University that offers both liberal arts and a strong art program???

Hello - my daughter is not certain she wants to fully commit to an art school so she is considering going to a school that combines liberal arts and art programs. She’s an above average student (4.25 GPA). She is just starting to look at schools so any advice the community has would be appreciated.

Also ask in the Visual Arts subforum: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/visual-arts-film-majors/

That is a great idea!

One place to start is looking to see that the universities you are interested in are accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).

Another good sign is the presence of a portfolio requirement for admission to the art school or major.

Brown/RISD, Wesleyan(CT), Williams College (MA)

Tufts recently acquired the The School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) - (it used to be a partnership like Brown/RISD). Studio art classes are taught by SMFA faculty on both campuses (the undergrad campus and the museum campus). Note that a museum school tends to be different than a design school (i.e. RISD). There are pros and cons depending on what you are looking for.

Bard and Connecticut College

Bard, Skidmore

@dckehoe, For small LACs with strong studio art and art history departments plus excellent overall academics I would suggest Williams, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Vassar, Skidmore, Conn College, Kenyon, Haverford, Smith. In addition to its joint program with RISD, Brown also has an excellent studio art department of its own.

Most BA programs do not require portfolio for admissions (the joint Brown/RISD and Tufts/SMFA programs do require portfolios), however, if art is a significant EC, then it would be a good idea to submit an arts supplement with her application.

I would note that art departments at “full service” colleges tend to focus more on traditional media – painting, drawing, sculpture, print making, photography – and less on design and digital media.

All excellent sugestions above. Is your daughter is looking for a dual degree (BA and BFA)? I believe Cornell, Carnegie Mellon and Temple also have dual programs. If she is just looking for a great LAC with strong art then you have gotten many good ideas above. Perhaps others can chime in but my understanding is that for most grad art programs she can go into an MFA with a BA and does not necessarily need a BFA.

Another school that really excited our son was WashU. It has an art school of its own and it seemed fairly easy to take classes across schools withi the university. Personally I really liked the Brown/RISD program. For smaller LACs he liked Williams, Swarthmore (there is an amazing painter there) and Skidmore. He decided however that he wanted a university experience (not LAC).

Another factor to consider - your daughter’s artistic inclinations. Our son’s art teacher knew he would not like Tufts/SMFA because of the emphasis on modern art. For other students it is great fit.

Dickinson and Denison both have gorgeous facilities – Dickinson’s is in a renovated shoe factory, Denison’s is in the converted “women’s gym” from around 1900, both are gorgeous renovations/reuse. Dickinson also has “loft-like” student housing in the adjoining part of the arts building which had my kid imagining rolling out of bed to saunter over to the arts building and work away to his heart’s content. Denison offers a BFA as well as BA, for those so inclined.

Spend time on the faculty/course offerings for schools of interest to see if they offer depth in the media of interest. Painting and sculpture should be well covered everywhere but we were surprised to find that a number of schools did not offer ceramics as part of the fine arts curriculum, including Vassar, Oberlin, and Kenyon. Ceramics was available as a “community enrichment/coop” program, generally with fewer resources than our high school program.

Our routine for visiting LACs was to set up coach meeting (he was looking to play in college) and also meeting with music and art departments, at least to get a quick tour of facilities. Was quite enlightening to see the resources and even how warm and open (or not) various programs were.

To combine high quality Liberal Arts courses with top notch studio instruction at RISD, you don’t need to be in the dual-degree program, which is aimed at a tiny group of students with highly unusual credentials. You don’t even need to take courses at Brown, which are free to all RISD undergraduates. Since I am a RISD Liberal Arts faculty member I might be biased, but I’d like to encourage students and parents to review the offerings of our Division at RISD, which are comparable in variety and quality to those of a selective LAC except in the hard sciences. RISD is still an “Art school that takes the liberal arts seriously,” even if the BRDD makes it seem that it’s the only way to combine the two modes.