My daughter will be a senior this year and we have started to narrow down colleges. She is more interested in Graphic, Visual, Communication Design sort of work (some film maybe) rather than just studio art, though she wouldnt mind that for a stronger foundation. We are in Texas, and with the cost in mind she will apply to The college of Art and Design in UNT and also the Fine Arts College of UT Austin. But these are not her first choices. These are the colleges we have looked into so far:
SCAD
PRATT
SVC
PARSONS
Tyler School of Art, Temple Univ
CCS Michigan
SAIC
MICA
VCU
RIT
RISD (maybe)
(Hunter CUNY and Cooper but she does not want to apply there for diff reasons - low acceptance rate in Cooper and the initial BA and then the move to BFA for a long 4 year degree)
Looking into UArts and Mass Arts
We were suggested PNCA by a neighbor however we havent seen much about it yet
The cost is a big factor for us and if she does not get a good amount of scholarship we cannot any of the above except for the ones instate. What would you suggest should be the top priorities to apply? I cant see her apply to 15 colleges. What should we look for when applying? What increases chances for any of the scholarship?
She is a sort of introvert kid pretty good and confident in art.
Have been taking private art lessons since 9th grade
Have a GPA of 4.1
SAT score is 1300
Have taken quite a few AP classes including 2D design (got a 5) and Art History (got a 4)
Have some community services including serving in a senior home quite regularly
participated in VASE and have been selected to participate in Youth Art Month
Had art selected for gallery exhibition in UT Dallas
Any information and suggestion will help. We are overwhelmed!
Thank you!
D attends VCUARTS was accepted to most of the top schools and she loves it there. Is a GD major. Has had many opportunities outside the school as well, from internships , to sell works, to being in shows in nyc. Suggest a visit.
Thank you so much for all your feedback. I do believe my daughter has a chance of getting into multiple schools with her portfolio. But the fees would have to be our criteria to pick. UT Austin is a state college and we dont know how the finearts is compared to other top rated art colleges, but we are wanting to keep a safety net just in case.
Any suggestions to what other colleges can be kept as a backup which are comparable with the high ranked ones, not difficult to get in and affordable ? (Ha! that sounds like a dream!)
@SomaRathore From my DD’s experience (she applied to 10 schools), the better financial aid was mainly based on her grades since everyone applying to art schools is usually a pretty good artist!
From your list, I can tell you Pratt surprisingly gave her a lot of merit aid and made it close in price to the schools that might seem less expensive initially. She ultimately chose Temple/Tyler which also gave her generous merit aid. UArts and RIT were also very generous packages. The others were less generous.
I would apply to as many as she can handle. And also attend a national portfolio day event in your area to meet reps from the schools. Visiting is great but can wait until later, especially if it’s far away!
She may look at DAAP at the University of Cincinnati. They have a great program that is co-op based. They also have scholarships for TX residents based on scores/grades. My daughter is starting there in 2 weeks and can’t wait!
Yes! I just contacted my friend to find out more about DAAP. Thanks much for the confirmation we will put that on the list now. Do they require an initial BA/BS program before they can move to BFA or do they enroll in a BFA right away? Would you be aware of that? She is interested in Graphic Design but I didnt see a program option for that and they also not requiring a portfolio.
@veehee Yes she is trying to apply to as many as possible.
The only issue is she is refusing to prepare for SAT for a better score We have not visited any schools yet. We will come to that after she applies and hears the offers.
You may want to try and plan some visits if you can to narrow down the list. Seeing the studios, students’ work on display and teachers in person made big impacts on my kids’ decisions on where to apply. And I’ve heard from many in admissions that the more ‘engagement’ your student has with a school the more it may sway financial aid packages. They DO understand the costs of visiting and touring so even things like having your student follow the school on social media is tracked by admissions.
Thank you much for that tip. We couldnt do any visits saving them for the final selection once she knows where she got in. Our school starts soon and being in middle of Texas everything we looked into seems far away to make individual visits. But she can do the social media definitely and start communicating via email at least
@SomaRathore I don’t think it’s a BFA since it’s not a typical art school. You graduate with a BS. They don’t require a portfolio. Admission is really based on grades/scores and class ranking. https://daap.uc.edu/academics.html
DAAP is only good for industrial design. It is weak for Fine Arts. Also, the co-op program is new and just started this year for Fine Arts. They hardly have anything set up for it and they could never give any good answers about what to expect from it. UC is also very weak when it comes to any type of merit aid. It is a nice school, campus is great but for Fine Arts I would look elsewhere.
Hmmmm… we are wanting to keep some backup colleges in the list becoz we know even if she gets in there is more chance that we wont be able to pay and we wont be taking loans here. That is the reason we are looking into fine arts department of the state colleges which perhaps are more affordable than the art schools. But I could be wrong becoz we really still are new to this…
@DBY2017 I do see its a 5 year degree becoz of the Coop. I talked to a friend who knows someone who did fashion designing from DAAP, but that was quite a few years back. She got to intern in NYC so I was assuming that they have good internship programs and curriculum to be easily placed after graduation
Look at the UC forum- unfortunately they seem to spread out the merit aid over more students than awarding large amounts. Won’t hurt to apply, just don’t have expectations of a lot of aid from them. We were not impressed with the response we got about the FA co-op program and if you look on their website they only have a few paragraphs about the Fine Arts program. In Ohio, we were more impressed with Kent State and Bowling Green’s Fine Art program than UC. Like I said, for design it is a different story, but for Fine Arts in painting/drawing etc, not a strong program.
@IDtoTX Congrats to your child!
Are you in texas? Have you looked into UNT Fine Arts and UT Austin Fine Arts schools? What are your views? Being in state and more affordable we have those as backup lists but I see they have very limited programs and not much review whatsoever.
@DBY2017 got you. We are actually looking into the communication design. The 5 year is still bothering my daughter a bit, co op or not. Yes I did see the chances of aid is less probably becoz of the comparatively lower cost.(but then one extra year probably evens it out) I also noticed that there is a lot to be done to keep up the aid if one gets it. 15 hours of community service per semester? We will def look into Kent and Bowling Green. Thanks much
@gouf78 she is definitely applying there. That is very assuring to know that they are generous. I was also reading about the Pratt Utica, but I am not sure how DD will do in a such a small environment
We have not visited any schools yet. We will come to that after she applies and hears the offers.