F Newsmagazine: At the start of the semester, students at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago brace themselves for a big bill: there’s tuition, housing, food, technology fees, of course — but at an art school, there’s an added, more hidden cost: the cost of materials for each studio course.
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I have rather strong opinions on this topic about material costs for art programs. For intro level courses, I feel like part of the whole class is being introduced to what materials you want, so there's no way to buy the right materials off the bat. For a class like hand drafting, I really don't understand why the school of drama cannot supply a few test pencils, led pointers, ect just so that students can try them all out, and then decide which one they like better, rather than spending a bunch of money on a led pointer that you will never use because you liked mechanical pencils better. Especially as a BXA student where I was given a box full of easily hundreds of dollars of materials for an engineering class without having to go out and source anything on my own, because I would have no idea what I was buying in that situation. I feel like that ideology should be applied to arts schools, because it's hard to learn when you both don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on the wrong thing, and also haven't been taught what the right thing is yet.
I relate a lot to this article. Coming into this school and this program, financial stress has always been a big concern and was the largest obstacle I faced in deciding whether I could attend this school. I remember when I toured a year ago, that topic was something I talked about with one of the DP's in the class above me, and they told me that we would have to buy materials, but assured me that we'd be refunded for any materials we bought for class. That was certainly comforting and helped me feel better last semester as I had to start buying so many materials for each of my classes. One quote directly from this article is “I don’t remember the exact price, but I do remember my soul dying while checking out at Blick.” And I relate to that. I do also remember the exact price, and I remember that that was just one of many trips to Blick or elsewhere to get supplies that were required for class and different projects. I spent hundreds of dollars last semester, almost solely on materials for classes. We were handed a list at the beginning of the semester for our main DP classes and told we needed to get all of those materials by week 3. I ended up buying almost everything on the list because I didn't want to run into a situation where I didn't have something later on. But I ended up spending a lot of money that was never refunded, and multiple things that I bought from the list were either never used, or were items that certainly could've been split between at least 3-5 of us, but we were all told to buy our own. I think it's most frustrating because I was told multiple times that we would be refunded for any materials we bought for class, but then when I started asking around, no one could give me a straight answer about how to access that, or I was told it didn't actually meet the criteria for refunds.
Additionally, we are paying so much money to be at this institution, and I don't think it's unreasonable for us to ask for funds, especially in freshman year, to be able to purchase the materials we are required to have.
This article tells a story of one of many universities and art schools. As a chicagoan who's met multiple saic students, i can confidently say that a lot of students at saic believe that what they are getting out of the program given the amount of money they have to spend to be there and complete their courses is absolutely unreasonable. Saic tuition is insanely expensive given how they basically have no campus, very few public campus spaces and resources in general. The expectation of paying for your own art materials is so diabolical to me. It makes you question where the insane tuition costs are going. Yes, partially to professors but if there's few public spaces for the school to maintain, its clear its just lining the pockets of the schools board and bosses who are noe being even more stingy. There is absolutely no way that saic cannot afford to provide students with art materials. What a load of bul!!!!!
As an art student myself, reading about the hidden costs at SAIC felt a little too familiar. I’ve had that exact moment of panic at the checkout line in Blick, doing mental gymnastics to justify $300 worth of paint, only to realize I’d still forgotten brushes. What’s frustrating isn’t just the cost—it’s how unpredictable it all is. One class might require a mountain of materials, and another provides almost everything. It’s hard to budget for creativity when the rules change every semester. I appreciated how some departments, like Ceramics and Fiber and Material Studies, are trying to offset this by offering shared materials. That sense of community—of working together and looking out for each other—feels more aligned with what art should be about. But it’s not consistent across the board, and that’s the problem. Creativity shouldn’t be a luxury item. Everyone deserves the chance to explore, take risks, and make beautiful things—without the fear of going broke over a canvas.
The cost of higher education has always been an issue prevalent on my mind since I began looking into universities that I would be interested in going to. In America college is often one of the most expensive things a person ends up paying for in their life but it’s often justified saying that the degree will help you pay it back and then some however I do think this mindset holds a lot of people back.ive heard of a lot of stories where people don’t go to the institution they were interested because everything is too expensive or even drop out in the middle of their education because they can no longer afford the cost.I can relate to this article a lot, since I first got to college I’ve been worried about my funds, managing to keep an amount of money that will get me by while in addition to having money for any materials I need is quite stressful
This article is so relatable. Just the subtitle describes it all: “ the hidden price tag of your already expensive education”. While for all college majors, you will probably end up spending a little bit of money outside of your tuition, nothing comes close to what art students have to endure. Honestly, this is something that I didn’t even think about before coming to college, because I just assumed that the school would provide us with all the materials. I was in for a world of shock when I learned the reality. I’ve never heard of a chemistry major having to buy their own test tubes. While I do know that textbooks are expensive, they are becoming increasingly cheaper as everything shifts to a digital format (and a good number of people pirate anyway). Honestly, I just can’t think of anything that compares. It is also the fact that these supplies run out so quickly and they just keep getting more expensive and products are already significantly hard to get. I hear and agree with what this article says that professors are accommodating and lenient towards students, but the materials you purchased in the quality of them really can affect your whole grade. This is a huge problem in our program, and I am guessing an even bigger problem in the School of Art. Everyone is upset by this, and I wonder what can be done as a CMU community as well as how art students across the country can band together to work towards a solution.
This article is speaking so much truth. Many art classes require some amount of money to be spent on projects or just over all materials. In SoD I have spent at least 5 dollars on every class I have taken thus far. This could be for something as simple as a specific pencil lead for drafting or random materials for a Basic Design project. But I think the worst part of buying materials is that I have no idea how much I will need to spend on a given project. This greatly limits my ability to plan out what I want to spend my money on causing me to basically have a chunk of my money saved specifically for last minute project needs. Stem students have a similar conundrum due to having to buy textbooks but at least they can look at the syllabus and determine the exact amount of money they will need to spend in order to do well in the course.
Wow! What a relevant article. Like many of my compatriots I felt very frustrated when at the start of the year I had to make a run to Artist and Craftsman that, to my recollection, totaled around $130 just for the stuff I was sure I would need for my classes. If I were to total up all the money I have spent this year I am sure it would be a very upsetting number—and my spending is light compared to other people!!!! Not only did I share supplies with others and inherit things from upperclassmen/my high school TD, but I skipped a ton of stuff that I wasn’t sure would be necessary, and I also avoided a bunch more cost just by not being in Basic Design II. I will give credit where it’s due and say that it was fantastic that we didn’t have to buy any drafting tools, and I really appreciated that Dick reached out at the start of this semester to ask if anyone had supplies that needed replacement. I also really appreciate that the Stagecraft supplies list has budget, average, and luxury options. But it is quite frankly ridiculous—and not only ridiculous but extremely unfair to students who need financial support—that we are required to purchase so much shit. I am also not just complaining into the void about this. Members of our class have made efforts to see if CMU would be willing to finance our supplies. After all, don’t other departments finance their students’ supplies? Everyone in Intro to ECE gets a fancy little toolbox. I never have had to pay for any of my chem reagents because that would be crazy. But drama students don’t get that luxury; when we talked to our HUB liason about it they basically said we were out of luck. :(
I clicked on this one because I saw it was one of the top five and I assumed that it was going to be about that debate of whether to go right into the industry or spend money going to school. So when the majority of the article was spent talking about the cost of supplies needed to complete assignments. While it was not what I expected I think it is getting at what I expected. I remember the summer before my freshman year they sent the list of all the supplies I would need and it was hundreds of dollars worth of supplies. And I thought to myself what do you mean I have to buy all that stuff when I am already paying thousands and thousands of dollars to go to school here. And it is ridiculous and it adds to that guilt of spending all this money to go to school for something that does not need a degree or is not seen as “traditional”.
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