I went to college/university so I can be a Janitor!

Hey, who wants a completely contradictory position to the post directly above? Everyone? Oh boy!

Crown, I'm not sure where you were working, but we seem to have had completely different experiences. A bit of background: I recently (~6 months ago) finished up at film school. Now I'm living and working in NYC, I'm not going to go into exactly what I've been doing but to be honest I'm doing pretty damn well for myself (doing exactly what I went to school for, mind you). Nearly everyone I've met and worked with has been great. I can see doing this for a very long time.

Now, my experience might not be typical, and it's certainly not the story that's being brought to you by your favorite news networks. But it worked for me, and while I had a fair share of luck it wasn't just that. What it comes down to is that I'm good at what I do, and people are willing to pay me money to do it.

It's not for everyone, but I'll be damned if I ever discourage somebody from going to school for an arts degree, as long as they know full well the potential they will have. To Pussy Galore et al, going to school and learning from professional artists, correctly, and working at it, improves your techniques by leaps and bounds. It's not always enough to just sit at your house and paint all day, having a community and mentors to guide you through the shit they already know instead of having to dig through and figure it out for yourself can be invaluable.

Of course, not everyone who majors in an art is going to get anywhere with it. But if you're sure it's what you want to do and not just a "well, pottery is easy, right?," then fuck, do it.

 

Conversely, though, the more unscientific and unspecific your field of study or vocation is, the more name brands matter.

When you are going to study Cisco Academy curriculum, your potential employers know exactly what that, what you should know, how to evaluate you, etc. The more uncertainty on these counts that gets introduced into the equation, the more people are instinctively going to rely on quick and easy heuristics, and one of the first screens is going to be school.

If you were applying for something more nebulous like a PR job, that Duke name might suddenly have a much higher weight in terms of whether or not you get an interview.

 

IF you have that talent, then go for arts. I agree. IF you have that talent. The problem with most art students is that the only person they use to judge their talent is themselves, instead of getting the opinions of others. It's no doubt an industry where others have to like you, whether it's visual, audio or performance. Walking into that world-- high on yourself with no critique is a rude awakening, and SO MANY of them do that.

Personally, it didn't work out for me because of environment and location: nothing around here for me, and the only opportunities are Toronto where it's a populated warzone of backstabbers. In other parts, it might work out better. However, a vast majority of art students waste their educated minds.

 

I can't tell if you're talking about the decision to go to art school, or the art school experience, or after graduation here, but...

you still have to get into art school, and just like with every major there's a spectrum of school that are really difficult to get into and safety school that accept everyone. Then during those four years their whole education is based around critiques and getting judged.

 

You kind of have to look at how grading works in art schools, though. Since art is subjective, it's difficult to grade as much on the quality of work as it is the fact that you got it done and on schedule.

For example, say you have two students- one is a genius, and the other is pretty average as far as work goes. The genius is terrible in terms of sticking to dates set by his teacher, works on his own schedule, and turns out amazing pieces whenever he feels inspired. The average student works hard and has everything done before the deadline, all the time, but the actual quality of the work isn't great. What the hell do you do? You can't give a bad grade to a student who does the work on time that is essentially "correct" work (that is, it fulfills all the requirements), even if other students are just much better.

Schools do play a hand in that, a better school is going to turn out better artists on average, but even the best ones have students who get by just based on work ethic rather than quality. And then they go out into the world with a bad portfolio and good grades. Who gets blamed when the kid can't find a job? Everybody? Nobody?

 

I'm a licensed aircraft mechanic. I've been working in that field for the past ~4 years, and make pretty decent money, especially considering it's my part-time job while I'm back in school pursuing an engineering degree. To be honest, I'm only doing it because so many employers want me to have the degree. I've learned more in trade school and through real life experience than I have in the past two years of school.
The biggest problem I'm facing now is my disdain for the educational environment. I absolutely can't stand sitting in a room with anywhere from 50-400 other students, being spoken AT, expected to read everything else on my own (teaching myself) and then take a test and move to the next lecture hall.
In trade school I was top of my class. 100 on every test, and very adept and working through all the practical schooling. Back in college, i'm extraordinarily average. It comes down to my lack of motivation, and frequent disdain for professors who went right from a PhD program to being a profesor.
I'm currently in the throws of deciding what to do with myself. Do I start a business, or maybe take out 100k in loans to become a minimum wage-making helicopter pilot like I've always wanted? I'm honestly at a loss, and have been in a trance of thought for the past few days.
I need the degree to pursue higher paying/more interesting positions, but getting it is making me pretty bummed out. Any advice from the peanut gallery?

 

Georgetown University School of Foreign Service?