What School for Getting into a Fashion Career / Photography?

[SnejanaIsMyMuse]

I'm looking into a college at this time, and an unfortunate thing is that my mom who works at a local university ,and once she goes full time(In july) she would be able to get me a free tuition there ,aside from the cost of books of course.

Now I am very interested in photography, but also fashion and art at the same time. I would love a career in the fashion industry ,and there are plenty of opportunities and plenty of possible colleges ,but what i really need is to be able to narrow them down. I live in northern ohio, so of course I'm not exactly in the best area for these types of things, but Kent State has a very good fashion and art program from what I've heard, and their Kent stark campus has a photography program.But the thing is I don't know if I really want to be dead set with photography if I can maybe do something else in the fashion industry.I would love to photograph runway shows or something along those lines, but modeling agency test shots are another thing that could be a good thing for me.

If I did pursue photography I'm not looking to become the next Steven Meisel ,I would love to do photography for a quirky non mainstream magazine.I'm really looking to just be able to be involved in the industry one day ,and i need to find a college that will best prepare me for this.

I do plan to intern once I'm done with college, and probably relocate to a major city being that a ton of them are in New York (Nylon, etc.).

I just need some major advice on anything you want to tell me or anything you think could help.I'm all ears.

 

[educo]

I'm looking into a college at this time, and an unfortunate thing is that my mom who works at a local university ,and once she goes full time(In july) she would be able to get me a free tuition there ,aside from the cost of books of course.

Now I am very interested in photography, but also fashion and art at the same time. I would love a career in the fashion industry ,and there are plenty of opportunities and plenty of possible colleges ,but what i really need is to be able to narrow them down. I live in northern ohio, so of course I'm not exactly in the best area for these types of things, but Kent State has a very good fashion and art program from what I've heard, and their Kent stark campus has a photography program.But the thing is I don't know if I really want to be dead set with photography if I can maybe do something else in the fashion industry.I would love to photograph runway shows or something along those lines, but modeling agency test shots are another thing that could be a good thing for me.

If I did pursue photography I'm not looking to become the next Steven Meisel ,I would love to do photography for a quirky non mainstream magazine.I'm really looking to just be able to be involved in the industry one day ,and i need to find a college that will best prepare me for this.

I do plan to intern once I'm done with college, and probably relocate to a major city being that a ton of them are in New York (Nylon, etc.).

I just need some major advice on anything you want to tell me or anything you think could help.I'm all ears.

I don't know what the problem is, Kent is a very good school and since you're going to get a free education, I'd take it and run with it! if you're interested in fashion see if you can take fashion courses as electives.

 

[ptowngal]

If you're worried about the location, you could try applying to a school in Chicago which would have more opportunites. Of course, this would mean you'd have to pay out-of-state tuition, so it would definitely be more expensive. But there are a lot of good schools in Chicago. I'm a high school senior too, and when I went to the Northwestern University meeting, they mentioned that they offer many work study opportunities where you can get internships while you work towards a degree. They'll set you up with a company in Chicago or in the area and you can get more experience that way. I'm sure Northwestern and other universities in the area could get you work experience in the industry because they have lots of contacts for that specific purpose. The question is, will you be willing to pay more for your education? If Kent is as good as you say in fashion and photography, I'd just go there.

 

[2Nova]

wow.... if u could go to Kent for free i'd say do it...

i know some people who are so far in debt from college it's not funny...
if it's free and it's Kent then i say GO FOR IT!

 

[superbeautiful]

I would go to Kent and work from there, especially if you don't know what do to with your future right now. That way, if you change your mind your at a college where you have a vareity of majors to choose from.

Once your down Kent, you can start moving closer to NY or wherever your looking at. It will give you time to get a job, save up and put in some savings.

 

[SnejanaIsMyMuse]

Great ,thanks.I know I want to do something with the fashion industry ,but I'm stuck between doing photography for it or doing something else within the industry.

This is probably going to be a really ridiculous question, but do you guys know of any New York based magazines that accept internships? I know Nylon does and I'm sure there are others, I'm not gunning for any major magazines just some that would get me some nice experience.

 

[BetteT]

I see it's going to be really hard to keep this thread to one topic ... whether or not you should go to Kent or select another college. Your questions are kinda all over the place and we like to keep each subject catergorized so that it easy to find the answers that are already here.

So .... to help you find the infromation you seek, I'll direct you ro a few threads that you shoud read and you should ask questions there ... according to the various topics of the threads.


The thread on Internships is here.

A thread about working for a magazine, here.

Photography schools here and more about fashion photography here.

A very important and hellpful thread, here, about marketing yourself as a freelancer ... about the same for stylists and makeup artists, too ... they have the same challenges. As a fashion photographer, you would probably be freelance ... most are ... and that means building a business from the ground up and learning how to take care of all the business of the biz, how to promote yourself so that you get gigs ... what pays well (advertising} and what does not pay remotely enough to live on (magazine editorials, model portfolio shoots, to name a couple).

And a thread about "Finding the Perfect Fashion Career" is here and another one about finding a career if you don't sew, draw or make patterns but still want to work in fashion, here.

And there are threads about all the different types of fashion careers .... Styling, Fashion Design, Marketing, Buying, Journalism, Forecasting, Pettern making, Owing a Boutique, Writing a Fashion Blog .... and it goes on and on.

Pleas do an advanced search of this Careers and Education forum for thread tiltles using search words that align to your vision about what you'd like to do in fashion and you'll find just about every subject you need. The information is here and the pros who work in fashion are more likely to pop in the the specific threads and give thier advice.