You are just as likely to find a really good art teacher outside of a college as in a college. In the US, we push way too hard on kids that they need to go to college.
You do not have to go to college to be successful.
For many, many careers, trade schools are a great option. Why am I ranting about this? A lady was posting locally that she was offering classes for anywhere from beginner through very advanced. I thought that odd given how bad her own work in realism was. Then she lists out all of her credentials. She had been a teacher at the San Antonio Art Institute. HERE is one of your college professors. A woman who can’t paint, can’t draw… but you’re going to go into debt to take her class. HOW does that make any sense?! I promise you this woman would not be able to improve anyone’s art given she wasn’t good herself! How can she teach you what she doesn’t know?!
People think that they’re going to go to college and their artwork is going to get better, but that is not usually what happens. Usually what happens is they try to get you to paint more modern. A lot of the teachers who teach in these colleges are not very good artists themselves. There are some, but you are just as likely to find a really good art teacher outside of a college as in a college. In many cases, it’s easier to find a really good art teacher outside of a college. Most of the successful artists I know are self-taught. There are some exceptions but not many.
I’ve known of artists that went to college and they their teachers forced them to paint in a style they didn’t like and their work suffered because of it. It basically held them back from progressing in the realism that they were interested in. Now, there are also plenty of stories, to be fair, of people who loved college, loved their teachers. Going into debt, hundreds of thousands of dollars to get a degree makes little sense for studio artists. The colleges say the contacts you make are worth it. Those contacts can be made without going into debt, and let’s be realistic, they don’t do as much for you as you think they will.
I cannot tell you how many times I have had students tell me that within a couple of days, they learned more than in four years of art college. You can find classes that from teachers that are local to you. You can find people if you’re willing to put in the work. You can find people that can teach you better in many cases than what you would learn in college.