Culinary school costs can run upwards of $40,000 per year, depending on which institution you choose and the cost of living in the area. While there are less expensive options – including community college programs and short-term courses – the majority of culinary students graduate with at least a few thousand dollars of debt.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Although the culinary world can be competitive and offer fairly low starting wages, there are a few steps you can take to ensure that you get the most out of your investment.
- Get a Degree: Diploma and certification courses are fine within the culinary world (especially when they come from schools like Le Cordon Bleu), but they aren’t very marketable when it comes to finding employment elsewhere. Earning an Associate, Bachelor, or even Master’s Degree can help you get a job not related to cooking, should you decide to someday change careers. These courses also usually have transferable credits, so you can carry your courses over to another school if you decide to change majors or professional goals.
- Add Business Courses: Many of the highest-paying culinary jobs are available in hospitality management. To make yourself more viable in this particular market, you can either get a hospitality management degree or supplement your culinary training with business classes.
- View Culinary School as a Step in the Journey, not a Destination: If you harbor visions of donning an Executive Chef label or stepping into Food Network stardom right out of culinary school, you might be in for a bit of a surprise. Going to culinary school isn’t the only thing you need to do to succeed; it’s one small part of a lifetime worth of work.
- Work in a Restaurant First: Working in a restaurant – even if it’s just as a prep cook, waiter, or dishwasher – will help you get a better idea of how the food industry works and what you can expect out of a career in the field. You’ll get to know the hours, the level of activity, and the types of pay you can make right out of school. All this knowledge will help you make a better decision about how much time and money you’re willing to expend to get your education.
Culinary school doesn’t have to be expensive, and it doesn’t have to be the end of the road. As long as you know what to expect and you make contingency plans to ensure you have additional job options should your culinary goals take longer than you thought, the cost of a culinary education can be worth every penny.
Related Topics
1 Responses to “How to Make Culinary School Worth the Cost of Admission”
Leave a Reply