FIT is the hidden gem. I agree. It’s got marketing programs in addition to design programs. It offers internships in various industries in the fashion world. It also offers harder to find things like toy design. Because it’s a SUNY it’s also remarkably cheap – at least if you’re in-state. It’s located in the heart of Manhattan central to many of the industries that may hire her. But! She’s not in-state SUNY and it might be very expensive for her.
One other approach is for her to look at a liberal arts college that also offers an excellent fine arts program. Some might be niche programs. She may want to consider –
-Alfred (not the public Alfred but the private one) – the best ceramics program in the country – in Upstate New York. It also has one of the few ceramics engineering programs. And business programs. The school also has the only glass engineering programs.
- Centre – has one of the only fine-arts glass programs in the country
- Juniata – has studio arts and business courses–strong program
- CUNYs – in the city of NY the city university system, there are many art programs and business programs. She might want to look at those. Compared with other colleges, the CUNY system is fairly cheap. It also allows access to internship opportunities. http://www2.cuny.edu/about/colleges-schools/
-University of Delaware – design program – it’s quite good but I’m not sure how cheap it is https://www.art.udel.edu/
-Similarly the Cincinnati design program is excellent – https://daap.uc.edu/academics/design.html not sure how cheap it is
Design in general might be a good middle ground with her parents. She may want to look at packaging design programs (such as at UW Stout) because 1) good jobs placement 2) a good way to use one’s artistic talents professionally; 3) packaging reform is a good step towards fixing the environment.
https://www.valuecolleges.com/rankings/best-packaging-programs/ .
The problem with most art schools is that they can be extremely expensive and offer very little FA and then beginning artists tend to not make much money. It seems like the better approach is from the LAC angle. Also FIT and CUNYs seem relatively less expensive.
As others have pointed out, your degree doesn’t matter. It’s what you can produce – your portfolio. Also the advice to get other skills, such as business, is helpful for getting a job afterwards. I fully agree.