art, and am going to take AP Studio this year.)</p>
<p>Are you only talking about "art colleges" that only offer art programs or are you also considering regular colleges with programs in graphic design.</p>
<p>If the first, try these for graphic design:
Rhode Island School of Design (considered by most to be the "best" art college in the country)
Savanah College of Art and Design
Pratt Institute
Ringling School of Art and Design
Maryland College and Institute of Art</p>
<p>If the former, try:
Syracuse University
California Polytechnic at San Luis Obispo
Rochester Institute of Technology</p>
<p>But there are others out there as well. These are just the names that I hear most often for graphic design.</p>
<p>Thanks Carolyn. I knew of the universities but not too familiar w/ Art Schools.</p>
<p>Rhode Island School of Design sounds intriguing. My D wants a good Liberal Arts foundation ( she is undecided as to major) but a strong writer English/Humanities student w/ a talent and interest in art, particularly photography and digital design.</p>
<p>She considers a graphic design degree because this is what she loves but is not sure if she wants to keep it as a hobby and perhaps minor in art and major in something else at a 4 yr college or perhaps go all out for an art degree BFA or a BFG? What is the Bachelor of art Graphic Arts degree called? Just started looking at this, can't remember.....I did not even know one was offered.</p>
<p>At art schools, the degree is usually the BFA in graphic design. If your daughter is interested in pursuing interests in things like English, I would steer her towards universities. While all of the art colleges I require some liberal arts classes, the majority of the curriculum is focused on art and, of course, you can't major in anything that isn't art related. Not a problem if you're sure art is what you want to do, but could be a problem if someone changes their mind about art.</p>
<p>My daughter has the same interests but is leaning more to a university with strong art programs. Some of the top schools for communication design or graphic design are ( in no particular order):</p>
<ol>
<li>RISD ( generally considered best in US)</li>
<li>Pratt Institute ( which has three tracks for communication design ( see my review of Pratt and RISD))</li>
<li>MICA ( very strong interdisciplinary program)</li>
<li>Syracuse University</li>
<li>RIT (which has both graphic design and strong new media program)</li>
<li>UMass Dartmouth (both graphic design and new media- courses also taught by RISD professors)</li>
<li>University of Cincinnati (School of Design, Art and Archtecture)</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon ( communication design only)</li>
<li>Penn State
10 Call Arts</li>
<li>Ringling School of art and design
12, University of the Arts in Philadelphia</li>
<li>Cleveland Insitute of Art</li>
</ol>
<p>These should get you started.</p>
<p>There are more too. Check out the "arts forum."</p>
<p>So far we have visited Bard, Vassar, NYU, Barnard, Fordham University and Marist. Of these she like Fordham University (Lincoln Center Campus) the best and maybe Bard.</p>
<p>But she is really leaning toward a city school. we briefly stopped in Providence last fall on our way home from Boston. I wish we would have seen RISD and Brown. But just had no time. We were in Newport and passed by Save Regina College. She thinks about Boston College and Tufts which has a joint BFA program w/ School for the Museum of Fine Arts. Also, Brandeis. </p>
<p>She still has to narrow in on whether she wants to follow a direction toward art primarily or be an undecided major focusing on the humanities and supplementing her art interests w/ a minor or concentration in art.</p>
<p>She has a few months to decide but we are learning about programs and schools a little more each day. She'll get there.</p>
<p>Your posts on RISD and Pratt were very helpful. I will have to look at the others. </p>
<p>By the way Tax guy......what universities w/ strong art depts. is your daughter looking at?</p>
<p>What kind of art is she interested in?</p>
<p>My D likes photography especially digital, web design/graphic design, all sorts of studio art.</p>
<p>She is also strong in humanities and writing but not sure what she wants to do w/ this strength except as of now continue to develop and learn.</p>
<p>Do you think a university is best? I did, but now I am considering that a BFA or a BGD(Graphic Design degree) would be a lucrative degree if she wanted to begin a career right away w/ an undergraduate degree. She could always return to grad school as long as she had a strong undergraduate transcript.</p>
<p>Or do you feel grad schools would prefer a solid BA in a major in the humanities and a minor in art?</p>
<p>I know it would depend on what she was applying to grad school for.......let's say law school or perhaps to continue in one of the humanities majors for a MA or even a Phd? I guess what I am asking is whether you think a degree from a good art school would be acceptable to a grad scholol should she want to continue her education? Or would a BA from a good university or LAC be preferential?</p>
<p>I would have said the university/Lac...but I am not really sure of that.</p>
<p>My daughter is interested in either graphic design or new midea (interactive media). </p>
<p>She is currently in a humanities magnet program and doesn't really want a stand alone art school. However, she will definitely apply to RISD due to its status and quality programs ( it is the only one to offer a 5 year BGD program, and she can take some courses at Brown). She will probably apply to Pratt because they too have a strong graphic program </p>
<p>.Penn state also looks good to her as well. She will also apply to our local state university that has a graphic program , Towson University, which is her safety.</p>
<p>My own personal belief is that she should forget new media as an undergraduate and focus on graphic design. She can then do a new media program in graduate school after she gets a strong design background.</p>
<p>She is NOT looking at a LAC. We know of no LAC that is strong on graphic design. Moreover, LACS generally require too many liberal arts courses and too many non design requirements. </p>
<p>Other schools that she will apply to are:</p>
<ol>
<li>Syracuse University</li>
<li>University of Cincinnati ( great design program)</li>
<li>RIT</li>
<li>UMass Dartmouth
5, Maybe CMU ( however, she didn't like CMU for some reason due to its "limited" offerings. We should revisit it)</li>
</ol>
<p>Thank you so much to carolyn and taxguy who have posted suggestions for schools. I had no idea about many of them and am now perusing some very interesting information. So awesome, so awesome. </p>
<p>luliztee, your daughter and I have the exact same interests - that's incredible. Tell her I said hi. </p>
<p>And taxguy, I was excited to see that your daughter is also interested in graphic design/new media, etc. I'm applying to Penn State and it's about time I saw some recognition of it. (That was non-relevant to the first comment, but okay.) </p>
<p>Have any of you looked at Boston University? What do you think of it? It looks like it has decent art and humanities programs...not sure, I just recently checked it out. </p>
<p>My d will be starting at RIT, majoring in graphic design (with a minor or concentration in photography or advertising photography). Taxguy, my d also thought CMU was too restrictive. She's sometimes double guesses her decision to turn down Syracuse because she likes Advertising Design better than Graphic Design (RIT doesn't offer AD as a major). At RIT, she'll still be able to take quite a few Advertising Design courses, though because with RIT's quarter system, students take an enormous number of classes (5-6 classes a qtr, 3 qtrs a yr).</p>
<p>We know someone who graduated last yr from Penn State (graphic design). She liked the program and found a job within a reasonable amount of time. Penn State was too big for my d, but her best friend is going there.</p>
<p>Onsilverwings,We looked at BU. If I remember, BU was not NASAD (National Association of Schools of Art and Design) accredited. Also, if I recollect, they had some transition problems with the dean leaving. It took them a while to find a replacement.</p>
<p>MAP, be careful about WUSTL. While it is a fine program, most kids go there to be able to double major in something. Few, if any, go there for only art. Moreover, They do NOT admit based on portfolio! You first have to be admitted to the school solely based on GPA and SATS. Only then do they take the portfolio into account for admission to the school of art. Frankly, I think that is rather short sighted of them.</p>
<p>I also looked at NYU and didn't see any strong undergraduate program in design; however, maybe I missed it.</p>
<p>As to the Museum School of Fine Arts, we did consider that too. I even spoke to the Dean of the Design Program. First, he admitted that his program, while good, isn't as good as that of RISD or Pratt or some other stand alone art schools. Their claim to fame is that you get a Tufts degree and can take courses at Tufts and can live in Tufts dorms. However, this is misleading. To live in Tuft's dorms, you must be an admitted student to Tufts. Likewise taking courses at Tufts isn't as easy as I thought. In addition, Tufts isn't right next to the Museum school as RISD is next to Brown. You have to take a bus quite a distance to each school. There were also some other things that I wasn't happy about as well but can't recollect at the moment.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Onsilverwings,We looked at BU. If I remember, BU was not NASAD (National Association of Schools of Art and Design) accredited.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>My accreditation background is limited, so can I ask what the significance of this is? Is NASAD the "gold standard" or something that colleges see as optional? Did BU seek accreditation and fail to get it, or did they eschew accreditation for a specific reason?</p>
<p>taxguy - re: NYU - the graphics design program is located in the Steinhardt school. A little strange how they break out their art programs, with some there, and the rest in Tisch. But there it is.</p>
<p>Hoedown, I am not sure that any single accreditation is "the gold standard." However, most of the top rated programs are NASAD accredited. If you go to US News and World Report and check out the top 10 or 20 art programs, they are almost all NASAD accredited. BU isn't! In fact, BU isn't even mentioned anywhere in the top 50 schools by US News and World Report.</p>
<p>Onsilverwings, I did like Penn State. However, one big draw back is that they seem to have a huge liberal arts requirement. They require 45 general education requirements AND seem to have a three course language requirement too! Also, as part of their Gen Ed requirements are three science courses, two math courses etc. I am not sure that my daughter wants that much Gen Eds.</p>
<p>Onsilverwings, I did like Penn State. However, one big draw back is that they seem to have a huge liberal arts requirement. The reason for this is that they don't have a BFA. Kids graduate with a BA or BS.</p>
<p>They require 45 general education credits AND have a three course language requirement too! I just verified all this with Penn State Admissions. Also, as part of their Gen Ed requirements are three science courses, two math courses etc. I am not sure that my daughter wants that much Gen Eds. You may want to think about this for your child too.</p>
<p>My d also looked at BU and Northeastern but upon doing so, decided she didn't want to be in the city (although she kept Syracuse on her list). We had a bad experience at the Northeastern Open House with the art dept reps - weren't able to answer anything. Didn't even know if they gave credit for AP Art HIstory. Sent us to the wrong building (for graphic design) 2 times. We finally gave up. We asked 2 different art representatives (with name tags on so yes, they were official) about graphic design and neither had a clue... I actually liked the campus because it had somewhat of a campus feel, while still giving you access to all the city offers. But my d was turned off and that was that. </p>
<p>We then went to BU and that's like NYU, just buildings scattered throughout a section of the city. I didn't know at that time about the lack of NASAD. Saw an art show in one building. Although this environment was right for my d, we know kids who go to BU (not for art) and absolutely love it. My s will be looking for a city school.</p>
<p>What about some of the Florida schools? Is anyone familiar with their programs? I'm thinking of Florida State, and U of Florida, and Miami. On paper, they seem to have strong programs, particularly FS and U of F.</p>