The most important thing for me, as a kid coming from Pittsburgh, was to be surrounded by people of like minds. People who were thinking about art and creating art every day. At this point, we were all above the hobby level — we were expected to be serious.
– Artist and musician, Chris Frantz of The Talking Heads
As we move through our exploration of the top art programs offered across the country for undergraduates, hopefully you’ve gained a greater understanding not only of what’s out there, but also of what you want for your own artistic journey. Defining your own preferences is a critical step in choosing the program that’s right for you. If you’re still undecided, or perhaps not yet ready to narrow down your preferences, consider a combination art program – which might be the perfect fit for the creative-minded student in search of a program that has it all.
In this post, we break down the country’s top combination art programs. These programs are formed either when two top universities or art schools join forces and allow students to partake in the exceptional studies offered by each school, or when a top university allows its students to combine disparate degrees into a dual degree. Some examples include: RISD and Brown’s collaborative program; the five-year, interdisciplinary Bachelor’s plus Master’s dual degree in the arts offered by The New School and Parsons; University of Michigan’s dual degree in fine arts and business that allows students to receive a BFA as well as a business degree; and finally, the combination program at Tufts and The School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA), which we profile below.
All of these special, collaborative programs provide you with an extraordinary reach of study and the ability to experiment widely in your artistic and creative search. They are programs that will best fit the student with an insatiable appetite for knowledge across disciplines and an unwillingness to be boxed in. In addition to our deep dive into the Tufts + SMFA combination program, be sure to take a look at our chart below that breaks down all of the features these exceptional combination programs have to offer.
| Name | SMFA (School of the Museum of Fine Arts) at Tufts | RISD + Brown | Parsons School of Design + Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts at the New School | University of Michigan
Penny W. Stamp School of Art & Design + Ross School of Business |
| Location | Boston, MA | Providence, RI | New York, NY | Ann Arbor, MI |
| Number of Students | 15-22 | Around 50 | 245 (BA + BFA) | N/A |
| Combined Degree Offered | BA/BS + BFA | AB/Sc.B + BFA | BA + BFA | BFA + BBA |
| Areas of study | BA/BS Majors and Minors | 15 RISD Majors and 80+ Brown concentrations | BA + BFA: two combinations offered: link | BFA + BBA: Dual Degree offered: link |
| Factors to Consider | At SMFA at Tufts, students don’t have to choose between an art school (with a laser-focus on technique and artistic concepts) and a university art program (with the resources and variety of a traditional campus). This five-year program is the best of both worlds, combining a studio-intensive BFA with a BA/BS in any field. Students can also minor in other areas of study if they don’t want to pursue a combined degree. In addition, SMFA students have access to a renowned museum and one of the country’s oldest art schools. | The five-year combined degree program allows students to receive their BFA at RISD and a BA or Sc.B at Brown. This program involves meeting rigorous academic standards and undertaking a heavy course load. Students have access to facilities on both campuses, including Brown’s libraries, pool, gym, and even their ice skating rink. If you’re not certain you want to be a full-time practicing artist after college or go directly into an MFA program, a degree from Brown could be helpful in keeping other professional doors open as you navigate career choices after graduation. | The New School is quick to point out that its five-year BA/BFA program with Parsons is an intensive undertaking: combined degree students take upwards of 5-6 classes per semester in order to finish the required credits on time. This program is for organized, diligent, and highly motivated students who thrive under pressure. The New School is the only university located in New York City where you can earn a BFA in Visual Arts and a BA in another subject. | University of Michigan allows students to pursue a dual degree in fine arts and business. Students must be accepted into each degree program separately, but will pursue them together, ultimately graduating with two degrees: a BFA and a BBA. The program often takes five years to complete, but sometimes longer depending on how a student organizes their schedule–summer classes might be required to finish in under five years. |
| Atmosphere of program | The BFA program at SMFA at Tufts has an open atmosphere that encourages exploration. Students won’t feel siloed into one medium, but rather will have the opportunity to explore. BFA students, for example, can dabble in subjects ranging from psychology to mathematics to biology, or choose to get a second degree altogether. Because of its location in Boston, SMFA attracts students who are deep thinkers, cultured, and interested in city life. | Brown’s Open Curriculum, combined with RISD’s artistic excellence, makes for a wildly experimental student body that’s chosen this program precisely for its lack of limitations and the ability to study fields as disparate as painting, social sciences, and astronomy. This environment fosters a diversity of ideas, thoughts, experiences, and backgrounds, which can offer students in the program a highly creative undergraduate experience. Across the board, students are grounded, engaged, and passionate. | Due to its location in NYC, the New School’s campus life is spread out across different city neighborhoods, which means you won’t have access to the same close-knit campus community typically found at a smaller or less urban university. That said, you will have access to the thriving art scene of New York City, as well as campus events with some of the most significant and current artists of our time. At Parsons, you will learn alongside students from all over the world and be immersed in the arts; past students have referred to their BFA program as an “arts bootcamp.” | University of Michigan’s BFA program is known for its supportive, collaborative, and “chill” atmosphere. It offers a broader and more interdisciplinary approach to the degree, so students looking to focus on one medium might prefer an art school environment. The BBA program is known as competitive and exceptionally resourced with a wealth of strong campus events and speakers as well as supportive organizations like the Center for Positive Organizations – a hub for designing businesses that leave a positive impact on the world. |
Program Spotlight: School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts
In 1945, Tufts and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston began a partnership that allowed Tufts students to partake in a world class fine arts education at one of Boston’s most renowned arts institutions. Today, the two have officially merged into the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts, where students have permanent access to an extraordinary art program and the academic excellence and civic-mindedness of Tufts University. Like the other combination programs on our list, SMFA at Tufts has created a unique combination degree (BFA + BA or BS) for its arts students who wish to take their art practice outside of the studio and allow for influence from the realms of liberal arts or sciences. As their website boasts: “Become a portrait painter with a distinctly feminist perspective. Or a social activist trained in performance strategies. Or a biologist with deep expertise in 3D modeling.” Perhaps if Leonardo DiVinci – whose Renaissance masterpieces still influence generations of artists centuries later – had lived today, he might have chosen the combination degree offered by SMFA at Tufts. After all, in his spare time from painting he was known to dissect corpses and invent flying machines…
The combined degree program at SMFA at Tufts spans five years of study and offers two degrees. As a student, you’ll receive a BFA in studio art as well as a BA or BS depending on which of the 70 available majors you choose to pursue. The first year you’ll sample a variety of courses from fine arts to liberal arts and the sciences. After the first year you may choose to hone in on a specific artistic medium or continue in the “multiverse of new ways to uncover your creative potential,” as their website puts it. Some examples of former students’ combination degrees include Lily Pasano’s choice to major in International Literary Visual Studies (ILVS) alongside her BFA or Celia Gastris who, in addition to receiving her BFA, majored in art history and minored in film and media studies, as well as cognitive and brain science. According to a student profile, “[Glastris] calls herself a ‘research-based artist’ and cites linguist Noam Chomsky as her hero.” The combined degree program at SMFA at Tufts is filled with this kind of adventurous, interdisciplinary art-making.
A flexible and varied learning experience was essential for alumna Molly Hatch, a contemporary ceramic artist whose work is exhibited widely and has been commissioned by places as renowned as Tiffany & Co. and Bon Appetit. She received her BFA in the combined degree program and cites the freedom to move among academic fields as one of her favorite aspects of the program, telling us over email, “I was interested in so many different media that I thrived on experimentation and exploration across departments.” In particular, she notes the rigorous liberal arts education at Tufts as, “a huge asset to the program.” And yet, the single most important aspect of the program for Hatch was having immediate, across-the-street access to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (SMFA’s original home). “[That access] hugely informed my work and deepened my studies of art history.”
Hatch advises prospective students and young artists entering the BFA program at SMFA at Tufts to “listen to their intuition when it comes to building their own studio practice. Taking as many classes as possible that spark excitement will inevitably lead to forming your practice that is truly unique to you. Because you are able to take the time to learn many disciplines, you should play by experimenting and giving yourself room to find what makes you excited to go to the studio every day. That’s the excitement that will carry through into your practice beyond school and into your professional career.”
SMFA at Tufts is a place for wildly experimental minds, for those who swiftly connect disparate ideas and who are hungry for all kinds of knowledge. Because of this, it has an atmosphere best suited for those students who don’t need strict, hands-on guidance and who flourish when left to their own devices. As ceramicist Molly Hatch noted, “The SMFA BFA program uniquely prepared me for my work as a full-time studio artist by giving me an educational experience that was largely self-directed.” She credits her time in the program with helping her build a solid foundation for the rigorous, independent studio practice that guides her to this day.
As we’ve progressed through this review of the top art programs in the country, you’ve likely begun to understand that certain programs allow students more freedom and flexibility in their artistic endeavors while others are geared more towards theoretical study and craft techniques in a specific medium. This is an important distinction to identify in your own creative process. How best do you work, learn, and create? Do limitations help or hurt your artmaking? Do you prefer focusing on one medium or exploring many? Does a lot of input from varied subjects stoke your creative flame or extinguish it? Expansive and interdisciplinary studies is a shared language of all the combination programs we cover in this post. If you already feel drawn exclusively to one artistic medium, or wish to immerse yourself solely in studio arts, then perhaps you should consider an art school or a more traditional university art degree. If, however, you find yourself growing excited and curious as you read through our chart and explore the various types of study these programs have to offer, then a combination program might be the perfect fit for you.
In our next post we’ll touch on the admissions process to a top art program, including the do’s and don’ts of applications and portfolios, as well as the distinctions to look out for.
The college admissions process can be overwhelming, and it may feel difficult to know where to start. At Collegiate Gateway, we are eager to share our expertise and guide you on your admissions strategy and the path to your “best fit” college. Please feel free to contact us! As always, we’re happy to help!
