<p>I keep reading and hearing that so many students drop-out or transfer-out of art schools. Why is that?</p>
<p>It is mainly during or after freshman year?</p>
<p>There are some really rigorous art school programs, so it’s not surprising that there are drop-outs.</p>
<p>A good art and design program is VERY rigorous. My daughter has done a number of all-nighters or mostly all-nighters a number of times each quarter. The freshmen year, in particular, was particularly tough and demanding.</p>
<p>I second taxguy’s comments. During finals week for my daughter’s first quarter, she probably slept 6-10 hours in four days because she was spending most of her waking moments drawing or studying for written finals.</p>
<p>While the students would take the ‘first’ night of their weekend (Thursdays) and enjoy themselves, most Friday and Saturday nights when I reached my daughter she was in the dorm, doing homework. 30-45 hours worth per week.</p>
<p>I agree with the following statements… I had finished my first set of finals earlier this month and slept around 3 hours per night. Foundation year is supposed to weed out students. Also, I talked to other students who were transferring out because they realized that they did not want to major in art anymore because that’s not where their passion lies.</p>
<p>Paintedponie hit it right on the head - an art school is 100% about art. If you get there and, once immersed in it, realize that either the art school environment isn’t for you, or that you don’t want to do art for your living, then you have no option but to transfer out. At a regular university, you can simply change your major, but at an art school, you actually need to change schools. That impacts retention rates quite a bit.</p>