I do not hate Columbia College I hate seeing students waste their time Here s a fact Columbia College is unranked by U S News and World Report and by other major publishers of institutional rankings This is because it is open admissions There s nothing wrong with Wikipedia publishing an article on this school There is something wrong with not mentioning the problems of an open admissions art school and there is something even more wrong with the grossly commercial discussion of its gift shop Wikipedia is not a brochure Being the largest art school in the country is not a mark of distinction In fact the fundamental problem with Columbia College is related to the quality it touts it s big It s big because it does not limit its enrollments There is a reason for that It s not because it warmly and fuzzily and democratically embraces people from all walks of life If it did it wouldn t be so expensive It does not limit its enrollments because it wants as much tuition money as it can get Now the members of its administration its PR department and its faculty are very careful to do everything to avoid this reality in order to make art one needs talent Talent is by definition inborn and innate You don t get it by acquiring skill You don t get it by purchasing the most expensive camera or the most expensive education money can buy You re born with it and by late adolescence if you ve got it it will make itself apparent Therefore any student who actually has talent should strongly consider applying to a closed admissions art school one that requires a portfolio or other demonstration of work These schools are also very expensive but it s possible to get various kinds of financial aid Once in the program the talented painter photographer writer or what have you will be surrounded by other talented students That creates an entirely different atmosphere one that keeps the student on his or her toes as it were and provides a sense of proportion and a sense that other students might be better You might wonder why such an admission process demonstrates talent It s because talent does not hide itself it is apparent to experts in the field There are two ways in which Columbia covers up this fact by telling students that if they re showing up and willing to pay big bucks then they re talented It s easy to pass off that notion on a generation of kidsactually two generationsbrought up on the consumerist notion that he or she and it s usually a he who buys the most expensive camera has the most talent The other means at Columbia s disposal is that for the last thirty years children have been taught that self esteem is the most important quality they can develop In a misguided attempt to develop a false sense of self esteem schools have simply stopped talking about talent They might at times call it merit but that too is a bad word So an entire generation has grown up thinking that if you have the drive to succeed you ll succeed The problem what if you ve get the drive to succeed but reaching down within yourself you find you ve got nothing to express If you think Columbia loves you try falling behind on your tuition Good luck