My daughter was accepted to all schools she applied to for Art Education and now she’s having a hard time deciding. Her top 3 are VCUArts, JMU, and Tennessee (we live in Virginia). She also got into Ohio University, East Carolina, and West Virginia.
The obvious choice seems to be VCU but we just visited JMU for a portfolio review and they made a compelling case for their art education program.
Tennessee has been one of her favorites since last year and while it would be more expensive, it offers her more flexibility academically to add a minor or double major in another area like psychology. She also really loved the campus and Knoxville.
Would appreciate insight, particularly from anyone with direct knowledge of these specific programs.
It’s odd. UTK is considered one of the ugliest campuses, routinely on the Princeton Review list and JMU one of the nicest. But of course everyone is entitled to their opinion. I prefer JMU except for the I 81 running through the middle.
It sounds like she prefers the city. If so, VCU had a well known program and cheaper tuition. UTK is a great school but teachers are underpaid and so many leave the profession while young.
No reason to overspend for that career unless you have $$ to burn.
I can’t help about the particular universities and their arts programs. But I would think about some of these questions:
How much more expensive is Tennessee than her other options? Has she received any merit/financial aid to reduce the cost? Will she be required to take on any debt for any of these options? If so, I would eliminate those immediately.
Where does your daughter want to live after graduation? Although there is a big need for teachers now and in the coming years, the number of positions for art teachers are much rarer. I have a strong suspicion that arts programs have been cut more deeply in Tennessee than in Virginia, as well. But if she’s wanting to live in Tennessee, then going to UTK might help build some connections there.
Has she visited all the campuses? Has she mapped out a semester-by-semester course plan to see how much more flexibility Tennessee really offers, or whether any of her other options compare? Are her particular art interests better suited to one university’s art program or another? Or perhaps another factor, like study abroad, or the number of hours of observations or practicums included as part of her education degree?
Are the class sizes going to be similar, or will one of the universities provide a significantly higher percentage of smaller classes? Does she get priority for art classes? Are sufficient classes offered so that students can take the classes they need and graduate in 4 years, or are people having a hard time because the university is offering too few sections for the number of interested students?
If she wants to teach in Virginia the option to stay instate and save some money while being trained in the state standards and expectations does help some with teachers. There is reciprocity between states of course, but it does make it easier.
If she is also interested in psychology I would think art therapy may be of interest, too. Have her look at the undergrad course catalogs at the classes she may be interested in taking.
The schools of education should be thrilled to have her. Where are they being most enthusiastic and where do you feel like they have the most resources to support new teachers?
We find it so interesting that UTK is considered an ugly campus - we all honestly thought it was beautiful. We loved the open spaces, lots of trees, and most everything we saw was either brand new or recently renovated. We also loved that it was walkable to the downtown area, which we also found very charming.
The cost is a minor factor - we’d love to save the money but we could also afford UTK. She does not have any merit money coming from these three schools although she was offered merit at Ohio U which would have made it comparable to the in state Virginia schools.
Tennessee is around 41k where the others are 25-26k so it is significantly more expensive. She has visited all three campuses and liked Tennessee and JMU the best/equally for campus feel.
We are in the process of comparing the actual course programs and mapping out what each year would look like. All have study abroad options although JMU admitted it might be hard to fit it in with the teacher requirements and still finish in four years unless she did a summer program. We need to go back to folks at UTK and VCU and ask those same questions.
One advantage to UTK is that if she decides to bail altogether on studying art she would already be within their College of Arts and Sciences and probably able to shift gears to another major (we will confirm this) while the other schools have their art teacher education within a School of Art or similar.
She has no idea where she’d want to live after but she does know there are many benefits to staying within Virginia if she wants to teach here.
She is also interested in art therapy and a couple of her other schools did offer more developed programs/majors (Ohio U and West Virginia) but she is thinking education for now. I wonder if she might go back at the graduate level to pick up more on art therapy.
To your other question, we did feel like JMU’s teaching program for art sounded very well thought out and it has a 100% placement rate which is hard to beat. Hoping to ask more specific questions on this at an open house at VCU in February.
Thank you to everyone for your thoughtful responses and insight. Keep em coming and we will keep you posted!
I’m sorry that I don’t have information about these specific programs other than the fact that I am familiar with VCU’s reputation and have read about their programs.
As a retired educator, I can tell you that student teaching and other school externships can make or break a teacher preparation program. So, I would ask questions of people associated with these programs. How soon do they get their students out into the schools? How much time do the students spend in schools prior to student teaching? I would ask to speak to students in each program. How do they feel about the quality of their placements in schools? How did their friends feel? Are placements uneven such that you have to get lucky to get a good placement or are they uniformly of high quality?
The best art teachers I’ve known are those who think of themselves as artists first and then bring the experience of being an artist into the classroom to wake up the artist in each of their students. Do schools affiliate with the college for student placements allow their art teachers to be artists first? To view their classroom as their studio? Are there adequate facilities and supplies?
My point is that student teaching and other pre-student teaching experiences in schools should expose emerging young professionals to the best of what being an art teacher can be. It should give them a model of excellence to strive for in their own work. That won’t be found just on campus.
Yeah. I live in Tn. It’s a split of kids going UTK and Bama where I live. If your test score is high Bama is less. I travel for work and stay downtown Knox. To me not charming. Just a small city. Wasn’t trying to talk you out. Opinions like that are self related. Niche rates UTK a B- campus and JMU an A+. Everyone thinks differently and that’s fine. I’ve seen lots of construction in Knoxville for sure.
Surprised WVU or UTK didn’t offer merit. I know UTK has a table so you know b4 u apply what to expect if anything at all. . Ohio U is out of she wants a city…for sure.
In some ways UTK might be better due to the second major although I imagine you could do that at the other schools too. At least at our schools teachers are mainly young and for whatever reason leave the career sooner than later. So may be nice to have a back up.
If you can afford it and it won’t strain your finances long term or for funding grad school then send her where she wants. I do know vcu is considered strong in art.
Yes, most colleges have study abroad, but some make it possible to study majors that might be more challenging to study abroad. For instance, people studying history, foreign languages, many humanities, etc. can have an easier time studying abroad. Programs for science majors, engineers, architects, and education can be more challenging. Sometimes those people need to take a lot of their electives or distribution requirements while they’re abroad. But sometimes universities have programs where students can continue to study their major while abroad. I do know that there are some schools that have education/teaching exchange programs in the UK, and perhaps in other locations as well. Do any of these schools have those kinds of study abroad options?
Right now your daughter wants to study art education. But if there are alternative careers/majors she’s considering, whether it’s art therapy, arts management, etc, then I would also look at those other degree programs and how much of the coursework overlaps in the first couple of years (i.e. when most students change majors). As none of these fields seem as though they would be high demand (unlike computer science), I doubt there would be much difficulty changing majors even if it is from one college to another.
Would that $60k (the difference across 4-years) change what might end up happening for your D’s experience? Whether that’s having season sports tickets or theater or ballet tickets at her college, or having a single room after freshman year? Does that mean multiple study abroad experiences over the summer, or parental support while taking unpaid internships that provide valuable experience? Or is this money for grad school or a house down payment or…? Or would all of these extra/supplementary experiences be possible at UTK as well as at one of her less expensive options?
OP here - we finally told DD that Tennessee is off the table. We did the math and can’t justify the difference in cost. My husband didn’t realize it was a 5 year program, and I didn’t realize the COA was closer to 50k than 40k so for 5 years……it is just too much. Now she’s deciding between JMU and VCU and I think she can’t go wrong.