<p>My 11th grade daughter is looking at colleges and wants to major in art. </p>
<p>She would prefer to attend an LAC or University, instead of an art college, but is put off by the general ed courses required to graduate. She is not math & science inclined, but enjoys Literature, History and Social Studies courses.</p>
<p>She is passionate about art, an average student, about a 3.2… is only taking Honors & AP courses in Art. Has not taken the SAT yet, average amount of EC’s. </p>
<p>Any suggestions for colleges, (other than Brown U) that don’t require any or very few General Ed courses?</p>
<p>Bennington, Hampshire, Bard, Sarah Lawrence, these schools have no gen ed classes and will often take a student who is somewhat average academically if they have a real strength in a particular area and are passionate about it.</p>
<p>I would definitely recommend taking a look at Bennington. There is a strong, creative art program here. Many of my artist friends really love the freedom and resources that they have at Bennington.</p>
<p>Don’t forget that there are many colleges that have large numbers of courses that meet their distribution requirements. If there are only one or 2, areas of general education that she wants to avoid, she can probably find schools that offer low stress alternatives - just a thought if there is a school with a strong art department that is otherwise perfect in every way.</p>
<p>This may take a little more research into the actual course catalog, and offerings over the past few semesters.</p>
<p>Thank you all for some of the college suggestions; I’ll take a look. </p>
<p>cangel- yes I’ve been looking at more course catalogs than I care to count just for that reason! </p>
<p>evitajr1- she has been looking at art institutes & art colleges, but I think she would benefit from a liberal arts background rather than just studying all art classes.</p>
<p>Brown is probably the most well-known school that requires no gen eds. University of Rochester only requires English. </p>
<p>Some schools require gen eds,but don’t mandate which gen eds. For example, Carnegie Mellon requires Freshmen English and then requires approximably 8 courses to be taken from any college outside of the the school that the student is majoring in.</p>
<p>How about Vassar, Oberlin, or Wesleyan? You might want to look into Skidmore also - not sure about their general requirements. University of Michigan, Syracuse University and NYU all have great art programs but I can’t speak to their other requirements.</p>
<p>smith has no gen eds…you basically just have to take a writing-intensive class during your first year (these can be found in most departments…geology, government, art history, etc) and complete a major.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t exactly say that Oberlin has few core/gen ed requirements. There are no individual courses that are absolutely required, but you have to satisfy requirements in a number of categories including at least nine hours each of humanities, natural sciences, and social studies. Additionally, you need nine hours worth of courses for cultural diversity, two writing-intensive courses and one or two (depending on subject matter) courses that include an element of quantitative proficiency (i.e. math). Some courses count for more than one requirement, e.g. the same course could count for three hours of social studies, three of cultural diversity and one of the writing-intensives to boot.</p>
<p>It sounds like the major drawbacks for the OP’s daughter would be the natural science and quantitative proficiency requirements. There are courses available that would allow her to get these out of the way relatively painlessly, such as Intro Astronomy, Psychology and the Arts, The Physics of Sports, etc…</p>
<p>Does she want to major in studio art or art history? I will second adn third Vassar. No requirements outside your major, and phenomenal art dept. (Art history better than studio art,but incredible theater/drama programas well). You might also consider Rice, Williams and Amherst. As has been mentioned, Brown has no requirements.</p>
<p>I think Sarah Lawrence would be good! No gen ed other than you have to take a couple courses in (of your choice) from outside your department (so an art major could take creative writing and theatre, or psychology, world religion, a language class etc.) And Sarah Lawrence looks at more than just GPA (they dont even look at SAT scores) they are much more interested in students with a passion for what they do. It’s also a well respected liberal arts college with a beautiful campus and its only 30 minutes from NY city (lots of art opportunities) but it’s located in a small rich towan that is beautiful: average income in the town is like 250,000. It’s a small school and used to be all girls but is now co-ed (though iths still about 3/4 female). Students can also design a lot of their own major at Sarah Lawrence and take classes that they are interested in! Your daughter probably has a good shot of getting in if she writes a good essay explaining her passion for art!</p>
<p>Bard has a core curriculum of sorts and distribition requirements in math and science as well as humanities, and is now rated as “Most Selective.” It is not an Ivy, but is also not for an average student who wants to avoid math and science altogether. Information posted here about Bard is incorrect. It’s selectivity is new but it has had the core and distribution for a long time now.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the suggestions, although most of them (Smith, Vassar, Brown, Oberlin, Williams, Amherst!, Rice) are not schools that would likely accept my daughter. As I mentioned, she is an average student (3.2). </p>
<p>Kaitylyn- We did take a look at Sarah Lawrence and she seemed excited about it, so we are taking a tour next week. </p>
<p>We will probably take a look at Hampshire as well.</p>
<p>We did check out Skidmore (heard the visual arts program is one of the best) but they have a fairly rigorous set of gen ed requirments.</p>
<p>Goucher would be a good fit for your daughter’s grades. They have a very strong art department, with some excellent art study abroad options. The general education requirements are very easy to satisfy - more distribution requirements than specific classes. My daughter liked that she would be able to take psychology to satisfy one of the two math/science classes in the distribution requirements, for instance.</p>
<p>My daughter is most likely going to be attending Beloit College in Wisconsin next year. They have a good art department, a good on campus art museum, a student run art gallery in the town, and some interesting off-campus study options for art majors. They have also just received a major donation earmarked specifically for the art program, which will be used to create an endowed chair and increase the faculty size in the art department. Distribution requirements are very flexible — two courses each in these divisions: humanities, social sciences, and math/science, but there is a lot of flexibility and the dist. requirements seem relatively easy to satisfy.</p>
<p>Other non-art school possibilities, depending on what she is looking for, and her test scores: Wheaton College (Mass), Lawrence U(Wisconsin), St. Olaf College (Minn), Southwestern U (Tx), Alfred University (NY), U of Denver, Hollins (VA), Lake Froest (IL), Knox (IL), Muhlenberg (PA - probably a bit of a reach), Southern Methodist (TX), Wittenberg (OH), Centre College (KY), but there are many others.</p>
<p>Although I have always been quantitatively strong (Econ major, MBA), I was never interested in science. I found ways to use math courses to fulfill my college gen ed “science” requirements. As an adult citizen of the world, it has been something I regret. My eyes glaze over on too many science-related subjects. When I retire, one of my first activities will be to find some interesting science courses at a “senior college” or similar.</p>
<p>I would advocate looking at schools whose art programs appeal and whose gened requirements can be fulfilled in ways that might interest her: seminars on science-related topics etc. (rather than traditional bio/chem/physics sequences); astronomy maybe, geology… Something that will round out her education - I think there is value in that.</p>