Questbridge partners with strong studio art?

Paying for College Access Programs (Questbridge, Posse)
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<p>S was accepted to the Pre-College Program. Yay! He will apply in September to the College Match (not sure yet if he will rank colleges) Even if he does rank schools, he may not be matched in which case he would end up forwarding apps to partner schools. Which makes it worth it, since I can't imagine how we would pay for it all.</p>

<p>So since he was accepted to Pre-College (conference and nominations for campus visits and summert programs) QB seems like a possibility -- of course not a guarantee. Anyway as I look at the list of partner schools there are a few that frankly I have never heard of. I seem to remember on his QB app he marked off "interested/never heard of" and other responses. Of course we have heard of the big name schools and many in the Northeast (where we live). But I just came across something that indicated that Colorado College for example has Studio Art as one of its most popular majors, and I had never heard of it. S wants to double major in Math and Art (painting). Any opinions? Especially ones that might be off the beaten path? Everyone knows Yale is known for art, but are there especially any where QB kids would have a decent chance of getting in?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>Alright I spoke too soon. An exaggeration to say Studio Art is one of the most pop majors at CC…however with around 20 kids in senior show and a decent sized art department, it looks good. My point is that we didn’t know much about it, which makes me wonder if there are other QB schools he should look at for art. </p>

<p>So far Yale, Williams, Brown (+RISD), Wesleyan, Vassar, Oberlin have been suggested. He’s a guy so Scripps is out. Columbia and Princeton and Stanford are really selective, not sure he should try them in addition to Yale and Brown since they all have less than 10% acceptance rates (too many mission impossibles, setup for more heartbreak?) Tufts’ cross reg with SMFA looks more conceptual/abstract than S’s interests.</p>

<p>A friend suggested UVA – thanks Sybbie! – and it turns out they have an Art Scholars Program which allows advanced students to skip ahead to intermediate classes and mentoring from the start.</p>

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<p>I am an intended double major in neuroscience and studio art so hopefully I can help. I wouldn’t recommend Oberlin (great school, but it seemed like instrumental music was where the focus was). If he does the match I don’t think he can do the Brown/RISD program (or he would risk Brown but not RISD and would need to be ok with Brown without RISD), but I would check that to make sure. Wesleyan, Yale, and Swarthmore I recommend for sure. Tuft’s program is good, but if it isn’t what your son is looking for, maybe he should hold off. Washington and Lee might not be a good fit based on his current list, but I liked their program. CC’s program seemed good, but make sure he is ok with the block system (it is one of those things you will either love or hate). Also I am not super familiar with Pomona’s program, but recommend him looking into it.</p>

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<p>All of the colleges QB partners with are excellent. You can get a Fiske Guide which does a good job of describing the colleges. Just to comment on the above, Brown students can take a certain amount of classes at RISD without being dual enrolled. But Brown is supposed to be very good stand alone as well. </p>

<p>You can run the Net Price Calculator on the college website or Big Future to see what you might have to pay. Be aware that a good many schools that ‘meet need’ will have a student summer earning component and a school year work/study component in addition to any family contribution.</p>

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<p>Thanks everyone, I guess we really have left no stone unturned. All the advice on CC has been extremely helpful.</p>

<p>Hoping for some college visit invitations from QB partners. We’ll meet reps at the Princeton conference. Brown-RISD is an ideal situation, with its incredible, renowned math dept AND the best-knwn traditional art school, RSID. We loved it, but the admit rate is extremely low; Brown is almost as hard and admit as Yale so if by a miracle he did get into Brown, he would defintiely try for RISD, which visits his art school regularly to host a Portfolio Day.</p>

<p>Williams in particular looks great among the LACs but he has yet to learn about the Art Dept (he does have knowledge of their math dept). Same for the other LACs. He loved Swarthmore but did not get into the studios for a sense of the program there. But from visits to other LACs, it is easier to find great math at a great school than great art. S has done figure drawing for 5 years so he is ready to step it up. </p>

<p>The thing is that we are trying to find some more likely admits, in other words over 20% acceptance rates. His stats are high (790 M/750 CR, 98 UW average, 10 APs) but judging from this year, there are no guarantees!</p>

<p>Colorado College was a new one for me, it looks good. </p>

<p>Pomona (another difficult admit) is next door to Scripps and their faculty seem to collaborate a lot, plus they have a brand new studio facility. Although to be honest to S the facilities are not nearly as important as the profs and the level of challenge. </p>

<p>I should add that we are also looking at non-QB schools. Financial aid is paramount for us. Even a full-tuition scholarship leaves room and board and other expenses! S found Conn Coll, Kenyon, Skidmore, Brandeis. Wash U, Carnegie Mellon and Cornell for a dual degree but again those are difficult admits.</p>

<p>At the non QB schools financial aid is trickier and we are shooting for either a math or art merit-based scholarship to supplement need-based aid. Yes, I know about stacking, but it’s worth a try. In our case even a couple thousand dollars a year will make a huge difference. Kenyon has an art scholarship, Skidmore has a math scholarship. I have run net price calcs on all of them but without being able to factor in scholarships, it is hard to get a good estimate. Furthermore, they are all a gamble. I have learned here on CC that even 100% need met schools can be unaffordable.</p>

<p>Thanks everyone, it’s a wide net and Sybbie also suggested a safety, a SUNY with an honors program for a BFA. S will have enough to work with to start narrowing it down. </p>

<p>I appreciate all the support and good advice.</p>

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<p>I don’t know the quality of the studio art or math program at Denison (never went that in-depth with research) but I recommend your son look into the school. They have a STEM scholarship that is something like $44,000 a year (renewable). The don’t advertise it, but he will probably get invited to apply (not a hard application either)…</p>