Sunday, April 24, 2011

Top Culinary Arts Schools - How Do I Find the Best?

If you are thinking of attending a culinary arts college you need to plan ahead while in high school. Culinary arts is becoming very popular and there are still many jobs to be found, however, to become a leader in the field, post secondary education is required.

If you are thinking of attending or trying to find out who the top culinary arts schools are, there are logical steps you need to follow to be successful. You will need to do a little bit of research on your own. It's possible that you have had a representative from one of the top cooking colleges already visit your high school. It is always wise to compare what is out there before making a decision though.

It's a fact that most of the top culinary schools offer many of the same courses. The differences may lie in the faculty members that they hire and the popularity of their schools with hiring managers in the food service industry. There are also differences in the cost to attend these colleges and price can be a major factor in your decision. Location is also another factor. If you are looking to save money and are not real particular about becoming the world's best chef then a school in your local area might be the best place to attend.

Here are some logical methods of finding the top culinary arts colleges. In addition, visit the link below to watch a video of a chef in action and to find many programs that you can evaluate as listed on the pages of the website.

The first thing you should do is go to a search engine such as google.com or yahoo.com and type in "culinary arts colleges" or "top culinary arts schools" just to see the scope of this industry. Once you pull up literally millions of results, you may be overwhelmed but remember, you are just shopping to see what is out there overall. Once you see that there are numerous colleges to choose from add some additional criteria. For example, you may want to click on several of the first sets of search results you see just to get an overall feel of what is offered in the culinary field. In addition, you can see where the major culinary schools are located and if they have won any awards or have well recognized chefs as part of their faculties. If you want to know prices though, you will most likely have to email the school and an admissions representative will contact you. On the other hand, you may want to immediately decide on a general geographical area you are interested in. To do that you simply repeat the search "top culinary arts schools in Florida" for example, plugging in your own city or state to see what culinary arts colleges are located near you.

Review the websites. If you see a school or several schools that you like, copy and paste their phone numbers into Word or an email and begin to call them. You should ask for the admissions departments. You may receive a high pressure sales pitch, so listen carefully. All of these colleges are in competition with one another. Definitely keep track of who you talk to by making notes next to your list. Compare everything, ie. the cost, the location, the reputation, placement assistance, etc.

You can also go online and do a bit more research to find out the cost by typing in "cost of culinary arts college" or "how much does a culinary arts college program cost" or something similar. You will come up with some interesting results. Just keep in mind that costs vary across the board depending on the program that you choose, the location and the reputation of the school.

Be prepared though. It is most likely going to be expensive to attend a top culinary arts school, but if that is your love and your professional desire, it will be well worth it in the end. Please find the links to more information on jobs and the best colleges in the next paragraph. Watch the video of a chef in action!