<p>This is so odd, but I actually emailed Vassar admissions to find out if a Photography concentration was an option in their Art dept., but she replied back to look on their website. Uh, duh, yeah, I did that and it's not well outlined on their site. It appears to me that if you want to concentrate in Art that you have to take drawing classes and other fine arts requirements along with photography coursework.</p>
<p>So why is this a problem? Because my son is interested in double majoring in Photo along with English/writing (yeah, he's considering Photojournalism too), but he is not exactly an artist other than photography. It matters a great deal to him that he can either double major or minor in Photo. Other schools he's applying to offer Photo as a concentration alone. Anyone heading to Vassar for Fine Arts that may know the answer to this question before I have to email someone in the art dept. ;) thanks!</p>
<p>I believe you are correct about having to take a large, to me at least, of non-photography courses to major in Art at Vassar. I seem to remember some discussion of this here in the dim distant past but could not find that thread. You might try contacting the Admissions department as I expect they can answer this question.</p>
<p>There may be some “create your own major” approach that might work but regretably I think your conclusion about Photography at Vassar is correct. You might look into the program at Bard.</p>
<p>This aspect of Art at Vassar is ironic as they alumae/i magazine just published a great set of photos of Vassar by graduates</p>
<p>[9</a> Views - A Day in the Life of Vassar](<a href=“http://www.vassar.edu/vq/spring-summer-2010/]9”>http://www.vassar.edu/vq/spring-summer-2010/)</p>
<p>Good luck to you and your son.</p>
<p>This comes up a lot for the department, and I think it’s pretty well addressed on their web site - so I’m not surprised they pointed you there.</p>
<p>Students cannot major in photography at Vassar, just as they cannot major in pottery or sculpture or painting. All of Vassar’s majors are based on theoretical foundations of major disciples of study and are not vocational (ie: no business major, but you can study economics to your hearts content, no nursing, but you can study science… etc…). The same goes for Studio Art. Agree with them or not, the Art department feels very strongly that all students, no matter what their eventual focus in art will be, need to have a solid foundation in the basic theories of art itself (composition, color, etc etc etc). Every student must take Basic Drawing for a year, and every student must take at least 4 courses of art history. </p>
<p>It is possible to create your own major in photojournalism - but my guess is that one would still have to take many of the non-photography related courses in the Art department (as has been required for the students in the past who have created their own majors in animation, for example).</p>
<p>I don’t know what your son’s feelings on this topic would be, but it would still be very possible to double major in English and Art (with a focus in photography).</p>
<p>I don’t really see how this is in any way ironic… it’s very true to Vassar’s ideology that students would be required to understand their disciple of study to the fullest and most well rounded way. I’m sure it annoys a lot of applicants. There are plenty of ways to do photography at Vassar that isn’t through a major. But if you are going to study a discipline at the college level, it is very “Vassar” to understand it in it’s most complete context.</p>