Is going to an art college even worth it?

Hi Katie

Congrats on getting into such a wonderful art school. I can understand your Mom's feelings, but the big question is.... Will art college be worth it to YOU? If you love art, are ready to learn and to work hard, be flexible about your job prospects, and can be patient about making the "big bucks", then it could be, but it is up to you. Art-related careers typically do not pay much to start, but they can pay relatively well, if you can stick with them. Be realistic about your financial resources and what sort of loans and scholarships you can get, and look at the costs of tuition and living expenses. If the financial aspects can work out, think about it.

Going to a prestigious art school can be expensive, but a diploma from one of them could put you ahead of graduates from other art colleges in terms of name recognition, education, internship opportunities, and access to alumni, who can help with career advice before and after you graduate. But, again, it really all comes down to you, and your grades, your recommendations, and your skills and art ability based on your portfolio. Getting a job after college is similar to getting into college, a lot of hard work, and you've been successful there.

Your career choices are sound, art therapy and graphic design are careers that pay well and can offer job stability. I suggest you do some research on art therapy and graphic design in advertising (talk to your guidance counselor, art teacher or your local librarian for help with books and websites), so that you can show your mother that there are paying art careers out there. You might contact the Savannah College of Art and Design with this question and see if they have a career counseling office that could help you out in terms of information. From my own experience, I will say that if you really love art, it is hard to consider other careers, especially if you have a talent for it. Although when I was younger I thought about other careers for better salaries and more opportunities, I always came back to art. I became an art teacher, and I loved my job.

Best wishes for next year!

Hi Katie,

You've asked a very nuanced question. As the previous responder noted it varies from person to person and situation to situation. Art college and higher education in general can greatly improve your skills and allow you to learn more about yourself as well as many other subjects.

Having worked as a professional artist for over a decade I can tell you that the majority of artists in the video games industry do have degrees from art colleges. I have also known a few who never completed their degrees however, I've never worked with any artists who never attended college. That isn't to say that they aren't out there but it is a very rare case.

Art schools (and school in general) will enable you to have access to a wide variety of resources: classes to help you broaden your skills and abilities, classmates with whom you can also learn from, internship and career placement programs that will help you get a foot in the door, the discipline and work ethic to get assignments done on time, the opportunity to have your work critiqued by professionals and peers, a diverse body of work to showcase in your portfolio, etc. In these days of youtube tutorials and access to online materials it has actually become quite easy to have access to virtual forms of all of these things. It will be difficult to comb through the glut of materials out there to find the best ones and the ones that work for you though.

So if you have the self discipline to follow a virtual study plan and put together a curriculum then you might not need to attend an actual art college. Employers do look at your education and experience, but for artists your portfolio will have much greater significance. But a college or university will have all of that organized and set for you with guidance counselors and a community of similar people to help you along your journey.

With respect to the Savannah College of Art and Design specifically, I do not have any personal knowledge about them. Having gotten my Master of Fine Arts degree myself, I would say that I learned a great deal and was able to become a much better artist in the process. One thing to keep in mind is that you don't have to do all 4 years at SCAD. You can go to a community college or state school to do your prerequisites and then transfer into SCAD later. In this way you could mitigate the costs.

And with respects to becoming a teacher or therapist, keep in mind that many of those jobs require a college degree or higher.

I hope that this helps with your decision.

This is a hard question to answer without numbers on cost, realistic expected employment opportunities, how rich your family is, etc.

If it's going to cost you $50k/year in tuition, housing, food, etc, and the expected employment is a job making near minimum wage, then it may not be worth it.

If it's $10k/year and your family can just pay for it, then the above consideration doesn't really matter.

It's hard to get some of that data ahead of time (realistic numbers of jobs and salaries for those jobs can be hard to figure out).