So I’m at that point in my life I have to decide what I want to be when I grow up (HA I hear this consumes most of your life) Well since I’m recently out of college and looking to see what to do for graduate school. One of the things I have started throwing around was going to graduate school for Advertising — Art Direction? Well, this is something very new to the plan.
I also have began the school search also. The first school I have been scoping out has been the Miami Ad School. (I don’t have to move to Miami for this) But it comes highly recommended they have several locations throughout the country. This school pushes you to extreme deadlines and to create ads. It has awesome job placement. And their art direction program is stellar. The downfalls of this route is that it’s not an actual Master’s Degree more of a portfolio program. I can get a master’s degree at the Miami campus though.
Than the second school I’m considering is Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). This school constantly comes up as the best advertising schools in the country. They have a very impressive Art Direction program too. Their program will be a Master of Science in Mass Communications with a focus in Art Direction. This program seems great. It doesn’t brag about it’s job placement (so I’m not sure what to think of that yet) The hang up on VCU is that it’s in Richmond, VA. I’m not familiar with anything further south than Chicago.
So, any advice?
You’re right about Miami and VCU as great programs. VCU has the master’s degree as a plus, but will that really come into play in the career life of a creative? What I like about VCU is the real-agency process. All projects are assigned someone from the different tracks: a writer, AD, account planner, and a brand manager. So it’s not just a creative focused program. Granted I’m at VCU, so I’m biased.
Miami is really a great city. Richmond is a large town… for its size, Richmond has a lot of culture without the cost of living, crime, traffic and drive times. Good luck!