BFA at lac/university or straight to art school

<p>This is my first post. I have a D at governors school for arts and she is looking at RISD and MICA and maybe VCU. The only BFA program we have visited at a university is NYU's program and it was incredibly lame. Facilities were subpar and director of recruitment whom we met with was colossal name dropper. Any ideas/feedback? She appears to be very talented, has a 4.0, crappy SATs (totally dyslexic), and great recs. She went to RISD's summer program in 2010 and LOVED it.</p>

<p>what kind of art?
which one did you see, Tisch or Steinhardt? not that much differ anyways NYU is NYU<br>
name dropping is what every NYers do.
try visiting nice schools in nicer towns for change.
there are many “LACs VS artschools” threads. if not on this page, 2, 3, 4…
but LACs are, like, almost always BA and lots of writing reading writing reading writing reading writing reading.
how did she get 4.0 if can’t do comprehension well? </p>

<p>I want to say RISD if they aren’t so stats heavy and you don’t have four other kids.
they’d expect 1300-sh SAT, would they accommodate her needs somehow?
MICA is bit better money wise but never the safety for art kids, since there are so many of them.
I’ve never seen VCU but more and more good things are told around here.</p>

<p>Have you ever heard of The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University? It is small private art school in Boston. It is part of Lesley University in Cambridge, which provides a great “collegiate” experience while getting an awesome visual arts degree! While I was applying to colleges I definitely looked at all those big name schools, but found the personal attention I received during my AIB admissions process very unique. I am currently getting my BFA in Fine Arts while enjoying all the benefits of being connected to a liberal arts school, such as a great residential community, running cross country, and being a member of tons clubs! Personally, I don’t think college is about the name on your degree, rather the connections you make while getting it.</p>

<p>Bears and Dogs: we visited Steinhardt because she is focusing on the visual arts. In the end we didn’t like much about NYU. She does beautifully at Governors School because almost all the work is project oriented, as opposed to memorize and regurgitate. Her reading comp is fine; rote memory much weaker. I’m just wondering if there’s something else out there that we’re missing???</p>

<p>Just started looking at schools for D who is interested in studio/visual arts. Thinks she will want to pursue art in college. Not sure what as she has interest in painting, drawing, photography and computer graphics. However, not sure how committed she will be, thus I think I will try to look at schools that offer 1- at least 5 art majors and 2- that have university feel. Meaning a LAC or major U. that has solid college of art or school or art. I think we will have to consider both to give her options to change if she needs to. Ok, that said, i will through a few other options.
Hunter College BFA. Ranked, in NYC, your pretty much on your own for housing and meals as residence hall is lottery with 5% chance and very little college life. Thought I read that you have to fulfill the LA core and thus the BFA adds a 5th yr. They further said there BFA grads get into top MFA programs.
VCU - looked at online and ranked program. Lots of options for college experience and quality BFA
Arizona State U- Art School - saw on a few lists.
Temple U. - well know and recognized program. Surrounding area is crap.</p>

<p>D was high honors student but lost interest in core courses in 9th grade. Grades now average 85 average. Do art schools have high standards on GPA and SAT?</p>

<p>suppose you are out-towner?
Hunter could give you so much credits if you did well in NY system. I my kid did what he’d supposed to do, he’d only needed suffer 2 years.
but like you said, it is a school for anybody; returning, adults, grandmas.
full time students straight out of HS are rather hard to spot. I know they are in there a ton. just that one of the sub species among many other groups in this sad concrete buildings with no character, and no, you don’t want dorm room in the Manhattan nor their food plan.
free reign easy access to common people’s cheap food, is the one of (very few) strength of any CUNYs.
I’ve never heard anything good about their UG art. gradschool, yes but not BFA.
most local art kids would rather go to Purchase or Pratt, SVA, FIT if you are that kind.
maybe Immigrants brain kids are different, they might get in free honors or stay where they live and do Queens or Brooklyn college BFA. They are goody goody photocopy artists whose parents would never allow them go off to live out of homes or heaven forbid, attend artschools!!
nothing wrong about it, goal is either MAT or Yale Columbia MFA if somehow be able to convince their parents after all.</p>

<p>far as I know for artschols, weights of GPA and SAT are all over the place depends on where you apply.
my kid have gotten “conditional acceptance” due low GPA from few of second tier artschools and academic merit money from rather well known ones with identical apps (same essay, same portfolio same rec letters)
some states/schools don’t care rigore of course load or weighed/unweighed, or SAT/ACT differences much.
far as I know, stats sensitives are RISD, DAAP(in their own funny way), MICA, somewhat Pratt (for arch, ID but not fine art)
Almost always good grades helps merit money assuming your portfolio is OK.</p>

<p>for Universities, you got have to be in range for their general accepted numbers. good art helps but won’t help-help. If she has 85 and keep at it, I don’t worry unless doing CMU Wash U sort.</p>

<p>For the person who recommended the Art Institute- keep in mind that those programs can be very, VERY pricey!! Just because it’s not a top art school doesn’t mean it’s not crazy expensive!</p>

<p>^they really should do something about the name.
the one in Lesley at Boston is not one of “those” art institutes.
I am not saying it’s cheap, but not to be confused with for-profit “art Institutes” syndicates in all other cities. surprisingly in MA, there is only one in Brookline.
I bet that “Boston” got enough legit art schools to go around already.</p>

<p>I was preparing to write a long post on this but i remembered there are quite a few threads that deal with this.</p>

<p>This one is pretty straight forward and may answer some questions:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visual-arts-film-majors/868224-private-art-college-vs-uc.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visual-arts-film-majors/868224-private-art-college-vs-uc.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I actually went through this with daughter 4 years ago. When she graduated high school in 2007, I told her I was fine with either an art school or a university/LAC, as long as she stayed away from the for profit art schools (not a fan of for profit education). She knew she wanted a BFA which did limit the university/LAC choices, but applied to both. One of the big differences we noticed was that the art schools required a portfolio up front, while many of the universities did not require a portfolio until the sophomore year, and then you were either accepted into the BFA program or ended up doing a BA.</p>

<p>Daughter applied and was accepted to both types of schools, chose an university for a BFA in Printmaking. The main reason she went with the university is because she pulled a minor in education which was not an option at an art school. The downside to this was, because BFA programs require extensive time in the studio, coupling that with a minor in a more traditional field, requires a lot of work (and education even more so, she had a classroom internship, labs, lots of papers and lesson plans), so even though she carried around 18 hours a semester, she put in lots of hours above and beyond the majority of her classmates. (Still found time to have a good time though). </p>

<p>The upside we’re hoping is a more marketable degree, giving her more employment options, though in this economy, I assuming she’ll need some support at first, (though to be truthful, even before the downturn, I just assumed a fine arts major would most likely not be totally self-supporting right upon graduation and was prepared to help out. I realize this is a personal decision, and not one that works for all parents) but she seems to think she’s not going to have any problems finding work. So I’ve got my fingers crossed.</p>