<p>Weird coincidence. I’m in an art school now, in a BFA program and one of the people working on the school website. So I should have some idea - but I don’t. The website is window dressing, and some schools are smart enough to make great windows while others aren’t, but unfortunately that’s not a reflection of what’s going on inside.</p>
<p>The real question for me would be whose teaching? I would research the faculty both through google to see if I could see their work, and through ratemyprofessors.com and yelp to see what the students think (yeah, yeah, standard caveat applies, and yes we students do use rmp as a guide but we also use our friends). Try looking at the catalog for the classes your student most likely will take and then study those profs.</p>
<p>Also see if you can get a rough guess of the student/faculty ratio as well as determine if students are teaching students. Petersons might help here.</p>
<p>Art school is taught primarily through studio work. A studio with one prof and thirty students is way different from one prof and fifteen students, which is different than one faculty instructor and six student helpers.</p>
<p>All this said be aware that many schools excel in one or two branches of art so see if you can pin down a couple of potential programs to begin with. A school that graduates fantastic painters might not be hip to modern illustration, a school known for photography perhaps not so good in three dimensional design etc. Sometimes you can discover this by looking at the art you want to make, and then seeing where the artist’s went to school. For the more commercial arts look to the industry giants and see where they come from, and which schools their companies support (can be key for animators for example).</p>
<p>Good luck</p>