<p>My sister is interested in being a chef. She wants to attend the CIA...is this a good school for aspiring chefs? Is career placement good? Is it a "traditional college experience"? Are there any other schools that offer a culinary arts degree that are 4-year colleges?</p>
<p>I just want to know the general attitude towards the Culinary Institute of America.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I'm fairly certain the CIA is the Julliard/Harvard of the cullinary arts. I don't even know of another school (in the U.S.) of its kind.</p>
<p>Culinary school will not be a traditional college experience. I'd advise against going if she's merely "interested" in being a chef. If she's serious about it, then it is the best cooking school in the country.</p>
<p>Admission requires a minimum of six months food service experience.</p>
<p>Thanks! Anyone else?</p>
<p>Do the admissions officers at the CIA care a whole lot about grades? Like, what is the most important admissions factor?</p>
<p>I thought this thread was gonna be about the real CIA...</p>
<p>Regarding culinary arts schools, choose wisely...I've heard horror stories of students paying an absolute fortune in tuition and then only being able to get a short order cook position and not being able to repay their tuition bills.</p>
<p>Perhaps this might help: <a href="http://www.ciachef.edu/admissions/apply/requirements.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.ciachef.edu/admissions/apply/requirements.asp</a> and <a href="http://www.ciachef.edu/admissions/faq/faq_list.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.ciachef.edu/admissions/faq/faq_list.asp</a></p>
<p>I knew a professional associate that had a son who attended and loved it. I've since lost contact, so I'm unable to know how he made out long term.</p>
<p>Food service, even for those with talent, drive, and the background that CIA and other culinary arts schools provide is often a long hour, low-paying, relationship sacrificing type of career, particularly in the early years acquiring experience and getting your talents "out there".</p>
<p>It takes not only skill and talent, but a special type of person who truly loves what they do. In that respect, it is akin to a career in the performing arts.</p>
<p>If you're sister has what it takes, and knows up front the rewards and drawbacks, by all means go for it. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>The "general attitude" towards the CIA? It is considered to be the finest school of it's kind in the US. Every restaurant who has a CIA trained chef mentions it somewhere in it's publicity.</p>
<p>A cautionary tale:</p>
<p>‘Top Chef’ Dreams Crushed by Student Loan Debt</p>
<p>
[quote]
In the way that the work of directors like Martin Scorsese flooded film schools with students in the 1970s, and the television show “L.A. Law” packed law schools in the 1980s, the rise of celebrity chefs has been good for culinary schools.</p>
<p>But would-be top chefs face a challenge that most lawyers, engineers or nurses do not: few jobs in their chosen field pay enough for them to retire their student loans. As a result, as many as 11 percent of graduates at some culinary schools are defaulting on federal student loans. The national average for all students last year was roughly half that, at 5.1 percent.</p>
<p>Although the restaurant industry is expected to create two million new jobs in the next decade, the Department of Labor reports that in 2005, the latest year for which data were available, the average hourly wage for a restaurant cook was $9.86.
[/quote]
<p>I wonder if it's better for a kid to just pack up their knives and head to Europe and try to work in some kitchens.</p>
<p>johnson and wales university</p>