Hi, looking for recommendations for possible schools schools that may fit the list below:
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Affordable
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Strong visual arts program (drawing, illustration)
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Can double major in another academic area (possibly with writing?)
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Very strong liberal arts
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Disability friendly (will have a service dog)
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Diverse/Inclusive (LGBTQ and Latina)
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Has very strong arts culture
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Prefer that sports not be important or dominate social scene
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Prefer greek life not dominate social scene
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Prefer collaborative environment
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Size of school doesn’t really matter as long as art community is engaged and active
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Location of school prefer something near a city that has arts
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Left leaning
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SAT 1540, GPA 3.9 (at rigorous boarding school)
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Tons of activities and leadership related to art, music, community service
Love the vibe of Brown/RISD or Reed/PCNW - but can’t afford either of those programs…
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What is affordable to you? 50/30/10k per year will give you different lists. Have you run a NPC on a college website that gives good financial aid (Brown) to make sure that you don’t qualify?
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For us, 20K a year is doable, 30K would be stretch. (We will have twins entering in 2022 and we are nearing retirement age.) Brown NPC says we would have to pay 44K a year. Brown, by the way, among the ivies, is typically provides less need based aid than the other schools.
Even if my kids did get into Ivies, I think we need to focus on schools that have both need based aid and scholarship opportunities.
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20k normally requires a full tuition tuition scholarship. R&B plus other non tuition items can be anywhere from 12-20k. Even though you may not need a full tuition, it is easy to find something more than half but less than full. Also, you can’t always assume that financial and merit stack. The merit may reduce you need and therefore your financial aid. It isn’t always easy to tell if they stack.
If you will have 3 in college in future years, I recommend that you re-run the NPC calculators with that information, because your NPC should go down drastically.
Are you also considering straight-up art colleges with meaningful/strong liberal arts courses? Laguna College of Art and Design has strong foundational/classical art programs and they offer a creative writing minor. They are also a bit less expensive than some other art programs. Otis College of Art and Design also has a creative writing minor. In both cases the end degree is a BFA, not a BA. I’m in the process of researching CA schools, so just happen to know about these - I assume some of the other art schools may have similar programs.
Are there in-state public universities that are suitable, based on affordability, academic offerings, and other characteristics?
Maybe look at Colorado College and try the NPC? The arts facilities and exhibition spaces were amazing. The student would have to be comfortable with the block program, however, which is almost unique to Colorado.
Tufts/SMFA would be another, but I can’t see why the aid would differ significantly from what you are seeing with Brown and Reed.
What’s your home state?
SUNY Purchase and UNC Asheville could both be worth a look - sticker prices are half what private U’s cost, and merit could reduce that further. Both have very strong arts programs and solid liberal arts academics.
U of Utah is more left-leaning and inclusive than most people assume, has strong BFA programs (in both visual and performing arts) and a great Honors College with meaningful interdisciplinary collaboration, gives generous merit and also allows students a path to residency after the first year. Utah seems highly likely to be affordable given your D’s qualifications, and Honors would put her with a high-achieving cohort.
I think that bigger public schools probably will have the best programs to blend two different areas like art and writing. If she’s not interested in the Greek and sports aspects, just ignore them. I think students in the art programs usually form their own groups of friends and just ignore the activities they aren’t interested in.
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Applying to Brown wouldn’t hurt–they’ll match aid from any schools that meet 100% of need. MMRose is also right that you NPC will go down a lot.
CC Studio Arts parent here: this is not the right time to apply for Colorado College as a studio arts student. Although the faculty is AMAZING, the main building was demolished just before COVID, and the student space is severely limited at this time. Our SA major is unfortunately planning to transfer. It is breaking our heart. IF they pull together an appropriate space by the time that your daughter is planning to attend, I would recommend it. All of the professors are absolutely excellent, particularly Kate Leonard, and the university culture would be a perfect fit for your daughter. The block program is ideal for art majors - when our daughter was in an art block, she spent 14 - 16 hours with her classmates in the 3D studio (now gone). I really, really hope they pull it together, but it was kind of a perfect storm situation. Their top administrator had a planned departure, COVID hit, and they have had acting administrators all year who are great guys but completely overwhelmed.
We did a fairly exhaustive search in junior year, and learned a great deal about the variability of art programs. Lessons were learned from a number of generous sources in the visual arts section of this board: I strongly recommend that you review that forum and read through threads. There are some excellent parents in that community with deep knowledge. Some things we learned 1 - Look at the senior arts portfolios online to see if the style resonates with your daughter. Our daughter was interested in classical, representational art. This type of program is not taught well in many spots. For example, when we looked at Yale, there was absolutely noting representational. Conceptual art is much more in vogue, even though employers really value classical drawing and representational skills. 2 - RISD is an example of a very rigid curriculum. Everyone takes the exact same coursework for 2 years. Tufts/SFA is an example of the absolute opposite. With the exception of a few required courses, it is an entirely self driven program. If you look at the curriculum for those programs, you can then think through what you would prefer. Our daughter was really excited about the facilities and direction of Tufts, and it was a strong second choice for her. She got in ED to CC, so she never heard back on a decision. 3 - If you do, in fact, want a representational art program, the fine arts department chair of Laguna College of Art and Design is AMAZING. Our daughter took a precollege course with her. Her class also contained undergrads at LCAD. There was one person in the class who was entering her senior year at Boston University. She had gone to BU for specific faculty, who left before she arrived. She said that she learned more in that precollege class then her three years of undergrad, and was returning for a postbacc. LCAD has very little residential availability, and no real “food” areas, so campus life is limited. That said, you are in LAGUNA! 4 - Another school that gives generous merit scholarships to students like your daughter is Loyola Marymount. Loyola is GORGEOUS. Although the address is Los Angeles, it is far away from downtown and feels more like a beach town. We had a long conversation with the department head, who said that there program is a “throw back” to the days where students were focused on traditional art skills. Many students (e.g., dentistry and ?? animation) take courses in the department. We were not candidates for need based aide, but Loyola gave us the second best merit aid. (The max was from Westmont College in Santa Barbara - she would likely have had a full merit ride from them had she not withdrawn her application. Christian college - required chapel services - not likely a good fit for your daughter). 4 - Another strong contender for our daughter was Santa Clara University. Jesuit school with an excellent reputation for academics and a very impressive art program. She was quite excited about this one as well, and received a decent merit scholarship.
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Wow, thank you for all the insight! My son is Junior in HS and I had just discovered this website. This is very informative. We felt the same about Yale art. We visited the Yale Galley few years back and it left a lasting impression on my son. However, when we looked at their website and the student work recently during college search, my son called them foo foo art and was not interested in it at all. We live 30 min from LCAD and that’s one of the choice for him. He wants to study entertainment design and both LCAD and ArtCenter offers it. Do you have any insight on ArtCenter’s program as well?