Some of our students attend an art school instead of a more mainstream college or university after graduating from high school.  Why not?  Creative work is intrinsically satisfying, and today’s economy does have some jobs for people with design skills.  Art school may be for you if you make lots of art now, compulsively.  You simply can’t stop making art.  Art School is probably not for you if you like art class in high school because it’s not too hard.

What about getting a job?  People will tell you “You can’t earn your living doing art.”  Maybe, but these days there are out-of-work accountants and engineers too, so playing it safe doesn’t always pay.  The fact is a few artists can and do earn their living by selling their art.  Many more work in graphic design or industrial design, helping to decide how things like cars, toothbrushes, packaging, baby strollers, magazines, books, and web sites should look.  With an MFA (Masters in Fine Arts) degree and/or a teaching credential, you can teach art.  Artists also sometimes operate small businesses that cater to other artists, like print shops and art supply stores.

Here are some art schools:
Alfred University College of Ceramics: http://www.alfred.edu/college-of-ceramics/
California College of the Arts (Oakland): https://www.cca.edu/
California Institute of the Arts (near Los Angeles): https://calarts.edu/
Maryland Institute College of Art (Baltimore) : http://www.mica.edu/
Massachusetts College of Art and Design (Boston): http://www.massart.edu/
Parsons the New School for Design (New York City): http://www.newschool.edu/parsons/
Pratt Institute (New York City): https://www.pratt.edu/
Rhode Island School of Design: http://www.risd.edu/
Rochester Institute of Technology College of Imaging Arts and Sciences: http://cias.rit.edu/
School of the Art Institute of Chicago: http://www.saic.edu/index.html
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: http://www.smfa.edu/

You can major in fine art at almost any regular college or university, so what makes an art school different?  For one thing, there’s relatively more studio time; less academic work.  It’s also likely to be more intense, since everybody else there is an art major too.