MFA degree for teaching?
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I'm thinking about getting back into teaching art again. (I taught game art last year, here)
Curious if anyone here has gone back to school for a MFA and could share their thoughts on the process.
I have a BFA, but it's not a terminal degree for art, which in turn is required for most college teaching positions.
I'm the main breadwinner in the household, so I would probably need to keep working concurrently as I worked on the degree. That's a bit daunting in and of itself!
I wonder if an online degree program might be the right thing.
One professor recommended SFAI's MFA, said it's highly regarded in the art world. http://www.sfai.edu/degree-programs/graduate/mfa
Any thoughts?
Curious if anyone here has gone back to school for a MFA and could share their thoughts on the process.
I have a BFA, but it's not a terminal degree for art, which in turn is required for most college teaching positions.
I'm the main breadwinner in the household, so I would probably need to keep working concurrently as I worked on the degree. That's a bit daunting in and of itself!
I wonder if an online degree program might be the right thing.
One professor recommended SFAI's MFA, said it's highly regarded in the art world. http://www.sfai.edu/degree-programs/graduate/mfa
Any thoughts?
Replies
In my program there's a heavy focus on interaction with other students, probably to compensate for the lack of a real classroom. But it still feels you're more on your own than in your undergrad degree.
Also you have to really be good at organizing your time and motivate yourself since there's no fixed schedule and no real attendance other than logging in and participating in the online discussions and submitting the regular assignments. I'm paying this out of my own pocket though, so at least for me, a good part of motivation comes from not wanting to waste my money
I don't have any more to say on MFA, but Eric you're one of the most experienced game artists around these forums that I know of. I can't imagine any college wouldn't want to have you teach regardless of degree. I remember when I was learning UDK years and years ago and your fake SSS leaf normal map shader was one of the first tutorials I read. You've gotten some teaching experience under your belt from Mount Ida, you've been instrumental in organizing and documenting countless tutorials on the PC Wiki, and you have a strong portfolio. You've probably already helped countless artists improve that you've never even met. My opinion an MFA shouldn't be make or break. Just apply!
Other downside, these unis still play in the national vs. regional accreditation turf war. EU uni doesn't care as long as the US dept of education recognises the degree. So they would be a great choice for some of the artists here who have the skills but the "wrong" degree - e.g. Art Institute.
Thanks for the compliments Clark! Not sure I deserve all that, haha.
Someone mentioned schools will let you work with a lower degree, as long as you are working towards the terminal one. So that's something.
Choosing a thesis is a tricky business haha. There is a class dedicated to it where you just research and work out an outline for the entire quarter. You're basically making weekly presentations to your class about your direction. Feedback in my class was great and helped a lot.
For the actual writing of the thesis, yes, there is a guideline document. It basically tells you the formatting type, page range, cover pages, etc. for your final submission. It was required for me in ITGM to have both a visual (some sort of project that corresponds to the topic) and written (the paper) component, which is typical in most departments, I believe. I highly recommend finding an editor of some sort. I had a cousin that was an English major and she looked over my written document for me.
I've posted the abstract for my thesis on my portfolio here:
http://adamavenali.com/thesis/
I've always been very aware of my color vision deficiency and studied for a long time how to overcome it and being an artist, so that was a natural stepping stone for my topic choice.
And SCAD uploads all graduate theses to their library site here:
http://library.scad.edu/screens/theses.html
Great to read the theses and check out the full papers. Thanks for these links.
Looks like a great program, a chance to really dig deep into a subject, and a heck of a lot of work too.
The tuition costs out there are daunting though. 30-40k per year on average, for 2 years, ouch.
Now I'm looking more into teaching positions which help subsidize a masters enrollment on the side.
I know this whole subject goes a bit beyond the usual Polycount crowd, but does anyone have any thoughts on MA vs. MFA?
The added "prestige" of a MFA may be worth it if you want to do something like consulting. Otherwise they're both postgrad degrees and should be on the same academic level. i.e. they're both full and proper masters degrees.
The only masters that's universally considered to be worth more than MSc, MFA and MA is the MPhil, which is sort of a PhD-light, i.e. it's usually entirely research based. The other masters all usually have a couple taught classes on the subject you're studying before you start writing your thesis.
A few of the reasons that I heard from them for going MA were:
- shorter time frame and getting back into the job market quicker
- taking less classes means a lower price tag
- changing careers and need a degree in that new field, but already have a bachelors of some sort
On the last one, if you come into SCAD, they do require a portfolio submission with your application. If you are changing careers (it doesn't sound like you are) and your portfolio doesn't support your new direction, there are a couple classes they make people take before actually starting the 700-level master's classes. These are typically 500-level remedial type courses that offer an intro. I got to skip these because I already had a background in 3D, but it's not uncommon for someone to enter a master's program in game development or something that has never opened 3D software before.
As Jeff has pointed to earlier in the thread, the MFA is a bit more intensive towards the end. The beginning is very similar to the MA. I'm sure people can pull off working and doing the MFA at the same time, but I chose not to because of the workload. Obviously, this increased my debt, but I knew what I was getting into before I signed up and knew that teaching full-time is my end goal eventually. I'm currently teaching at Ai Jacksonville as an adjunct in addition to my full-time job and it's very rewarding.
That would be my long term plan. Part of the reason I'm doing a masters. Although I wouldn't necessarily want to teach Max 101
I'm currently teaching in the Media Arts and Animation department. So, more focused on film and TV than games, though a lot of my students are interested, so we talk about the workflow differences when it comes up. My classes tend to focus more on technical implementation, so Maya 101 all the way up to advanced lighting techniques and getting the most out of the software.
I thought the same thing initially about the 101 courses. I wanted to work with students that knew the terminology, software, and were looking to really push the envelope, but in retrospect one of my favorite courses is intro to modeling because there's so much growth at a very high rate. It's rewarding to both myself and the students to compare where they started and where they're at 11 weeks later.
Ultimately for me the MA was a better fit.
Yep. That's the main motivation. I've been building up a tech-art team at work and I saw people going from junior to senior and that's extremely rewarding!
Main reason I don't see myself doing Max 101 is that I'm a technical artist - but well, maybe you don't need a MFA for that?
What I've seen in Europe is that it seems that technical topics finally get more attention in colleges. There's no tech-art program yet, but I think it's a good move when people get exposed to some scripting, rigging, Unreal engine, production techniques, pipelines and some advanced topics.
There are definitely more tech art classes happening. Rigging is probably the most prevalent, though there are also scripting and intro to game programming courses too.
The Max/Maya 101 classes are pretty simple I must say, I didn't have a chance to teach much art theory. It's more along the lines of walking them through the UI, starting modeling with primitives, then working up towards a mechanical model of some kind, like a motorbike. Simple materials, quick lighting, basic rendering. Anyone who knows the soft can teach that.
true. although teaching is not my primary motivation for doing a masters. I really wanted to grow as professional and learn things which help me on the job.
Although in Europe there are 2 kinds of unis. There are private game/3d colleges, where I think almost anyone can teach. They often hand out foreign degrees, e.g. in cooperation with US or UK unis. Those places don't have to be bad, but they appear to me a bit degree-mill-ishy.
And then you have state run unis, who just happen to have an art department offering CG courses. Those have caught up a lot in the last decade - just see the Hertfordshire uni thread. They have the same high standards for all their teaching staff, so a masters would definitely give you an advantage to pass their requirements. I'm eying mostly these place.
But for now I'm in China anyway - no teaching here. So this is more a plan for the future, when I get tired of the hectic of actual AAA game production.