There are many great schools to study visual arts, some that you are probably already familiar with for other areas, and some that are a little bit lesser known.

Of the Ivies, Princeton and Yale have excellent undergraduate art programs. However, you may not want to focus so much of your time on traditional academics, and will be expected to do so at either of those institutions.

Take a look at options like Bard, Skidmore, Columbia College Chicago, Temple, or Virginia Commonwealth. These schools offer great visual arts programs, and will provide the sort of setting where you can focus in on your work with a bit of balance.

True art schools like Rhode Island School for Design, Maryland Institute College of Art, Pratt, Parsons School of Design, Cal Arts, or School for Visual Arts New York City will allow you to exclusively focus on your art with very limited academic expectations. If this is right for you, pursue it, but keep in mind that your professional options later will be much more focused and narrow than if you branch out and get some other skills in college.

Lastly, a dual degree program might be right for you if you need the best of both worlds. My favorites are the Tufts/School for the Museum of Fine Arts program in Boston, and the Brown/Rhode Island School for Design program in Providence. It usually takes a fifth year to complete this option and you have to gain entrance into both schools before being eligible for consideration as a dual degree candidate, but it’s a great option for highly competitive students.