Ups and Downs of Art Schools

Molly showed up to do some work of her own while I was still proofing Ashley's blocks, and continued to work well after my business meeting was done. We were long overdue for a pizza and beer event, so we went across the street to get some to bring back to the Studio. While we were enjoying that, I finally had a chance to ask Molly about something I had wondered since last spring. The two of us have had somewhat parallel lives- around the same age, we both earned undergraduate degrees as out of state students in Virginia state colleges, and both got our MFA's in printmaking at larger midwestern universities. Last spring I wrote about the question I was often asked in Virginia, about my not going to VCU to study art. So today I put the question to her. Turned out to be more or less the same thing as my experience- not being from Virginia she had no idea that VCU was the big art school, but instead chose a liberal arts school known for providing good value for the money. The one difference is that she expected to study art from the beginning, while I only came to that decision almost halfway to my BA. She said it was important to her to go to a regular college and not an art school, which she thought would limit her education in all things not art.

That led to me sharing some information I had read the other day, in the NY Times education supplement. The department of education tracks college costs, and produces a list of most and least expensive colleges, with a net price accounting for stated tuition, living and school expenses, and typically offered scholarships and grants. What surprised me is that the top of the expensive list is dominated by art schools. Top 5: Art Institute of Chicago (average net price over $41,000), RISD (about $39,000), The New School (Parsons seems to be it's biggest division, about $38,000), Art Center College of Design- CA ($38,000), and Ringling College of Art and Design ($37,000). Pratt slots in at #8, and there are three more in the top 25. While I'm sure that all these schools have facilities far better than any of the public colleges Molly and I attended, and a list of impressive alumni, I find it astounding that anyone would pay almost $40K per year to earn an art degree. An education at a top school for medicine, law, or business can also be quite expensive, but those who do well have a reasonable shot at a job that will allow them to pay back those costs. If there's one group of people who should not be racking up huge student debts, it's artists. I do encourage anyone interested in art to study it, at least part time if not full time, but I would warn anyone against committing those kind of resources to a degree that has such dismal prospects for a career.