The University of Texas - Austin

Date: Dec 05 2013
Major: Fine Arts - Painting/Sculpture/Photography/etc (This Major's Salary over time)
When I first was accepted here I was genuinely excited and happy. This quickly faded after I kept having negative experiences over and over again with teachers in my college.

Whenever I went around campus and met people and told them I was a Fine art major other students will always say,

We have that as a major?

and then proceed to tell me I'm the first art student they have ever met. So its a small college with a small building that obviously gets over looked by the school. There are constant leaks in the art building, its basically falling apart, and cut backs on funding has lead us to stop having ceramics and metals as classes. These classes were some that I used to love doing so this really infuriated me.

And the time you spent in class didn't equal the amount of work you even had to do outside of class to finish your projects. As an art major, you get 4 hours of art classes for each class. FOUR. HOURS. I am a transfer student who is on financial aid who isn't sitting pretty on oil money, my daddy's money, or anything else. Most art students take 5 years to complete their major just because of the amount of work that they are asking to go into every project, and the hours of classes are horrendous. This semester I had 8ams everyday plus 2-6pm and then 6 - 10pm on Tues Thurs.

This brings me into the social life aspect. Because of my schedule, I am living inside the art building day and night, and have little time for much else. Most of the friends I have made have just been a friend for a semester that I may say hello to if I ever see them again on campus. Nothing ever went much deeper than that. If you are not in a sorority, white, super pretty, rich, going out all the time to sixth street and are a transfer student then it will be extremely difficult for you to make friends here.

On top of this, the art teachers themselves were some of the worst people I've ever encountered in my entire life. I came from a performing arts high school, so I was used to developing my ideas, going into critiques, and creating art. But these teachers all assume (even though I'm older than my peers as a transfer) that this is your first art class you have ever taken in your life, you are from a rich suburb who has never walked into a art museum, and don't know crap about what you are doing. I was constantly talked down to, told I shouldn't be making art at all, asked how I was accepted into this university because I don't appear bright enough. I would get picked on by my teachers, they would give me lower grades on my work than the other students even though I worked twice as hard as anyone else. If you are not a politician in life naturally and suck up to everyone you meet, then don't go to the art school because you need to suck up to get your grade.

The art teachers pick favorites. They will let the entire class know this only student is their star student and they will rag on every other student and let them know over and over again how much they suck. Since this semester we had the cut backs, most of our teachers now are visiting artists and they have been THE WORST TEACHERS I'VE EVER HAD.

I hate my life here and I hate going to this school. Sure, its had its good moments but those are far and few in-between. If I had more money I would have went to another art school that offered classes I wanted to take. A lot of the people i've met in this school have been younger than me, less mature, not very experienced at making art, and think all these teachers are amazing. I find that disturbing. Only a few students agreed with me that so many teachers they hire were off their rocker.

In all honesty, please do not attend the art school at UT. Save yourself the money, time and misery you will endure. This has been the worst two years of my life. I regret staying here.