Anyone an art student?

[flowerrobin]

Like the title says, is anyone here currently an art student? Can be from any discipline - visual, writing, acting, film, etc. I'm in my last year as an illustration student with only 4 months to go, and boy has it changed me! I'm an entirely different person/artist compared to before I started. I was very skeptical to start and I had put it off for many years but I can gladly say that it was the best decision I ever made, despite the trials and tribulations. I would love to know your experiences, if they're good or bad or anywhere in-between, and if you feel that art school was worth it for you. 

[CATBYTE]

i just graduated with a BA in film in december. so while i'm not a student, i was technically one less than 20 days ago. i'll describe my experience as a mixed bag.

i'm not huge into movies, and my focus/aim was video editing so film school was just kind of the best glove that fit what i wanted. i was able to practice with the software i wanted to learn (industry standard stuff like avid), and learned plenty about the profession as well as getting practice/hands-on experience i might not have had otherwise. it also pushed me to learn about cameras, an area i'm weaker in. while i would prefer to stick to post-production it was not only fun but also gave me an appreciation and knowledge i probably would have avoided learning if it wasn't for my degree. i was also able to take a bunch of philosophy classes for my elective credits, which i enjoyed thoroughly. it also helps that every single class i wanted to register for, i got into eventually.

on the otherhand, i spent a majority of my college experience having to take classes that were extremely repetitive (for example i took 3 mandatory classes that were film history/media studies that would basically use the same content with very little variation). my degree's requirements were redundant at points, and i wish i was able to have more choice or test out of certain classes (attendance was mandated) i already knew the content of. i didn't enjoy campus culture either (the years i had to live in the dorms nearly drove me to drop out lol), but once i left the dorms my experience became a lot better.

also, college gave me to opportunity/excuse to move which i have really been enjoying. i don't think my college experience (in class/campus) transformed my art/practice but i feel the circumstances around it and the people i met due to it certainly have.

i'm currently searching for work, so only time will tell if i feel it's worth it in the end. while i don't think i'll ever grow nostalgic for my college years, i will say i'm grateful to have had the opportunity to go and complete my degree.

[CosmicRot]

Not currently in a school sense, but I am currently doing a lot of art discipline and training stuff on my own time! Trying to hone my skills some more and learn a lot more.

However, I used to be an art student and some fancy shmancy art college, but I ended up dropping out from a mixture of health issues flaring up due to stress[lost some of my hair and have had chronic illnesses ever since], one of the professors constantly talking down to me or speaking to me as if I was his child and constantly insulting me and my work [dude really said "draw better" and gave me no explanation to what he meant, and on a separate occassion when he made me cry in class he yelled "don't blame me for your bad grades" when we weren't even talking about grades I just didn't understand what he meant and asked him to clarify] and we were already paying 400 dollars a month ontop of a ton of debt I took to go there.. so I had to give up.

I really loved a lot of the experience despite that, being around tons of fellow artists every day, having a lot of stuff available to me that never was before and I've never been able to have again [I live in a small town in midwest USA and went aaalll the way down to Memphis college of art in Tennessee] and I met a lot of extremely cool people. I never networked or anything and instead just focused on making friends cause networking seemed weird and really fake.. Sadly though, most everyone who I became friends with eventually stopped talking to me or responding to me due to focusing so much on their careers [or lack of in some cases cause a minimum wage job is exhausting af], but I think all in all equal parts one of the best and worst experiences of my life.

I think there's a lot of motivation from art school you can't get without being a proper student, but I also think, at least for disabled folks like myself, it's just so ungodly expensive and exhausting that in the end I still don't know if it was worth going into debt for not even finishing half of the 4 years I was supposed to be doing. I had already spent 2 years in community college doing what have you and taking art classes there as well when was trying to get my bachelors in art and science cause I eventually wanted to be an art therapist.. that didn't pan out so I went to the art school in hopes of becoming an illustrator and character designer. Also didn't pan out but it was fun if absolutely nothing else. [outside of that one prof.. man he was so mean for no reason and had hundreds of complaints against him for being cruel but he was tenured so...]

The more I think about it the more I lean towards it not being worth it. I've probably learned more and improved more outside of art school than I ever did during. Sculpture was fun though and I really really want to get back into it, but I'll never be able to do most of what I want with it cause it's just waayy too expensive and I could never afford the tools.