The decision to get a master’s degree in an artistic field can be a fraught one. If you’re good, after all, you should be able to make it without one, right? And you’re already looking at a high probability of living in relative poverty, at least compared with MBAs and techies, so why make matters worse with thousands in debt?
The occasional superstar notwithstanding, government data puts median annual earnings at around $44,000 for “fine artists” — including painters, sculptors and illustrators — and at about $30,000 for photographers.
Architects, with median earnings of $74,520, and graphic designers, with median earnings of $46,000, may enjoy more job opportunities and better earning power, but a steep investment in a graduate degree can still be a tough call.
“It’s a big responsibility to put young people out in the world following this track, and it weighs on you as a professor,” says Mary Ellen Strom, who teaches courses in video and directs the MFA program at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where tuition runs $42,000.
[Figure out if graduate school is worth it.]
Despite the less-than-terrific earnings potential, graduate programs in artistic fields are enjoying relatively healthy growth. More than 17,000 master’s degrees in the visual and performing arts were awarded in 2012 — the most recent data available — for example, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That’s 2.5 times more than were earned in 1970.
There’s no doubt that such aptitudes can translate into interesting and perhaps even lucrative careers as long as you’re willing to create in diverse and unexpected places: anywhere from Fortune 500 companies to Etsy. Do-it-yourself career paths — a staple of artists for millennia — have received a huge boost from the Internet.
Still, college-level teaching positions in the fine and performing arts, and even those in some high schools, require an MFA. And while entry-level jobs in architecture and graphic design usually require no more than a bachelor’s degree in those disciplines, a master’s can help employees move up in the profession.
[See the complete rankings of fine arts schools.]
But unlike fields such as social work, where a master’s is a hard-and-fast entry credential, advanced study in the arts is often more about the process than achieving a practical outcome. Students can immerse themselves in their art in a way often not possible in day-to-day life and widen their horizons by being part of a community of artists, notes Patti Phillips, dean of graduate studies at Rhode Island School of Design.
Grad programs can also be appealing for the intense collaborations with fellow students, faculty and visiting artists that are possible or required, and professional contacts that may pay off in a big way later.
“I had a lot of new doors open to me,” says Lavina Jadhwani, 32, one of only two candidates admitted to the directing program at the Theatre School at DePaul University for the class that graduated in June 2015.
And an advanced degree can certainly be the ticket to a redirected career path.
Lea Hershkowitz, 26, who’s due to graduate from RISD this year with a master’s in interior architecture, sought the technical skills and credentials necessary to switch careers after majoring in psychology and photography and working as a creative marketing producer at Juicy Couture. She says the cutting-edge digital design skills she’s gained at RISD have caused associates at architecture firms she has worked with on projects to ask her to teach them the technologies.
Arts programs vary widely in their ability to help students with expenses. Some offer a full ride, but most can’t afford to be so generous.
DePaul typically offers half-tuition scholarships; Jadhwani footed the rest of the bill out of savings from several years working as a director in local theater and grant funding she found from the state of Illinois. Hershkowitz has supported her studies with a scholarship from RISD, multiple grants from other sources, several assistantships that involve both research and teaching, a work-study job and a part-time consulting gig, though she says she still has incurred significant debt.
[Get tips on finding graphic design scholarships.]
Because of the money and time commitment and the uncertainty of the payback, it’s essential to be clear-eyed about what you hope to gain by pursuing an advanced degree, whether it’s to develop your studio work, land a specific job, or change direction.
“The worst reason to do an MFA is because you don’t know what else to do,” cautions Jeannene Przyblyski, provost at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia.
She advises researching programs thoroughly, including opportunities to study with particular people whose work you admire. The institute recruits many of its graduate faculty from working professionals in nearby Los Angeles. Professors not only mentor their students through the postgraduate employment search, but also they sometimes hire them onto current projects or refer them to colleagues while they’re still in school.
Check out studios, performance spaces and equipment resources as well. While Jadhwani didn’t pick DePaul for its facilities, the new building that opened in her second year there is “quite astonishing,” she says, with two state-of-the-art theaters, 10 acting labs that can also host performances, and over 7,000 square feet of scenery-building space.
Working in such an environment was part of the reason, she says, that the program turned out to be even more rewarding than she’d hoped.
This story is excerpted from the U.S. News “Best Graduate Schools 2017” guidebook, which features in-depth articles, rankings and data.
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Determine the Risks, Rewards of a Master’s in Fine Arts originally appeared on usnews.com
