University of the Arts

Date: May 30 2007
Major: Fine Arts - Painting/Sculpture/Photography/etc (This Major's Salary over time)
While the majority of the fine art faculty were interesting people, as a whole they were not successful artists and had no idea how to actually prepare students for the realities of the contemporary art world. In fact, most knew little or nothing about contemporary art, but were stuck in the 1950s and 1960s, and saw their job as little more than patting students on the back. There was no substantive internship program, the study abroad programs did not offer fully-transferable credits, and my faculty were unable to even suggest appropriate graduate programs. The air quality in the studios was lamentable. The emphasis on a thesis project for the fine arts is misplaced, as it sets artificial final goals rather than underscoring the importance of daily practice. The school had (has?) no real alumni program, so the social/professional network that aids those in most other schools in finding their way was totally unavailable to U-Arts grads. Finally, the lion's share of the student body was white, privileged, unmotivated, unintelligent, talentless, and there to just spend their parents' money in a memorable way: the parties were fantastic.

I would not return, or advise any others to enroll.