liberal arts (and other not stand-alone art) schools in the northeast

College Majors Visual Arts and Film Majors
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<p>Alright, so i've gotten a few recommendations and information in another thread, but i wanted to make a more specific thread. it's also possible that theres already one on the same topic i couldn't find which i would love to be directed to...</p>

<p>Currently I go to SCAD Atlanta, and i feel sooo mediocre about it. i'm making the best of my time here, and one really good thing is that i'm figuring out what i like and don't like about schools, before i had no earthly idea.</p>

<p>I want a school with an actual campus, i'm imagining something nice and grassy, but close to big cities.</p>

<p>Hopefully, coming with that campus, I want to be somewhere with an actual social scene. I can walk around and cool things are going on all over the place, interesting parties and activities on the weekends. At SCAD atl, the dorm i am in is not at all helpful towards creating a social community atmosphere. in fact, even being the friendly person i am, it's been two weeks and i have no friends.</p>

<p>I don't want to go to a tiny school.</p>

<p>I want a school with an excellent studio art program, something that will stimulate my creativity, which i don't really feel here, although maybe thats because i'm having to take beginning classes like 2-d design. Life drawing i do enjoy though, i get to be a little messy in there.</p>

<p>I want interesting academic classes to attend in addition to that.</p>

<p>I want a diverse student body, interesting, intelligent people, with lots of different interests, not just graphic designers, game designers, fashion designers, interior designers....</p>

<p>My boyfriend goes to Wesleyan, and tells me about the wonderful things he's doing and how great the school is, and it all seems very appealing to me as well. I'm not quite sure i could get into Wesleyan, I had somewhere around a 3.4 GPA, 760 reading, 590 math, and 590 writing SAT scores (i'm considering retaking it, i'm sure i could do better in writing at least), i think 30-32 ACT, and a sort of different transfer background. And if i did get into Wes, or something comparable, i'd need plenty of financial aid and scholarship. I could have a really nice art portfolio, so any school that would consider that in the acceptance decision i would be interested in.</p>

<p>here's my list of recommendations so far, i'm trying to research and narrow it down, or add some other perfect match for me, but advice here always seems pretty legitimate... i'm going up with my mom in october, so i need to figure out where i want to visit, and if i am totally mesmerized by some school, theres a slight possibility i might transfer in the spring....<br>
any insight would be nice.</p>

<p>Smith
UMass
Alfred
Bennington
Sarah Lawrence
Williams College
Vassar
Skidmore
Wesleyan</p>

<p>what about schools in boston? or rhode island? i'm guessing brown is just out of my league. i'm still somewhat considering RISD though, and SMFA</p>

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<p>Syracuse would also fit the bill.</p>

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<p>I thought BU's program was quite good.</p>

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<p>Maybe Connecticut College?</p>

<p>I'm not sure if your SATs are used when transferring. Think your college GPA is more important.</p>

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<p>My daughter is in the combined degree program at Tufts and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. She likes certain things about the SMFA, like the huge variety of courses, but isn't sure that all the teachers are that great. You have to be very careful who you pick for teachers. The area around the SMFA isn't that safe. My daughter saw someone held up at knifepoint last December. We did visit Boston University and thought that the art program there looked pretty good. It's more structured than SMFA which might be a good thing. Also, you might consider Mass College of Art which is a block or two away from the SMFA, has some of the same teachers, but costs a lot less.
I'm not sure that I would want to transfer from an art school to a liberal arts college. You should definitely check out their art departments very carefully.
I was just looking at Brandeis online the other day and they have very few art teachers or art courses. This is pretty standard for most of the LAC's.
A lot of the art students from the Boston area go to Syracuse, Alfred, RISD, Maryland Institute, Art Institute of Chicago, Hampshire and Skidmore. I've heard that UMASS Amherst has an excellent art department. Williams and Smith are probably better for art history than studio art.
None of the art schools in Boston (SMFA, Mass college of Art, BU) have any kind of green campus.</p>

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<p>My daughter had the same concerns. Let me make some suggestions:</p>

<ol>
<li>Carnegie Melon</li>
<li>RIT</li>
<li>Syracuse University</li>
<li>Many of the LACS,although they only have studio art</li>
<li>University of Cincinnati School of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning,which my daughter chose.</li>
</ol>

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<p>i'm seriously looking into conneticut college, it's been mentioned to me a few times now, but when researching on their website, i was really not very impressed by the little senior student work they showed.
how important do you think that is?</p>

<p>i want to be surrounded by other really talented artists.</p>

<p>also, they have an long list of studio art courses that all seem pretty good and legitimate, but they have nine professors listed.</p>

<p>how much of a negative thing is this if i plan on majoring in painting? should it just rule out the school, or is nine professors not a big deal?</p>

<p>does anyone know anything or have any experience with the art department there?</p>

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<p>liz, I think with any liberal arts college you're going to be faced with a trade-off; because of their limited size and resources you just won't get the critical mass of talent that you would at an art school or an art department of a large university. The trade off is that you get a liberal arts education and have access to other academic disciplines. </p>

<p>My son looked at Conn College. It has the distinction of being the only one of 14 colleges and universities that he visited that included the art department in its regular tour. The art facilities are excellent and the college definitely funds the department. It's also reasonably close to New York and Boston.</p>

<p>In the end my son decided not to apply there because he had other choices that he liked better. It wasn't so much a negative on Conn College as it was a positive for other schools.</p>

<p>From what you've told us in your other posts, I think Conn has some other pluses for you personally, namely its location and selectivity.</p>

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<p>momrath- i definitely agree, it seems to fit. i was actually about to message you asking about conn in particular because i remember you had noted it before. </p>

<p>i don't so much mind the small number of faculty, but just was unsure of what factor it could play in the quality of education. i might like such a small department much more. especially if it's mostly focused towards fine arts.</p>

<p>the critical mass of talent is something to probably factor though. even here, i've been somewhat uncomfortable with the fact that the teacher always points my work out as being really good, even the best, in my classes. it feels good to be a big fish, but it just feels like my high school art classes. if i'm in college, i'd like to be forced to step it up a notch, to work hard to be the best, hehe.</p>

<p>i'm guessing if i was at a school like mica or risd, it would probably be much different. </p>

<p>many of the colleges i've researched require you to submit a portfolio to be accepted into the studio art major. does anyone know how selective this tends to be? or does it totally vary from school to school? i feel like it might actually be more selective than scad, even if this is an art school. </p>

<p>just to note... i'm getting really interested in UMass as well... it's price is far below the LAC's... but i can take part in them through the 5 college consortium... all sounds pretty good. the art department looks good, the website looks good. i'll probably visit. my only worries are that it might be a little too run-of-the-mill... and not nearly as selective as any of these other places. hmph... apparently even less so than right here at UGA. any ideas?</p>

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<p>liz, I think at this point you should explore all three options: small LAC with good art department, large university with respectable art department and art school per se. </p>

<p>Though you most likely have the intellect and drive to succeed at an academically rigorous liberal arts college (Brown or Williams or Wesleyan) you may have a hard time getting accepted as a transfer student with mixed credentials. The spaces available for transfer students are extremely limited, so you have to be realistic in your expectations.</p>

<p>None of the liberal arts colleges or universities requires a portfolio for admission as a first year; although the presentation of a portfolio is a plus. I'm just not that familiar with transfer requirements and believe that they are variable. All of the art schools and joint programs usually do require portfolios. The top schools are looking for top talent and yes, a school like RISD for example would be very selective.</p>

<p>UMass is a big school and has a wide range of students. I know some very smart kids who have gone there for exactly the same reasons that you mention -- cost, location and access to the consortium. I know nothing about UMass' art department, but my understanding is that Smith's is quite good.</p>

<p>There's a frequent poster on CC named huskem55 who is a recent graduate of Conn College. I'm sure s/he'd be pleased to give you more information.</p>

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<p>Have you considered Bard College? It's an arts-focused liberal arts college.
Here's a link to their studio art website:
<a href="http://inside.bard.edu/studioarts/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://inside.bard.edu/studioarts/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>If you want to get an overview of the school, here's another link:
<a href="http://www.bard.edu/about/history/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.bard.edu/about/history/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>good luck!</p>

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<p>I think one of the major decisions to make first is do you want a BA or a BFA. LACs will not likely give studio art major's a BFA which means you will need to take more academic courses and fewer studio art courses. You need to spend some time looking at the school catalogues to determine what options will be available to you for studio art courses. My daughter transferred from SVA to Smith because of a feeling that she was missing an academic experience. Once at Smith she realized that the studio art offerings, while the best among the five college consortium, were still very limited compared to what was available to her in fine arts at SVA. After one semester at Smith, she returned to SVA. Her biggest problem at Smith was trying to find studio courses that interested her, while her biggest problem at SVA is trying to decide between the numerous studio courses that she finds interesting. If you are finding SCAD to not be that competitive from an artistic perspective, than it is not likely that you would find a BA studio arts program to be that much more competitive.</p>

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<p>hm... alright. i've spent a lot of today researching schools... calling financial aid offices... etc.</p>

<p>it seems that conn college is not quite as off-beat as other liberal arts colleges like wesleyan, but definitely more diverse than it used to be.</p>

<p>i definitely like off-beat. i'm guessing i could still get that off-beatness fullfilled at conn...? and at somewhere like Umass, i'm hoping that even though it may be huge and fratty, its so huge that theres all types of different people there, and i could certainly find the off-beat interesting people/activities/etc... ? thoughts?</p>

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<p>by the way, wesleyan's financial aid office, and even the admissions, was not really helpful at all. it was very frustrating. i can't spend money to apply and visit the school unless i know it could possibly be in my price range. even though i know my efc, 4403, they wouldn't give me even the slightest info on how much money i could possibly be eligible for. </p>

<p>other schools said things like, well other things factor into the decision, but with that efc, heres a very basic range of aid. and it was definitely helpful. </p>

<p>anyone know what the fin aid wes tends to give out is like?</p>

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<p>SUNY Purchase I believe has a very strong art dept, and may be lower priced than the private colleges.</p>

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<p>Just want to add since Purchase is a state school, if you are a NY resident, it would be a bargain.</p>

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<p>The are other ways to approach this. For instance, it sounds like you might want to come to the New England area because your boyfriend is in Connecticut. You appear to be pretty unhappy with SCAD. You can take a semester off and relocate to Boston. Take classes at the Harvard Extension School (a great bargain) and establish residency for MassArt. Another option is BU's Art program. My niece is at BU (not an art major) on a full ride. It is harder for transfers any where. Harder to get in and fewer scholarships and financial aid available. It is early in the year. Can you leave SCAD and get back most of your money? You might consider that if you know for certain that you don't want to stay there.</p>

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<p>wow. SUNY purchase is a huge bargain even out of state. </p>

<p>i'm intrigued. but eh, after looking into it, purchase, and maybe SUNYs in general, seem to have such a very very 'blah' reputation. </p>

<p>any students or students parents know more?</p>

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<p>I am a product of a SUNY education (although it's been a while - ALbany '79). I had a great education and loved my college years. I know many kids here in NY going to SUNY colleges, even some transferring from private ones.</p>

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<p>anyone else have more information about SUNY purchase? it would be the top choice out of the SUNYs for a major in studio art, correct?</p>