@ thankseverybody
honestly, i have been thinking non-stop about this for the past week, and i am close to answering no to this question.
i was offered a free ride, TAship + stipend for supplies at UCSD.
i was also accepted at CalArts and Columbia. first off the news was just immensely flattering and exciting. i would love to go to either of those schools, and i was hoping that i would get some aid. in the end, i was offered 15K a year from CalArts, and 18K a year from Columbia. throw in living expenses, and i'd be looking at 100,000K of debt, too.
those that have told me to take the debt argue that
(1) could you live w/the regret of not choosing your ''dream school''?
(2) x school would give me a wealth of connections and could get me ''set up'' in some kind of art scene (the folks at CalArts try not to talk about this stuff in my experience, but it has been pretty strongly suggested at Columbia)
(3) its just a part of graduate school (i have been told this most often)
alternatively, i was talking to an artist who is able to live off her work, and she told me: what could it do to your practice if you were given $100,000? so that's what i've been thinking about lately.
i think another thing that makes this hard is that you can't have all the possible information before you make your decision (will that big name really help you financially in the long run?, etc)