My daughter has a MFA. Her husband as two of them.
They both work at a major university.
I asked them about Art History. They both told me that Art History was the hardest undergrad course they had.
People think Art Degrees are a walk in the park. My experience through them, their MFAs were more difficult than any MBA course I ever saw. Not only are the technical classes difficult, the actual art part of them mostly consist of working your ass off for weeks…and then subjecting yourself to “critiques” that are absolutely soul crushing.
The down side is there are very few jobs afterwards.
One of those moments is among the most vivid memories of my years in the Zertifizierungslager. I came out of the session rather nicely - a few offhand critiques of my flyover hick appearance/demeanor notwithstanding - but it was public humiliation for much of the class. It was the first (and last) time I saw another student quietly weep in anguish over a professor's assessment.
After class, another guy came up and told me that if he were me he'd knock the prof on his ass for his smart remarks about my lack of sophistication. I replied that those observations about me were actually spot-on, and that the right thing for me to do would be to knock the prof on his ass for treating that girl like s**t. Looking back, I should have gone over to her after class and tried to lighten things up for her as best as I could... but as usual, I was too shy and diffident to do so.