Best college/university for photography

[dpryke]

Hi All,

My daughter is entering her junior year in high school and is starting the process of looking for a college. She wants to major in photography and I was looking for any recommendations. We live in the Northeast and she is looking as far west as Chicago.

Schools we have already toured:

Savannah College of Art and Design (her number one choice so far)

Mass College of Art

UMass Dartmouth

Rhode Island School of Design

Virginia Commonwealth University

School we plan to visit:

Columbia College - Chicago

School of Visual Arts - NYC

Maryland Institute of Art

Please let me know if you have been to any of the above and your thoughts. Feel free to make other suggestions for schools. Thanks in advance for everyone's help.

Dave

 

[chuasam]

Hope you have lots of money. A major in photography is about as useful as a BA in English.

 

[KmH]

Career prospects for photographers in the foreseeable future is not encouraging.
I encourage you and your daughter to independently research those prospects and the kind of income photographers make today.
United States Department of Labor

Staff photographer jobs essentially no longer exist. Even Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers have seen their staff photography jobs disappear.

Mr. Buyansky said Pulitzer Prize-winning Sun-Times photographer John H. White was in the room and was among those who were laid off. “It’s sad,” said Mr. Buyansky, speaking from the Billy Goat tavern, a longtime watering hole for Chicago journalists, where about 10 laid-off photographers congregated after the meeting. “The Sun-Times had an amazing photo staff."

FAQs
How can I become a photographer for National Geographic?
We are often asked by aspiring photojournalists for advice about entering this highly competitive field.

National Geographic photographers have college degrees in a variety of disciplines. Most did not major in photography, but all took photo courses. The most common majors have been journalism, anthropology, sociology or psychology, fine arts, and sciences. Our editors and photographers agree that it is important to complete a degree in a discipline other than photography. (added emphasis) Freelancers usually come to us with at least five years of photojournalism experience or with specializations such as wildlife, underwater, nature, or aerial photography. We seek balance and an eclectic blend of interests, abilities, and photographic styles in the freelancers we hire.

Best wishes for your daughter and her future.
A few majoring in Photography will get lucky, and make the right connections once they graduate. Then all they'll need is the business savvy it takes to make photography a career.

 

[Designer]

She wants to major in photography ..

Welcome!

I'm curious as to your daughter's goal. Does she have a career in photography in her plans? While photography can be enjoyable and creatively rewarding, finding a situation that also leads to financial security could be a big problem.

Is her ambition to someday own her own photography business? Is her artistic expression laudable? Note; there are two distinct areas that need to be developed; business and art. A fantastic eye can only do so much, and might not succeed at business. A very good business person can make money, but will need to find a niche market.

If your daughter has a very good eye already, then send her to business school.

 

[KenC]

I second the comments regarding photography as a career. One option might be to major in something else and take photography courses, sort of a minor in photography.

As for the universities, in my experience an education is what you make of it, and one's intelligence and desire to learn determine how much one learns. How comfortable one is with the culture and approach of the university is part of this, so visiting them is essential. Of course there are "name" schools that may provide better contacts and may make it easier to find a job for that reason, so that has to be factored in as well.

 

[Destin]

Keith' post above sums up everything that I would have said.

I'll add in that 6 of my classmates in high school went to various colleges for photography. Only one of them is making any money at all in it, and that's because she got a lucky break getting a tough internship with a publishing house. The other 5 have college degrees that they aren't using at all.

Then you have myself. I'm a self taught photographer using books, youtube videos, and this forum. I ran a successful photography business for 3-4 years during and after high school with no formal training, and rather invested my money in equipment than education.

In today's job market, you're better off majoring in something that can provide a solid career with a good job outlook (healthcare, etc) and then if you want to be a photographer still then take a couple elective courses in it, teach yourself the way I did, and minor in business so that you can run a photography business on the side in the future.

As I'm sure everyone else on here will attest, most photography business fail in the first 5 years due to poor book keeping/business decisions. Also, the most successful photographers are not necessarily the most skilled photographers, they're the best at business/marketing.

 

[table1349]

Hope you have lots of money. A major in photography is about as useful as a BA in English.

Actually a BA in English is quite useful. In any media related industry, publishing, teaching, advertising, marketing, Law, business and finance to name just a few.

A BS in Liberal Arts on the other hand is one of the most useless degrees there is for preparing you for a career or getting a job.

As the parent of three grown children with their own families I would suggest that you have a long talk with your daughter about getting a degree that would be useful to her to put food on the table, a roof over her head and decent clothes on her back. She can take some photography courses while in college but she will have a paying career to start with. Of my three children, one did not get their degree and went into a line of work he enjoys after going to culinary school and is now a chef, one has a career in his chosen field, he is a programer with duel degrees in computer sciences and international business and a daughter with a degree in History who is now an executive with Boy Scouts of America.

Remember the man that said, "A person can be anything they want to be" didn't promise that they could make a living at it. Gone are the days that just having a college degree automatically transferred into a career. There are far to many people with degrees, even master degrees serving coffee, burgers and fries.

 

[TheLibrarian]

BA in English or BS in Liberal Arts either way you're going to be installing tile if you're lucky. Art in general is not as useless as they led us to believe at least not as useless as Philosophy. Today with marketing et al you can do many types of art. Add to that the machines or means of production are in the hands of the few so theres not much to do except sit around and not be part of the economy. As such art entertainment and dancing for the factory owners is one of the few things left to do. I would have a more general art base and add to that some photography. Maybe digital design and that type of thing which gives you the principles of composition and the technical image manipulation with things like ps.

 

[Dave442]

I have three family members with art degrees, masters or doctorates as much of their steady work is in education.

One went on to Art Center in California for photography. I visited there a couple times and thought it was an excellent program (though a lot further west than Chicago).

 

[KmH]

I can vote for the Art Center in California too.

 

[Gary A.]

I am a former pro. There are many good jobs in photography in many many different arenas not just studio/wedding work. Your daughter needs to start researching the type of photography she is most interested and the best path to career fulfillment.

As far as I know, most universities offer two avenues for obtaining degrees in photography, one is through the Art Department and the other is through Communications/Journalism.

If she desires to pursue journalism, then she should research a top journalism school, ala:
Emerson, Missouri, University of Southern California, California State University Fullerton, et al.

The same for art degrees.

When I was working news, I did run into fellow photogs from Cal Arts and Brooks Institute ... At the time they were not known as strong journalism schools, but sufficiently good to produce photojournalists for major news organizations.

Feed her passion, (whatever it may be), because it is a terribly competitive world out there. I doubt if things have changed, but when I was working news it was vitally important to have a com/journalism degree to work at a major market news organization. It was important to be a good reporter first, not just a good photographer.

In Rio our women athletics kicked butt, and I believe, out performed our men's team in total medal count. One of the swimmers, the Stanford girl, said that she was "... Never told that she could not compete...". That really resonated with me and focused how much of the world still treats females as second class, (but I digress). The point is to feed her passion, don't tell her she cannot do something ... Because, quite frankly she can, potentially we all can. I think the best things in life are not easy ... If you can combine your career with your passion, you've just won Gold. But you have to compete.

Sure be tempered by all the naysayers ... But somebody is going to win the Gold ... Somebody will be shooting for the Associated Press, making a decent living and traveling the globe reporting all the good and all the bad in this world for the betterment of society. It could be your daughter. Sure, odds are long that she won't be shooting for AP or Magnum or the New York Times. But one thing is certain that if she doesn't compete, if she doesn't try, then she definitely won't be shooting for AP/Magnum/New York Times.

Somebody has those jobs.

I feel confident that being passionate about one's choice(s) and competing for your future also holds true for the other genres of photography. (I just spoke about the field I know.)

 

[waday]

Gone are the days that just having a college degree automatically transferred into a career. There are far to many people with degrees, even master degrees serving coffee, burgers and fries.

+1.

And, gone are the days where you could start in the mail room and work your way to a corner office. Corner offices are gone and being replaced with open office layouts (not even cubicles, just long tables with no, or very little, dividers). And, if you start in the mail room, the best you can probably expect is manager of the mail room when the previous manager quits for being over worked and paid too little. Nowadays, one has to jump and skip to the desired position. It's not all uncommon for people to switch jobs several times before they hit their mid-30s. While this is an extreme example, one man I work with is about to retire, after working for well over 10 different companies.

I have a very good friend that graduated engineering college with me. He's incredibly smart. I stayed and got my master's, he didn't. He could barely get a call back when he submitted his resumes. One time, he asked a recruiter why no one ever returned his calls. He was told he didn't have a master's degree.

After graduating from law school, my wife worked at Starbucks and other retail jobs for years before being able to find a full-time position as an attorney. The same goes for several of her friends. Some of her friends actually left the law altogether.

A college degree is no guarantee to finding a career. To the OP, I highly suggest you and your daughter to research the field. DO NOT LISTEN to the college counselor telling you about what the field entails or what jobs to expect. They likely have no idea. You need to do that research on your own.

 

[KenC]

@waday - I have seen some of what you describe. Companies can be very stupid about degrees. I think there's a kind of "HR" mentality that creeps into anything, namely that one can sum up a person by degrees/experience and rule out those that don't fit. This farcically extends to people who are said to have "too much" experience and are deemed to be "overqualified" - you would think an organization would be happy to get someone with more than the required qualifications.

At one place I worked there were qualifications for each position. A chemist without a Ph.D. absolutely could not (according to the system) rise above a certain level. I did manage to get one person that worked for me beyond the normal limit because that person was functioning at the level expected of a Ph.D. and deserved to be treated accordingly.

 

[waday]

@waday - I have seen some of what you describe. Companies can be very stupid about degrees. I think there's a kind of "HR" mentality that creeps into anything, namely that one can sum up a person by degrees/experience and rule out those that don't fit. This farcically extends to people who are said to have "too much" experience and are deemed to be "overqualified" - you would think an organization would be happy to get someone with more than the required qualifications.

At one place I worked there were qualifications for each position. A chemist without a Ph.D. absolutely could not (according to the system) rise above a certain level. I did manage to get one person that worked for me beyond the normal limit because that person was functioning at the level expected of a Ph.D. and deserved to be treated accordingly.

Totally. I have experienced some of what you describe, and I've seen it happen to others. For personal experience:

At my first job, HR had the job descriptions written in such a way that I was unable to move to a "Level 2" position, because I was not a licensed PE. However, "Level 2" did not require a PE license, just years of experience. If someone were applying from the outside without a PE, they could be hired into that position. I fought hard against it, but never won. In addition, no new positions were being created, so the only way to move up to a "Level 3" would be for a "Level 3" to be fired or leave the company. It was craziness, and I eventually left.

Similarly, I have been turned down for interviews or jobs exactly because of being overqualified for the stated position. I was once told that DURING AN INTERVIEW (at the beginning). The guy literally said, "We're not going to hire you. This is just a formality to get a wide variety of experienced people in here for an interview." He sounded like a great guy to work for. What a waste of my time, and state taxpayer money, since he worked for the state (and lived up to the stereotype).

 

[KenC]

Similarly, I have been turned down for interviews or jobs exactly because of being overqualified for the stated position. I was once told that DURING AN INTERVIEW (at the beginning). The guy literally said, "We're not going to hire you. This is just a formality to get a wide variety of experienced people in here for an interview." He sounded like a great guy to work for. What a waste of my time, and state taxpayer money, since he worked for the state (and lived up to the stereotype).

Yeah, everyone has a couple of these. My favorite interview featured comments about my age. I was starting a new career and most people interviewing for that job were about 15 years younger than I was. A friend of mine who was only a few years younger interviewed there and got similar comments - totally illegal of course, but ...