The Easiest Art Schools to Discard

A damning report from the US Senate states that the for-profit schools spend more on marketing than on teaching, that their profits matter more than academics, and that recruitment counts more than graduations.  For-profit college spokespeople are trying to hit back hard, saying that all of this is non-sense.

Who should you believe?  Politicians or PR buffoons?

Time for...: COMMON SENSE.

Where does recruitment start in the 21^st century?  Online, right?  If you want info, what do you do?  You Google.

So go check out which schools show up at the top of a search under:  “art schools”

Did the results yield many of the best art schools in the country (such as this list)?  Or did you get mostly for-profit art schools?

Oh!  Maybe you don’t know which art schools are “for-profit.”  Easy.  Just type:  artschools.com (imagine that!  For-profit schools "own" artschools.com).

And what about artschool.com (singular version of “artschools.com”).  A-Ha!  That one is operated by … The Art Institute.  The leading for-profit art school.

Conclusion, that’s A LOT of lipstick on a pig.

So we’ve proven the first point:  the marketing assault of for-profit art schools decimates the marketing presence of non-profit art schools.

Is that enough to discredit for-profit art schools?  No.  Some have great results.  Yet, the best for-profit art schools have invested their efforts in turning out great artists, not in outspending everyone on search engine rankings.

In upcoming posts, I’ll address why most for-profit art schools are a bad investment (and how you can better spend your education dollars elsewhere!).

Tuition's Cancer Tumors

Last month, I received an internal e-mail wishing well to an administrator, who spent more than 10 years at Cal State Fullerton, and who received a promotion at another university.  It so happens that I haven't dealt much with that lady, but I remember her as a nice person.  So in this commentary is not so much about her as it is about a big problem in too many higher ed institutions that's causing your tuition to grow unnecessarily.

The e-mail listed all the offices where she worked during her years at Cal State Fullerton.  Some of them have names like:

- Bureau of Research Development

- Freshman Support & Resource Group

- Center for Community Involvement

- Partnership for Internships

- Bureau of University Initiatives, Research, and Industry Collaborations

- Student Life Association

- Grant-Writing Support Center for Staff and Faculty

(I've changed their names to emphasize the general problem, rather than to pick on any specific office;  yet most universities have lots and LOTS of these entities): 

Here's a little secret:  30 years ago or so, not half of those offices existed, and universities did just fine.  While these offices didn't seem necessary then, they are now staffed with people who often have graduate degrees and therefore get salaries in the mid-to-high five-figures (and more than $100,000 for the heads of these offices).  If you add up all these salaries, almost every college is spending millions of dollars on strangely-titled personnel considered unnecessary 30 years ago. 

Where does the money come to pay those salaries?  Your tuition.

(And from taxes – your taxes - in the case of public universities).

Some administrators will disagree, pointing out that some of these offices run on foundation money or endowment funds (money given by charitable organizations or generous donors).  But then, ask yourself, why isn't the university using that money for student grants or for the general budget, namely, to lower your tuition?!

If you don't like this, what can you do about it?  Next time you hear university officials complain about their expanding costs as the reason why tuition must rise, don't buy into their argument.  Instead, tell them to cut their bureaucracy and focus on the classes.  Write to them directly.  Write letters to the editors.  Call TV stations.  Facebook about it, Tweet it!  Make a ruckus!  

It's a BIG problem, but a recent minor success has proven that public shame can force administrators to be a little less wasteful.

An Art Degree Isn't a Job Guarantee

Take all your savings.  Borrow from future paychecks.  Get your art degree.  Pay for groceries with food stamps.

Sounds improbable? 

I'm sure several the several thousands of janitors with PhD's had other visions when they began their college careers.  Yet, from 2007 to 2010, three times as many PhD's needed food stamps and other kinds of welfare to get by. 

Today's latest unemployment figure of 8.2% highlights the nation's dismal economic shape despite the promises of a recovery if we borrowed trillions of dollars for "shovel-ready" projects.  In a bitter way, it is a useful reminder that an art education isn't a job guarantee and that making it as an artist is hard.

So how can you avoid spending money on an art degree that will land you on the food stamp homepage?  First, unless you're accepted in a top art school (and in my view, there are probably less than a dozen in the USA), admit that spending more than $20,000 a year on an art degree makes you look borderline stupid (but plenty of art degree mills love such kinds of fools!).

Second, learn to evaluate the return on investment of your education.  And it comes in two parts:

1) the cost of your education

2) the income generated by your education

We all know there is a chance that the second part, the income you get after art school, might be modest, and even frighteningly low when you're just starting.  So what you want to do is focus on the first part, and not fall for the Big Trap:  more expensive is always better.  Seriously.  More expensive art schools rarely get you better art profs or more brilliant art programs.  What more expensive will get you is glossier promotional brochures, shinier hallways, and vastly larger teams of paid recruiters.

On the other hand, what is certain is that the more bangs for the bucks you get from your art degree (that is, finding the most affordable, yet best art program suiting your learning goals), the less money you will spend, the less debt you will owe, and the higher your chances of making it and staying off food stamps after you get your first art sales and art jobs.