Updated 12:00 p.m., April 6
PROVIDENCE – In its 2017 ranking of the nation’s top 25 master’s in fine arts programs, College Choice listed Brown University as No. 10 and the Rhode Island School of Design as No. 20 – according to the report, which was most-recently updated in mid-March.
“In a century marked by code and data, the arts are needed now more than ever, and exponentially expanding graduate programs reflect that need and growth,” said Christian Amondson, managing editor of College Choice in a statement.
According to College Choice’s findings, MFA programming at Brown is offered in theater arts and performance, allowing for focus in play-writing, or acting and directing, as well as literary arts in which graduate students can study creative writing through fiction, poetry, digital language arts or cross-disciplinary writing.
Annual tuition at the Providence-based Ivy League school is $50,224, according to the survey.
Additionally, the survey ranked RISD’s visual arts MFA program as the 20th-best in the nation. The report read: “This program is truly one of the best in the country for its visual arts MFA and is known for its post-graduation placement rates.”
The survey stated annual tuition as $47,110 at Providence’s RISD.
“The arts are an integral part of scholarship across many fields of study at Brown, and our MFA students, faculty and community partners play a significant role in the university’s strength in the arts,” said a Brown spokesman. “While no ranking can truly capture the distinctiveness of the programs offered by Brown or other universities, we’re certainly pleased by the recognition for these graduate programs.”
A representative for RISD was not immediately available for comment.
RISD is one of five art schools to be ranked by College Choice on this list. The others were Cranbrook Academy of Art (No. 13, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.), School of the Art Institute of Chicago (No. 16, Chicago), California Institute of the Arts (No. 21, Santa Clarita, Calif.) and California College of the Arts (No. 25, Oakland, Calif.).
College Choice’s 2017 Best MFA Programs list was topped by Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh. Yale University in New Haven, Conn., took second place and the University of California Los Angeles came in third.
College Choice, a university ranking and resource company, based its findings on each of the school’s academic reputation, student satisfaction, affordability and average annual salary of early career artists across the country. Data from U.S. News & World report as well as The National Center for Education Statistics was used to complete the findings.
