<p>catmom - I don’t know much about Hollins and Goucher, but I do know a fair bit about W&M. W&M is a superb school for academics – really a top notch LAC for a public school price – but it is not known for its studio art program. The art facilities there are very limited and if you look closely at the course catalog, you’ll find that there are just 25 - 30 art classes (including the intro classes). They cover only drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, and printmaking, and there are only a handful of classes in each medium. If your daughter is really talented, she might find W&M to be too restrictive on the arts side.</p>
<p>Well…we kinda parallel Switters’ kid…but my S is more interested in animation/kinetic sculpture than painting. Thus the choice of CMU. S visited WUSTL, S+H visited SAIC, UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee. We all visited RISD, Tyler, MICA, VCU and Vassar (a bad experience that made him refuse to visit Bard because of similar bucolic setting). S felt Tyler was a bit too “crafty” and preferred the more heavily conceptual programs at universities so the choice was VCU (instate), UW-Madison and CMU (although MICA offered so much money he was tempted). He never applied to any schools in NY…some strange aversion to the city but liked the medium sized cities and I didn’t have the heart to force him to do the Cooper home test when he seemed so set against NY. A lot of his friends go to VCU–literally dozens of kids from the summer govenor’s school and his HS-- and sometimes they post pictures of their foundation stuff on his FB page. Some of it is impressive.</p>
<p>He is really enjoying the multidisciplinary part of CMU and the concept studios but he is vague about what actually happens in those classes (I suspect not much from a traditional measure of productivity but by his measures they are very productive). It is a “nerdy” campus and everyone seems to work very hard but without the nasty competitive side of some schools (I heard that things can get vicious at SAIC, for example). S says that crits are pretty tough but people are very careful to keep it on the art, don’t let it get personal and find ways to support classmates that are struggling. </p>
<p>Girls are especially valued on the overwhelmingly male campus but in a nice way. D attracted a lot of attention when we launched S but it felt more like an appreciation of a rare species than hormones out of control. Something to consider for a sensitive girl.</p>
<p>catmom,</p>
<p>I know a student who transferred form Goucher to Syracuse because the art program wasn’t strong enough and the school was too small for her. She is very happy at Syracuse. We visited Syracuse for my son. If you are concerned about distance you might want to reconsider. It is really upstate in NY. The city is pretty gray and kind of depressing. The school of art though seems to be very well run and offers a lot of student support.</p>
<p>Have you looked a bit further west: MCAD and KCAI.
Also Cleveland Institute of Art.
What about Oberlin for her? I would think they would be able to understand the home schooling and evaluate holistically. Kenyon too. The smaller LAC’s tend to offer more support for their student body.</p>
<p>Thank you so much, especially fineartsmajormom and switters. I think our kids sound remarkably similar. </p>
<p>Have thought about oberlin; it might work, though we don’t know what kind of rep it has for fine art, and she is all about that. Cleveland on the radar, but again, we don’t know much about its rep. She doesn’t want to go west, WUSTL is about as far west as she wants to be. An “east coast girl”, pretty much. NY/ Philly/ Baltimore looking better all the time. Syracuse maybe, but the really cold grayness without the fun of big city may not be for her. Have thought about Bard as well. Thanks for the input and W&M; I had a feeling that was the case! Also Goucher. It is becoming clearer that she wants a BFA, not a BA. As far as the universities go, that might mean Wash U. CMU, VCU, Temple/Tyler are her first choices. MICA up there too…she is kind of multidisciplinary, but her passion does seem to be for fine art, with each passing day more pronounced. Can’t thank you all enough!</p>
<p>After attending a “College Options” evening with Harvard, Stanford, Penn, and Duke, its becoming clearer that, despite feeling honored to be invited to attend, she is definitely a BFA kid. List and direction becoming clearer. Many thanks to all who posted. I will check in as things develop!</p>
<p>cat…yes, keep posting!. Now that last year’s group has settled in at their schools it will be fun to follow along with the new bunch. My son is at RISD now. Let’s check in a bit and I’ll let you know how things are going.
In your original post you said:
“She also is a very group oriented person, and she (and I) really would like a school where a lot of the students live on campus, and where the majority of the freshmen live in dorms with a meal plan. This is important to her, and a really big deal for me.”</p>
<p>It seems to me the RISD freshman foundation is also a very strong bonding experience. The orientation was jam packed with social events and information sessions and a club fair. They divide the students into groups of twenty and those groups stay together throughout the first year foundation. They also seem to identify strongly with whichever dorm they are put in so there is another chance to “belong”. Check out the RISD 2014 Facebook page (it is public). It will give you a sense of the kinds of things the students are connecting over…acapella , breakdancing groups, etc.</p>
<p>uggh Cat…I see you were not the OP. Sorry to have mixed you and your duaghter up with Kssdc2001. Oh well…hope KSS get’s that message and I’d still love to hear how the year goes.</p>
<p>Thanks anyway Drae. Any input about the stand alone art programs is welcome. It seems that’s where she wants to go. We are still on the fence about RISD, mainly because of distance and what we have heard about a lack of merit based scholarships. We won’t qualify for much, if any need based. Sadly, we fall into that financial no-man’s land! If you have info on that, I’d be grateful.</p>
<p>Financial No-Man’s Land: Welcome to the club.</p>
<p>catmom,</p>
<p>Yes, It is true, RISD does not do Merit, only FA. Same for CMU. Out of your list is likely that MICA, SAIC, SCAD and Syracuse would give her Merit aid. Don’t know enough about Tyler, VCU, WUSTL or Penn in that regard. If you are adding Cleveland (CIA) to the list, I do think they give Merit.</p>
<p>VCU has an early deadline for scholarships (Dec 1) and honors. CMU may, just may, give some merit aid but they are frank that it depends what there numbers are like in April if they feel they need to bring in more art students they may increase a financial aid package. RIT was very generous to S. OSU actually has quite a bit of aid for out of staters but Wisconsin won’t tell you about scholarships for art until May and after you have confirmed enrollment (weird way to do this).</p>
<p>guess they don’t want you marry for money, but true love…
will find you in the end…</p>
<p>MICA has merit aid. It gets split up funny from amongst a series of different scholarships. Your D will probably get academic, and other aid. There is maybe one full tuition, some halfs, and lots of other money. Triangulating info, the most I personally heard of someone getting was 22K a year, which is about half. </p>
<p>VCU is almost painless to apply to. Get on line and do it before Dec 1. Their tuition out of state with room and board is not bad compared to other schools. They gave my S a nice amount of money, and then when they didnt hear from us, gave us some more. This money appeared to be almost entirely academic. Find out when they have a visiting day, if they have one this fall, and go with a portfolio. Getting accepted to the art school is harder than getting accepted to the university. The kids I know who go there are very very happy. </p>
<p>RISD is very clear about how little merit aid they give, and I think you are only eligible if you do the two big art competitions, Scholastic being one of them, cant remember the other.</p>
<p>PAFA claimed to offer merit aid, especially for high GPA kids, but my S ended up not applying.</p>
<p>SMFA offered a nice scholarship.</p>
<p>SVA says they give up to 16K a year, and they will also match scholarship letters from other schools in some instances.</p>
<p>My son is attending the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design in Denver Colorado. He is a 3D animation major and he loves RMCAD. The college is small (about 500) and most of the buildings are on the historical registry. They really stress the foundation classes for all the majors. We home schooled our children and RMCAD was very welcoming. Their website is [Welcome</a> | Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design](<a href=“http://www.rmcad.edu%5DWelcome”>http://www.rmcad.edu).</p>
<p>kssdc2001,</p>
<p>Based on your original post I would strongly recommend looking at U of Southern California’s Roski School of Fine Art! Here’s their link: [Roski</a> School of Fine Arts](<a href=“http://finearts.usc.edu/]Roski”>http://finearts.usc.edu/)</p>
<p>Great art program, students can choose BFA or BA in art, they make it very easy to double major or minor, access to other fantastic professional schools within USC (like the film school!), and last but not least, USC offers unparalleled alum connections for internships and jobs.</p>
<p>Most of the kids live in dorms, tons of school spirit, sports teams, a marching band, beautiful campus, Los Angeles is a hot art market… who could ask for more??? :)</p>
<p>I would add USC-Roski to your list.</p>
<p>Best,
Wheaty</p>
<p>catmom, we found Pratt to be generous with merit aid. They offered our D 18K, more than any other art school. Alfred U offered less, but they are so reasonably priced that their total cost would have been the least. Your D may not like the remote location though. MICA was also generous but offered aid in three separate letters, coming weeks apart, which is typical for them. Since the total was 15K, and our D chose that school, we’re not complaining! </p>
<p>Mthoma - I’m glad to hear about RMCAD. What year is your son? Do they have dorms?</p>
<p>My son is a junior. The dorm situation is a little unusual. A hotel ([College</a> Student Housing In Denver : Auraria Student Campus Housing : Student Accomodation Denver : RegencyStudentHousing.com : Denver Regency Auraria](<a href=“http://www.regencystudenthousing.com/]College”>http://www.regencystudenthousing.com/)) was converted into dorms that are used by several colleges in Denver. The “dorm” is about 6 miles from campus and they have a shuttle that runs to the campus at regular intervals. My son doesn’t have a car, so he uses the shuttle or the city bus a lot. They get a pass to use the bus system or light rail for free.</p>
<p>Once again Switters, you are a huge help. I appreciate the input Mthoma and Wheaty, and to thanks, too to greenwitch… we think Denver and CA are a bit too far away right now, but its good to know about them. Thanks, g-witch for the info on Pratt. Looks like we’ll be in NY later in the fall, so we will plan to take a look!</p>
<p>Catmom - We were also in that financial no-man’s land. Hard to afford whole tuition, but didn’t qualify for anything need based. All 3 schools D applied to gave her merit aid, MCAD, KCAI and NHIA. MCAD didn’t come thru with anything at the very beginning, and KCAI gave her 15K/yr. She did pre-college at NHIA and got merit aid from that, as well as significant merit $ after applying. In addition, the tuition costs were very reasonable (about $10K yr less than other “stand alone” art schools). At the time, MCAD and KCAI were in a close tie for 1st choice, NH third. Then MCAD came thru with $8K/yr. We felt all schools really were connected to their students, and D wanted a “no cut-throat” environment. We personally met the Dean of the Liberal Arts college at KCAI, and she was amazing. She LOVES MCAD and has connected with an amazing group of international graduate students, and also has friends (one whom she met on this board) that live locally, so she has a great group of friends as well. If you are in the midwest area, both KC and Minn are worth looking into. NH had a great atmosphere, but D thought the internship/working environment of Minneapolis couldn’t be beat.</p>
<p>Update: List narrowed down to eight and applications underway. She has had portfolio acceptances to two schools, one of which was not originally on her list: Moore College of Art in Philadelphia. Anyone know more about Moore. We are going up to NY to visit Cooper and for live review at Tyler next week, and are going to try to visit Moore as well. I have also contacted PAFA, but they have not responded to my email, except to send glossy brochure.</p>