Vanna White has been on the ‘Wheel of Fortune’ since 1982. Before that, she was a beauty pageant contestant and a professional model, with aspirations to becoming an actress. What about before that? Did Vanna White go to college?
Vanna White attended the Atlanta School of Fashion after finishing high school in South Carolina. She was in college when she started modeling, and after graduating she moved to Los Angels to pursue her dream of being an actress.
Other than wearing gorgeous gowns, including when she was a contestant in beauty pageants, Vanna White hasn’t really done anything in fashion with her degree. She didn’t really make it with her acting career either. After a couple of small bits, she was in a lull until she received her big break from Merv Griffin.
School of Fashion
Vanna White is not the first person with aspirations in the entertainment industry to go to Fashion School. There is a good reason for this as well, many people forget about the costume departments in Hollywood. Every show and movie in the industry has someone who takes care of what the actors wear.
Fashion schools teach more than just dressing someone, students learn everything from concept development, to illustrations, to patterns, to accessorizing, and many more topics. Most fashion programs are anywhere between 2 to 4 years, depending on if you get a degree or just a certificate.
There are several different jobs one can go for when they have a degree in fashion. Not everyone, actually nobody else, becomes a letter turner for the longest-running game show. Not all graduating students go into the entertainment industry either, some jobs that are popular when you have a fashion degree are:
- Fashion Designer
- Boutique Owner
- Fashion Illustrator
- Window Decorator
- Fabric Librarian
- Personal Stylist
- Fashion Photographer
These aren’t the only careers someone can get into after attending a fashion school, just some of the more popular ones.
Post Secondary School Stats
The most current statistics show that there are 4,313 post-secondary institutions in the United States. As of 2019, over 53 million people had attained a Bachelor’s Degree within the United States, and another 21.9 million students were enrolled in a Bachelor’s program.
When it comes to cost, there’s a big difference between private secondary education institutions and public institutions. The annual average charge for a private institution is $31,519 and $7,250 for a public institution, with an overall average of $14,042. For a four year program, you can expect to pay over $56,000 to get your degree.
The average income a Fashion Designer can look to make is between $55,000 and $128,000, depending on what level you are at.
Wheel of Fortune Gowns
To date, Vanna White has worn over 7,000 different gowns during her run on Wheel of Fortune. She has never worn the same dress twice, nor has she been able to keep the dresses, unfortunately. Most of the dresses have been borrowed by the designers, and while they are fitted for Vanna, they are returned to the designer after taping the show. She might not be able to keep them, but she does get to pick which ones she wears.
Wheel of Fortune tapes multiple shows a day, and there are only 4 days of taping during a month. One downside to that, which Vanna has spoken about previously, is that she gets fitted for gowns about two weeks prior to taping an episode with that gown, she has to be really careful not to fluctuate her weight too much.
Vannamania
She started the show, not even being mic’d up, she smiled, clapped, and turned letters. Over the years her popularity grew and so did her role on the show. While she still doesn’t talk during the show, she and host Pat Sajak record snippets, and have a spoken segment at the end of the show. When Sajak was off, due to needing emergency surgery, White took over hosting duties for him.