I'm attending the local community college here in freezing arse Portland Or to become a graphic designer. Or, at least, to be a guy who has a degree in graphic design. Besides trying to decide if a BA is BS or not, I starting looking into some other options. One was Art Institute of Pittsburgh online division (or even locally). I did the quick math on an AA through their online school, threw up a little at the cost, and decided that is just a ridiculous amount of money to pay to get a degree that %75 of Portland residents already have. Then I thought, why not ask the folks here what they think:
Is it a better degree to get because it's from a more well known school? Do the jobs make up for the extra $37,000 you pay?

I asked a similar question no too far back....

What sort of results did you get?

At the end of the day Experience IS King. The rest just gives you confidence to go out and get some EXPERIENCE.

Touche'

Nicely put. I sort of felt that that was how it was. It's like that when considering art (as opposed to concept design etc). I'm really doing it for the software application training and a little for that piece of paper that tells everyone else I can do stuffs.

My paper says I can stuff it.

I live in Eugene, Oregon. Hey, I've got a 2-year degree in Video Production. Did I need it? Well, it did help me get a job.... but that job started at $8.00 per hour to start as a video editor, and my company charged clients $75 per hour for my editing time. I worked up to about $12 an hour with crappy benefits before switching jobs. I now work at Pepsi stocking shelves with product as a loborer, no school required, making almost $14 an hour with awesome benefits. If I get a CDL, then I'll be making around $20 an hour with awesome benefits.

So to summarize, the video production field at least, going to school was a complete waste of time and money.

I freelance edit once in a while and charge my clients $25 per hour, it should be more, but I usually use their equipment and am satisfied at this rate. It's just a little extra income. I could never go full time on my own. Not in Eugene.

I thought about going back to school and getting a graphic design degree, but I remind myself that I probably don't need it. I'd be better off taking business classes and learning how to run a company of my choosing, most likely in the creative field.

If the school at PDX works out, let me know. I would think Portland would be saturated with graphic designers, but what do I know?

Experience is the king, you can't really be TAUGHT art, you have to feel it, practice, work for that experience. A diploma, a piece of paper, whatever; it means nothing. Doesn't really guarantee anyone that the guy with the degree in design has a good portfolio. If a client sees an excellent portfolio from someone with no diploma he won't think twice about choosing him. Like my french teacher once said, when he was presenting himself for the job, he showed the school owner his diploma. Being a fluent french speaker the owner said: " I don't care for this, let's see you speak french with me". After sometime he got the job, and what qualified him for it was his experience not the piece of paper. So I really would look for a less expensive alternative (another course maybe). Even if don''t get the degree, you'll learn something, probably as much as you would in college. So my advise: keep that money as backup and train, train, train. Get some tips from known designers, do what's needed, and you'll probably be much more successful than an average designer with a degree.

most of the worlds entrepreneurs didnt start with a degree, a good portion dont even have a highschool dimploma.

You're erading from one of those people right now.

no papers of any kind, but my experience and expertise in the field i have a business in have trumped many others.



save your greenbacks and learn on your own, build a portfolio up, build a website, store front, kiosk, whatever format.. you can be successful.

Dude:

Learn as much as you can from wherever you can. My degree is in pre-press, which means I learned how to prepare files for print. Since graduating, I never worked as a pre-press operator, but my first job was that of a mechanical artist. I use Photoshop, Illustrator, QuarkXPress, InDesign, Freehand, blah, blah, blah...

Today, I work for a pharmaceutical company as graphic coordinator. To land this position, I absolutely had to have some kind of education (papers). Yes, you may be able to get by being self-taught, but in my opinion, papers, be they university, college, vocational... go a long way. Get them if you can.

That's just me. Reinman wears checkered socks. That's just him.