What Are the Best Graduate Level Photography Schools?

If you’re interested in photography as a career, chances are you’ve already started to pursue some form of higher education on the subject. In fact, you may have already received your bachelor’s degree in photography. If this is the case, you may be considering attending graduate school. Graduate school is definitely an admirable goal, and if it is something you are going to go through with, you probably want to make sure you are attending one of the best schools in the business. However, before you even get to that point, you might want to take a moment to decide if graduate school is right for you as a photographer.

While graduate school can help you polish your photography skills to some extent, it probably will not teach you a great deal more. The majority of the time, you have learned most of the skills you need during your undergraduate education. When it comes to photography, there are only so many things that can be taught to begin with. Graduate school can certainly help you, but it will likely only polish up your already acquired skills. Moreover, most graduate programs in photography have a lot to do with self promotion and management. It is a resume builder, to be sure, but experience will likely get you much further than an additional degree.

The other thing to consider is the added cost. Most undergraduate art degrees are already expensive. There is a good chance that you wound up spending nearly $80,000 just getting your bachelor’s degree. Unfortunately, graduate school is not much cheaper. If you go straight into graduate school, your payments on any loans you might have can possibly be deferred, but you will also likely gain more debt- possibly near $40,000.  During that time period, interest is accruing on your undergraduate loans. By the time you graduate, you could end up with over $120,000 in student loans to repay. While you can make more money with more prestigious jobs, the marginal increase in pay you experience from a graduate degree may not make up for the extra debt added on.

However, if graduate school is something you are truly interested in, there are plenty of wonderful options to explore. US News and World Report publishes a report on an annual basis that lists some of the best graduate schools for photography in the country. These include, but are not limited to, Rhode Island School of Design, Yale University, New Haven, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Maryland Institute of Art, Virginia Commonwealth University, California Institute of the Arts, UCLA, Alfred University, Art Center College of Design, California College of the Arts, and Columbia University.