BFA while already having a BA advice

College Majors Visual Arts and Film Majors
1

Hello,

I’m hoping to get some advice on getting a second bachelor’s degree.

I recently graduated from a public university with a BA in Studio Art (no concentration). I’m feeling myself wanting to go back to school, but the idea of an MFA, while appealing, isn’t appealing to me as much as the idea of instead getting a BFA at a private art college.

I don’t regret my BA at all, as without it I’d have never figured out what I really wanted to do in the first place. I went into college kind of unsure of myself, and didn’t really figure out what exactly I wanted to do with art until I was almost finished. I sort of treated my college experience as an exploration of different kinds of art, and the only downside to that is it’s now left me feeling a little unfulfilled in my art education. Also, I now know that I am most interested in illustration, something that was not taught at the school I graduated from (and generally doesn’t seem to be offered at many public universities).

I feel like I would benefit a lot from going to a private art college, specifically in terms improving my skills and making connections to the industry and peers.

I’d like to hear some thoughts on this! I know I can’t be the first person whose been interested in doing something like this, but I’m having difficulty finding information online. Any advice?

2

Some colleges state that second bachelor’s students receive no financial aid.

3

Look at the requirements for getting a BFA at a separate school. How many of your BA credits will they accept? Will you have any core curriculum requirements? At your original school, you may not have been required to meet core requirements but at your BFA school you might. My daughter was doing a BFA and she had to meet all the core requirements of the Arts and Sciences school, plus her major. It was a lot of lower level classes (she changed majors, in part because of it)

I think you might find the BFA just as demanding as the MFA, and with the MFA you may have more courses that you want to take.

4

You might look into an associate degree program. Pratt, for instance, has a couple of options for illustration:

https://www.pratt.edu/academics/school-of-art/undergraduate-school-of-art/associate-degrees/aos/illustration-aos/

It’ll be only 4 semesters so less money than a full BFA. You might compare the level of rigor in something like this vs. an MFA somewhere.