Here's the tldr(you can read his in depth post in the sticky) in the /p/ sticky by tripfag "sol !!AS787Hm5LDG" who went to photography school:
Studying photography is a fine line. It’s not essential, but it takes you places. It’s not important for your clients, but it gets you contacts. It’s not for everybody, but everybody that was willing to learn, learned a lot. But most importantly: It’s not the same everywhere you look. I can’t emphasize this enough: Choose the place where you want to study correctly, or you won’t share the same experiences that I did and won’t get as much out of it.
If you chose correctly and manage to get through you will grow into a photographer and won’t have any problems working in the field of your dreams. But don’t get the illusion that you will suddenly be in the promised land. You still have to work very hard, be excellent and promoting yourself and still have to stand out from the crowd of photographers. Nobody out there is waiting for you, there are countless other people that can do the job as as well as you can, for less money. Nobody will care about your degree, only about your portfolio. This study path can simply show you the way and push you out of the door, it’s your job to be good.
The main thing you’ll get out of this are the people and experiences, you’ll find very good friends working in the same field as you do. You’ll share jobs and recommend each other. If you manage to impress the professors you have the easiest foot in the door you can get, have a better time finding a job as an assistant as anyone else, get to know people that are usually way out of your reach. Studying photography can be a beautiful thing and the best time of your life, it can be a constant state of creativity, productivity and joy, shared with some of the best people you will get to know in life.
