Art School sucks

[Psychonaut]

Hey, I'm a noob so I thought I'd make a thread about how art school sucks, since I haven't seen it yet. I've been bouncing around from Major to Major in Art school trying to figure out what's my calling and I've basically come to the conclusion that you don't even need a degree to make it anymore. I just feel like I'm wasting my time, or I must really have no talent, and I can't take it. Yeah I know what you're thinking "DUH YOU DON'T NEED A DEGREE, PEOPLE ONLINE GET FREELANCE WORK WHO HAVE NO EXPERIENCE". That's not what I mean. I spoke to a friend the other day who told me that she knew a kid who dropped out of her design program and he basically just had connections. That's it, and now he has a freaking 50,000 a year paying job, and he doesn't even have an associates. Some of these little dipshits have it made. It pisses me off that by the time I get my masters some shmuck will already be making more money than me.

The only reason I'm putting up with this is because I already got my Associates in Illustration and now I'm going in for a 2 year BFA. I figure if I stuck around for the associates why not stay for 2 more years while I can still afford it and then get my master's somewhere else? At least if I get a BFA whatever job I get will be above minimum wage. I don't even have a car right now and I just need to pull in money to be able to leave (I plan on moving once I get a car to someplace out west). The only thing that's killing me right now is, you guessed it, my new program. They don't allow you to switch your schedule around so if I get a job, it'll have to be seasonal. I can't find a damn thing and all I end up finding is Babysitter work. They don't pay well unless you have experience and the only experience I have is working in a Nursing Home for the summer as a paid volunteer (Yeah sounds a little weird, but it was mostly for the experience than for the pay, y'know, something nice to put on a resume). And on top of that, my GPA is shot to hell. And most of the teachers in this program come across as hard asses. Our teacher gave us a lecture on how we need to "step it up" in my Principles of Animation Class the other day. I'm so sick of the bullshit. I didn't come here to compete with anyone, I'm hardly an "animator" or a "programmer". All my experiences are with drawing and now I need to be fucking disney level to get an A in these fucking classes (My teacher's words, not mine, "WE WANT TO GET AT DISNEY LEVEL AT THE END OF THE SEMESTER", ughhhhh).

I need to start pulling magic tricks out of my ass so my grades can go up.

Ugh, sorry for my whining. School sucks :(

[Psychonaut]

Bump :(

[Freeman]

I have no experience in the matter so yeah. Hopefully another member can help you out.

[Psychonaut]

Freeman Wrote:I have no experience in the matter so yeah. Hopefully another member can help you out.

Lol hey it's alright. I just needed to vent and I'm happy I found a place to do it. I just hope I don't get any drones telling me that I need to stop being a negative nancy or something lame because they love their art school. But then again I would doubt it in a place like this. But it's happened before. People can't pull their heads out of their asses and realize that College is a fucking business and these deans just see you as dollar signs, they don't care about the students.

[CrayolaColours]

Psychonaut Wrote:People can't pull their heads out of their asses and realize that College is a fucking business and these deans just see you as dollar signs, they don't care about the students.

This is a given, sure, you get your good teachers every now and then, but most of them, and the school itself, don't see you as an individual, or a person willing to learn.

I've always wanted to go to art school. I'd love to go to a college just to create, I'd get up at four in the morning to go to a college like that. (You might be confused, this being an anti-school web site and all that, most of us here have no problem with college, because it's optional and you pick what you want to learn.)

I'm not going to criticize, because you aren't me, and I'm not you. Just because I want to go to an art school, doesn't mean everyone should want to. So, you want to draw, but you don't want to get involved with animation or programming. It that right? Maybe you're better off going to a regular college and getting an art major? I'm not quite sure how that works.

[Psychonaut]

CrayolaColours Wrote:

Psychonaut Wrote:People can't pull their heads out of their asses and realize that College is a fucking business and these deans just see you as dollar signs, they don't care about the students.

This is a given, sure, you get your good teachers every now and then, but most of them, and the school itself, don't see you as an individual, or a person willing to learn.

I'll address your points one by one...

I totally agree with you. That's what pisses me off the most about it. Most teachers don't even get to know you in College. They sort of put up a glass wall and just expect you to show up. You have to either be amazing with your work or be VERY outspoken to get noticed. And even then, that doesn't necessarily mean anything. I've seen kids who never show up and hardly do anything get As while I get Bs. Now my school has a ridiculous attendance policy where if you miss more than 2 times they fail you and it's stupid because it'll only make people repeat over and over again. And then there's the kids who get away with it.

Quote:I've always wanted to go to art school. I'd love to go to a college just to create, I'd get up at four in the morning to go to a college like that. (You might be confused, this being an anti-school web site and all that, most of us here have no problem with college, because it's optional and you pick what you want to learn.)

Lol well anyone wants that. I mean, if I didn't want that, I wouldn't be here right now would I ? I liked drawing and that's why I started this major. Illustration was"meh" for me. They pretty much acknowledge they want your money and I've had the Dean try to sit me down and convince me to stay because, according to his "expertise" I had no future in Animation and Animation wasn't as stable as Illustration. Then I got accepted and he was forced to shut up. Despite my being pretty good at drawing and I come from a major which was focused on Drawing, I'm not so great at animating and I've still got a long way to go. One of the good things about being program like mine, which, yes, Is Programming and animation, the goal is to make you more well rounded. Animation is good but Programming is a pretty big field and you can find work in that anywhere (Not that I plan on doing that for the rest of my life hahaha).

What I was complaining about was that while most teachers understand that, there's unfortunately some who see it as competition and not a place to grow and learn more things. THIS is what I'm complaining about. I don't want to be compared to anyone else. I want to be judged based on what I can do and then whatever my problems are, I wanted them to be addressed. And I want to learn. I don't want to compete. We all bring different things to the table, instead of sitting there saying that we all suck, they should try to help us get better.

BTW, In College you don't have total freedom on what you want to learn. You're required, sometimes by your department to take classes you don't need as well. I had to take classes for Illustration I didn't need because my school is a business and they need to make money off of their other departments. The thing about High School is that at least it's free. There's no debt that comes along with each credit like with college. When you get this point, you might not even be able to finish because you can't even afford it. And if you drop out it's worse because you still have to pay it all off and you have nothing to show for it. I'm not trying to discourage anyone but basically that's the reality of the situation. We're all fucked unless we're born with silver spoons in our mouths in the end.

Quote:I'm not going to criticize, because you aren't me, and I'm not you. Just because I want to go to an art school, doesn't mean everyone should want to. So, you want to draw, but you don't want to get involved with animation or programming. It that right? Maybe you're better off going to a regular college and getting an art major? I'm not quite sure how that works.

Mhmm that's a toughie, but you bring up a good point. I really don't think I could survive a regular Academic college tbh. I was never very book smart in school and that's kind of why I'm stuck where I am. And there's still some Academics in Art school so don't think it'll go away But yeah I think I want to go into Animating but I think the teachers that I have are making me feel like I'm not good enough for it. I know I need to stop listening to them but it's hard when there's no support.