Art College

I have worked for several art colleges from small ones to world famous ones. I want to share with you some information that I hope and believe will help you make the best decision for yourself. As I think of more, I will post more about programs, finances, fit, etc. This isn’t all warm, fuzzy stuff, because I want you to be as well prepared as you can be. The colleges will do warm and fuzzy just fine. Most admissions counselors are there because they want to help. Still, in the end, it is their job to get you to go to their school if they feel it is a good place for you.

To get this started, here are a few:

The Fit is everything

Do you feel comfortable there? Are you in your element? Does the program work for you? Go to Accepted Student Days, where you get to meet professors and other students. Try to attend classes and do overnights if you can. After your tour, walk the campus unsupervised. Talk to as many people as you can. Remember, you will always find one person who hates everything, so if you come across that person, keep going. You will be surprised at how many people are willing to talk to you. At the same time, college should expand you and make you grow. Go somewhere you like, but go somewhere will you will feel challenged and experience new things. Before you leave, can you imagine yourself being there in your last week of your senior year?

You can’t take the buildings with you

Well, yes, fit and environment is important, but more important is what you get out of it and that is the education. You may love lush green lawns or tall skyscrapers on bustling streets, but there comes a day that you leave. What did you learn that you will be taking with you? Are your prepared?

or:

It is about 40 years, not 4. 

College may be the best experience of your life. It is likely that some of the friends you make here will be the ones you carry with you for the rest of your life (much more than high school). But college should prepare you to start the rest of your life. Having an awesome experience at college will not last very long if they do not prepare you adequately to move on in your professional career. 

Look at the department, not just the school

A college may have a huge reputation or be famous, but that reputation may be built on one department. That doesn’t help you if that isn’t your department or major. Find out what you can about your specific major, its faculty, its students and what kind of success they are having. Look at staff and faculty work. Find out about their recent alumni and how they are doing.

and:

So what if someone famous went there? 

First, any college can have one famous person. It can be sheer luck, so is the college consistently producing successful people. Also, it doesn’t matter - at all - if someone famous went there 50, 20, or 10 years ago. At all. By now, the leadership has changed, the faculty has changed, the program has changed, the technology has changed. Bottom line, how well are students coming out of this college NOW doing?