In a nutshell, art school gives you the chance to make art full-time for several years and a ready-made community of artists. What it won't give you is a cushy academic ride or guaranteed success in the art world.

Got What It Takes?
Try to objectively measure your own motivations. Is painting your part-time diversion, or have you demonstrated (to yourself, your peers, and your mentors) the discipline and commitment that separates serious artist from hobbyists? Do you eat, sleep, and breathe photography, or do you sort of, you know, kind of like taking pictures? Yeah, it's a cheesy line, but there's a reason "Know thyself" has stuck around since the time of the Delphi Oracle: It's true.

Before you apply to art school, know that you want to dedicate yourself to your work. An art-school student should be motivated, focused, creative, open to new perspectives, and serious about his or her art. Once enrolled, you'll have little chance to explore fields that aren't art-related, so if you're unsure about your dedication to art, reconsider applying. At a university or liberal-arts school, you can still major in studio art, but you'll be able to study many other areas as well. If you decide that you really want to study sociology instead of filmmaking, you can probably switch majors without switching schools.

Still with us? Great--not only do you know yourself, you know you want to go to art school. The process of picking your school is pretty much the same as for your non-artist friends: Research schools online, gather your list, narrow it down, research some more, and--if at all possible--visit your top-choice schools. Every art school has a different emphasis and culture. Some focus on classical art; others focus on modern. Is the program heavily structured and technical, or is does it provide wide latitude for experimentation? Some schools are competitive and others are more community-oriented. Before or during your visit, talk to teachers and current students, and make sure your decision is one that's right for you (not your parents or your academic counselor): a poor "personality" match can ruin your art-school experience.

Once you're in, you'll experience frustration and euphoria, be inspired and utterly exhausted, and forge connections and possibly lifelong friends. Best of all, you'll walk your talk and experience the elation of something many people talk about but few actually do--following your dream.

What Art School Can Offer You

• Immersion. You might not get the chance to dedicate so much time to making art again for a while. Although you'll be required to take a minimal amount of liberal-arts classes, expect to be immersed in your artistic field. Be prepared to work hard. Practicing art is different than studying chemistry, but it isn't any less demanding, and you'll spend as much time in the studio as a chem major will spend in the lab.
  
  
• Technical and conceptual skills. You'll develop your own style and work conceptually, in addition to gaining technical proficiency. You'll also learn how to present, evaluate, and talk about your work.
  
  
• Community. As an art-school student, you'll be surrounded by fellow artists--creative, sometimes difficult, often eccentric, always interesting. If you were the only serious art student in your high school, you'll finally be able to talk to your peers about things like abstract expressionism and minimalist sculpture. Not only is this kind of community incredibly fun and vibrant, it's also inspiring and motivating.
  
  
• Inspiration. You'll be working with established professionals in their field, you'll be studying the works of masters, you'll be developing your own unique style and voice (along with your portfolio for graduate school, if that's your eventual goal), and you'll be surrounded by your equally motivated peers working as hard as you. Plenty of folks dream about studying and creating art. You'll be doing it full-time.

What Art School Probably Won't Offer You

• Broad education. At art school, you won't have a chance to explore fields that aren't art-related. Again, if you're more of a generalist in nature, consider enrolling at a university or liberal-arts school and majoring in Studio Art. There, you'll be able to study other fields as well as art.
  
  
• A clearly marked job path. After you graduate, you might feel jealous of your friends who majored in economics and are now working as bankers. Even though you probably won't find work where someone pays you to sculpt, you'll be qualified for other jobs to sustain you while you're working on your art. Sell yourself on the skills that are transferable into a work environment. Artists are great communicators, extremely motivated, hard-working, and creative, and you probably know Photoshop and Illustrator like the back of your hand. Employers kill for these skills! Art-school graduates often find day jobs in publishing, television, advertising, as museum curators, artists' assistants, and graphic designers.
  
  
• Security. Being an artist isn't as romantic and glamorous as it's portrayed in movies like Great Expectations, with Ethan Hawke as poor-painter-turned-New-York-art-world darling (watch Basquiat for a more realistic portrayal). Many art-school grads succeed at non-art related jobs but struggle because their job isn't creative enough. When you're working full-time, it's difficult to find time and energy to do your own work. It's a tricky balance that requires hard sacrifices. It may be tough to get your work shown. You may begin to question why you're doing it: Why didn't you just become a doctor? (Come on. You know why.)
  
  
• Bucketloads of money. It'll probably be awhile before you can support yourself as a full-time artist, and frankly, some people never can. It's easy to say you're not interested in money now, but wait till those student-loan payments come knockin'--money will be interested in you. Still, this probably isn't news to you; if being an artist was easy, wouldn't more people do it? With the fortitude and strong work ethic that you developed in art school, you'll blaze your own path, both creatively and economically.