deciding if art school is right for you? READ 😭

hello! its the time of the year again where everyone be so lost and confused about picking the right school for them. i know many people would say theres no future for art in singapore, dont go to art schools but i’m here to say, you are in your 20s and the life is yours to live. do what you enjoy and you’ll do well in it! 🤍

As a current student of lasalle, pursuing a degree in fashion media, these are some things to note!

1. Time Management ⏰

Every school, every course requires good time management if you wanna do well. but in art school, everything is mostly project work and hands-on instead of theory based exams, so you can’t wait till the last minute and start mugging. usually our works are a developmental process through the weeks leading up to submission. you start brainstorming ideas at the start of the semester and checking in with your lecturers every week to ensure your progress. Nearing the weeks of submission, that is when your ideas and plans start coming to life, having to physically create them. therefore, the effort has to be consistent and i cannot emphasis how important managing your time is! i learned that the hard way in semester 1.

2. Money 💰

ha! the amount of money art students spend every semester is……. great! in fashion, we spend on stuff like art supplies, camera equipments, studio rental, transportation of big equipment and props, styling clothes, models fee etc etc. although there’s always student discounts offered for studio rentals and professional models, it can still be pretty expensive. of course you can try to save and budget your shoots but definitely, spending on the right things would be good and might enhance your works.

* there’s one particular semester where my group of 4 members, we spend about $2k on our finals. tough… 🫠

3. Long hours

in lasalle, our time tables are created for us and they’re fixed. unlike other unis where you get to bid and choose the module you like to take or the time slot you want, we don’t have such luxury. some days would be a full day from 9.30am - 5.30pm while some days only had a 1hr tutorial lesson. but this isnt the issue, the long hours starts coming during submission weeks. as a fashion student, we conduct alot of shoots and they can last for hours. being on set can be really draining, starting at 10am till 11pm was the longest shoot i’ve ever done. 😩 so this is something you should take note and mentally prep for.

4. No canteens or dining place

there are no canteens or food hall in lasalle. ok actually they do have a cafe called lowercase in the school but the food there is SOOOO pricey, i don’t wanna consider it at all. but fret not, there are soo many good eateries outside of school, all within in a 2-5mins walk. a few good places i have to list down is the salted egg rice at sim lim square level 2, the yong tau foo at fortune centre level 2 and the thai food at sunshine plaza level 1! all less than $8 for sure.

5. Opportunities

ok, enough of the bad points. this point is the reason why i chose this school. thanks to our lecturers with amazing connections and a good name in the industry, they often plan external class trips to big fashion names and events like valentino, dior, coach and hugo etc. This is where we get to meet and speak with industry experts and form connections. Truly an eye opening experience. as most of our lecturers are creatives themselves, they do link us up with job opportunities whenever there is an opening. just last month, i had the opportunity as an assistant stylist for a shoot for vulture magazine. i’m just really really thankful for this. 🙏

all in all, i never regretted choosing an art school for my education. yes, the industry is small and competition is fierce but i enjoy what i do and thats what matters!

#advice #universitytips #fashionstudent