<p>HI I have been accepted at a few LACs and am wanting to know which would have the best studio art program, and a great campus life with liberal students.</p>
<p>Accepted:
(in order of liking)
Brandeis (waitlisted)
Franklin and Marshall (spring option)
Skidmore
Denison (13k scholarship)
Knox (8k scholarship)
Beloit
Wittenberg (17k scholarship)</p>
<p>Rejected:</p>
<p>occidental
lafayette</p>
<p>Waiting to hear from: </p>
<p>MACALESTER</p>
<p>it would be really helful if i could get some good help in finding out the right college for me </p>
<p>Skidmore has a very good reputation on the East Coast. The studio classes look pretty strong and the theatre department has a very good reputation. I saw some very well done (by students) handbill designs and posters for the various plays so the design/graphics department looks to be pretty strong. The art building looked very workable and functional and is a dedicated art buillding (couldn’t tell from you post if you’ve been there or not). We toured in summer so there wasn’t much student artwork around but I thought it looked like a good set-up for someone who wanted a smaller liberal college experience while studying art. I must admit to being very partial to the town, I think it’s really a great location. Oh yeah, and the place has restaurants all over that had really really good food and lot of choices and they’re all on the food plan. Probably the best eating set-up we saw in our tours.</p>
<p>By place I mean the school itself, great restaurants downtown too but the way they’ve set up their eating arrangements was impressive as was the on-campus food.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for sharing the experience with me … i would also like to get some info about the other schools …and comparisons … making this decision is gonnna be hard =( </p>
<p>I am from NY and loved Knox. I visited because it is supposed to change lives not so much of art but I did check faculties’ bio and Yale MFA s somehow happy teaching in this sleepy town near fleet train tracks but not much else.
Art facility is old-sh but nice, works are really good, senior show brochure design was better than some low end artschools’
If you did well on that, you’d get stay another year free doing TA to prep for grad school. One girl happened to be named Katie Bell made it to RISD grad while playing Quiditch.
Have you visited all schools yet?
It really hard to tell without seeing it during school is on. Knox was summer, that is regrettable.
I have seen fancy NE schools and had certain idea about what good colleges should look like, then at Knox, saw neighboring tykes kicking balls or riding bikes on the campus ( no gates, no security, no keep off the lawn) asked my tour guide is that OK? and she said why not?<br>
indeed why not?
The library was one of the best. I can live there, not their musty cinder block doom.</p>
<p>D2 and I visited Skidmore last June. Still a few students around for the summer session. We didn’t have the best tour guide and it was a dreary day and D2 didn’t like it (especially compared to the great tour guide and sunny day we had had the day before at Hamilton).</p>
<p>The admissions building had quite a few student paintings in it and D kept whispering to me all the things she thought was wrong with them. She loved the town though.</p>
<p>Greenwitch states that “The admissions building had quite a few student paintings in it and D kept whispering to me all the things she thought was wrong with them.”</p>
<p>However my caution would be that not being familiar with G’s daughters preferences or thoughts about what constitutes “good” painting you should take a look at the Skidmore web site. They have galleries with examples of student and professors paintings and see if it’s an approach that appeals to you. It looks to be pretty traditionally rooted and definitely not something that would probably attract a person leaning towards Cooper, MICA or SAIC so it’s a personal preference sort of thing also. </p>
<p>I’m not familiar with the other schools you listed but generally I think that most liberal arts college art departments are going to be what you make of them yourself and most will not be cutting edge. </p>
<p>But Skidmore has a pretty good gallery section so see what you think. I didn’t see anything that knocked my socks off but I didn’t see that at RISD either in the painting area. Cooper probably had the strongest paintings I’ve seen but it’s Cooper…highly selective and very competitive.</p>
<p>As I said, I thought the graphics pieces I saw looked very good, the sculpture facilities looked very up-to-date and might I add safe (outdoor working space, good ventilation, which certainly doesn’t describe Cooper’s sculpture area) and as I remember it the ceramics area was good. I think you have to figure out what is a good fit for you personally and you can make judgments by looking at students/professors work but it’s always going to be what you make of it.</p>
<p>You say you’re looking for liberal student and campus, I think you’ll find that there. The campus is pretty (winters can be cold though), downtown walkable and many students are from NYC so that would automatically give you a liberal edge (LOL).
Good luck</p>
<p>I hope you don’t mind my “mothering” a bit here but I took a look at a couple of your other schools and I’d say the art departments are all pretty traditionally rooted, actually maybe even a bit more than Skidmores. I noticed they are in small Ohio towns, remember that with Skidmore you get the comfort of a smaller but pretty hopping little town that is just a short distance from Manhattan and the Metropolitan and MOMA. A little FYI: I’m a working designer with BFA in fine arts and was a NYC resident for over 30 years so a little biased about the museums there. But that’s a big plus to be able to go once in awhile and see all that.</p>
<p>Thank u so much artsmarts for ur input… it has made a big difference to the way i look at my colleges… just some information i thought id get through in this thread is that im from India. So having a diverse crowd is quite important to me, and i am trying to reach a formative and unbiased decision.</p>
<p>I think you’re on the right track. Just looked at Brandeis, that looks very strong. I think you’re listing of “likes” in terms of arts is on the money. Don’t know the area that well but Boston is interesting and I liked the Rose Museum. The list of visiting artists is good. So if you get moved off that waitlist I thought that looked like a good choice although I’m only judging by names of visiting artists and museum holdings.</p>
<p>Otherwise I think you’re listing in order of “likes” looks pretty accurate. Good luck and actually thank you, gave me the opportunity to look at some schools I was unaware of, it was interesting and again my apologies for the unsolicited “parenting” LOL again!</p>
<p>And lastly, just so I don’t steer you wrong, by short distance it’s about 4 to 5 hours from Skidmore to NYC which is actually very close compared to your other options.</p>
<p>problem with Skidmore far as I know is almost always plan B school for NYC area white girls ( heavy) who rather wanted to be in Yale Brown Wes Vassar Swat but couldn’t. You can like, bring your horse there with you, your roommate could be that girl with the horse with tons of parents’dough, and Saratoga springs could be very wrong place if you are not that kind of girl or boy (few)
I haven’t gone there because can’t do day trip from Manhattan by public transportation and after seen Con College, sort of got it, I could be wrong…grain of salt.</p>
<p>Yes, actually I think you are wrong. I know they took quite a few public school kids from NYC the last few years. I think it’s a pretty mixed bag and diverse in terms of background and financial situation. I certainly didn’t get that impression. It’s definitely more diverse than the two Ohio schools this person is looking at. I think both Brandeis (wait list) and Skidmore are the better choices according to the list if this kid wants a pretty liberal student body and some diversity.</p>
<p>"I certainly didn’t get that impression. " By this I mean the impression that it was just a lot of white rich girls…certainly more diverse than what you’d see in a small midwest Ohio school. I think any of these East Coast liberal arts schools are going to have a fair amount of wealthy students as well as others with not so much wealth. I think at either Brandeis or Skidmore you’ll get a lot of variety.</p>