To think art is a hobby not a degree choice

[smithsally884]

Dd y13 Maths probably C, physics probably B ,but shines at art and is predicted A* (94 percent share AS and coursework to be reused for a level). She is severely limited in what she can apply for because of poor predicted maths and physics . She wants to do some sort of art degree now.previously wanted to do primary ed with qts but now thinks it will be too stressful.i think she might as well burn £50k aibu?

@Cherries not necessarily true. Thankfully the world is moving away from that kind of HE snobbery.....apart from on MN where a degree is only worth getting if its from oxbridge or at a push a RG uni.

My mum also told me that art is a hobby, not a career. I deeply regret listening to her on that point.

I find your art = hobby statement pretty fucking insulting actually.

I’m a scientist but I also toyed with the idea of art because I loved it.

I think there’s a danger in blindly ‘following your passion’ IF you don’t also make sure you have an eye on the real world.

So by all means follow a passion but she should think about things like:

• Networking - any chance of her doing a year in industry? Industrial design is BIG. She should look for and take any chances she can find.

• application and crossover. Just straight art? Or industrially applicable something? Architecture? There are artists working in biological design, scientific illustration etc. I’ve always found the most interesting and lucrative jobs to be where people have a skill that is either very niche and in demand or bridging two areas.

What does SHE want to do? I’d sit down with her and encourage her to think about what she wants to do in life and how to get there - what qualifications and qualities will she need?

Passion followed blindly is how you end up a starving artist. Passion followed with a canny eye on business, crossover and application is how you end up fulfilled.

Architecture sounds nice but I've heard that a lot of students drop out in the second year when it gets more technical due to maths coming to the fore. I agree that it must be great to be able to work at what you enjoy if you can.

Totally agreeBlaablaablaa.

Like I said, the work speaks for itself. Nobody cares where you studied. I've literally never been asked. Commissioners have no interest in HE.

The DC I know who went on to do art at uni did a college foundation course for a year first - would get over the A level problem. It also gives them a bit of time to gain a little more maturity before the degree which helps.

I have several friends with art degrees. One now has a very glamorous job as curator/manager of a gallery in London. She knows so much, meets very interesting people, loves her job, and gets paid well. Another is an interior designer in New York. Another has become very well-known in art circles and actually earns a living (and a good one at that) purely from her art. Another teaches art in a primary school part-time, and works on her art part-time. Another designs costumes for TV, stage etc.

An art degree can lead to many amazing career options. As well as likely being fascinating and rewarding in and of itself.

Slightly odd A level choices given that she clearly finds maths and physics hard.

History of art would have been an obvious one to do with art, and then she would also have the option of art history degree.

Given she's so much better at art than the other two, an art degree is the obvious choice, despite your misplaced snobbery.

I'd say studying a subject she has no interest in and struggles with is a bigger waste of time and money?

YABU

It’s her life and her career, not yours.

Odfod

There's loads of careers you can pursue with a degree in art, from lecturing to illustrating to advertising to set designing to graphic designer to printing and on and on.

Everything you see has been designed by someone, art is more than drawing pictures.

I work in HE and one thing that really bugs me is that society no longer values learning for the sake of learning it's all about leading to a job. If that's all that matters we might as well just make everyone do degrees in accounting and business studies.

My degree is in English literature and I've managed to carve out a good career.

Please encourage your child's talents and support her in what she chooses to do.

You've got a bad attitude. She's clearly got talent. She should do what she loves and she's good at.

Agree with yarnswift, worth having a proper discussion about how she would envisage using an art degree and what sort of things she's interested in doing with it.

There is, of course, also the possibility of not going to university at all. People are talking like it's a straight choice between doing a degree in something she's good at and something she finds harder. It's not. Is there any other path she might be interested in taking OP? I'd say it all needs to be on the table for discussion.

A friend of mine did an art degree. Among many other things (including postage stamps), his work is regularly on the front cover of the Radio Times.

YABU and frankly narrow-minded. Let your daughter choose the degree that SHE wants, or she will not be committed and will not achieve well.

Did you push her into her A Level choices, as the others sound like odd choices?

Step back, OP. Step back with the judgmental attitude and be supportive.

Do you have a degree OP?

I did a law degree and I’m not using it (I work in accounting). My uni friends who also did law mainly work in financial services. I would have far rather done something I enjoyed than have done law but I stupidly listened to my parents who shunned more creative degrees.

My friend was steered away from doing art as a degree and did English. She works in finance but has just set up a business on the side selling her art.

My point is that it’s far better to do something you enjoy. It’s work experience that is more important anyway than the degree you’ve done.

What is more important, her happiness (and success at a degree she hopefully will love) or your version of success?

Please let your daughter find her passion and follow it. If she doesn't know what to do, then work or travel for a year or two might help her to clarify what she enjoys.

I was a straight A/A* student at GCSE, then was pushed into science A-levels by parents who also held the belief that art=hobby, and worried about me getting a job if I studied the arts/ humanities that I loved best.
I did well enough at A-level to get into medicine, but that was a somewhat panicked decision based on not actually wanting to be a scientist, rather than the sort of commitment to the vocation of medicine that really great doctors have.

I got through medicine by devoting a lot of time to it and turning my back on the arts, bottling up my feelings and adopting the belief that being a grown-up was supposed to be a joyless slog :(

Now I'm a burned-out GP on sick leave, and it's taking quite a lot of therapy to dig out my long-suppressed creativity. I'm finally drawing and writing for the first time in 20 years, and it makes me very happy, but I'm unlikely to ever be able to make something of it other than a hobby.

YABU
Funney how now we pay for our degrees directly, rather than through the state, folks seem to know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Of course an art degree is worth the money! Graduate jobs, transferable skills, personal development, heard of them?