My curiosity always gets the best of me, and I will look to see where people are coming from to find my blog. I can see if they were referred by another website, who was kind enough to link to me. I can also see what word or phrase they typed into Google, which is often pretty funny.
Here are the kinds of things people type in and get my blog as a return:
how much money do creative directors make
is advertising a good career
friendly reminder email recruiters
friendly reminder email recruiters
how many creatives are in miami (apparently, I might know)
creative directors who suck (this one made me chuckle)
should I use a recruiter
And then, someone did this search: "Miami Ad School or the Creative Circus?"
It is this exact question that helped me decide to open my new company, which offers college counseling to students choosing an advertising or design school. There are so many good schools out there, how in the world can you figure out the differences (without using google)?
Differences like:
Do you want to pay $30,000 or $60,000 or $90,000 or $120,000?
Do you want to go 1 year, 2 years, 3 years or 4?
How up to date is their curriculum?
How supportive are their placement services to help you land a job upon graduation?
Where does the school get their instructors from?
What is their industry reputation?
Are they winning awards?
Is the campus progressive with its curriculum and technology?
Does the city and campus reflect and support creativity?
Will you feel connected and comfortable at the campus?
Do you want a big city experience or a small, home town one?
Is international travel something you want to do?
What are the chances you won't be able to get an internship?
Do they reject anyone at all?
What is the quality of the portfolios from their graduates?
What do creative recruiters really think of portfolios from their school?
What do current instructors have to say about the school?
What do current students have to say?
What do former instructors and students have to say?
Are these testimonials non-biased or are they being filtered by the school?
Will the tuition you spend be proportionate to the value you get upon graduating?
I could go on a lot longer with the types of questions you should ask when considering a school. And nearly 100% of all schools will give you the answers to these questions on their own website or via an admissions counselor.
But, I caution you to look deeper before you make a final decision on a school.
Make sure you are getting at least some of the information you want about a school NOT from the school itself. All schools will tell you how great they are, but you really need to back that up with non-biased information, from someone not associated with the school.
Next time you feel the need to google "this school or that school," click here first.
1 comment:
Funny I should find this post a year after graduating and still looking for work. Oh how I wish I had read a post like this years ago before I decided on my own portfolio school. Unfortunately for me I had been told by people in the industry (creatives; not recruiters) and friends that my particular choice was the best out there, and since it was close to home and I could live with my parents to off-set the cost of tuition I figured I'd attend that particular school. I learned very quickly that everything I had heard was false yet stayed hoping it would get better. It never did and after a year or so I was so deep into it that I had to put up with it just to get some semblance of a portfolio.
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