<p>I bet some of you have had this problem. I would like to focus on my art studies, but definitely have other opportunities across academic fields. That's why I could never go to RISD, Pratt, SVA, etc. because it's way too focused on the arts. For example, the RISD/Brown program has everything I'm looking for, but it's way too competitive for me. Cornell's art school within a university seems like an ideal combination, but I doubt my grades are good enough.</p>
<p>I'm looking at Wesleyan, Tufts, Oberlin, BU, among other places. Can anyone else help me with this and comment on the arts offerings at these colleges/ their experiences with studying art at a non-art school? </p>
<p>My son is a freshman @ Tyler which is part of Temple University in Philadelphia. He loves it. His art teacher in hs said he probably could have gotten into RISD or MICA but he decided not to apply to either of those places. He did apply to a couple of other art schools but really wanted the university experience We live in the Boston area so the only school he applied to here was MassArt since it’s a state school. BU’s fine arts dept does have a good reputation, can’t say I’ve heard anything one way or the other about the art programs at the other schools you mentioned. DS was advised when deciding where to apply to only consider schools that require a portfolio as an admissions requirement. Indicates the school is looking for a minimum level of artistic ability to start. You may want to look at Carnegie Melon, U of Cinn, Wash U in St Louis, as well as Tyler.</p>
Hi @MacDac. I gave you my son’s impressions of studio art at Williams over on the Williams board. I think you really have three choices here: art school, a BFA at a university or a BA in studio art at a liberal arts school – either at a small LAC or a medium sized university.
If your objective is to study art, but also take advantage of other academic disciplines and to interact with students majoring in a wide range of fields, I think your best bet is to go for the BA. The size of the school isn’t important. The academic environment at a small school like Wesleyan or a medium sized school like Brown would be much the same.
If you’ve eliminated art schools because they are too restrictive and singular in focus, I think you may find that BFA programs have the same issues. Cornell, WUSTL, CMU are all very strong BFA programs, but they don’t sound like what you’re looking for. The synergy between Tufts and the SMFA is to me a bit disjointed.
Having said that, bear in mind that small LACs generally don’t have well developed offerings in design or digital media. If that’s your area of interest, the BFA may be a better choice.
If you like the idea of the small LAC (and are comfortable with traditional media like painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking) some others in addition to Wesleyan and Oberlin are Williams, Kenyon, Hamilton, Haverford, Vassar, Skidmore, Conn College, Pitzer. If you are female, Smith. I would also note that Brown has an excellent studio art program of its own, even without the RISD dual degree (still very selective, though). All of these also offer excellent to very good art history departments.
My D is in the same boat but we have not really looked at any of those schools because she doesn’t want to go to Boston. She has been accepted at Temple/Tyler and SAIC, the only art school she applied for (and that was mostly just to see if she could get in.) She has also applied to Syracuse and Drexel, which is her top choice because it has a great animation/visual effects program. Still considering Michigan, which has an amazing BFA program.
Hello, we live in Texas and would like to learn about strong studio art programs in the south and Midwest. My D is a hs junior and is considering everything from an art school such as SAIC, MICA, KCAI, SCAD, Ringling to Southwestern University, an LAC in Georgetown, Texas north of Austin. She would prefer a smaller setting, so a large university is pretty much out of the picture. Most of the posts seem to be related to schools in the northern and northeastern US and we would like to know opinions of art programs closer to home.
@texasgal89 - SCAD has a small campus in Atlanta, and even the Savannah campus is not huge. My S’s girlfriend attends Watkins College of Art and Design in Nashville - very small, but she loves it and he raves about the quality of art produced there. She is there on a full tuition scholarship. Washington University in St. Louis also has a highly regarded studio art program, but it is a very competitive school to get into.
One way I researched art schools was to find the National Portfolio Day website and find out which schools appeared at the one nearest to me. There is also a Visual and Performing Arts college fair circuit that might be helpful, I think you can find a link to it at the NACAC website.
@texasgal89 we had the same search 4 years ago as we are also from Texas. In state, there is UT with their gigantic campus (not interested) so we had to expand the search. We decided to focus on the best illustration program with a campus and school that clicked. D did a summer program at MCAD in Minneapolis. Fine school, but a little small for her. SAIC was too conceptual and lacked a true campus ( much to my regret- I had visions of frequent visits to Michigan Ave). I have heard good things about Kansas City and Cleveland. There is also the art school at U of Michigan, but again a big school, little art program and it didn’t meet our criteria. Wash U also has a very nice program, if you want a smaller school with access to other programs. That’s my rundown on the Midwest although I am sure I left out some great programs.
We went to several National Portfolio Days and used them as our chance to visit with the schools we were curious about. Sometimes you can just tell the vibe of the place and save the time and expense of the visit ( like RIT who told us they would accept her portfolio even though it was too conceptual for them). East and west coasts are the same distance and we decided to focus on the East Coast. We really liked Ringling. Again we were looking at Illustration, so not sure how the GFA program is. SCAD gets a lot of press, but I was not interested in sending my child to a For-profit college owned by some entrepreneurs. That’s about it in the 2 hour flight range. Ultimately, D fell in love with MICA. It had the campus, the Illustration program, the conceptual focus, campus access to the light rail and a direct flight home.
Good luck with your search. Frankly, once you resign yourself to putting them on a plane, it doesn’t matter much if it is 2 hours or 3.5 as long as they can fly directly.
We are also in Texas. My d is interested in pursuing a degree in illustration or animation. We have fully paid for 4 years of tuition through the Texas Tomorrow Fund, but are finding there is “slim pickins” at Texas public universities in these fields. It seems that so many of the options are so expensive and far away.
She has been accepted at Temple/Tyler and SAIC, the only art school she applied for (and that was mostly just to see if she could get in.) She has also applied to Syracuse and Drexel, which is her top choice because it has a great animation/visual effects program. Still considering Michigan, which has an amazing BFA program.