<p>sooo this thread has been pretty empty... but if anyone has any information on the studio/fine arts program at oberlin, i'd love to hear about it.</p>
<p>You listed Hampshire in the thread title and Oberlin in your post.</p>
<p>oh... haha. embarrasing. i was asking this question about a couple schools, but here, i am definitely interested in hampshire.</p>
<p>Hey Liz,</p>
<p>Have you visited Hampshire? A visit can help determine whether it's a good fit especially since it's such a unique school.</p>
<p>Each studio arts student at Hampshire gets assigned studio space during their Division III (Hampshire's equivalent of the senior thesis). You probably heard that Hampshire's part of a consortium with UMass, Amherst, Mt. Holyoke, and Smith. In my opinion, this is the school's strongest asset because it combines the best of a small liberal arts college setting-dedicated professors, small classes-with the resources of a large research university. As a Hampshire student taking a course at one of these colleges, you can use their facilities and find mentors/advisors from the other schools. Hampshire's such a small school and another benefit of the 5-college consortium is that it allows you to meet many more studio arts students. </p>
<p>Having said this, here are some possible drawbacks for you to keep in mind: </p>
<p>1) Hampshire's academic program is set up so that every student basically undertakes his/her own indepedent study program. As a result, students tend to specialize very narrowly and this can be very isolating especially if you're the only one studying a particular sub-specialty within studio arts. It's not uncommon for two Hampshire students studying the same field to have never met each other let alone share the same courses. By the way, this again is where the consortium can be your saving grace.</p>
<p>2) State of the art facilities and Hampshire don't exactly go together. Besides its size, the school is handicapped by a paltry endowment. </p>
<p>3) I've been told, and this was over three years ago so this bit of news may be outdated, that studio arts students with an interest in more classical, realistic styles feel unsupported by faculty.</p>
<p>My advise would be for you to contact the faculty members and talk to them about your interests and gauge whether you can see these people as mentors/advisors. You might want to also show them your portfolio.</p>
<p>Goodluck!</p>