I don't know much about the art industry, but if there's one thing an art school is good at, it's for providing you with other people to measure yourself against. This tends to be important, because people who are big fish in small ponds, like say the standout best in a group of amateurs, are people who stagnate if they're not strongly self critical, and it limits the rate of their growth as artists.
As for making a living; there are more freelancers than there are jobs for them, and that's not going to change any time soon. As far as I know, a lot of big companies have a small department for graphical design of logos, presentation format, folders, leaflets, website design, etc. I remember a discussion between some people once, who did recruiting, who said that it's a good idea to do a business associate minor if you're an art major, that they preferred those and even if they didn't make it, with a minor in business they'd stand a much better chance of landing a normal desk job than without it.