Some of my friends are going off to medical school and I wanted to go to art school. It turns out if i go to art school, i would leave with more debt then they would with medical school. Though I understand paying around 80-90 grand to be a doctor or a lawyer, but to pay that much just so i can learn how to make a pot, or use a film camera. Why does it cost so much? Most artist don’t even make that much. I think it’s kinda funny that i would leave school 80 grand in debt with a degree in crafts/photography.
Thanks
A private, for profit art school can indeed cost as much and you are not likely to get a job at the end of it.
On the otherhand, a public university are degree is almost free compared to the cost of a medical degree. However, few arts grads ever get a job with it. A medical degree pretty well guarantees you a good career.
A degree in Anthropology, Archeology, Art, Creative Writing, General Studies, History, Humanities, Literature, Political Science, most any language including English, Philosophy or Sociology is considered a "personal enrichment" degree. That is, these degrees are degrees that are meant to enrich you personally in the classical sense of a university education without leading to any specific job.
However, in today’s world where people go to university to enable themselves to get a job and hopefully a career a bachelor’s in these fields is essentially useless. With a degree in these fields and a GPA generally over 3.0 you can:
1. Get into law school. However law schools today graduate far more lawyers than there is business for lawyers.
2. Get into graduate school in a different field. Hopefully one without too many prerequisites you do not have. Consider getting a masters in Technology Management. You can make a similar salary to an engineer but you need essentially no sciences prerequisites.
3. Get into graduate school in the same field and eventually into a PhD so you can become a college professor in this field someday. However, there are far more PhD grads in some fields like Philosophy than there ever will be professorships or any kind of teaching programs.
4. Take a teaching qualification, which is usually 2 more years, so you can teach the subject at a public K-12 school.
5. Look for a job in a field where they want you to have a degree without any concern what it is. Where they only want the degree because they want educated people who have proven they can stick with something difficult and see it to completion. Like the insurance industry.
6. If you join the military you are more likely to enter as an officer instead of enlisted personnel.
Do note that if you do go for a more advanced degree, no one cares where you got your bachelor’s degree. Only the school where you got your most advanced degree counts. And that counts for a lot less than the name schools would have you believe.
If your GPA is over 3.0, don’t take a second undergrad degree if you already have one of these degrees. A graduate degree will be more valuable to you.
04.May, 2010 um 11:26 am
Wait until your friends realize what it will really cost them for a medical degree. If you were to go to an ivy league school for your undergraduate degree, the tuition alone will be $160,000. Follow that with 4 years of medical school and you will add about $200,000 in tuition. I suppose it might be possible to spend less by using a local college, but that will make it harder to get into a med school.
You are talking about a 4-year, baccalaureate program in art. This gives you a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree or something similar. Someone with a BFA or BA degree will have a "well-rounded" education including English, literature, history, a foreign language, and some sciences, in addition to the art courses. If you major in photography, you will also have some courses in other fields of art, such as drawing, painting, or ceramics. The degree opens doors for you, because it represents a more complete individual. You will be able to comprehend things in a broader context. You will probably also gain contacts within the industry through an apprenticeship program affiliated with the college or university.
If "all" you want to do is take pictures, you can get an education in a related technical school where all of the "renaissance man" stuff is bypassed completely. You can become a photographer by directing your study exclusively towards the subject. There is no such option if you want to practice medicine or law. You could become a medical assistant or paralegal, but you could not practice independently.
References :
04.May, 2010 um 12:10 pm
OK well first you are a little off in your calculations, students in med school/law school typically pay over $200,000 for their education. But I do agree with you, art school is way too expensive considering you won’t be able to find a job once you get out.
References :
04.May, 2010 um 12:43 pm
A private, for profit art school can indeed cost as much and you are not likely to get a job at the end of it.
On the otherhand, a public university are degree is almost free compared to the cost of a medical degree. However, few arts grads ever get a job with it. A medical degree pretty well guarantees you a good career.
A degree in Anthropology, Archeology, Art, Creative Writing, General Studies, History, Humanities, Literature, Political Science, most any language including English, Philosophy or Sociology is considered a "personal enrichment" degree. That is, these degrees are degrees that are meant to enrich you personally in the classical sense of a university education without leading to any specific job.
However, in today’s world where people go to university to enable themselves to get a job and hopefully a career a bachelor’s in these fields is essentially useless. With a degree in these fields and a GPA generally over 3.0 you can:
1. Get into law school. However law schools today graduate far more lawyers than there is business for lawyers.
2. Get into graduate school in a different field. Hopefully one without too many prerequisites you do not have. Consider getting a masters in Technology Management. You can make a similar salary to an engineer but you need essentially no sciences prerequisites.
3. Get into graduate school in the same field and eventually into a PhD so you can become a college professor in this field someday. However, there are far more PhD grads in some fields like Philosophy than there ever will be professorships or any kind of teaching programs.
4. Take a teaching qualification, which is usually 2 more years, so you can teach the subject at a public K-12 school.
5. Look for a job in a field where they want you to have a degree without any concern what it is. Where they only want the degree because they want educated people who have proven they can stick with something difficult and see it to completion. Like the insurance industry.
6. If you join the military you are more likely to enter as an officer instead of enlisted personnel.
Do note that if you do go for a more advanced degree, no one cares where you got your bachelor’s degree. Only the school where you got your most advanced degree counts. And that counts for a lot less than the name schools would have you believe.
If your GPA is over 3.0, don’t take a second undergrad degree if you already have one of these degrees. A graduate degree will be more valuable to you.
References :