According to the latest U.S. News & World Report magazine Best Colleges issue, there are hundreds of colleges that offer undergraduate art history majors. There was a 1995 survey conducted by the National Research Council that listed the top art history undergraduate programs in The United States, but 15 years later the list is quite out of date.
Methodology and Meaning
So what was the methodology used to determine the Top Art History Undergraduate Programs? Using the U.S. News & World Report data and searching for an acceptance rate of 20% the list below was automatically generated. These may not be The Best art history programs in terms of finding the best jobs. These colleges are the undergrad schools that happen to have art history programs and are highly selective. All of the colleges listed below are private and are also on the U.S. News & World Report magazine’s Top 20 Undergraduate colleges as Top Tier colleges.
Art History Degree
The colleges below have majors in either Art History, Curatorship or Art Criticism. For most art history professionals, the undergraduate degree of BA is just a precursor to a graduate degree and then a doctorate in Art History. Also keep in mind that Art History majors need to learn a second language such as Italian or French. Professionals with Art History degrees may become art historians, art critics, museum curators, museum directors, art professors, art history teachers, writers and lecturers.
- Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine. Tuition: $40,020 for one year. Number of undergraduates: 1,723 Setting: suburban
- Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Tuition: $38,848 for one year. Number of undergraduates: 6,095 Setting: urban
- College of the Ozarks, Point Lookout, Missouri. Tuition: $16,990 for one year. Number of undergraduates: 1,331 Setting: rural
- Columbia University, New York City, New York. Tuition: $41,316 for one year. Number of undergraduates: 7,495 Setting: urban
- Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. Tuition: $38,679 for one year. Number of undergraduates: 4,147 Setting: rural
- Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Tuition: $37,012 for one year. Number of undergraduates: 6,678 Setting: urban. It should be noted that Harvard is the over-achiever on this list scoring a perfect 100 in the ranking.
- Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont. Tuition: $50,000 for one year. Number of undergraduates: 2,455 Setting: rural. While tuition seems high for Middlebury College, keep in mind that this figure includes room and board.
- Pomona College, Claremont, California. Tuition: $37,017 for one year. Number of undergraduates: 1,532 Setting: suburban
- Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey. Tuition: $35,340 for one year. Number of undergraduates: 4,981 Setting: suburban
- Stanford University, Stanford, California. Tuition: $37,881 for one year. Number of undergraduates: 6,532 Setting: suburban
- Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Tuition: $37,860 for one year. Number of undergraduates: 1,490 Setting: suburban
- University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Tuition: $38,970 for one year. Number of undergraduates: 9,756 Setting: urban
- Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia. Tuition: $38,877 for one year. Number of undergraduates: 1.752 Setting: rural
- Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Tuition: $36,500 for one year. Number of undergraduates: 5,277 Setting: urban
Source: U.S. News & World Report magazine
Mary Rayme - Mary Rayme is a graphic designer and arts educator with a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.
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