Photography, film, AND liberal arts?

College Search & Selection
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<p>Rochester is a medium size city on the southern shore of Lake Ontario. It has the Genesee River running through it with some waterfalls. It is home of Eastman Kodak, Xerox, Bausch and Lomb so optical and digital photography are very big. It has lots of mall shopping. Lots of golf courses. Fairly afluent area. </p>

<p>The suburb in which RIT is located has absolutely no character of personality: strip malls, car dealers, etc but they are building apartments and a shopping/dining area next to RIT which might improve things.</p>

<p>Wonderful orchestra thanks to Eastman. Good place for the lover of classical music. Touring musicals. Professional theater. Beautiful Finger Lakes area southeast of Rochester with vinyards, wineries, lakes. Letchworth State Park has some photo opportunities and recreation. Good art museum.</p>

<p>Beautiful fall foliage. Striking winter landscapes. I love the city. Very livable.</p>

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<p>WESLEYAN!! haha they have a film mafia...and an amazing media program. No city though, but great network post college.</p>

<p>also, the Claremont colleges are a really close consortium. all colleges are within walking distance and you can take classes at all the colleges.</p>

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<p>I don't know how difficult a double major in those two areas would be. That'd be a good thing to ask professors from those departments. Good luck!</p>

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<p>I am a student at Bennington, and you really can't call the town of Bennington a city at all. It is a small, charming, typical Vermont town. That said, it is really not isolated. There are many other towns around it of varying sizes, with the city of Albany 40 minutes away. Truthfully, with pretty much any college you go to, except maybe in NYC, most of your life will take place on the campus, and most campuses, including Bennington, have a lot going on all the time. We do, however, go in to town to the movies, to eat dinner, go bowling, hiking, horse back riding, apple picking, etc.
The Field Work Term is an every year thing.</p>

<p>At Hampshire you would double major there, but take whatever classes you wanted, or needed, for either of your majors at any of the other schools.</p>

<p>Both of these schools have very flexible academics, and are considered "alternative" schools, with non traditional academics, schools where you design your own academic program, and often have no grades or tests, so I would learn more about them and see if you are interested in something like that. Others in this category would be Bard, Sarah Lawrence, Reed, Goddard, Evergreen, and many others.</p>

<p>Princetonreview.com can be helpful for getting information about schools, as well as many of the books out there. My favorite was The Insider's Guide to the Colleges, 2008: Students on Campus Tell You What You Really Want to Know</p>

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<p>Have you looked at Brooks Institute?</p>

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<p>allthosethings: thanks for the information on Bennington - the field work term is definitely something that interests me. I'll also look more into hampshire as well as the other schools you mentioned</p>

<p>ebeeee: yes, i have looked at brooks but have decided its not something I'd want for an undergrad experience. i'll def keep it in mind if i want to do something in the graduate field though.</p>

<p>collegehelp: does RIT require or offer many general education and liberal arts courses as part of the degree, or are the programs pretty intensive with not much work outside the major?</p>

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<p>I am not sure how many electives you have to take. I am sure someone in the admissions office can answer that.</p>

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<p>okay i'll have to do that sometime, thanks for the info on RIT</p>

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<p>Jor305, you might want to check out Chapman in Orange County, CA. It's a medium size uni, not too hard to get into EXCEPT for the film program, which is beginning to rival USC's. I know of several kids there who like it very much, it's in an urban area, pretty campus, excellent industry connections. I know they offer photography, but I don't know about the strength of that program. Good luck.</p>

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<p>Hi. So I'll inform you ahead of time, I only skimmed.</p>

<p>Well I'm in the same boat as you, well to a certain degree. I'm really interested in Art & Design, but I can't see myself throwing away the opportunity to also learn a broader Liberal Arts foundation. Thus here are some dual programs I have been looking at. These might be more selective than you were looking for, but nevertheless look at them.</p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon (Dual Degree in the Humanities and Arts)
Parsons The New School for Design alone with Eugene Lang School for Liberal Arts
Brown for Liberal Arts, and RISD courses available for Photo, etc.</p>

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<p>mimom: i know a few people who are really interested in Chapman and I didn't know they offered photography - a rep i talked to at a college fair actually told me they didnt have it! thanks for drawing my attention back to it.</p>

<p>Mallika: i'm not sure what area of the country you're interested in going to school or if you're going to be checking back here, but in case you do, i wanted to let you know about a 5 yr. dual program that Reed has with Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland. PNCA is really fine arts oriented, but they have programs in design and a downtown location. that might be worth a look. i believe Reed allows their students to take art courses at PNCA also. it's very similar to the agreement that Brown and RISD have.</p>

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<p>Chapman could be good, JOR305, IF you like that SoCal atmosphere and IF the photog program is any good. One of the kids I know of was admitted to their film school, loves it. Apparently one factor that was important to her was that the students keep all rights to the films they create (not the case at USC, at least according to her). She feels Chapman is better for a filmmaker interested in the indie movement, while USC would be better for someone looking for major industry connections. I know Wesleyan is very proud of their Film Mafia reputation, but I was really turned off by the fine arts section of the campus (my daughter was interested in music, so we were noticing those facilities everywhere we visited) -- looked like underground fall-out shelters, to me. I figure if you're spending four years of your life (at least) in a particular place, the esthetics really do matter, particularly if you are visually-oriented. We looked at some other places that have good visual arts programs and might be of interest to you (Bard, Vassar, ConnCollege), PM me if you'd like additional details on any of thoses (altho I won't have info about the strength of the photog programs). Best of luck!</p>

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<p>Ooh I actually didn't really think about the fact that some schools don't allow students the rights to their films. Thanks for drawing my attention to that. What exactly does that mean for the student? And is Chapman unique among film schools for letting students keep the rights, or are many schools that way?</p>

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<p>My daughter and I visited Chapman this spring, and the facilities at their film school (Dodge) are AMAZING. Two sound stages, motion capture studio, huge theater for screenings, the very best of editing equipment--it was impressive. They have close industry ties also, so I would guess that the opportunities for internships are good.</p>

<p>No idea about photography. That would probably be through Chapman University's art department, rather than the film school.</p>

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<p>Jor305, sorry, don't have any good info re the rights issues and other film schools, but I think it is something to consider and investigate more thoroughly when you get a list of solid schools. You could also pick up more information by searching thru the "Colleges" section of this discussion board -- all or most of the schools that you will be interested in will probably have a discussion board devoted to that school. There's also a section on "Majors" or something like that, which has a sub-section on Visual Arts that may be helpful.</p>