<p>My daughter is in the dual degree program and has found it extremely difficult.
The art courses meet for twice as many hours as the academic courses and they expect homework on top of that. It is hard to schedule courses between the two schools because the art classes meet from 9-5 one day a week which makes it tough to schedule academic classes. Also, don’t underestimate the amount of time it takes to commute between the two schools. It takes 45 minutes from Tufts to SMFA one way. We found out last year that 20 students were accepted into the dual degree program for the class of 2006, and only one student completed the dual degree program that year. When we asked Susan Lush at the Museum School about that, she said one reason for that is money. We are experiencing that problem ourselves.
We are probably going to have to tell our daughter that she can only get the BFA degree because we can no longer afford five years of college because of the bad economy. My daughter was so excited about this program since she is an excellent academic student and a talented artist, but the reality has been a little disappointing.</p>