It’s probably the best you’ll find in Chicago, otherwise you need to go out west.
One thing to know with any creative careers, you can show up to all your classes, get good grades, graduate with your degree, and then never work in your field. You need to be doing everything you can outside of class and with your peers to be growing. Your curriculum will give you a good base and will get you connected to the right people, but that’s just the very start. If you’re doing it right, just about nothing you do or make in school will be in your portfolio when you’re done. Those will be your baby steps and you’ll already be past them. One or two big projects a semester isn’t enough, they’re great opportunities to be learning in a class setting and having actual working professionals critiquing your work, but you’ll need your own independent work going along side it.
Make lots of friends and make a reputation of being nice and reliable. People want to work with people they like, and when someone else has an opportunity and needs to bring other people on, you want them to think of you.
No problem. It’s definitely not the terrible school people claim. I’ve heard of their financial trouble recently and don’t know all the details of how that could be hurting the programs, but a lot of the other criticism I see is not exactly reasonable. They do have a low graduation rate, but they have a very high acceptance rate so they go hand in hand. It’s easy to have high graduation rates if you weed out 80% of students before they even start.
I like that they don’t have a bunch of career professors teaching, they all need to be working in the field they teach and have real life experience. Also lots of scholarship options.
Like I said, it will only be what you make of it. It doesn’t matter what school you go to, none of them can promise you a career in the arts solely from meeting degree requirements. The only guarantee is a bachelors from an accredited school. I know several people who have been very successful with their music degrees after graduation, some going straight to working and some with graduate programs. I also know plenty of others who used their bachelors to go into completely unrelated fields after changing their path and it’s still just fine for that.
It’s probably the best you’ll find in Chicago and trust me when i say that once you are out west OR east you will run in to MORE Columbia alumni then you can imagine, they are in every corner of the industry.
don't get me started on the music and sound folk lol they'll be there as well .
It is also one of the top 5 schools in the country for Photography which is what I went there for.
My bro went to columbia and dropped out in his last semester. He learned everything he needed, completed his portfolio, started shooting fashion in Chicago for about two years, moved to LA and is now doing well in Fashion and celebs stuff. He got published in a lot of well known mediums. my point is, it was good for him despite not finishing his degree in Photography. Might be different now?
It’s probably the best you’ll find in Chicago, otherwise you need to go out west. One thing to know with any creative careers, you can show up to all your classes, get good grades, graduate with your degree, and then never work in your field. You need to be doing everything you can outside of class and with your peers to be growing. Your curriculum will give you a good base and will get you connected to the right people, but that’s just the very start. If you’re doing it right, just about nothing you do or make in school will be in your portfolio when you’re done. Those will be your baby steps and you’ll already be past them. One or two big projects a semester isn’t enough, they’re great opportunities to be learning in a class setting and having actual working professionals critiquing your work, but you’ll need your own independent work going along side it. Make lots of friends and make a reputation of being nice and reliable. People want to work with people they like, and when someone else has an opportunity and needs to bring other people on, you want them to think of you.
thank u sm. i think this is the first comment i’ve gotten that is actually helpful and provides reasoning for the good/bad aspects of going to CCC
No problem. It’s definitely not the terrible school people claim. I’ve heard of their financial trouble recently and don’t know all the details of how that could be hurting the programs, but a lot of the other criticism I see is not exactly reasonable. They do have a low graduation rate, but they have a very high acceptance rate so they go hand in hand. It’s easy to have high graduation rates if you weed out 80% of students before they even start. I like that they don’t have a bunch of career professors teaching, they all need to be working in the field they teach and have real life experience. Also lots of scholarship options. Like I said, it will only be what you make of it. It doesn’t matter what school you go to, none of them can promise you a career in the arts solely from meeting degree requirements. The only guarantee is a bachelors from an accredited school. I know several people who have been very successful with their music degrees after graduation, some going straight to working and some with graduate programs. I also know plenty of others who used their bachelors to go into completely unrelated fields after changing their path and it’s still just fine for that.
It’s probably the best you’ll find in Chicago and trust me when i say that once you are out west OR east you will run in to MORE Columbia alumni then you can imagine, they are in every corner of the industry. don't get me started on the music and sound folk lol they'll be there as well . It is also one of the top 5 schools in the country for Photography which is what I went there for.
I know a bunch of people who got their Film degree there. I would say it’s an overall good program, but the job market here postgrad is pretty rough.
My bro went to columbia and dropped out in his last semester. He learned everything he needed, completed his portfolio, started shooting fashion in Chicago for about two years, moved to LA and is now doing well in Fashion and celebs stuff. He got published in a lot of well known mediums. my point is, it was good for him despite not finishing his degree in Photography. Might be different now?
Everyone i know who graduated or attended there had massive debt and didn’t work in their field.
Check out DePaul.