For sure! Studying abroad for a year was a transformative experience for me personally, and I’d love for my kid to have a similar experience. I’ve noticed a number of schools have opportunities to study abroad at actual art schools in the UK, like UCL or Glasgow. There are also programs in Italy, but I don’t think they are integrated into a local university, which I think is important. That said, Carleton offers a studio art-specific program in the South Pacific that doesn’t sound terrible. 
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We live in Los Angeles and I guarantee an MS/HS art or music teacher teaching in the local public schools makes more money and has better benefits than many, many people teaching in local colleges.
A music teacher at our school recently joked on winning a Grammy that he owed it all to his health insurance plan as a teacher.
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Another idea might be Macalester, which has a consortium with MCAD (Minneapolis College of Art and Design) as well as Hamline, Augsburg, St. Kate’s and St. Thomas.
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I’m a Carleton alum from decades ago. When I was there, the art department was only moderately strong, but I understand that there has been a big investment in the visual arts since I was there. Certainly it is a strong school across the board.
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You might want to check out Colby College in Maine. They have received many large donations to support the Arts, have an actual Art Museum on campus and the new Gordon Center for Creative and Performing Arts is scheduled to open for the start of the next school year. They recently redid their financial aid process and there are now no loans, students with household income under $75,000 (with typical assets) have $0 parent contribution and with under $150,000 (with typical assets) have parent contribution capped at $15,000.
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Interested in Macalester but we’d need merit aid to make it work. I hear good things about it though.
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Good to hear! Carleton sounds like a great all-around school. But what impresses me most is that its students and alums really seem to love the school.
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Thanks for the tip! I ran the NPC, and it’s one of the cheapest schools listed!
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It’s true that LACs use ED to lock in their top athletic recruits, but Williams admits about 40% of its first year class through ED (238 ED admits in 2021) so I think there’s also an element of locking in applicants who are good fits for Williams culture and location, who fulfil what I call the Williams trifecta of academics/arts/sports, like your daughter. Of course ED is only advisable if you’re certain that the financial aid is sufficient.
I hope your daughter gets to visit Williams. The reaction is usually instantaneous: either positive or negative. While there, she should be sure to visit the Clark and MassMoCA museums. These really are world class institutions that contribute enormously to the quality of art education at Williams.
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If your daughter is competitive for Brown, she may well get that much in merit (based on one of the Collegekids, who was not competitive for Brown but still got very nice merit offers from Oberlin, Kenyon, and Macalaster)
That is absolutely the most difficult metric: it is highly personal, and very very hard to know without first hand experience. We have two art teachers in the family: one who went through art school and one through separate undergrad and grad schools; both have taught in several universities. Advice from both of them is the same as the poster who mentioned the interests of the English dept upthread: especially at the small programs, look at the leadership team.
Btw, I am amazed that with all the consortium conversations, the Claremont McKenna group hasn’t come up!
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@momrath , not a rhetorical question - is that 40% going to be all but exhausted on athletic recruits? Williams has over 800 kids on varsity sports teams, and at that particular school walk-ons (ie not recruited) are pretty limited in number.
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We loved Macalester as well. It was one of my daughter’s top choices. Don’t know anything about their visual arts program (we looked more at theater and music). And they do give merit to strong students.
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Good to hear! (I don’t know how competitive my kid will actually be; but her current stats/ECs are at least within the range of such schools.)
Duly noted. What about the leadership team should we be looking at? In another thread, we’re discussing the consideration of (a) getting the intimate experience that is special to most LACs (which necessitates fewer students, profs, classes, etc.) vs. (b) the benefits of having a sufficient peer group and opportunities in one’s chosen major. It’s a tricky balance.
Great to hear! I think Macalester is free to apply to, so it very well may be worth the effort to do the supplemental essays and take a shot at merit aid.
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After a little further research, Colby is now solidly added to our list. Financial aid is fantastic, art department appears strong, good study abroad programs, a Williams-like wintermester thingy, outdoorsy vibes, etc. The only demerit is that it’s not quite as diverse as some of its peers.
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As a minor point regarding Colby, it doesn’t appear that its studio arts facilities will be in the new Gordon Center.
https://news.colby.edu/story/colby-officially-breaks-ground-on-gordon-center/
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I’m not an expert on the ins and outs of how NESCAC athletic tips impact early decision breakdowns; however, I doubt that Williams admitted 238 varsity athletes in 2021 ED round. (Williams website by the way says that 33% of their student body participate in varsity sports, so 660 in total, not over 800.)
Since Williams doesn’t publish the breakdown of their ED admits, we can’t know for sure how many spaces are left after all the designations that the applicant is NOT are eliminated. Along with athletes, they give preference to legacy, diversity of all sorts and, yes, artistic talent, especially music and visual art. They and all selective colleges and universities, know that applicants who excel academically and can also offer whatever plusses the college values will have other choices. They use ED to make sure they can populate whatever initiatives are important to them.
Would my son have been admitted under the RD round? Who knows? ED worked for him. I believe because his visual art commitment and outdoorsy resume were a good fit with Williams’ culture. That’s what I was trying to communicate.
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And some athletes participate in 2 sports, so it may not be 660 students. Many lacrosse players also play field hockey, I don’t know if they count cross country and track athletes as 1 or 2, etc.
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@BentWookie, did you ever re-run the Vassar NPC? I was truly surprised by that. They only do need-based aid (no merit), so it may still be unaffordable, but that is true for some of the others on your shortlist as well.
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Sounds pretty reasonable to me. Calling, @Mwfan1921.
Pretty sure the Williams admission rate was twice as high at the time your son was admitted:
Williams College Acceptance Rate & Average GPA | AcceptanceRate.com
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