Get an MFA or Not?

If you don’t have to pay…

By all means go for it! You have nothing to lose.

If your tuition money is your own…

Use that money to invest in real estate, stocks, bonds, or anything other than college tuition. Move into a live/work studio, pay rent ahead for two years (might be cheaper than tuition), and create 24/7. 

If you want to devote two years…

Having two years of grad school to devote to your creativity is nice, but it’s artificial. You’re ideally focused on your art for all that time, but you’re also focused on attending classes, getting grades, doing assignments, and explaining yourself to someone at the institution. Why can’t you just devote the next two years to making art anyway? If you can’t make the time now, why do you think you’ll be able to do it after you graduate—especially if you’re in debt?

If you want to be discovered in school…

Few people get discovered in college. Maybe you’ll get connected.

If you want the grad school experience…

Do you know what you’re getting into? Have you experienced the program? Do you know graduates of the program? Grad school is never quite the way you imagine it. It could be better, and it could be worse.

If you want a grad school education…

Make sure you go to a school that’s gonna teach you something. I recommend learning a solid skill like music or photography, or anything that people instantly understand. Those skills are measurable, and having those skills means you can always eke out a living somehow.

If you think an MFA will make you an artist…

After two years in graduate art school, you come out on the other side pretty much the same as when you went in, only now you have a degree.

If you took out loans for school, you’ve got six months to figure out a way to make a living with your art, or some other means. Then student loans kick in—could be $600 per month or more—and they never go away until you pay them off. Does that get your creative juices flowing?

If you still want your MFA…

Nothing will stop you until you get it. Go for it! Do it carefully and wisely.