What are some good undergraduate fine-arts programs in US universities?
August 26, 2004 8:28 AM   Subscribe

What are some good undergraduate fine-arts programs in US universities? [MI]

My sister is starting her senior year of high school, and starting the college search in earnest. She wants to study art - but, to be honest, my parents and I are worried that, should she go to an independent art school, like, say, RISD, she might not like it, at which point transferring to another school could be messy. What'd we much rather she do is to attend an art school/program that's part of a larger university, so that, should she decide to major in something else, she could switch with much less hassle.

So far, we're looking at the School of Art @ WUSTL, and she probably doesn't quite have the grades for, say, Yale. Where else should she be looking?
posted by kickingtheground to Education (8 answers total)
 
If she is REALLY good...and can handle the criticism, although it is a private university, I would highly recommend MICA (Maryland College Of Art). It is a very good school.
posted by ShawnString at 8:47 AM on August 26, 2004


whoops.....MICA...been a while with html.
posted by ShawnString at 8:49 AM on August 26, 2004


i cannot speak from direct, personal experience, but while i was at rutgers, many of my friends spoke highly of the university's arts conservatory mason- gross.
posted by ronv at 9:39 AM on August 26, 2004


Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA) is consistently rated as one of the top art schools in the nation, while also offering a very diverse non-art curriculum (good business school, engineering, etc). Here are some other tidbits. And hell, if she decides to go into Medicine, VCU's Medical College of Virginia (Patch Adams) is right there as well.
posted by Hankins at 9:55 AM on August 26, 2004


To allay some fear, if your sister is interesed particularly in RISD, she can take classes at Brown while there, and if she needed to transfer, this could make a transfer much easier. Or she could go to Brown and take as many RISD classes as she wanted. The cross-enrollment process is pretty easy; the hardest part is that Brown classes tend, like most college classes to be short & frequent, while RISD classes are the opposite.
posted by dame at 10:32 AM on August 26, 2004


I'll second what Hankins said about VCU. I was never a student there, but I'm in Richmond near the campus and I'm very familiar with the university's HR Department, at least.

My sister is also about to start her senior year as well, and is looking at art schools. VCU is at the top of her list.
posted by emelenjr at 1:54 PM on August 26, 2004


Massart is a very exciting school. I was there for a MFA but had alot of interaction with undergrads. The school is a bit chaotic but a great place(resources and facilities) for a self motivated person. Also you have the entire city of Boston, which is a great place for young people to get thier feet wet in an urban area. I also think Massart is the only state art school in the country and it is pretty cheap for out of staters and DIRT cheap for in staters. It has some great instructors but maybe not so many superstars.
posted by darkpony at 3:34 PM on August 26, 2004


One of my nieces is just starting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, which is associated with Tufts University.
posted by Alylex at 4:41 PM on August 26, 2004


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