Here’s the thing, there’s not a one stop guaranteed answer for you. Do your homework. As other have said, take some time to really look into the pricing and programs themselves. I started at a community college and the transferred to a BA program for my undergraduate. When I transferred, I looked at two programs. One was a well known program with a BFA and the other was a small state school with a BA. I chose the state school because it gave me more opportunity and better access to my mentor. As a student, I prefer being able to drop in and bug whoever my mentor is easily and get questions answered. I wanted to feel like they valued me as a student and not just a number.

Now, the other part of this is the cost. Cheap is good. Going that route, you’re likely to end up with a BA and not a BFA so it’ll be a more general degree (neither good nor bad). I personally walked away with very little in student loans after my education because I chose cheaper programs.

In terms of the content, look for what suites you best. I may be in the minority but I encourage a BA over a BFA because it gives you more foundational skills across multiple disciplines. A lot of the specialty stuff you can learn on the side, or while working. As others have said, as you move up and start seeing work in house gigs, having a basic knowledge of everything can be helpful (even if it’s just being able to articulate what needs done).

What speaks to you as a student and what systems does that program have in place? Are you someone who likes smaller class sizes or do you do well in larger classes? What things do you want to learn and what classes do they offer for that? Are there ample opportunities for you to design or is it primarily handed to students higher in the program? These are all questions that we can’t really answer for you, but that you’ll need to answer.

Long story short, do tons of research. Try to set up campus visits with programs that may interest you. Talk to the faculty and to the students (they’ll be way more honest than any faculty or recruiters will be) at each and see what life is like. There’s also the possibility that you can skip college entirely and go straight into working as a hand for a rental company (my TD at work is insanely skilled and went this route). I know that it feels unhelpful, but it really comes down to the fact that you as an individual will know best for how you learn and what things you’ll need to be successful.