Considering a graduate school for the arts? Use these pointers and suggestions to help you decide if a fine arts degree is right for you.

Smart Choices

Don't just consider how you'll make your artconsider how you'll make a living. Some schools promote their career resources to students when they're considering admission. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, for instance, packages its multiple professional practices courses in an easy-to-peruse brochure. And don't forget to make a school's career center a part of your considerations.

[Explore the Best Fine Arts Schools rankings.]

Insider Tip

Personal finance expertise might be the most important information a student can glean from a professional practices course, but some schools go even further, offering courses in entrepreneurship. An entrepreneurial spirit is especially important through a recession, when jobs for artists tend to be scarce.

In fact, artists are three times as likely as the rest of the U.S. workforce to be self-employed, according to the National Endowment for the Arts, which specifies that fine artists, art directors, and animators are the most entrepreneurial. Fifty-five percent of artists in those fields are self employed, compared to 10 percent of the U.S. workforce.

Opening up your own gallery or art nonprofit can help to pad your wallet, and networking with fellow students can lead to opportunities to showcase your art. (When a student opens up a new or alternative arts space, they often look to peers for work to show.)

[Find out how to pay for grad school.]

Getting In

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Fine Arts School Tips for Success