Wow - Momcinco, YOU ROCK!!! Thank you so much for your super specific advice - I have not found this ANYWHERE! As a Californian who is flying to the East on a very tight timeline, and can only see six schools, this advice is INVALUABLE!!! A thousand thank yous!!!
I was about to pm you, but then I thought that others would benefit from your wisdom as well. When you say “good financial aide” are you referring to merit or need-based? We are one of those families who won’t qualify for need-based. We’re looking for nickels under the sofas now :).
One thing that I have learned from talking to other people who have graduated with art degrees is to pay attention to whether there is coursework or emphasis on the business part of art, and whether the teachers you adore are full professors or adjuncts. Our daughter had a course last summer with a rising senior from BU. This student picked BU based on a combination of merit and some excellent professors, but said that both professors were adjunct, and were gone by her sophomore year. She also said that her program didn’t focus on marketing oneself at all, whereas the program at MFA (which has now been absorbed by Tufts) had their students work on this as a piece of a number of classes. Knowing this information is critical. I know in my profession I didn’t get counselling experience, which I felt was critical (surprisingly smart for 23!) so I insisted on designing an independent study for credits in social work. I see no reason why DD couldn’t do the same in a liberal arts school to learn how to market and promote her work. I have told both of our kids that it is your job to figure out what your education is missing, and fill it in. I did that both in undergrad and grad school, and it is very valuable both for the skills you learn and the attitude that you develop when you are thinking this way.
One other question - were Carnegie Mellon and UVA too abstract for your son, or were there other fit issues? CMU seems really abstract on paper.