<p>Hi, I'm interested in learning a bit more about art schools.
I have been academically and activity wise very strong throughout high school. I have an unweighted GPA of 4.0 and I took 6 APs my Junior Year of High school. I'm also President of a few Humanitarian clubs. But my real passion is art and it continues to grow as I get older. I'm almost certain that I want to go into art career wise although I'm not a hundred percent sure what. </p>
<p>My question is this: I'm confused on my decision on whether to go to Art School or not. I really think it would be a great idea career wise down the road, but at the same time I desperately want a liberal arts education because I am very passionate about learning about a wide variety of things like history, literature, political science, calculus, etc.</p>
<p>I would like to know rankings for the top schools in the country which also have very good Art Programs. </p>
<p>Right now my list has come down to:
Yale
Brown- (RISD Dual Program)
Carnegie Mellon</p>
<p>Please reccommend any others, or comment on the ones above. What are their strong points. If possibly from the list of top 30 school in US News and World Report you could rank which ones are really good in Art that would be great. Preferably the fine arts like drawing and painting and also a bit of design.</p>
<p>Your list certainly includes some of the best. Other top-notch large universities with specialized schools for visual arts include Washington University in St. Louis School of Art and UCLA School of Art and Design. Rankings though can be deceptive. You may find that you will have equally strong training in visual arts yet easier access to the other disciplines you which to study at a liberal arts college with a dedicated commitment to art. Refer to schools listed in EG90's BFA/BA post below.</p>
<p>My son was interested in an all purpose college instead of art school for exactly the same reasons that you mention. His list included Yale and Brown. </p>
<p>This was before Brown had the joint program with RISD. That program is too new to evaluate -- and is extremely selective -- but Brown has a very good art department of its own. My son didn't consider CMU because, as I understand it, the fine art program is not a traditional liberal arts curriculum.</p>
<p>My son mostly concentrated on small liberal arts colleges and his final list included: Williams, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Kenyon, Skidmore and Conn College. For females, I'd add Smith. All of these have good traditional art departments (not so strong in design, though) and very good academics.</p>
<p>He ended up at Williams and graduated last year with a combined degree in art studio and art history. He was really pleased with the calibre of both. He had excellent internships while an undergraduate and is now working for an architectural firm with the intention of eventually getting a masters in architecture.</p>
<p>UCLA has one of the strongest fine arts programs in the country. NY and LA galleries are always prowling around the MFA shows looking for new talent.</p>
<p>I would also check out Cornell's School of Architecture, Art, and Planning. I've also heard good things about Syracuse, UMich, and Boston University.</p>
<p>The Dual Degree program accepted around 18 people out of 400 applicants, so I'd still check out Brown and RISD separately as well. Out of all the art schools, RISD has one of the strongest liberal arts education. And you can still take courses at Brow even if you don't get into the dual degree program and vice-versa.</p>
<p>As for whether or not you should go to an Art School, it ultimately comes down: Would you rather have your art or your liberal arts education take a backseat. Also take your specific major into consideration, alot of universities with "good" programs tend to have a really unfocused general "studio art/art/etc." major.</p>
<p>Personally, what I did was apply to six art schools and six "normal" universities, and then after the acceptances/rejections I really looked into each program.
(Although my parents forced me to apply to six universities, since I know I'd be unhappy with the majority of the universities' art majors :P)</p>
<p>You should definitely apply to a variety of both art schools and regular schools like Odyism before asking what kind of school you should go to. </p>
<p>Art schools that I'd recommend to you are Cooper Union and RISD. Both of these art schools seem to offer more/better (respectively) liberal art courses than other art schools. </p>
<p>And to your list, I'd add Columbia and UCLA. These schools are ranked high for drawing/painting as well as the non-studioart areas of which you're interested in studying. ..NYU too. It lags behind in ranking for either areas, but they're still good..plus, it's in new york..hee..</p>
<p>In my opinion, Yale seems to be perfect for what you want. I hope they accept you. </p>
<p>University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Their very unique West Bank Arts Quarter (within the College of Liberal Arts) is like the best of both worlds as an "Art School" setting within a major university and all that offers.</p>
<p>For an Art School straight up, I say Savannah College of Art & Design or Kansas City Art Institute.</p>
<p>My daughter applied to the SMFA and Tufts 5-year program. She didn't get into the Tufts portion, but the SMFA admitted her into their 4-year BFA program with Tufts. She loves it! She takes her art classes at the SMFA and her academic classes at Tufts. She will still earn her degree from Tufts, but it is only a 4-year program which is easier on the pocketbook!</p>
<p>Hey I also looked at the RISD/Brown dual degree and was accepted to RISD separately but not the dual degree. Apparently this year they only accepted 3% of applicants. Thus, I am now in the Tufts/SMFA dual degree which I LOOOVE. There are only 14 people in my year doing but we all get along really well. In addition to that I have met some incredible people at both Tufts and SMFA. In terms of art, I am look at Yale for grad school, which is something a lot of my friends who were in the program have gone on to do.
Good luck!</p>