@SomaRathore the 5 year program can be daunting but they earn money on their co-ops and you don’t pay tuition while they are on their co-ops. As someone who interviews and hires, Experience is so crucial. With the merit that my daughter received from UC it really put it in the range of UT. My daughter specifically wanted an Industrial Design program so she didn’t look at UT. She did look at University of Houston but we just didn’t feel that their program was comparable. My daughter started her senior year in high school thinking that she would go to art school. She actually got some great merit from some art schools but the visits made all of the difference. She decided that she preferred a traditional campus over a smaller art school. Good luck and I’m happy to answer any additional questions.
@IDtoTX That helps a lot! Thanks much. I was not aware that there is no tuition during the coop time! Is it hard to find an internship? Would the college help them or they find on their own? Good to know that out of state can bring cost down to state level fees! My daughter is in her senior year and pretty decided on art school or a good art program and nothing else. She has been taking classes since last year so it helps with her portfolio and skill too. I know she will get in somewhere of all the colleges she picked but the cost is the biggest worry as academic wise she is good but not extraordinary and WILL NOT study for SAT for a better score 
We are saving the visits to do exactly what we need when we know where she got accepted. It was way too much to visit colleges now and way too many. Thanks again
We haven’t been through a coop yet but my understanding is that UC has lots of companies that they work with to place the students for these coops. They start Sophomore year. There was no portfolio required for admission to DAAP - they focus pretty heavily on grades, test scores and class rank. They told my daughters orientation class that the applicants to DAAP had higher grades and test scores than the pre-med students. It may be worth visiting an art school and a traditional school to see if one of those calls to her more than the other. That could have saved us lots of application fee $! 
Just remember, depending on where the co-op is ,you still have to pay for a place to live and food. It’s not free. DAAP is heavy on design not fine arts. Ask very specific questions to DAAP if you are going the fine arts track. We repeatedly asked for info on the Fine Arts co-op program and got very little back which was not reassuring at all. Co-ops for DAAP’s design programs have been in place for a while, the fine arts is just starting. They did not sell themselves well at all to us- we were not convinced the co-op program had more value then what she would get at other schools without it. Academically my D was top (33 ACT, 4.52 GPA) and still only got offered 3500 to go to UC. VCU Arts and Michigan offered us 10X or more in scholarship money and they required a portfolio to get in. Michigan even flew my daughter to campus for 3 days to convince her to go to the Art school there and all we got from UC was 3500 and information on how parents can take out Plus loans to pay for the rest. UC was the most impersonal school we dealt with.
@DBY2017 Thanks much for this input This shows how differently it works out for each. Yes we are applying in VCUArts and CCS Detroit (Not sure she will get in Ann Arbor Michigan as her scores are not as high as your child). Of now we are keeping all options open and gathering information and definitely all these inside information and personal experiences will help us finally decide. while financial scope is a major factor, if she gets accepted in multiple and we are hoping for her sake that she gets at least a few to choose from, we will have to make the decisions based on all these factors. Probably the biggest decision for us until now. My daughter is an introvert and we do have to take that into account if she has go look for a coop everytime…Thanks so much again. Just worried that with her grades (see the original post) she might not qualify for as big a scholarship as many others.
VCUarts will give aid based on academics , however the starting cost is also lower than most privates . Meanwhile the schools is the #1 public art school and #2 overall for mfa in the nation. D experience as a GD major has been great.
she interned this summer with a exciting artist (well known up and coming) as well as getting invited to participate at the prestigious NY Art Book Fair. She also was offered a grant to attend a GD event overseas. good luck, feel free to pm
me with any questions on VCUarts.
@stones3 please stop insisting the #1 ranking has anything to do with BFA programs. You know it is for the masters program.
Both Tyler School of Art at Temple University and RIT come in close to COA of VCU. Tyler is actually a bit below VCU. RIT a bit above. As has been repeatedly posted in response to this tripe, the lower base cost of VCU is irrelevant due to the historically low levels of financial/merit aid offered by the school. Stones’ seems to be the only case on record that differs from this. This being the case, elite schools such as RISD, MICA, Pratt, SCAD and others, which offer substantial need/merit aid, often come in at least as good if not better than VCU.
VCU’s scholarships are only valued at in-state costs btw. In other words, they can’t give full tuition for OOS students- they give the value of full in-state tuition costs. My daughter got the provost scholarship (which is full tuition- 14k in-state) plus an additional $8,000. That totaled to 22K a year which was less the half the total cost for OOS students. Something to think about.
@DBY2017 - This is an excellent point. To be fair, I think that @stones3 is also referring to need-based financial aid. However, in our personal experience, as well as in the experience of the large majority of posters on this, VCU is extremely tight with even need-based financial aid. In any case, I am quite sure that the factual nuance of your post will not put even a dent in our friend’s representations…sigh
That was my point- they will only give merit scholarships to the cost of in-state, that’s it. VCU is not the gold star stone3 presents itself to be. Sure, it is a good school for art, but quite frankly that’s about it, the university as a whole is not that strong. You also have a hard time finding information on how good the BFA program really is, as you have already stated, everything is rated for the masters program. I am not trying to be difficult, I’m trying to give realistic info as to what to expect based on my recent experience. The original poster’s stats are not as strong as my daughter’s so I doubt they will even see anything like with what we got offered by VCU. You have to be realistic. By all means, still apply and look at VCU Arts as you should do with any school, but be level headed with expectations. Stone presents VCU as being the next best thing to heaven for some reason.
I am aware that the online ratings I am seeing are mostly for graduate programs. But what other way is there to see where a school stands? That is why I am here, becoz I know I can hear first hand experiences and those help way better. Thanks all of you!
As I have listed in the Original post, my kid is planning to apply to ALL of them! and maybe some more. She feels her grades her not strong enough to get her a good scholarship and she does not want to regret any missed chances, which is okay by us since it would have costed us more than application fees to go around the country making college visits to narrow it down. We are saving that for when she gets some acceptance and we know those colleges with their offer can be included in our final list.
What I am understanding from all these conversation is we wont know unless we hear from the schools how much financial help we will get and that sometimes the top colleges work out better than the others? Am I right? So there is nothing but to wait.
We might just end up instate and I am trying to prepare my daughter with that as much as she wants an Art School. But I want her to get that chance to apply and see.
@DBY2017 the aid for VCU with the OOS makes sense and 22K is still a lot. makes it more affordable.
We have a cap per year to what we can afford and can only pick colleges within that reach.
Please keep the information coming! Gives me some peace of mind that I am not walking in the dark.
Here’s the link to the National Outreach scholarship for UC. It’s very metric based - specific ACT score and GPA so you will know immediately if she will qualify. My daughter also received additional money in addition but it wasn’t much more. https://financialaid.uc.edu/cincinnatusprogram/nationaloutreach.html
Sorry if you’ve stated this already, but does your DD have an opportunity to go to a regional or National Portfolio Day? They’d get a chance to speak to reps from many different art schools & get feedback on ways to tweak their submissions.
Some will quietly look at the work, but others will chat and engage with the students giving them a chance to ask questions &/or talk about their work.
They usually have promotional materials to give out too on their programs & course offerings.
I find it best on this site when people speak from their personal experiences while maintaining at least a modicum of objectivity. D2 is a rising junior at RISD. We are very proud of our daughter and of her accomplishments. RISD was the perfect school for her and the benefits she has already received, and those down the road, more than justify her choice and our expense. However, we are extremely mindful that college, even more dedicated art school, is not one size fits all. Some schools excel in certain areas that were not of interest to our daughter. Other schools provide social, geographic or other criteria that may be a deciding factor for some, while not for others. So while we can best speak from our personal experience, we try to do so with a recognition that there are almost as many flavors of ice-cream as there are ice-cream lovers.
There are no definitive, broadly-accepted rankings of undergraduate art schools of which I am aware. While there are limited ones, relating to grad schools, such as the USN, these are outdated and highly inaccurate as posted above. In any case, I would be greatly reluctant to base my child’s choice of art school on the ratings of an affiliated grad school. We gained information first by scanning list upon list of top art schools. While these are largely anecdotal, often subjective, and even a touch inaccurate, there is a commonality among these that can boil down to a top 10 or 15 schools. For instance, there was no such list at which we looked that omitted Pratt, SCAD, MICA, RISD or SAIC. We did the same for top fine arts programs at mainstream universities such as Syracuse and Michigan. This gave us a cumulative list of 25-30 schools.
At that point, the critical decision for us was whether or not our daughter preferred a dedicated art program or one at a larger university. She opted for the former based on her research and her perception that she needed a dedicated program to focus her art work as well as her future career. You do not have to make this decision up front, but it will greatly narrow down your choices, save a lot of time in terms of visiting and applications, and save a nice chunk of change to boot.
The relative importance of grades, standardized test scores, and application requirements more commonly associated with mainstream colleges, is largely a function of the art school. As a blanket rule, dedicated art schools focus far more on your portfolio than on your grades or scores. This said, there are “academic art schools” such as RISD and Pratt, and other dedicated art schools for which good grades and scores may enhance admissions prospects. There may also be merit aid at such schools (although beware of caps such as at VCU).
Great idea about the list. We had an Excel spreadsheet showing each school’s stats, aid and scholarships offered, and the gross and net COA for each. Very informative to see them all on one page, head to head. For the most part, financial aid and merit awards came in contemporaneously with admissions notification. We certainly had plenty of time to consider competing offers.
Accepted students days can be eye-opening. We did these back-to-back-to-back at RISD, MICA, and Pratt. This gave great, immediate perspective and experience. Most importantly, it gave D2 the ability to mix with kids, some who were still considering other options, most thrilled to have accepted and to be at their first choice. I don’t think that I personally was prepared for how much of a decision-point were these last visits.
Yes, you may be surprised by offers from elite schools often rumored to be “stingy” versus less well-known schools from which you might expect more aid. By far the highest 4-year package (merit + grant) our daughter received was from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. This was followed by RISD, Pratt, RIT, and MICA. The best COA at the time, including awards package was at Tyler (at Temple University), with RIT and UA very close behind. However, Mass Art and RISD were about 10% off the top. Loosely paralleling mainstream colleges, we had assumed D2 would get nice offers from ‘lesser’ schools and this was largely the case. The big surprises were the generous awards from those commonly considered top art schools such as Pratt and RISD.
Art School is not for everyone’s stomach or pocketbook. D2 did an entry paper based on comments made on social media regarding art school, followed up with interviews, regarding the support or lack thereof, students received from their parents. In large part, parents were skeptical about committing to a dedicated art school, concerned particularly about career opportunities post-graduation. There were also concerns about a mainstream social life and the likelihood that the student would stay committed to the field. What we found is that our daughter’s passion and natural inclinations made a dedicated art school the strongest path for her. Despite wrestling with the decision, particularly the need to have a college experience like everyone else, art and that focus kept pulling her back.
So keeping pocketbook front and center, your student’s devotion to a concentrated art experience in mind, and an open mind when it comes to potential opportunities from whence you least expect them.
Good luck!
@IDtoTX Thank you for that! Happy to see texas up there and it seems like my daughter falls in the range of requirement is that is the only ones.
@ArtAngst I see dates for the NPD as in September for us in Dallas. So far we are going and hoping to learn more from it
@BrooklynRye I really appreciate your time and all that information. I agree to all of it.
My daughter is not an all rounder period. She is good in a lot of things but will effort in only what interests her. Said that I am observing that she will go to any extent of dedication when it comes to art and is not the kind to care for a social life of the college. One of the main reasons she is wanting to get into an art school is the concentration of Art and Art in them and the environment. Now how much is too much will probably tell her when we do visits.
Yes we have made the spreadsheet with the list of colleges, departments of her interests and which stands good, location cost etc. A friend of ours sort of led us to doing that as he had done the same for his kid. Thanks to him it helps a lot We have all the schools that you have mentioned in the list and some of them I found via this forum and not by online ranking sites.
We will let her do where her passion leads and not exactly thinking of whether she will be at par with a computer engineer 
while the reputation and the placement post graduation do matter to us, but it has to be in what she wants to do. Before anything she has to get some reasonable offers and at this point we dont know. There is not much help at her school, as most kids go the usual path of science or liberal arts. Seeing the statistics out of close to 1400 graduating kids only a handful opted for BFA/Art School line. Very Very few.
Thanks for all your help. I guess every first time is a struggle but we are learning.
@SomaRathore – From the description of your D it sounds like you’ve really got an “art kid”!
Dedicated art schools are 24/7 art. My kid LOVED it. As did her friends. But it won’t fit everyone in the least.
My D had most of her general ed requirements completed before starting at college. But history at Ringling was ART history, science is “science for artists”–you get the idea. The focus was art always.
That doesn’t mean art school is easy by any means. It is so focused on art that it doesn’t leave a lot of time for other things.
Since your D by your description is more introverted, make sure you also look for a school with great career services. (Ringling is one of the best that I know personally). It’s also a good reason to go to a school that has some name recognition upfront. No matter what you do— either work independently or work for a company–it requires self promotion and having the resources of your college is very helpful.
But nobody hands you a job at the end-- success is based on talent and self-promotion.
Look to see what companies recruit from a college and where their new alums are working.
One great site is conceptart.org where people post their portfolios, ask about colleges etc.
It’s a huge forum and as such you only get opinions but it is very enlightening on many fronts.