A pastry chef is a station chef who specializes in preparing desserts and baked goods. If you love making dessert and are ready to turn your passion into a career, follow the steps below to find a pastry school right for you.
Steps
1Run a keyword search for pastry schools using your favorite search engine. Try searching “pastry school” or “pastry school” plus the city or state in which you plan to attend school. For example, ‘”pastry school” + Indianapolis’. Sift through the results and bookmark any schools you would consider attending.
2Use a college search website to locate additional schools. Many websites offer college capabilities by area and/or degree. Try a few of these sites and bookmark the websites of any schools you find that you will consider attending. Some search sites that you may want to try include:College Navigator. College Navigator is a free program offered by the U.S. Department of Education (“DOE”). The program allows you to search for schools by degree type, program, and location.edusearch. Edusearch offers users the ability to search by geographical area, program area, degree level, and type of school (campus or online).All Culinary Schools is a college search engine just for culinary schools. It offers users the ability to search or browse by degree or program.Star Chefs. Star Chefs online magazine offers a school search for website visitors to search culinary schools by name, program, and/or state.The Reluctant Gourmet. The Reluctant Gourmet offers an interactive map so users can find a list of culinary schools in a state by simply clicking on that state.Chef2Chef. Chef2Chef offers browse and search functions by state, popular city, and culinary program.
3Visit some well-known pastry schools’ websites. Visit the following popular pastry schools’ websites to see if any have a campus in your area. Bookmark any that you plan to consider.The International Culinary CenterLe Cordon Bleuhttp://visit.artinstitutes.edu The Art Institute]Lincoln Technical Institute
4Check your bookmarked schools for accreditation. Accreditation means that an accrediting agency recognized by DOE has approved of the school’s curriculum and authorized it to issue degrees. To determine if a school is accredited, search the DOE’s accreditation database to see if the school is listed. If it is not listed, it is not an accredited institution and any degree obtained from it may not be as valuable as one obtained form an accredited institution. Therefore, you may want to consider eliminating any schools what are not accredited from your list of choices. For more information about accreditation and what it means, see the DOE’s Accreditation webpage.
5Check with college and university review and ranking organizations. There are many online organizations, directories, and companies offering college and university reviews and rankings based on information obtained from students, teachers, and the DOE. If you find a lot of bad reviews for a particular institution, or the school just does not seem right for you, eliminate it as an option. Some websites you may want to consult include:Online Education Database. The Online Education Database (“OEDb”) provides a list of online degree program rankings based on eight factors, including acceptance rate, financial aid, graduation rate, online programs, retention rate, scholarly citations, student-faculty ratio, and years accredited.Get Educated. Get Educated provides a wealth of information about various online degree programs and schools, including rankings and student reviews.
6Gather information from each of the remaining schools. Review each school’s website for information. You may also want to call or fill out a request form for information by mail. Some of the information you want to collect includes:degrees and programs offeredtuition and feeslocationstransferability of credits (it is best to attend a school whose credits will transfer to others)job placement and internship opportunitiescampus activities (if you will leave on or near campus and wish to participate in extracurricular activities)
7Compare the schools. Compare the schools, and eliminate all but your top 3 – 5 choices.
8Get reviews and recommendations for the schools remaining on your list. Talk to friends, neighbors, and colleagues about where they attended college and whether they would recommend that college to someone one else. You can also find online reviews written by students and former students by searching “college reviews” at your favorite search engine, or try one of these review sites:Student ReviewGuide to Online Schools
9Visit each of the schools you are still considering. If possible, arrange a visit to each of the schools still under consideration. Many colleges offer guided tours for incoming students if you do not feel comfortable wondering around campus on your own.
10Choose the school that you like the most.
