THE ART OF A
COLLEGE EDUCATION
try.” In a video game design advertisement, the narrator says: “Our
graduates hit the ground running,
and can work at the best gaming
companies in the world.”
The onset of more sophisticated
advertising campaigns, combined
with an economic recession that
has sent millions into the ranks
of the unemployed, has led to a
boom in the arts school field —
particularly at institutions with
open admissions policies and a
desire for revenue growth.
Although Academy of Art
has a longer history than some
of the newcomers to the business, the school’s fastest period
of growth has come only in the
past decade, following the trends
of other for-profit colleges that
have rapidly expanded.
Arts schools rank among the
most expensive in the nation, according to Department of Education
statistics, but research has shown
that fine arts degree holders have
some of the highest unemployment
rates of recent college graduates.
A study released earlier this
year by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and
the Workforce found that college
graduates with arts degrees face
an average unemployment rate of
HUFFINGTON
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11.1 percent. That compares to a
9.4 percent unemployment rate
for humanities and liberal arts
graduates, and a 5.4 percent unemployment rate for recent graduates in healthcare-related fields.
Because of the way the Department of Education collects statistics, it is difficult to know how
“I KNEW THERE WAS
GOING TO BE DEBT
HANGING OVER MY
HEAD. TROUBLE
IS, IF THAT’S YOUR
PASSION IN LIFE,
UNFORTUNATELY YOU
CAN’T REALLY TURN
THAT OFF.”
many students at any institution
get jobs after graduation. Not all
schools are required to provide
job placement rates, and some
college accrediting agencies that
collect such data have found inflated statistics at some for-profit
schools in recent years.
The Obama administration has
tried to get a handle on the issue by requiring career training
schools — including for-profit
colleges and some non-profit vocational schools — to provide statistics on how students are able to