College choice?

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Laurie
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Hi, I am not a photographer, but my 17 year old daughter is. She wants to pursue a photography degree and we are torn over her two choices, so I thought I would ask the experts.
She works as a photographer’s assistant and she is the only professional photographer we know. She told her she shouldn’t go to college or if she goes, to major in business.
We want her to go and she wants to go. The choice is between her local state school, where she would major in photography and minor in business. We would pay, so she would graduate with no loans.
Her other choice is RIT ( Rochester institute of technology). One of the best photography schools, but private and very expensive. It is her “ dream school”, we could pay some of it, but she would have to take out loans. ( somewhere between 60-100,00 thousand). She is not sure if she would major in commercial photography or fine art photography
Any advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
 
You do realise this is a mainly UK website? I'm not sure you'll get the answers you may want from members here - it may be better for you to find a US forum.

Good luck though.
 
In this country, my ex's son went to Falmouth University and studied photography. He did well, enjoyed it and became a professional photographer.
 
Not for me to tell you where to send her - that's a lot of money you could be shelling out - but in my experience there are are lot of very good photographers out there who have failed due to lack of business sense.

Whichever route she takes, a strong business model is an absolute must

Mike
 
Hi, I am not a photographer, but my 17 year old daughter is. She wants to pursue a photography degree and we are torn over her two choices, so I thought I would ask the experts.
She works as a photographer’s assistant and she is the only professional photographer we know. She told her she shouldn’t go to college or if she goes, to major in business.
We want her to go and she wants to go. The choice is between her local state school, where she would major in photography and minor in business. We would pay, so she would graduate with no loans.

Her other choice is RIT ( Rochester institute of technology). One of the best photography schools, but private and very expensive. It is her “ dream school”, we could pay some of it, but she would have to take out loans. ( somewhere between 60-100,00 thousand). She is not sure if she would major in commercial photography or fine art photography
Any advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!


Your daughter will likely make her own decision regardless of parents advice, I know as I have 2 daughters. :D

What I will say is that I own 2 photography businesses and have no photography qualifications, but I do have some business related qualifications.

I know several professional photographers who are very successful in their fields only one one those has a degree in photography. Several of the others do have business degree's though.

In the U.K photography degree's are pretty much worthless, it may be different in the states though.
 
Just to say that a good understanding of both the technical and creatives sides of photography are extremely important too, but understanding how to run a business - unless she only expects to be an employee of some larger corp - is likely more important.
 
She'll be better off majoring in business with a minor in photography.
 
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