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Culinary Arts Degree or Certificate?

post #1 of 4
12/7/11 at 5:06pm
Thread Starter 

Hello, I am currently looking into the culinary career field and couldn't get a good grip on which would be best. I assume the degree would just because it shows that you went above and beyond but in other places I see this is a mostly who you know and how you work business?

 

Some background about me: I currently have 60+ credits to a business degree and some military experience. I am now 19 and have a few years to decide but I would rather get into it. I recently got discharged from basic for a fractured vertebrae and bulging disk which will give me arthritis for my life. This started my search for a less physically demanding career field than law enforcement or military (The career fields I really wished to pursue.)

 

I talked to a representative from the Le Cordon Bleu in St. Louis and he was pushing me to enter a certificate program but sounded more like a cheap salesman. The cost for the certificate would be around 17,500 for a nine month program or a bachelor's degree at The Art Institute International Culinary School at Kansas City for around 90,000 and 36 month program. The end all question is whether it is worth it?

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post #2 of 4
12/8/11 at 7:33am

Whoa, hold on there.  Stop and think for a minute.  Change your phone # and go into hiding for a month or two so the school reps don't get to you.

 

1)  In the U.S., as far as I know, there is no standrard, no benchmark, that describes what a cook should know or be capable of.  Therefore, the culianry schools can design any curriculum they want, because there is no standard to base their curriculum on.  Basically, when it comes to culinary schools, anything goes. No watchdogs or rules to follow.   Watch out for those school recruitment guys, they get commission, a lot of it, they'll tell you your schlong will grow anther 12" if you just sign on the dotted line.

 

2) Google "40 million $ class action lawsuit in California against culinary schools".  Worth reading.

 

3) Cooking is a manual trade.  Most employers pay based on experience.  If you have 0 industry  experience going into culinary school, you will have 0 industry experience graduating.  Yes school will give you the knowledge, but not the experience.  Thus, most fresh graduates get paid minimum if and when they find work.  The ones who have prior industry experience will get better wages

 

Hope this helps 

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post #3 of 4
12/9/11 at 3:50am

Plus a fractured vertebrae, and bulging disk doesn't bode well in a busy kitchen lifting, squatting, pushing, bending over etc....Think about that too. The physical attributes of the job are like many other laboring ones as well.

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post #4 of 4
4/5/12 at 12:24pm

This career is just as demanding as the ones you wanted(law enforcement etc) I would pursue business or restaurant management because after 10 years in a kitchen your vertabrae and disc will be in much worse shape

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