Art Schools Advice

It's not a problem. The votes that I did get kinda reaffirmed what I was already thinking anyway.

 

Maybe the reason for the low voter turnout is that you didn't offer a complete suite of choices -- you neglected to include a button marked "none of the above". Given the severity of the current economic recession, many prospective voters may not have wanted to recommend investing tens of thousands of dollars in any of the listed MFA programs.

From this perspective, the second best alternative would be the one that most limits the financial damage. The Houston program is the most attractive in this regard, simply because it is the least expensive. Since you plan to live in the Houston area, there would presumably be no travel/lodging costs for residencies. The Houston program may also be able to provide info about local job conditions and local networking opportunities. That could be explain why it is favored by the available voting.

However, I suspect that "none of the above" would have been the true winner here. This may not be welcome news, but consider it as "insight from a different perspective".

 

HikarBr is in an MFA program in San Francisco and has written about his program on previous threads.

 

That is very true, and that is definitely the individual voter's prerogative. I believe that I did offer a complete suite of choices based upon the parameters of my inquiry. The reason I did not include a "none of the above" selection is because "none of the above" was not an answer I desired to include. Regardless of a recession or the economy, investing money in anything could be considered questionable (rather than trying to save it). Obviously, some feel that there is little use for a degree in art, especially in an economic climate that provides perceived limitations on such superfluous pursuits. The purpose of this thread, and my poll in general was to inquire about opinions on art degrees. Those that didn't feel comfortable voting or commenting, didn't. Those that did, did. I have received what information I sought, and I appreciate the insight and conversation that I have received. Also, thank you for your opinion. That was the entire intent of my thread.

 

It's kind of difficult to vote in your poll because you selected some very different MFA programs, from Fine Arts to Graphic Design to Painting.

Believe me, as someone that took a lot of classes in those three disciplines, they are vastly different to each other, even if they have some overlap in them.

The term MFA can be misleading - a MFA is not like an MBA, where you have a core os courses that are pretty much similar in any MBA and then with some 15 credits of different disciplines for concentration (i.e. MBA in finance, MBA in Marketing, etc...).

A MFA classes are almost totally related to your chosen discipline. Even when you have very close related field (like Film and Animation/VFX) you normally only have overlapping classes in the beginning (it's like this in my school but also in almost every other MFAs that I know of).

Son don't think yo can substitute a MFA in Graphic Design for a MFA in Fine Arts. THey are different beasts.

You're right about what you said that if you have a more digital media related MFA you can work in the commercial field, but keep in mind that the commercial art field is the anti-thesis of the Fine Art field, so you're training in a MFA in FIne Art at the San Francisco Art Institute or Bard College won't give you the same training that someone in a MFA in Game Art or Animation/VFX will have. THey will have a better understanding of what is need to work in a place like Blizzard, Dreamworks, etc...

And keep in mind that in the commercial world people really don't give much weight for your degree, if any (they wanna see your portfolio).

So, as you said, one of the main points of a MFA is to let you teach. But here's the catch too: most big art schools expect you to have industry experience. If you don't you can be hired but students will complain very fast and you may be out of job.

Of all the schools in you poll, I think Bard and San Francisco Art Institute are the ones with best prestige and reputation in the Fine Art field.

SVA is pretty prestigious but it's for-profit (I don't have any problem with that but some people do) and commercial art oriented like my school, AAU. I was accepted at SVA before coming here to the USA, but decided to go to AAU (mainly because of the location. I think the animation program of both schools are kind equivalent).