<p>Suggestions anyone? Recommendations?</p>
<p>Specific especially to Commercial Photography for advertising, print media, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance...</p>
<p>believeresmom,</p>
<p>There are many many good choices. Here’s a list of great photo programs to get started:</p>
<p>[Photography</a> - Fine Arts - Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-fine-arts-schools/photography]Photography”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-fine-arts-schools/photography)</p>
<p>Looking for personal opinions…</p>
<p>My daughter started as a freshman last week at School of the Art Institute of Chicago. As an international student, travel was limited during her apps process, so we only got to tour it a few days before Orientation. I was personally very impressed with the facilities, but more so with the School’s interdisciplinary curriculum. While I was there I visited the Arts Institute - literally in the School’s backyard so to speak - and viewed the visiting Cartier-Bresson exhibit. That the students have this vast resource available to them was just staggering to me. </p>
<p>As I understand it, not only is SAIC a top-ranking school for graduate studies in art and design, its photography program is singled out along with those for Illustration/Painting and Writing as a particularly strong program. </p>
<p>The website just doesn’t do the school justice. Good luck and I hope that helps.</p>
<p>Good to know. She will check it out.</p>
<p>I believe RIT and Art Center both offer mfa’s that cater more to commercial photographers. you may also want to check out SVA and parsons’ programs as well. Most of the big mfa programs like yale, columbia, UCLA etc cater to people working with a fine art approach but they might also be worth a look.</p>
<p>Do you even need college to be a photographer?</p>
<p>@Do you even need college to be a photographer? </p>
<p>Yes and No. Going to school and getting a Photography degree certainly helped me though. There is much more to photography than just pointing and clicking. Also, there is no such thing as a born photographer nor a photography gene. This is an old argument that has been recently rehashed with modern digital cameras being much more forgiving. A quality looking picture does not necessarily equal a quality photographer in any shape or form. A analogy…does buying the best guitar or latest boutique f/x pedal make the person playing guitar better? A camera is merely a tool and like any other tool depends on the user.</p>
<p>Tufts > Yale > UCLA > Columbia for grad school Photography/Photographic Arts IMHO but I’m still delving into what are the best Commercial grad schools. I propose RIT > SAIC > RISD > Brooks?</p>