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I have a daughter who wants to specialize in Graphic arts. Wash U art program is well ranked,but when I checked out the courses, I found the offerings to be a bit spartan. Certainly, Wash U didn't seem to have the large number of offerings compared to other top art schools such as VCU, Pratt, RISD and even CMU. Thus, how do you like it there? Are the offerings as spartan as they seem to be? My daughter is NOT interested in majoring in several areas. She is, however, well rounded taking a lot of honors and AP courses.

By Tobes (Tobes) on Friday, July 02, 2004 - 03:42 pm: Edit

Well I don't know what VCU is but I'm familiar with the others and here's why I picked the Wash U art program (I'm going to be a freshman in the fall):
1) I did want to major in a second area, possibly even get a dual degree. But even if I didnt, I wanted to leave myself the option of switching out of art if I decided it wasnt for me.
2) By not going to an all-art school, I will also expose myself to a more diverse group of people. Because Wash U has a separate school for art though, I'll have more class choices than if I went to a LAC for example (and Wash U's choices may be spartan compared to a full art school like RISD but not compared to most schools).
3) My final two college choices came down to CMU and Wash U. My art teacher immediately recommended Wash U. Also, CMU is more technically oriented (if youre into biomed design or computer graphics it would be a great place to be but not as much for more humanities-based art i should think) and they separate the School of Art and the School of Design so it makes it more difficult for you to take classes across the board. For example, if you like photo as well as painting, you'd have to be admitted to both schools. CMU offered me a 4 yr dual degree program vs Wash U's 5 yr but their program just didnt serve my needs as well.

So it really depends on what best suits your needs. If you know for a fact that you want to go to art school and not do anything else and nothing could possibly change your mind, then perhaps a school like RISD or Pratt would be better for you. There's also Parsons in NY (my cousin went there and loved it). I dont know what Pratt and Parsons' policies are with schools such as NYU and Columbia, but I know RISD and Brown work together so you can take a few courses through the other school.

Good luck with whatever you choose!