The OP’s daughter is focused on small to mid-sized liberal arts schools with Williams and Brown as her first and second choices. She and her daughter are flying East on a very tight timeline looking to visit a max of 6 schools. Nearly every school mentioned by the OP or in which she shows interest is in New York or in New England. There are many schools around the country that offer both art and science programs. However, in responding to the OP and providing truly useful information, it is probably best to target the OP’s interest rather than to provide a more subjective one. VCU is a large school (more than 24,000 undergrad students) in Richmond, VA, a more than 12-hour round trip to the OP’s central focus area. The OP is looking at undergraduate schools for a high school senior. VCU’s #2 ranking is for a graduate degree in Fine Arts, not as an undergraduate school.
Since there is some insistence on citing VCUarts’ USN&WR ranking, it is best to understand the nature and detail of this particular ranking. The rankings are based solely on peer reviews, 1 per participating school. Less than 1/3 of prospective participants actually responded to the survey. There is no student input, no statistics regarding job placement post-graduation, and no measure made public other than the peer’s opinion of the subject schools’ art programs. Since the OP’s daughter mentioned Brown as her second choice, several posters above noted the Brown/RISD dual degree program or at least the ability to take regular classes at RISD while attending Brown.
RISD was ranked in 7 of the 10 fine arts categories used in the USN survey, including Top 5 in all but one category and Top 3 in 4 of the 7, including #1 in the OP’s expressed interest in Drawing & Painting. The full rankings are: Ceramics (#5); Graphic Design (#1); Painting & Drawing (#2); Photography (#7); Printmaking (#3); Sculpture (#5), and Metal & Jewelry (#1).
In contrast, VCU was ranked in only 5 of the 10 categories, always in the bottom half of the rankings, with the exception of a top rank in Sculpture. The full rankings are: Ceramics (#9); Graphic Design (#7); Painting & Drawing (#7); Printmaking (#10), and in Sculpture (#1).
How VCU’s substantially lesser rankings across the board resulted in a tie for #2 overall is beyond me without further information as to the metrics of this ranking system, although I would note that the list of schools, individuals surveyed, and rated concentrations were determined by George Mason University in Virginia.
As far as the sciences or any other undergraduate academic program offered by these schools, Brown is the #14 ranked national university in the United States. VCU is ranked #156.