School Of Digital Photography

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Community college or art school for a photography degree? 10 points!?

I am about to graduate from high school and want to pursue training in digital photography. Right now I'm looking into attending either Northern Virginia Community College to get an Associate's Degree in Fine Arts (Photography specialization) or getting a certified from the Washington School of Photography or a similar school.
I would have to work part time during school, so a flexible schedule is necessary for me. Right now I'm leaning towards NVCC because art history and drawing is included in the program, but maybe a specialized school is a more efficient way to go?

Hello:
I can appreciate your dilemma. In my opinion, a trade school certification will not get you very far in the world of Fine Arts in Photography, but neither will an Associate degree from the community college.

What the Associate degree would do is give your the prerequisite education were you to decide to move on to a university setting and pursue your undergraduate and graduate degrees.

In Fine Arts degrees, if you want to teach, you will need your Masters degree.

If your primary interest is in working in the field as a professional photographer doing commercial photography, portraits, weddings, etc. then it might serve you better if your were to study at the trade school. There, you would learn the necessary skills to do the job rather than the history of art and its importance, or relevance to photographic art. The Associate of Fine Arts with concentration in Photography will not get you very far into the world of commercial photography.

There is more to this, however. If you are interested in photography as a career as a professional there are colleges/universities that offer degree programs in commercial photography. The particular school I am thinking of here is the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York State. An Associate degree might be a very good step in the right direction as it would have provided you with the basic/core education that a higher institution would require.

One other important consideration is that you know where you would like to be in a couple of years, 5 years, 10. Only you can decide on these issues. It is worth the time to very carefully weigh all of your options before deciding. This step, asking questions of those who might know more than you do about the subject is a good first step. But do all of the research before making up your mind. A college degree takes a lot of work and a great deal of money, and more than a few years of your life!

Best of luck in whatever choice you make.

GlixPix

WCC School of Digital Media Arts - Washtenaw Community College


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