I’m thinking about double majoring in a STEM major and fine/studio arts or something of the like, so I’m looking for schools with good art programs, but aren’t necessarily art schools. I know of a few, such as Carnegie Mellon, University of Michigan, Yale, I think. What are some others?
What state are you in?
@“Ya Ya” I’m in Michigan
What type of art? We are in the same boat, and are finding that it is very important to look at the specific types of art. For example, Carnegie Mellon was way, way too abstract for our DD, who is into STEM (specifically biology) and art.
@puretruth
University of Michigan would be an excellent choice, IMHO.
I loved this part http://stamps.umich.edu/career/degree
@shoot4moon I’m thinking more fine/studio arts, with computer engineering. What do you mean by Carnegie Mellon art is “too abstract”?
@“Ya Ya” Thanks for that link! My parents tell me sometimes that I won’t be able to do anything with art heh… But I think otherwise haha, and that just proves my point. Other than U of M, do you know of any other colleges that excel in both STEM and art?
For me STEM + Art means something like industrial design or medical illustration. You can design cars better if you know how they work, right? You must know anatomy and biology to draw something related, right?
So you should probably look at universities that have art classes in this area.
I really don’t know what you want to study in STEM area so I can just give you some examples from Texas (doesn’t mean you have to apply there, you can probably find something similar in Michigan)
Texas is known not only for oil and gas but recently for IT and video games.
University of Texas at Austin (I know this university best)
This year UT opens Center for Arts and Entertainment Technologies http://caet.finearts.utexas.edu/ after opening GAMMA program several years ago http://gammaprogram.utexas.edu/ They also included there former the Digital Media Institute, current Simulation and Game Applications Lab http://sagalab.utexas.edu/
If you are a Fine Arts student and interested in studying CS more seriously, you can get Elements of Computing Certificate https://www.cs.utexas.edu/undergraduate-program/academics/elements-computing.
If you are student at College of Natural Sciences (any major), you can chose BSA degree and minor in FA https://cns.utexas.edu/students/degrees-majors-advising/degrees/bsa
For example, you can study biology and minor in Studio Art, no problem. Can do medical illustration later
You can also get BDP certificate in Digital Arts and Media https://www.utexas.edu/ugs/bdp/current/curriculum-sheets in addition to any CNS major
I heard a lot about programs below and met people who studied there, but I don’t have personal firsthand experience
University of Texas at Dallas
has Arts and technology program, and degree is called Bachelor of Arts in Arts and Technology
http://www.utdallas.edu/atec/
Texas A&M University
has Visualization program in College of ARCHITECTURE https://viz.arch.tamu.edu/
The program is mixture of CS, Fine Arts and Design classes.
@“Ya Ya” Wow, thanks for that comprehensive post! For the STEM part, I was thinking computer engineering/cs, so maaaybe some interaction design type of thing. Further than that, I have no idea. I’ll have to do some more searching around.
Look at USC- University of Southern Calif.
It has both a college of engineering -Vertibi and a college of fine arts- Roski School of Art and Design.
. USC encourages students to double major or major/ minor in diverse areas
@menloparkmom thanks! Will take a look.
Also look at Rochester Institute of Technology.
I found these rankings. How accurate would you say these are?
http://www.collegefactual.com/majors/visual-and-performing-arts/fine-and-studio-arts/rankings/top-ranked/
http://www.collegefactual.com/majors/visual-and-performing-arts/design-and-applied-arts/rankings/top-ranked/
i wouldnt trust this website.
Its a “big data” site that just aggregates and regurgitates information from other site, like CC.
One thing to keep in mind is that Art and STEM are GREAT together. A new trend in k-12 education is to go with STEAM rather than STEM. Those with creative vision as well as technical prowess will do great things in our new information/visual culture. You do not have to be stuck with “arts” or “STEM” specifically when you graduate. If your creative and analytical sides of the brain are trained well, it opens up a world of possibilities. Check out John Maeda (computer engineer AND artist, former pres. of RISD, and currently working in Silicon Valley) for an example of what is possible. Think, too, that a lot of the Disney “Imagineers” or people working for Universal and the like in the entertainment arts are going to be techie AND creative. There is LOTS of high tech going on to achieve those stunning visual effects that you experience at the cinema or theme park, to name just two applications.
So with all that in mind:
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Keep UMich on your list, especially since you are in-state. Engineering is one of the best programs in the country and Stamps very well known and respected school of art.
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Consider Northwestern University. Brand new facilities for the arts - LOTS of money spent there recently. Engineering also tops.
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Keep CMU on your list because a whole bunch of techie creative types there are helping with the Star Wars project for Disney (look up Hollywood Studios to find out what’s going on there). Really cool stuff.
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Look into other top schools such as MIT or Stanford. Stanford has the D School which I think is graduate level but is one of the best in the world. Maeda came from MIT.
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University of Wisconsin has a competitive art/design program and again, one of the best engineering schools.
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University of IA - again decent engineering, very well respected arts program.
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UIUC - expensive for Engineering but worth looking into. Not sure about their arts program.
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Cooper Union - GREAT engineering, GREAT art/design program.
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Pratt Institute - this is specifically an art/design school but they used to have an engineering program and it’s one of the “techier” of the design schools. Very good architecture/ID/Interior/ComD (if those spark your interest). You can obviously take lots of great fine arts as an elective.
There are more but I am out of time! This will get you started. Good luck to you!
EDIT/UPDATE: Almost forgot the CA schools: UCLA, USC, even some of the CSU’s have great engineering and arts programs. And then there is Florida: FSU, UF, UCF . . . the list goes on and on . . .
@Mamelot Thank you so much for this list! Will definitely look into these schools/programs.
I’d definitely throw in Univ. of Pennsylvania-strong engineering and good Fine Arts with various foci (my son will focus on digital art/animation). They also have the Digital Media Design (DMD) program, an interdisciplinary engineering degree that combines Fine Arts with Computer Science.