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Watching NOS4A2 on Shudder and the art teacher tells the lower-income main character kid to consider RISD and the kid says "RISD's expensive" and the teacher says "apply for financial aid! Lots of kids do" is a conversation that happens WAY too often in real life. 1/
There are grants, there are scholarships, yeah, but MOST financial aid comes in the forms of LOANS, loans that are difficult to pay back and which can put an anchor on a young person's economic prospects.
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In-state tuition to study art at a public 4-year university is, on average, TEN TIMES less expensive than it is at RISD (average is under 4K; RISD tuition is 50K). Other private art colleges are also EXTRAORDINARILY overpriced. 3/
I've beat this drum before, but state colleges/universities often have great art programs. Great instructors. And while art schools might have more art-specific resources available to students, those resources are IN NO WAY COMMENSURATE TO THE EXPENSE. Not even close. 4/
Does that mean folks oughtn't consider private art colleges? No. If they offer you a covers-most-of-it scholarship, great fit. If you're wealthy? Great fit. If you're eligible for grants or federal scholarships that cover the overwhelming majority of tuition? Great fit. 5/
But, just like in the show (and this is no shade on the show, this is early on and it seems to have a very sympathetic treatment for the plight of the student character) too many art teachers, guidance counselors, etc recommend private art schools to students... 6/
...for whom private art schools would be an impossible financial hurdle, and "financial aid" is often just another way of saying TAKE OUT IMPOSSIBLE LOANS, and that is a potentially life-ruining scenario. 7/
"So RISD/SCAD/SVA/etc should only be for rich kids?" If they're charging 35-50K tuition, I guess so? I did SCAD for graduate school, had a partial fellowship, my wife got a job there to lower my tuition, and we left with 16K in student loans, which we paid off in a few year. 8/
