Get Yerself Som' Schoolin'

[b-roll]

What is the typical school background for a professional photog?

Someone posed this question to me recently, and I felt the best way to answer was to ask all of you...

How many of you are thinking of going back to school?

kev

[Chicago Dog]

The only reason I thought about going back to school was for some sort of business degree. However, I don't think it would really help me for what I'd like to do.

As far as masters degrees for news go, most universities offering continued studies for news teach pretty much exactly what you'd learn on your first couple years on the job.

[The Daywood]

Gotta have an incredible resume or at least a Masters to teach at the University level as an adjunct...Masters required and MFA or PhD preferred to be full time...

Just need a Bachelors and work experience to teach JC...


Got my Bachelors, working on my MFA now....

[dhart]

I dunno, history major, political science minor, secondary ed-certificate. 36 years in the biz. Have done every job from p.a. to executive producer. Never had a course in any of it. But experienced pros generously helped me learn the craft. I've tried to do the same for the new generation.

I suppose you could spend $80 to a 100-K on a university education or just read some of the same textbooks (for the most part incredibly out of date) and find a good pro and stick to them like glue. It helps to get the crews lunch order right :-)

[cameradog]

I'm going to school to get out of television.

[quicklad]

Ha! What camera dog said...

if I go back to school, it's not to STAY in this business.

[elvezz]

I was asked to apply for a junior college opening.
I didn't apply after finding out how many candidates had their doctorate.
A Ph.D for a job that paid $40,000.

[csusandman]

I think it's important to have to help you get into the bidness and, perhaps, your next market or two depending on what size and such. But now, I feel that my experience speaks for itself and the degree is the "tie-breaker", if you will.

But that's just me...

[bluffton]

I would love to go get a master's, but my kids are more important to spend time with and I doubt I could pass the GRE's anyway. I prefer workshops from people who care and seminars from those who think they know more.

[bassetf5]

My son is a high school senior (for the international readers, he'll start university next fall) and wants to be a journalist. Don't know where I failed him, but that's what he wants to do... maybe he saw me doing standups in the rain in front of the courthouse nine hours after the jury went home and thought it looked like fun, I dunno. Anyway, I'm telling him to work on some kind of liberal-arts degree (history or political science, most likely), get as much experience as he can while he's in school, and go into the job market with clips and a reel. That's what'll get him work... education and job training are two very different things.

[SeattleShooter]

I have got a BA. But I did not get it in Video/film com. I went after a Political Science and Government Policy. That kicked my butt. Tough classes and got a lot of out it.

But I also got an AS in Film Video communications.

[patssle]

I'm completing my BFA in 2 months and 4 days!!

I've always held the thought that you can make it in this biz without a degree. If you have a damn good resume tape...isn't that what sells?

[Goon]

BS in Psych, don't want to do anything with it. Planning on going back to school. The place I work also offers a "Producers School" for people who want to become producers. I'll probably do that just to keep options open.

A senior anchor once told me that journalism is one of the few professions left where you don't need a fancy degree, just experience.

[Birdy]

I have a bachelor's and started toward my master's while pregnant with my son. I finished the semester, but never went back because of the kids. I'd love to go back now, mostly just for me, but I don't know of any post-grad film school programs nearby. BTW: I've worked with several people who have their master's degree and most of them have started out, struggled and ended up in the same position that I am in.

[NoJobTog]

Im a highschool graduate! I have taken a lot of college classes, almost enough to have a degree. My problem? I never took any math or science classes. Im still trying to choose my major after being in and out of school for nearly 8 years.
I found majoring in a field that you've already worked in made the classes especialy boring. When I go back, I think I'll major in somthing useful like Philosophy. :0)

[BluesCam]

A senior anchor once told me that journalism is one of the few professions left where you don't need a fancy degree, just experience.

Yeah, that and boxing. :>}

[pre-set]

I disagree. You should have at least a Doctorate if you wanna shoot really well or work somewhere other than a 200 market. I would definetly hire someone with a Doctorate in Journalism and no experience over someone with a lesser degree (or none!) and 10 years on the street. What could they possibly know?














sarcasm

[engphotog21]

I got my AAS in broadcasting, and my school had an excellent ENG class. I don't think getting a BS would really get me anymore money... just cost me more... As others have said, the only reason to go back for a BS is to change careers...

[servo]

Got into the business at 16. MCR, Studio Camera, Commercial Prod. At 20 I started shooting news for the first time at a No.1 station in a top 40 market. Been shooting news for 13 years now. I feel sorry for people who went into college loan debt to get into this business.

[Mighty Dyckerson]

I took one of them correspondence courses I saw advertised on the movin' picture box. I learned all about camera pointing and filming and such.

[sneakybastard]

I was an EE/CS major.......and as i told many roommates waking up for class way to early in the morning.....take good notes, cuz i ain't gonna be there......

this gig is about experience, not a piece of paper

[D9_Hoosier]

I don't think getting a BS would really get me anymore money... just cost me more... As others have said, the only reason to go back for a BS is to change careers...

While I couldn't agree more that this profession really doesn't require any formal education, and experience speaks for itself so to speak.
I don't see how anyone could call going to college a waste, you can't put a price on the experience and value of a formal education of any kind. education might not make you more money in this profession but it makes us all better, more well rounded individuals.
The best advice for someone wanting to work in television is to NOT major in TV. lol If you want to be an engineer, go into engineering, if you want to work in news, go into journalism or maybe even poly sci. and it never hurts to maybe pick up a minor in foreign language considering the world we live in is much smaller. Or if you are the creative type major in creative writing or philosophy. no one can ever take an education away from you once you have it.

... education and job training are two very different things.

Couldn't have said it better basset... :cool:

[shade]

D9, totally with you bro......if you can, finish school but get your real experience small and work your way up.....also, my opinion. what they teach you in school is for the most part not reality of the job. can't tell ya how many interns I've worked with that want to anchor right out of school and they're told in school that its gonna happen. learn to carry a tripod first.

[bassetf5]

a liberal-arts major with a good attitude, some experience, and a healthy curiosity about the world around him/her is going to rate way ahead of a broadcasting/technical major who knows how to put video together but nothing about their community.

I started as a one-man band thirty years ago - not VJ, this was in the film days - and back then I used to report, shoot, process film, edit film, put the A and B roll together, produce the show, comb my hair, put on some makeup, go out on the set, anchor it and do the weather. (Then, this being weekends in the late 70s, we would gather immediately after the cast to watch Saturday Night Live back when it was funny.)

My ND, as far as I know, never went to college at all - the station hired him as a booth announcer straight out of the army back in the Sixties, that turned into some anchoring, and however many years later he was in management.

Twenty-some-odd years later, I'm a reporter in a medium market and we have some interns from the local high-priced private university. Most of them are blonde sorority girls who figure they'll be network anchors not long out of school - you've seen the type, they won't write anything because they'll have writers when they get in the real world, they don't carry the gear, so on, so forth.

So we're in the newsroom one day and I hear one of these fluffy young things ask, and I remember it word for word...

"Why doesn't President Reagan just FIRE all these senators he's having so much trouble with?"

If I'm this kid's parents and paying close to thirty grand a year for tuition, I'm having some problems here... or maybe not, they might have sent her there just to marry well and get the MRS degree... but who would you hire? the one with the diploma who doesn't know anything and doesn't want to... or someone who's interested in the whole world and wants to see it and tell about it?

[svp]

I have a BS in Communications (Video Production) from Ohio University and thought about going for my Masters at Michigan State but, really, what's the point? I mean, this business is leaning more and more towards hiring people with NO DEGREES and a Masters isn't going to get me anymore money!!! Why take on the extra debt to get a Masters if its not going to pay off with more income??? I guess if I ever felt like leaving this profession to teach then I'd need my Masters but as long as I decide to stay in news, a Bachelors makes me just as, if not more, qualified as everyone else in a newsroom.

PreSet,

You said you'd hire someone wth a Doctorate and no experience over someone with a lesser degree and 10 years experience. I'm guessing you were being sarcastic but, for the sake of argument, if you were to hire that way, would you offer more money to the person with a doctorate or would the position pay the same regardless of who you hire???

[Freddie Mercury]

PreSet,

You said you'd hire someone wth a Doctorate and no experience over someone with a lesser degree and 10 years experience. I'm guessing you were being sarcastic


Look back and you should see the word "sarcasm" on the bottom.

I could not be more happy to have my school over with. I can't see going back as a student or professor. I find that environment as depressing as hospitals and court houses. I guess that means I won't become a doctor or lawyer either, so I better stick with TV.