Sunday Mailbag: Art School Value?

Q: What are your stances on the comic artist training grounds (CalArts, Kubert, SCAD et al) regarding their value overall for the students? Have you met grads of these institutions and discussed their experiences? I tend to find a lot of worth in spending the money to learn from artists you look up to but I’m curious overall about what industry professionals think about how well a place like Kubert does at helping their grads find work in comics/design/storyboarding/animation etc. 

A: I get asked about art college a lot, but not about the specific topic of if art schools help their graduates get work. If you want to read about thoughts on the value of art schools in general, visit this post. In general the short version of if art school is worth it is: Only for the actual education. With a few exceptions, your degree is meaningless.

When it comes to if the art school you go to helps you find work after graduation, from what I’ve seen over the years is very, very few are helpful with that. Most art schools have no real placement programs, but that’s not really their fault. There are few 9 to 5 art “jobs” out there. The creative fields are dominated by freelance work.

The other problem with job placement is that many other art colleges will take anybody as a student as long as they pay their tuition, which results in many of their students being only marginally or in some cases completely lacking in talent. For those few companies that are looking for creatives for work it makes little sense to have a relationship with art schools like that… finding strong talent is like finding a needle in a haystack without a magnet.

However, there are a few art schools who have a serious vetting process for students, and that’s what makes a difference. You are not going to get accepted into CalArts or Ringling or a handful of other schools without demonstrating you have substantial talent and potential. Just getting in to one of those schools is an accomplishment. Studios like Pixar have relationships with those few schools and will recruit talent from their graduation classes. Those are the exceptions, though, and at the end of the day it’s still mostly about the work you do. It’s just had a small handful of schools can get you in front of the right door. It’s rare, both because there are very few schools that can provide that opportunity,a nd there are very few of those doors to begin with.

Thanks to Zach Morris for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about  cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!