Apply to the Precollege Visual Arts Program

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Students sitting outside the Heimbold Visual Arts Center

Eligibility

Sarah Lawrence's Precollege Visual Arts summer program From Drawing to Painting to Experimentation is designed for students who will be entering their junior or senior of high school in the fall of 2026.

If you do not hold U.S. citizenship or U.S. permanent residency, you must have or obtain an appropriate visa. For precollege, the most appropriate visa is the B-2 Tourism visa since it is a non-matriculating program and avocational. Refer to the Visitor Visa page of the travel.state.gov website for more information.

Applicants for whom English is not their first language and who are not currently attending a school with an English language curriculum should take one of the following tests:

Applicants should have a minimum TOEFL score of 100, an IELTS score of 7 or higher, or a Duolingo score of at least 130.

How to Apply: A Three-Step Process

Please note: The application window is not yet open for this program; please check out the application process below so you'll be ready to go when the online application is live!

Applications are due by May 1, 2026, and are reviewed on a rolling basis.

Applying is a three-step process designed to help us know you as an artist. Please follow the steps below in order.

Step 1: Answer These Questions

Please answer each of the questions below in approximately six sentences per question; please compile your answers in a Word document, which you will upload as part of your application.

  1. This program is a three-week art making intensive. Describe what makes you interested in and prepared for such a commitment (five hours a day, every weekday, for three weeks)?
  2. What inspires you to make art? Please specifically discuss what outside of art inspires your art. You will be drawing on other disciplines/subjects/ programs/interests/jobs/travel (outside of art) in the studio. We would like to know what that is for you. What feeds your creativity and research?
  3. Think about a time when a piece you were making didn’t turn out as planned. What did you discover during that process — about your creativity, persistence, or how you respond to challenges? This is a question addressing your openness as a learner and your willingness to grow, change, and adjust as an artist.
  4. What are you most comfortable with when you make your work and what makes you less comfortable? This can be about your attachment to a certain discipline, to a certain process, or to certain imagery.
  5. How will this program help you achieve your future goals? What are you most excited to learn about in relation to art making?
  6. This summer program will take place in an environment that is communal. You will be learning with others, creating side by side, communicating, critiquing, discussing, and sharing ideas and techniques. What have your experiences been in making art next to other artists? How do you feel you can grow? How do you feel you can contribute? 

Step 2: Show Us Your Work!

While it's ok if you don't have a formal portfolio, we do ask you to submit three finished pieces of work you've created. These can be anything that you consider a creative act (e.g., any drawing, collage, painting, paper mache sculpture, photos of a few pages of a sketch book, etc.). Please put each of the three works in a separate PDF; you'll also upload these three documents as part of the online application.

Step 3: Complete the Online Application

Once you've written your personal statements and saved them as a Word doc, and gathered your portfolio piecs into three separate PDFs, you're ready to complete our online application. We'll update this site when the application is live. We can't wait to hear from you!

Need Help?

Feel free to email us at precollege@sarahlawrence.edu if you have any questions or need assistance.

Please note that admission into this precollege program does not guarantee admission to Sarah Lawrence College for undergraduate study.