Culinary College: Make Every Penny Count In Culinary School

Five tips for getting the most out of your culinary school tuition.

Culinary College Enrollment Soars

With Food Network now reaching 87 million households and the names of celebrity chefs like Giada de Laurentis and Bobby Flay on everything from cookbooks to barbecue sauce, the culinary industry is in the public eye more than ever. It's hardly surprising that culinary college enrollment has also ballooned in recent years, with some of the most prestigious culinary colleges experiencing 30 to 59 percent increases in enrollment since 2001, according to a recent Business Week report.

At the same time, cautionary tales have emerged from sources such as the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, citing instances where culinary college students have accrued tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt, only to wind up in low-paying jobs or unemployed. While it's certainly true that as a novice cook you will need to be prepared to work your way up to better-paying jobs, culinary college is still a great investment if you take the right approach.

Find a Culinary College

Getting the Most from Your Culinary College Investment

Here are a few tips on how to maximize your cooking college return-on-investment:

1. Choose the culinary college that best fits your career aspirations and education budget

You don't have to go to the most expensive culinary school in the nation to have a successful culinary career. If your goal is working towards a competitive executive chef position in an internationally-acclaimed restaurant, getting your training at one of the most prestigious culinary colleges you can get into might make the most sense for you. Tuition at these institutions ranges from $15,000 to $20,000 a year. If you have a more modest career goal in mind, you might consider a culinary program at a private college, public university or community college near you, where tuition may run only a few hundred dollars per quarter.

2. Make sure your culinary college has a positive graduation rate and career placement record

As you're looking at culinary colleges, be sure to ask about each school's graduation and job placement rates. Learn as much as you can about where former graduates have found jobs, what positions they've been hired into upon graduation, and how their careers have progressed. This should give you an idea of the career assistance you will receive and your own post-graduation job prospects.

3. Work your way through culinary college—or save money prior to enrollment

Taking a restaurant job before enrolling in culinary college will not only let you develop your skills while getting paid for your efforts, it will allow you to save money for your cooking college tuition, instead of taking out loans and paying interest. If you continue to work while in cooking college, you'll be able to immediately apply the concepts you learn in class in a real-world environment, enabling you to get the most from your education.

4. Choose a certificate or diploma program

If you're set on attending a highly-regarded culinary college that's pricey, consider choosing a shorter program. This will save you time and tuition money, and prospective employers will take note of your school's reputation and may not be as concerned with whether you received your degree from there.

5. Consider starting your own business

If you're passionate about cooking but concerned by the average cook's starting wage, consider using your culinary college education to launch your own business as a personal chef or caterer. Personal chefs generally earn around $30,000 to $75,000 per year, according to Professional Domestic Services & Institute. Meanwhile, Catering Research Institute estimates that 75 percent of caterers earn between $30,000 and $70,000 per year.

Find a Culinary College

Why Culinary College is Worth It

The reality is that executive chef jobs are hard to come by, and you shouldn't count on a cooking show contract to pay off your student loan debt. In the end, though, cooking is a passion. Many people choose a career in the culinary arts after falling in love with the lifestyle that comes along with working in a professional kitchen. While you want to do all you can to secure your financial future, loving what you do all day is a huge reward in itself, and culinary college can help you achieve this goal.