<p>does anyone know about this school's program??</p>
<p>i don't think i've ever heard it thrown around as a strong school for theatre but someone recommended it to me.</p>
<p>on their website, they do not offer a concentration in musical theatre but they do have a musical listed as part of their season. does anyone know how easy it is to incorporate musical theatre courses into your schedule at vcu???</p>
<p>any help would be appreciated.</p>
<p>also, how good is it for the arts in general??? especially film??
someone recommended this school to me and i know nothing about it.</p>
<p>iacboi, I don't know anything about theater at VCU, but their studio arts department is very strong. They have one of the best sculpture programs in the country.</p>
<p>VCU is the "artsy" state school in Virginia. We looked at it two years ago when my son was applying to college. We drove down to Richmond and took a tour of the college and its arts programs. We were unimpressed.</p>
<p>It might be a great place for papermaking, sculpting, woodworking, or ceramics, or clothing design but we learned nothing about the film program, which we were interested in. They got to the film facilities at the end of the day and the door was locked. I can't recall if anything about theater was even mentioned.</p>
<p>My son and I didn't like the look of the campus, which is totally urban. Neither of us were particularly intrigued with the idea of him going to school in Richmond.</p>
<p>VCU has a top rated program in visual arts, graphic design and sculpture. My wife did visit the school. Her reaction was that the area was "scary." There were a lot of homeless around and some folks that she found rather scary. It is not in the best area of the country. You need to check it out.</p>
<p>Definitely an urban school. We visited it last year after seeing another school where she complained about the lack of diversity - this wasn't a problem at VCU - definitely has diversity. The art facility (she wants to major in graphic design) was impressive looking and has a good reputation. Their portfolio review process is a bit intense (they also offer an alternate application project list if someone doesn't have an extensive portfolio). </p>
<p>But, the rest of the school turned her off. The art building is a couple blocks away from the main buildings. If I remember correctly, there was a block or two of run down looking row houses or close houses (can't remember) that were converted into dept buildings and we could see small groups meeting there. Not sure why but I remember this area seemed dark and depressing. We were lucky that classes were going on in the main part of campus (which had more traditional buildings) and we sort of hung out while the students were coming and going. Lots of smoking, trash-talking kids. Maybe it's the urban influence. I've been to lots of colleges, some urban, and hadn't seen this before. Kind of reminded me of the kids at HS that are barely passing. The SATs at VCU aren't very high so maybe these kids aren't exactly into the academics. Truthfully, we were disappointed and my d took it off her list.</p>
<p>On the other hand, VCU offers a pre-med program that is highly selective but it's held on a separate campus in a different area of Richmond.</p>