Bachelor of Art at Pennsylvania State University
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    Bachelor of Art at Pennsylvania State University

    Pennsylvania State University
    Pennsylvania State University
    United States of America
    United States of America, University Park
    University Rank:#82
    Bachelor of Art at Pennsylvania State University

    Study Art at Pennsylvania State University, a Bachelor degree offered across its Main Site, Any Penn State Campus, Abington, and University Park campuses in United States of America. This Full Time program is delivered on campus in English and takes approximately 4 years to complete. Students benefit from a structured learning experience designed to build both theoretical knowledge and practical experience. The next intake is scheduled for June 1, 2027.

    About Bachelor of Art

    Art is an individual and social practice that makes an impact. When people create or respond to art, they make connections between themselves and the experiences of others. In some cases, art provides a private encounter whereby individual thoughts and feelings are expressed through art, or recognized in the art of someone else. In other cases, art gives form to ideas and issues that concern entire communities. It is because art extends personal and public awareness that it is highly valued as a cultural activity. Those who make art and write about art offer imaginative insights that challenge us to see things differently. By creating artworks yourself, and enhancing your capacity to interpret artworks made by other individuals, communities, and cultures, you contribute to one of the most important purposes of art, which is to celebrate this unique human form of social communication that shapes the way we see ourselves.

    You Might Like this Program If...

    You are excited and challenged by the diverse and profound impact art and culture can have in the everyday life of individuals and communities. Art and culture 'workers' take on many creative roles in everyday life and respond imaginatively to the continuous rush of social and cultural change around them by exploring issues, and expressing and communicating ideas using all forms of image, text, and social media.

    The B.A. degree in art provides a comprehensive liberal education coupled with professional resident instruction in art. Depending on each student's objectives and course choices, this degree provides preparation for a professional career, a foundation for graduate studies, or a liberal arts education in art. Each student must elect an area of concentration from one of the following: ceramics, drawing and painting, new media, photography, printmaking, or sculpture.

    • Communication:
      • By creating work which evokes a spectator's response that resonates with, without necessarily duplicating, the artist's personal response, understanding through discussion and critique how a spectator arrives at a particular inspiration interacting with one's work.
      • By planning and implementing exhibitions of work, understanding the process from curatorial conceptualization through promotion, preparation and physical installation.
      • By creating and maintaining ongoing documentation of work through portfolio, resume, website and other visual and verbal means of communicating professional development.
    • Craft:
      • By mastering tools used in traditional and contemporary art and design making contexts, with particular emphasis on a chosen media concentration: Drawing and Painting, Printmaking, Sculpture, Ceramics or New Media.
      • By making intelligent media application decisions to achieve appropriate form in support of intended content.
    • Creative and Critical Thinking:
      • By synthesizing and evaluating creative output, contributing to critical discourse, responding positively to feedback and understanding how to use critique as part of the creative process.
      • By experimenting with and expanding the use of media with an eye toward future possibilities not prescribed by current standards.
    • Professionalism:
      • By understanding how art making relates to aspirations for career, further study at the graduate level, or personal growth.
      • By understanding the ethical and professional responsibilities of an artist or designer.
    • Research:
      • By recalling, understanding, applying and analyzing art history, aesthetic theory, contemporary topics and a liberal arts framework as components of the creative process, all used as foundation for deep, methodical study of the subject of creative investigation.
      • By employing a vocabulary of spoken and written word to clearly express the relevance, motivation and discoveries of the research.
    • Vision:
      • By creating original, conceptually compelling works of art or design relevant to individual experience and using a personal visual vocabulary.
      • By creating work that evokes a personally meaningful intellectual and emotional response to a zone of personal concern.
    • Visual Literacy:
      • By recalling, understanding and applying basic visual elements and principals of visual design across two-, three- and four-dimensional media expressions.
      • By using a variety of media to develop an articulate, unique visual expression of the world as it is actually seen, abandoning iconic visual classifications and symbolic stereotypes.

    Disciplines

    Penn State Abington The Abington College

    Requirements and Admission Criteria for Bachelor of Art at Pennsylvania State University

    Entry Requirements

    Penn State requires the submission of specific academic credentials to complete your application. Review the secondary and post-secondary requirements for your country below.

    If you are a first year student applying to Penn State:

    Click Apply to start your Penn State application. Before starting, you can also review the Applying Online Worksheet for more details and helpful hints about the application.

    Your application work can be saved at each step of the process by clicking the Save and Continue button at the bottom of the page. This feature will allow you to move back and forth within the application or log off and return to complete your application at a later time.

    After completing your Academic History, you will need to provide your Self-Reported Academic Record (SRAR). As you begin the SRAR process, a new window will open allowing you to complete your SRAR. SRAR will focus on your high school coursework. It is important that this step is a complete and accurate representation of your school record. Therefore, have a copy of your secondary school records available as you complete your SRAR. You will need to enter every class and every grade earned for the last three years, as well as those classes in progress.

    After completing your SRAR, you will be directed back to the Penn State application in order to complete the Program of Study portion of the application. Here, you will indicate your desired starting semester, your intended program of study, and your starting and ending campus. For further details on how to complete this portion based on your applicant type, please see the steps to apply for first-year students.

    After completing this section of the application, you will provide some additional information, an activities resume, and a personal statement. You will be able to paste in this information from other sources, but note that the formatting may not always paste in as intended.

    If you are a transfer student applying to Penn State:

    All international transfer students will be required to submit official high school transcripts in order to complete the application. International transfer students will not complete the Self-Reported Academic Record (SRAR) for either their high school or college coursework.

    If you have accepted your offer of admission to Penn State:

    If you completed SRAR and are accepted to Penn State, please provide the following for grade verification:

    • Official transcript from years 9, 10, 11, and 12. If the transcript is issued in a language other than English, it must be accompanied by a separate line-by-line English translation.
    • Official copy of the Tawjihi, accompanied by a separate line-by-line English translation.

    English Requirements

    • IELTSMin 6.5
    • TOEFLMin 80

    Career Opportunities after Completing Bachelor of Art

    As a B.A. graduate with a broad interest in the individual and collective power of the arts to enrich human understanding, you have artistic skills and critical sensibilities that can become life-long assets. Just as art can awaken us to new experience, exploring new ways to integrate knowledge from diverse sources helps make these experiences concrete and alerts us to noticing things not otherwise obvious. Broadening learning to embrace studio-based practices of making and critical reflection opens up options for linking personal and professional career interests, and these can have an enduring impact on what and how one learns.

    The B.A. experience collects and collates many different modalities of thinking and knowing, re-positions them around what we know, and helps us see gaps and what we don't know. The B.A. art experience takes these familiar and new understandings and provides an environment for helping you to discover your personal voice in the work you create. Contemporary studio art practice embraces any conceptually appropriate material and method that best articulates your artistic intention. In addition, professional practice opportunities are embedded into the program that can lead to future accomplishments after school.

    Opportunities for Graduate Studies

    Due to the emphasis put on developing your personal vision and distinctive artistic voice, a B.A. art graduate will have a heightened sense of individual perspective and an understanding of multiple ways of engaging with ideas, and these dispositions become foundational skills in assessing future educational and professional directions.

    MORE INFORMATION ABOUT OPPORTUNITIES FOR GRADUATE STUDIES

    Professional Resources

    • College Art Association
    • National Art Education Association
    • National Council of Art Administration
    • Pennsylvania Art Education Association

    Tuition and Fee Information for Bachelor of Art at Pennsylvania State University

    Application Fee 75

    How to Apply for Bachelor of Art at Pennsylvania State University

    Step 1: Choose Your Application Method

    Apply through MyPennState

    The first step of the application process is to create a Penn State account, if you do not have one already. MyPennState is where future students can access the online application.

    If you are new to MyPennState, you will need to establish a Penn State User ID and password, which you will access during the MyPennState profile creation process. Once you have your log in information, you can sign in to begin work on your application.

    When creating the profile, please use the name that is on your passport. Because materials are filed alphabetically under the family name on the application, it is important that all correspondence and records consistently use the same name (family and given) and spelling. If this name does not match your academic records, please notify us of the difference. Please note: In the U.S., the family name is usually referred to as the last name, and the given name is referred to as the first name.

    Additionally, Penn State requires a current, valid email address, as that is our primary means of communication with international students. To ensure deliverability, please make Penn State (psu.edu) an eligible sender to the account.

    Applying through the Common App

    Applying to Penn State via the Common App is available to first-year (freshman) international students. If applying through the Common App, Penn State will create a MyPennState profile when the application is submitted and you will receive instructions on how to access your profile. If you intend to apply with the Common App, you do not need create a MyPennState profile prior to submitting your application.

    Step 2: Access the Application and Review Important Dates

    While you can create a MyPennState profile at any time, the application for admission becomes available on the following dates:

    Fall/Summer Admission: August 1

    Spring Admission: June 1

    The application submission dates vary by applicant type and intended program of study. Some programs have specific deadlines or admissions requirements. Please refer to our Dates & Deadlines for more information about application deadlines, as well as our Admissions Requirements to review information about any additional materials required for your intended program of study.

    Step 3: Start Your Penn State Application

    If applying through MyPennState:

    Click Apply Online to start your Penn State application. 

    Your application work can be saved at each step of the process by clicking the "Save and Continue" button at the bottom of the page. This feature will allow you to move back and forth within the application or log off and return to complete your application at a later time.

    After completing your Academic History, you will need to provide your Self-Reported Academic Record (SRAR), unless otherwise directed. You will be directed to enter information about your secondary school coursework. Please have a copy of your secondary school records as you complete SRAR. It is important that this step is a complete and accurate representation of your school record. You will need to enter every grade for every course you have taken in the last three years, as well as your current schedule of classes.

    Students educated in South Korea will not complete SRAR. The document requirements for South Korea can be found by reviewing our International Credential Requirements.

    After this section, you will be directed back to the Penn State application to complete the Program of Study portion. Here, you will indicate your desired starting semester, your intended program of study, and your starting and ending campus. For further details on how to complete this portion based on your applicant type, please see the steps to apply for either first-year students or transfer students.

    After this portion, you will provide some additional application information, an activities resume, and a personal statement. You will be able to paste in this information from other sources, but note that the formatting may not always paste in as intended.

    If applying through the Common App:

    Complete the Common App, which will then direct you to MyPennState to complete SRAR. Applicants using the Common App may feel that they provided their high school record via the Common App, but Penn State requires the completion of SRAR via MyPennState. We strongly encourage you to obtain an official copy of your high school transcript to ensure accurate entry of your coursework completed and grades earned. The SRAR will include all of your high school coursework from your last three years of work and your current year schedule. If your final year grades are available when you enter SRAR, you can enter them at that time.

    Step 4: Submit Your Application

    The application requires a nonrefundable application fee of $75 for international students. Be sure to complete the last step after Summary and Review, which finalizes payment of your fee, and be certain it is successfully submitted. Once the application is submitted, you can verify its completion by accessing your MyPennState profile.

    Step 5: Submit Required Application Materials

    In order to complete your Penn State application, we need the following materials:

    • Application
    • Secondary school record
    • Post-secondary school records (if applicable)
    • First-year applicants only: Official test scores: SAT (code #2660) or ACT (code #3656)

      Writing Component and Subject Tests

      Please note: The writing component of standardized tests (SAT or ACT) is not required. The writing component will not be used as part of our evaluation. If your test scores include the writing component, by all means, have those scores sent to Penn State. Additionally, we do not require SAT Subject Tests.

    • English language proficiency, if your native language is not English

    Please see the admissions requirements for international students to review the details about the required application materials. Some programs require additional items to complete your application. Please review our Admissions Requirements for those details.

    Penn State does not require letters of recommendation, nor are they used in a student’s evaluation (unless required for a specific program).

    Step 6: Check Your Application Status in MyPennState

    You can always check the status of your application in MyPennState. We will communicate with you via MyPennState and through a series of emails regarding the missing items for your application. When everything has arrived, you will see a status in MyPennState confirming the completion of your application.

    Please note: It is your responsibility to check on the status of your application and send us any missing materials.

    Step 7: Receive Your Admission Decision

    Once we have reached a decision regarding your application, we will update your status in MyPennState and provide a printable PDF of your decision letter. Review our Dates & Deadlines to see when you should expect your decision.

    If accepted, you can accept your offer of admission in MyPennState to begin the process of becoming a Penn State student. Visit our Accepted Students section to review the next steps in this process. Once you accept your offer of admission to Penn State, those students completing SRAR will submit their official records for validation purposes as soon as possible.

    Bachelor of Art at Pennsylvania State University
    Pennsylvania State University
    Pennsylvania State University
    United States of America

    United States of America, University Park

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