Best Photography College?

I am currently an art student studying at a normal 4 year college. However, I

do not feel this college is meeting my needs as a photographer.

I am looking to transfer to another school to study Fashion/Advertising

photography. I have looked at the Brooks Institute and the Art Center College

of Design. We decided against the Brooks Institute but my parents and I were

wondering about the Art Center. We'd heard some negative things about it, like

that it was a technical training school and not a college and were worried

about the tuition versus how much I would make out of school.

Where should I go to recieve the best photo education for fashion/advertising?

Any suggestions outside of Brooks or the Art Center are appreciated!

If you want to consider a RADICAL option, you can come to Canada (where the tuition is less,

god i the government) and attend the Ontario College of Art and Deisgn for Fine Art

photography, or Ryerson University for Media Arts: Photography (good for adverstising and

fashion, very good), Emily Carr in Vancouver for Fine Arts Photo and Nova Scotia College of

Art and Deisgn.

I hear very sketchy things about Brooks, I almost went there but it was strongly suggested

against.

Rochester Institute of Technology has one of the world's best photography programs. Many

photographic professionals are graduates of RIT. Jeff Schewe comes to mind as well as Pete

Turner, Jerry Uelsmann, Mitchell Feinberg and Johnathan Blair.

http://cias.rit.edu/photography/

I am writing a daily blog http://keithemmerichphotography.blogspot.com/ about being a

student at the Center Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University read the blog and check out

the school its a great place to learn from real world working professionals and using some of

the best equipment available.

Brooks and RIT are the best. Hands down. Pasadena Art center is awesome too, but not as

technical- better creatively though (from what I understand) San Francisco has some great art

schools and so does New York. The real learning happens when you start assisting though.

Nothing like hands on experience.

I disagree with the suggestions so far.

Brooks is specifically for very very commercial work and much of it is questionable due to lack of conceptual depth and idea... but it will teach you how to write up an invoice and spreadsheet, etc.

You can learn that on your own though.

Its always a great idea to really study the faculty and part-time faculty work there. You want them not only to be working in the real world, but you want their work to be work you like, and can see yourself learning from and influencing your work in the future.

For fashion location of your college is just as important as the school itself. College is primarily for the connections you will make and in fashion you will need them. Do do the real high end quality work you need to be in New York or Europe.

You will need to know people just to get a foot in the door there... so try looking into the top colleges for fashion in New York or the area such as SVA, Parsons, and if its for your BFA - then NYU, RISD is in the top 3 best photo programs in the nation along with Yale (which is strictly conceptual art and SAIC in Chicago).

Brooks accepts anyone into its school. THAT IS BAD. You need a place that makes it not so easy for people... thats a bad sign if it is.

SAIC is also excellent and its where I attended, but its not fashion specific. Still - fashion is a world in its own. You will need friends. I live in NY now and am dealing with this very issue.

So good luck and just do your research. Look at the work by every single instructor and also DO look at the alumni work to see if you like it. Its worth it cause think of how much money and time you will spend on college and then it will effect the rest of your life.

Sincerely,

Christine Taylor

You might consider Hallmark Institute of Photography.

Hallmark.edu

<p>I think there is no such thing as THE BEST, because you have to find the program that fits your style, needs and dreams. That being said, I just helped my daughter research and visit a number of schools on the east coast. She has been sure about her college interest in photography for about 4 years now, so we took the search very seriously.<br>

Early top runners were RIT, Hallmark, SCAD and Intermount. After visiting all of them she still hadn't found what she was looking for. She wanted a true hybrid degree that pushed Web, Video and Publishing as major parts of the photography degree. Quite by accident we stumbled upon King College in Bristol, TN. (http://king.edu) Great academic school (important to Mom!) and a stunning Photography degree (important to daughter). 4 year program…photography shooting classes EVERY semester. Lots of group and collaborative projects. Plenty of travel and internship possibilities. King College Photography is a private school, so the price is a bit higher, but so far it seems like well spent money.<br>

We have found the entire admission and enrollment experience to be very pleasant and all faculty and representatives to be incredibly helpful. http://www.KingCollegePhoto.com is where we found the important base information. And even more can be found at http://photography.King.edu. Very impressed so far.<br>

I am sure this kind of program is not right for everyone, but it sure feels right for us.</p>