Is anyone here NOT interested in art school?

[Hodge]

Well I've given up on chasing after my emotions, so that wasn't a problem. But admittedly I'm one of those people who didn't see art school as an option, was home-schooled for a few years and so always felt comfortable doing things independently. Though I did go to university since I'd always been on the academic elitist route, and actually really enjoy participating in academics (also scholarship money was a plus). I have a cousin who went the art school route and works at museums and the like. He travels a lot and seems happy enough (though tons of debt but i think he secretly enjoys being the starving artist).

Nowadays, since I'm serious about art I'm considering training/vocational schooling online as they seem to be really good for my purposes, but it took me a few years to get to this point of deciding on art as a serious career. My friend, who is 22 and in the middle of a computer engineering degree is also just considering doing school part time only or taking a break so to work on her career. This is because what she wants to do requires expert skill over college degrees. It's a matter of priorities. If you're just in that "ehh don't really know what I want to do" state, school at an affordable cost makes sense. But when you already know what you want to do, its worth looking at efficient routes to get to your goal (though often that means work work and more work).

[hundpappan]

I'm not really, I feel like the major thing you get out of it is the creative space w fellow students and not the lessons themselves so I try to create those spaces in other ways.

[LordVincent]

Art is something you can learn just fine on your own, especially with the internet nowadays. Art school is absolutely useless and a waste of money unless you are one of those individuals who feels that YOU, YOURSELF would get something out of it and you are itching to go there.

Another thing to keep in mind is how your goals line up with the goals of the schools available near you. I tried to get into a comic school here in sweden, got rejected, find out later that the swedish comic industry is a total bitch to people who draw manga inspired art. Pretty glad I didn't get accepted because if I did, I would have probably ended up being one of those people with a "my teacher gave me bad grades because I draw manga" story to tell.

Which, you can shout "but artistic development and anatomy practices!!!!" at me all you like but if you do then all you prove is that you have entirely missed the point these people are making and dismissed the real life studies that do lie behind this artform.
It is straight up offensive to me that some teachers treat paying students, who put their time and effort into their studies, in that manner. Absolutely disgusting and I have no interest wasting my time on experiencing that treatment myself.

[franknicklaus]

lol, I'm not even good at any form of art

[Draconic]

Modern multimedia art school? Yes, I'm interested.
Multimedia art school will help you ready for the multimedia industrial. You will become a professional artist.

Traditional art school? No, I'm not interested.

[LT1986]

I'm not interested in art school. I attended art classes from 7th grade to 12th grade. I made good grades and learned a few things. My problem with art school is the same problem that I have with most schools. You have to spend a lot of time trying to get passing grades by working on what they want you to work on. In art school, I just want to improve on things that I use to work on my web comic. Improving skills that I don't want to use is a big issue to me.

[lynestjules]

Any art related profession (music & literature included) are difficult ones to do as a career. You go to school for any of those, graduate and then you fight the world to have a place in it. Most cases, you end up not doing what you planned, because you have to pay bills just like everybody else. Unless you get lucky, but most of us... you end up having a lot of different jobs because the lay offs are brutal and/or it's contract work. You might have to move a lot for work and the pay can be good, but I think it's pretty rare that artists can say they struck it rich.
I've been in the art industry for 13 years now and even after 6 years with the same company, I got cut and had to start again and move again.
It's not whether going to art school is the real question. School is school, it's what lies after school is over. It's what kind of life are you ready to have.
Creating art can be done whenever, anybody can do that on their own time. But, having a profession in it is another thing completely.
Like I said, I have plenty of friends who are creative, but don't work in the art industry. They took science classes or education or nursing. I do have a lot of friends who also went to art school and now are working in a call center. There's next to no art jobs in this part of the country and it just got too hard for them to find work, so, they took on another career instead.

[inkycharland]

I went to SCAD for two years. If I had known what I know now, I probably wouldn't have gone. Instead I would have gone to a regular 4-year college. However, it's hard to gauge the importance of things like college in general.

I did learn a lot at SCAD. The two biggest things being, how to give/take criticism, and to stop treating art like a hobby. You can learn those any way, at any time. But SCAD really gives you the opportunity to practice those things. It's also a great way to develop a robust portfolio. (Again, you can get this with time, but when most of your classes are art classes it's easier.)

The biggest gains I've had, though, came from experience and practice. Of course, that's true of anything. I have friends that have worked for Marvel and DC and they've never gone to college. But they work their asses off. SO I guess I'm saying art school has a place, but it can't replace hard work.