With just a few months until graduation, seniors have to choose what college to go to to get their training to build a bright future. This can be especially difficult for fine arts majors as many face the choice between college or conservatory.

    Conservatories are quickly paced, intense schools that focus specifically on your major. The first conservatories appeared in the 1960s and are often found more in large northern cities (e.g., New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston). At a normal college you may take chemistry, economics and physics, but at a conservatory students take all classes based on their major except for the generic math, science, history and English. For example, a music major at a conservatory would take music theory, piano, Latin and other arts related classes that are often intensified to challenge artists.

Most students have to consider the pace of the work and the time committed to the major before deciding. At a liberal arts school you would focus about 60 percent on your major and about 40 percent on your academic classes. At a conservatory you spend about 80 percent of time on your major and 20 percent on academic classes.

    2012 graduate Christina Pattakos is currently a sophomore attending Point Park University for Musical Theatre. Point Park is a conservatory setting that allows Pattakos to focus on her musical theatre major.

    “I knew when I found it that being in a conservatory was right for me,” Pattakos said. “I love having my time being almost completely taken up with classes that involve my major and are performance based because that is what I am here for.”

But conservatories aren’t the only option for fine arts majors. A more traditional college lifestyle can also develop chefs, musicians, actors, dancers and artists without the added competitive pressure of the conservatory life. Colleges focus more on a broad based education with an emphasis on arts classes.

    “I preferred a liberal arts college from the very beginning,” senior Meredith Bergwall said. “I wanted the full college experience.”

Bergwall is a theatre and choir student who wishes to major in musical theatre in the fall.

“I wanted football, and sorority life, just basically to be involved in multiple activities outside of my major,” Bergwall said.

Some aspiring artists prefer to create a “backup plan” in case their artistic major doesn’t allow them to become successful or begins to disinterest them. This factor encourages many artists to go to college and get a business, marketing or other stable minor.

    “[At a college] if in a few semesters I feel like changing directions, I won’t have to transfer schools,” Bergwall said.

    Most students interested in pursuing a career in the arts have specific thoughts about the learning style and living environment they want from a school. Conservatories and colleges offer different types of education, but also a different type of learning environment.

    “I am not in favor of conservatories for fine arts majors because I believe that the more well rounded students there are  the better decisions they make as artists,” choir and AP music theory teacher Christopher Mason said. “It’s our lives that inform what we do as musicians. We can’t [be] nearsighted about what it is that we do because everything about art is in reaction to the bigger world”

In the end college is a personal choice based on comfort, ability, and preference. Each student and artist will base their choice on what’s best for themselves and their career after they graduate college.

    “It’s a lot of hard work,” Pattakos said. “But I am really getting a lot of time learning how to be a professional actress and performer.”