Is it easy to get a job graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago?

Hello Anna!

First of all: congrats on getting accepted into SAIC! That's awesome!

But you don't have to break the bank going to art school. I'm not sure if you applied to more schools that SAIC, but you might want to consider going to some of the other schools if they have a better cost of living in the area and cheaper tuition. You can get a great art education from many different institutions besides SAIC, RIT, MICA, and all the top names.

Regardless of whether or not you choose SAIC or another art school, exhaust all your financial aid options. Get as much free money as you can. Fill out a FAFSA, see what scholarship programs you may qualify for at SAIC, and then also look at different scholarships and grants that are out there not tied to any school in particular. There are also some art and design competitions that come with financial rewards that you can use towards your tuition.

To answer your parents' concerns: some people have great paying jobs after art school and some people do not. A lot of the success people have depends on how hard they worked in art school. This will partly depend on what degree you are seeking and how hard you work in school. I would check out the US Department of Labor jobs index site to find out more about the pay ranges for different art careers and related jobs: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/a-z-index.htm

If you're planning to become a professional artist, this will involve a lot of work, self promotion, getting into exhibits, selling artwork, selling reproductions of your work, maybe giving art lessons, and probably having a full- or part-time job on the side.

Same goes for professional illustrators, but you can get work as an in-house commercial illustrator or storyboard artist which will be more stable financially.

If you want to go into teaching and get your MFA, that's more school after your BFA and not everyone lands a full-time faculty position.

Photography is its own beast. Besides people pursuing photography as art, there is a commercial side. This can include, but isn't limited to product photography, portrait photography, event photography, lifestyle photography, fashion photography, editorial photography, stock photography, and photojournalism.

Art history, restoration, and curation are less about making art and more about taking care of it. Art historians generally end up as academics, teaching, researching, and writing about art and artists, but also at companies, libraries, schools, museums, or historical societies doing similar academic style work, but for the institution they work for. Art restoration is can be with historic art and artifacts or rescuing relatively new photos and art from a recent flood. Curators develop art exhibits, working at galleries, art schools, museums, and other culture organizations, sometimes starting their own galleries.

Graphic design has a lot more options for work, but also has a huge pay range from $10 an hour to $100k+ a year. You can also go on to get your MFA and teach design, but there are a lot other jobs. The low end of the pay scale for graphic design is production art that could be at a print shop, t-shirt place, or small business. A lot of companies hire in-house designers, but then the more glamorous side of design is at a start-up, working at big brands, and agencies. And of course there is always freelance. Some people are full-time freelance designers and a lot of people working full-time at a company also do freelance on the side.

There's also industrial design, but I won't get into that because it sounds like you are much more interested in the art side of things.

As you can see there is a lot to think about, but don't get too stressed out about it. You can pick one art degree and still have it translate to other art-related careers. I graduated with a BFA in Printmaking, but I work as a product designer and do freelance illustration and design on the side. I still make art and participate in exhibitions, but I do it more for myself than to sell, because I came to love design more.