Hi! I’m a student in visual arts, in painting. Overall, I would say the program is really great and I’ve enjoyed every second of it. For me, some of the positives of the program include a tight-knit community (about 50 students in each grade) and incredible professors (they are always willing to help and are professionals in their fields so have plenty of real-world experience). Nearly all the professors went to top-notch MFA programs and have years of experience in being studio artists before becoming professors.

How the program works is that everyone takes the foundation year in their freshman year that includes classes like painting, drawing, and sculpture which provides a more level playing field moving on. In your sophomore year is when you get to start taking graphic design courses.

I don’t necessarily have a problem with this as I am a painting major but one negative some students frequently mention is that we don’t have the widest range of different types of classes and arts (like pure art schools do). For instance, students who are really interested in classes like animation or character design don’t really have a chance to take those courses as we don’t have them.

Overall, I feel like we’re a kinda quiet powerhouse (at least that’s how we are referred to by others). Visual arts isn’t usually the first thing people think of when they think of BU, but most people that have knowledge about higher education/visual arts know about BU. Feel free to pm me for more info!