Art Schools:

Let me begin with schools I've personally attended.

Columbia College for it's media-arts / art education, especially the schools cross-disciplinary approach to arts education. The school is a very strong educational institution of film as well as dance and broadcasting. Many of the teaching professionals are not just instructors, they are successful professionals in their field of art in Chicago and sometimes from other Major cities.
This is a great school after you leave because of it's student population. Our alumni go all over the world, they are a well organized, and a very large support of creative people to connect to after you leave. It was nice when you were still getting tons of news and opportunities from Columbia College many years after you've attended with plenty of meetings scheduled throughout the year to meet business people and creative people/often one in the same, and then connect.

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is small population of students but a very nice community of generous artists as a whole. The class time is intensive and amazingly comprehensive and well, wear running shoes, and eat your Wheaties. As an adult student, I actually interviewed schools from all over the United States. Some were ivy league and top art schools like Yale in New Haven not far from New York City.
"The School" at the Institute in Chicago is in one of the most beautiful locations of the city, close to the water front, near the amazing parks, located directly on the East side of the cities business district. It's center field in the loop and is located right down the street from Columbia College Chicago, so make use of both schools libraries. You get to know everyone, and the student support is great. Many of the students are a bit older, and are working professionals, which was nice for me personally. There are visiting artist from every where, some famous, and some not so famous, and the disciplines of the fundamentals of "the arts" as a whole, at "the school" are strong. The School holds evening events for students right inside the museum, often meeting famous people up close and personal, along with many other highly creative and wonderful people. They also have many social events during breaks in the 7 hour class day, (not three hour classes like other schools)... like, a cook out, served up complete with ice-cream. At those events you get to know the instructors and the students very well and it is great fun, however, the school, is alot of hard work, so be prepared.

The artists of Chicago, like many major cities, are 95% employed in all areas of business and most of the firms, (many executive offices of corporations) have quite large creative departments, sometimes covering the entire floor of a major building. The city also holds one of the skyscraper's to one of the largest advertising firms in the world: Leo Burnett. PLAY HERE- www.leoburnett.com/

I'll stop there for now. Yet I can't say enough about both schools, their methods, and their philosophies of teaching. I will say, ask lots of questions before you decide on the school you choose. The experience at both schools is at the very least, exciting.