Best College for Art?

momrath
Sun, 16 Sep 2018 05:26:14 +0000

@Tyc777 I think your daughter needs to divide her options into general categories and then consider the pros and cons of each category. Art is a big field, both as a career and in style of education. There are many roads to success. None is better than another, just different.

First, your daughter should think about whether she wants to attend an art school or a traditional, “full service university.” This may be stating the obvious, but at a college dedicated to art and design all of her colleagues will be studying art and design, pretty much 24/7. This can be either a plus or a minus depending on your inclination.

At a full-service university or college, your friends, roommates, classmates will be studying everything under the sun and extra-curricular speaking events, performances, seminars will similarly reflect a wide range of disciplines.

Within the context of a traditional university/college, your daughter will also need to consider whether she wants to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) or a Bachelor of Art (BA) in art. Most schools only offer one or the other. Again, neither the BFA nor the BA is better than the other, but the focus and emphasis is different.

The BFA is generally a 5.0 year program which is more narrowly focused on studio than is the 4.0 year BA. Opportunities for exposure to other disciplines (other humanities, languages, sciences, social sciences) are generally greater within BA programs, though each course requirements vary widely from school to school.

Your daughter has strong grades and score which would make her a reasonable candidate for most traditional universities and colleges. For art schools and most BFA programs, her portfolio would be a key factor in admissions. Her art teachers and mentors should be able to give her an idea of what schools that require portfolios are looking for.

Since she’s going to be applying in three months or so, she really needs to accelerate the decision about what type of school and which degree. Her long list may include all of the above: art schools, universities/college with BFAs, universities/colleges with BAs. From there she can narrow in based on what you can afford, location, size and pervasive culture. Visiting will help a lot.