<p>Look folks, Here is why I believe that SMFA Students really get Tufts diplomas. I will be guessing, thus, I admit that I could be wrong. However, what I am about to say is logical even though I didn't want to post it on these boards.</p>
<p>I think that we can all agree that colleges around the country try to support art and music on their compus. Colleges also feel a strong sense of commitment about art and music almost to the same extent as they do about diversity and about raising selectivity in admission, at least for private schools.</p>
<p>Also, if you check the average SAT scores and GPAs for stand alone art schools, you will find that they dont' generally have high SATs or GPAs. Art kids generally think differently than most other kids. Admitting them based on the usual criteria of GPA and SATs would probably be a big mistake. Art kids are primarily judged on the strength and breadth of their portfolio, although some art schools do insist on have decent credentials. Check out RISD and MICA who have average SATs of around 1210. Cincinnati's DAAP school also has very decent average SATs and GPAs ,but they don't use portfolios for design majors,which is a big exception from the norm.</p>
<p>I should note that I am both stereotyping and generalizing, which can get me into trouble. Certainly, there are exceptions such as Lola's boy friend. However, a fair review of average SATs and GPAs for stand alone art schools does seem to confirm my hypothesis that art kids tend to have much lower academic credentials than that found at Tufts.</p>
<p>SMFA is a good art school but is not ,in any way, a stand out compared to other art schools except for their painting offerings. and a few other fine arts offerings. They have some of the lowest SAT scores and GPAs when compared to a number of other comparable schools and, as some have noticed, have a very high acceptance rate. This concept is reinforced by ratings. You will never see SMFA/ Tufts art program ranked anywhere near the top 25 by anyone for either undergraduate or graduate programs that I have seen.</p>
<p>In addition, although they do have courses in applied art, they admitted that other schools have better applied art programs when I contacted them a year ago. Thus, many other private, stand-alone art schools are more in demand and have more offerings.</p>
<p>Moreover, they really can't compete for good Mass art students because Mass College of Art is not only a better school overall in my opinion, but MUCH less expensive since they are a state school. Thus, I don't think that SMFA would have survived on its own for long. Obviously, this is conjecture.</p>
<p>By associating with Tufts, numerous advantages accrue to both institutions. First, SMFA gets more potential applicants. This becomes especially true because kids get Tufts diplomas, which is very desirable. They may even get some funding from Tufts.</p>
<p>Tufts wins in that students and faculty have access to SMFA courses. This allows Tufts to entice many more students with the notion of strong art offerings. Although SFMA may not be one of the better overall art schools, it certainly offers more courses than that found in 99% of universities, and I am not exaggerating this figure. This saves Tufts a lot of money because they don't have to establish and fully fund their own art program. The same can be said with Tuft's affiliation with NEC too.</p>
<p>Finally, Tufts wins by helping out a potentially struggling art school, which is within their perceived mission</p>
<p>The key issue, as I reflect on this, is that Tufts doesn't want to formally merge with SMFA because the SAT and GPA scores of SMFA stuents would be much lower, generally, than that of Tufts Kids. No one wants lower overall SAT scores and GPAs for U. S News and World Report rankings. Having separate admission's departments and separate schools, at least on paper, augments both the average SATs and GPAs for Tufts. </p>
<p>This should answer your concerns as to why SMFA kids get Tufts degrees. It certainly is a logical answer.</p>