What I didn’t know is that we’d have a baby art student. 
Art schools are $$$$
BFA in Animation/Illustration for talented and ambitious student with IEP/ADHD and in the spectrum..
The NEBHE list of programs with reciprocity available to CT students shows the Illustration BFA and the Visual Design BFA at UMass Dartmouth as options, and also the Communication Design (Graphic Design, Illustration, Animation) BFA at MassArt. Have you already ruled these out as not being good fits? The Dartmouth campus has a high acceptance rate (over 80%), and a manageable size (<7K undergrads, with more than half living on campus). Seems like a nice location near the coast, between Providence and the Cape.
Unfortunately since we have UConn, we are not eligible for Animation which is what she wants. UNV Lyndon won’t have that reciprocation and I didn’t think UMass would but I’ll look again. For some reason I didn’t think UMass Dartmouth had her major but Lowell does…but not sure about the reciprocal program. We have plans to visit UMass and Lowell soon anyway…thank you so much for this reminder and taking the time to look it up. I’m not sure why I thought MassArt wouldn’t cover it…UConn has a BFA in animation and it would be perfect for our daughter but our college counselor said it’s going to be a stretch. Even though she works herself to the bone, her GPA just doesn’t get higher.
Ok, so I just checked…I think it’s possible that UMass Lowell and Dartmouth may have it for all programs…and possibly MassArt…thanks so much. Have you used the NEBHE program? Curious to know how rigid schools are and if they ever bend a little if it’s a deal breaker/maker for a student?
I haven’t and I don’t know about “bending” (would bet against it tbh) - I was just going by this list https://nebhe.org/info/pdf/tuitionbreak/2019-20/state-brochures/2019-20_Tuition_Break_Connecticut-Residents.pdf and thought the Illustration BFA sounded promising https://www.umassd.edu/programs/illustration/
Dartmouth is the least competitive UMass campus, so it might offer a good balance of rigor in terms of the studio BFA programs, but a more forgiving academic environment in the required non-art classes. Admissions-wise, they do require a portfolio (which is good news for your D since that’s her strong suit), and they’re test-optional if GPA is 3.25 or above. Seems like this might be a good safety or at least match.
Thanks so much. You are really knowledgeable on this stuff…do you happen to know if students with disabilities ever get a break on the GPA? She works herself to the bone but still has a 2.8 . I’m hoping after this year it will get up to a 3…her teachers are aware that she’s working hard. She stays after school, goes to L.C. during study hall and gets online for tutors and also has tutors from school that she meets with during study hall and on the weekends…
I don’t know what flexibility exists at specific schools, but I would think a student applying to studio programs, with a strong portfolio, would be well positioned to be cut as much slack as their policies allow. Private institutions can often be more flexible than public ones, but then there’s the cost issue.
Looking at the MA university system’s document about minimum standards, the policy is that a 2.8 GPA needs to be paired with a 950 SAT or 20 ACT to meet UMass minimum requirements. https://www.mass.edu/shared/documents/admissions/admissionsstandards.pdf - getting up to a 3.0 would mean there would be no firm lower limit on test scores.
However, if your D doesn’t have a 950/20 SAT/ACT… the Learning Disability section says, “Applicants with professionally diagnosed and documented learning disabilities (documentation must include diagnostic test results) are exempt from taking standardized tests for admission to any public institution of higher education in the Commonwealth. Such students, however, must complete 16** required academic courses with a minimum required GPA of 3.00 or present other evidence of the potential for academic success.”
I have no clue what can be presented as “other evidence” but that would be a good question to ask Admissions!
Some schools have holistic admissions and they can ‘give a break’ on the gpa if other areas of the application are strong. Usually the effort put in comes through in the letters of recommendation.
Thank you very much. She’s writing her essay which I have a feeling will be great as she’s a strong writer and has a great idea for it. She’s building her portfolio and we will definitely be bringing her to workshops and another portfolio day to work on it. And, she volunteers, is a leader at her school (shows freshman and families around the school), an elected official in her religious youth group, works on costumes and make up for plays and has always run on track. Even if she comes in last, she keeps getting up and doing these things year after year…and her teachers love her.
You posted that your daughter is a talented artist who works hard at academics, and has an IEP that, I assume, gives her accommodations so she can perform to her best ability. And yet, she has mediocre grades in academic subjects. This, combined with her low SAT scores, make me believe she’d be better off at a school that was all art, like MECA, rather than a school with a traditional academic core, like UMass Lowell. Better to concentrate on her considerable strengths.
Thank you. As you know, art schools are $$$ and she also wants to keep her options open as far as what she’ll do. Although her strengths are in art, she might want to expand. So for those two reasons (money-most public schools are less) and the ability to expand we are looking at LAC’s. She will apply to both. We are visiting MECA, MICA, RINGLIN and especially MassArt (a public art college).
PS I know private schools can fund more…but private art schools still being around 40k-60k a year after merit money.
MassArt could be a best-of-all-worlds option, given that it’s public with possible reciprocity rates, and it has a wealth of cross-registration options if she wants to try coursework beyond the art specialization. Also, the non-art requirements for the BFA programs at UMass-Dartmouth don’t look too terribly daunting, so that could strike a nice balance too. (I would guess that the GE’s would be a little kinder-and-gentler at Dartmouth than at Lowell, which has been ramping up its competitiveness quite a bit in recent years.)
Thanks, Lowell has the animation BFA and I’m not sure that Dartmouth does…but she is open to looking at both. There is also Westfield State but that is a BA in animation and we’ve been told to stick to BFA for the academics factor…>DD will probably do much better in a BFA program.
I don’t really understand why a BFA would be better. My daughter started a theater BFA program, but she was still required to take all the Arts and Sciences and university core requirements. The basic difference was that the BFA required 65 credits in the theater and dance department while another major (like history, where she ended up) only required 40 or so in her major and the rest were ‘free’ electives to take a minor or second major. Many of the required courses for the BFA were not interesting to my daughter and we, to her, just required for the purpose of getting to the 65 credits. Art was a BA at her school so the requirement was also 40-45 credits, but a student could certainly take 60 if she wanted to. Still would have to take all the A&S and university core requirements.
So I asked a few people if having the BFA rather than a BA made a difference once out in the world, and it didn’t seem to.
I guess I wouldn’t rule out schools because they ‘only’ offer a BA and not a BFA.
Thank you, that helps me out. We will definitely not rule out the BA schools.
I don’t understand the argument that she ought to apply to LACS because they’re cheaper, even though her high school results indicate she is likely to struggle in the many academic non-art classes she’d be required to take at an LAC. It’s not cheaper if she ends up taking five or six years to get through.
Thank you, good point.
Rochester Institute of Technology might be worth a look. They are known for both their animation and special needs programs. I don’t know about the cost.
Thank you, I’ll definitely check that out. It looked selective to get into…but I’ll take a looksee. 