Columbia Art??? (undergraduate)

momcinco
Tue, 27 May 2014 20:00:34 +0000

Hi, glad to hear that you are on this path – S is also a junior with the same priorities (his other strong interest is math). The impression I have gotten – and I hope others will chime in – is that the art grad students get the attention at Columbia. This said, Columbia is still on S’s list. The dep’t is large and there might be something said for making friends with MFAs. He loves the school and the fact that your student id will get you into the Met aka Heaven-on-Earth.

Definitely try Williams, Yale and Brown. These are all difficult admits so be sure to vary your list!

Depending on your medium you might consider other schools. Photography, for example, would be strong at some schools (look at Haverford) but not at others. If you are interested in cinema studies, Wesleyan is amazing. If you are into conceptual art, Tufts has a dual degree program with an art school in Boston.

UVA has an Arts Scholars program which requires a portfolio at admission; it provides mentoring and allows you to skip introductory art classes depending on your skill level.

You probably already know that Cornell and Carnegie Mellon offer both BFAs and BAs, as does Wash U.

Brown has a joint program with RISD but it is a long shot for anyone (as is Yale, and for that matter, regular admission at Brown).

For liberal arts colleges I would add Conn College and Kenyon. If you are female definitely Scripps, Smith. I think Bowdoin, Hamilton and Colorado College but haven’t looked into those departments closely enough to swear to it. We are also hoping to look at Brandeis (they have a post-undergrad portfolio program for MFA hopefuls, so it must be strong dept).

There are other posters on CC who have more input, they are very experienced. Best of luck!