Good to know about Wesleyan. I had heard it had a good arts program. When I last ran the NPC, it was about $48k though, which is nearly $20k.
I’m definitely planning on rerunning the NPCs for many schools this spring, after I have my 2022 tax returns. I would love to find out that many schools I’d previously crossed out are viable. That said, part of my current process is getting a general sense of likelihoods so that we can strategically approach applications next year and perhaps a few visits this summer.
Since your daughter wants to be OOS you might throw WUE school in the mix to at least allow for that if her list of reaches ends up missing. This way she can still leave the area for low cost. . And the school she chose as that backup would likely be an easy in and app.
I just ran a search and 28 schools pop. UNR usually is listed but wasn’t for studio art.
Portland State and Utah are on our radar. Per their NPCs, they’d be $35k/year. I’m not sure how much merit aid might be available for OSS though. Honestly, for them to surpass a free ride at UNR, I’d want to see them well under $20k. Otherwise, I think it’d be better to save our money for an MFA, etc.
One thing to remember is that in many colleges merit and need-based aid don’t stack, but they also don’t necessarily cancel each other out. We found that on average, with merit (ranging from 20K to 32K) our cost of attendance ended up being $5 to $10K less than what the NPC showed us. Oberlin, by the way, even with a $32K merit scholarship per year, ended up being $10K more expensive than Kenyon and $5K more than Grinnell and Macalester (per year). But everyone’s situation is different.
This is very helpful. It’s very helpful to get at least a general sense of what schools might offer significant merit aid outside their NPCs. Kenyon looks gorgeous. And it may be something of a gimmick, but Oberlin’s art-museum-rental policy is incredibly cool.
LACs and other colleges vary considerably in the volume and type of general education requirements they have, so it would not be advisable to assume that “LAC = more room to explore other subjects”.
Getting a tenured faculty job is generally extremely competitive. Many faculty these days are adjuncts paid (poorly) per course (piecework), with no benefits or job security.
I’m a UCLA alum, so only one of those schools is an option.
(In the name of good parenting, I ran USC’s NPC and it was ridiculous. Full disclosure: UCLA’s OOS is equally ridiculous, which is sad because I loved UCLA and it’s got a fantastic art department.)
Your original list is very very reachy. This would be yet another reach(or maybe not? You haven’t shared stats or course rigor so it is hard to know):
Davidson.
D21 loved the school and was accepted and would have gone if she had not gotten into her first choice. I now have a second kid applying and we toured recently: they have an outstanding visual arts department and they emphasized many different arts on the tour(mine are both musicians and one is a performing artist). All arts are important to the campus and community.
However—like many of the schools on your list it is academically rigorous, and acceptantance will depend on your kid’s stats/rigor not just talent. Plus, merit aid is very difficult (Belk, others), but they do have decent need-based aid I believe.
Best of luck!
I’m going to mention a few consortia that might be of interest.
Atlanta’s ARCHE consortium allows cross-registration between Emory, SCAD, Spelman (HBCU women’s college), Agnes Scott (women’s college), Oglethorpe, Georgia Tech, etc. Emory’s not a small liberal arts college, but it is probably the most financially generous in the Atlanta metro area and it also offers very limited merit aid. But, Agnes Scott is reputed to be very generous with merit aid and Oglethorpe has a Flagship 50 program where qualifying students pay the same tuition as at their in-state flagship. Both are small schools with higher acceptance rates and a pretty decent likelihood of falling into budget, I would guess, and both seem to have a higher percentage of arts grads than many other colleges I’ve looked at.
Another consortium of interest is Baltimore Collegetown. It includes Johns Hopkins, Loyola Maryland, Goucher, and MICA, among others. I suspect Johns Hopkins would be the most financially generous need-wise, but your daughter would be likely to get some very attractive merit aid at a school like Goucher, which also seems to have a fairly large number of arts majors.
Also, does UNR participate in the Tuition Exchange program? I know that’s competitive, but Syracuse, IIRC, has an excellent medical illustration program, which might be of interest to your daughter.
My son graduated from Williams with a dual major in art studio and art history. He swung between a museum career and architecture and eventually settled on the latter for graduate school. He often says that his Williams education and the exposure to various disciplines – sciences, social sciences – has made him a better architect. The same could be said about many professions.
In his college search he concentrated on small (and a few medium sized) privates with good resources for art studio and art history, i.e., critical mass in the visual arts major; good facilities; a substantial number of working artists on the faculty; ideally access to an art museum.
One caveat: LAC art departments have embraced new media unevenly. Your daughter may want to consider whether she’s primarily interested in illustration, design, video or digital arts versus traditional arts like painting, drawing, sculpture, drawing, print making. She needs to make sure that the department has invested in whatever media she favors.
My son’s shortlist was Williams, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Kenyon, Conn College, Skidmore.
Others that I’d add would be Vassar, Oberlin and Haverford. And Smith for women.
He admired Brown and Yale, but really preferred an LAC experience. He liked Swarthmore and Amherst, but didn’t feel they had their hearts in the visual arts.
Good luck with sorting out the financial element. If the visit is positive and NPC workable, your daughter may consider applying early decision. I think it helped my son considerably at Williams (but visiting first is absolutely necessary).
Excellent questions. At the end of the day, it’s her future and her call, although the financing will necessarily be a collaborative affair. At this point, I’d like to be able to understand that moving parts and options so that I can advise her. We probably won’t be able to afford a private admissions consult, so I’ll do my best to fill that kind of roll.
Anyhow, so far the kiddo hasn’t expressed any strong opinions yet. We’ve talked about LACs, art schools, big public schools, private universities, and BFAs vs. BAs. She understands that an art school is probably too expensive, and she slightly prefers a broader education. At this stage, she’s open to going to the East Coast and open to all-women’s colleges. She probably doesn’t want to go to school in a super urban environment like NYC, but that could change. She’ll probably do a four-week pre-college program at BU this summer, and I expect that will be greatly informative for her. (It’ll also likely provide an opportunity to visit a few East Coast schools.) In short, I’m trying to put together a large menu of diverse options for the kid, but I understand that she’ll ultimately be the one ordering the meal.
As an aside, I’ve noticed that folks on these boards often presume a mutually exclusivity between diverse options. As an example, people might presume that a kid cannot equally enjoy and thrive at both UCLA (large public in a city) or Williams (small rural LAC), that it has to be one or the other. Whereas, I think many kids could have great experiences at either school. To be sure, some kids have strong preferences and are very inclined toward certain environments, and in such cases those kids’ wishes absolutely should be honored. But, absent such strong feelings, I think it’s better to be open minded to all options, at least at this stage.
Understood: It’s reachy for a reason: We have a tuition-free option at the state school where I’m employed. And, the kid has the resume to at least be in the running for admission for most of these schools. (Although I gotta say that it’s disheartening to read these forums and see so many examples of kids with impeccable credentials get declined at so many schools.)
Interesting to hear about Davidson. I actually visited it a couple weekends ago when I as there for a wedding in Charlotte. It’s certainly a nice school and it gets personal bonus points for yours truly as Steph Curry’s alma mater, but it’s a little outside our price point per their NPC.
Sadly, it doesn’t, which is a shame because there are some really good schools that participate. And thanks for the Baltimore/Atlanta consortium recommendations! Will look into them.
I’ve read a ton of older threads on related topics here, and I’ve officially drank the Williams kool-aid. Williams should be paying you by the post. Anyhow, Williams is an ideal situation. You must be immensely proud of your son. It’s my kid’s ultimate call, but in many ways Williams is a good fit for my kid, who lives in a small mountain town, is artistically and academically strong, participates in three varsity sports, and is a ski team coach at our local resort’s youth ski team. (She’s not strong enough at any sport to be a recruited athlete though.)
I’ve heard mixed things about the advantages of Williams’ ED though–e.g., that it’s overwhelmingly used for recruited athletes.
The point about new media is well taken. This is a particular point we’ll need to consider. At this point, we’d probably prefer a school that offers sufficient general options to allow art students to explore but need not necessarily excel in a particular medium.
If your daughter does decide to attend a non-art school as an undergraduate, she nonetheless may be able to spend a year or semester abroad at an art school, commonly in a setting such as Italy, Great Britain or Ireland.
Anyhow, Williams is an ideal situation. You must be immensely proud of your son. It’s my kid’s ultimate call, but in many ways Williams is a good fit for my kid, who lives in a small mountain town, is artistically and academically strong, participates in three varsity sports, and is a ski team coach at our local resort’s youth ski team. (She’s not strong enough at any sport to be a recruited athlete though.)