Need advice on education

dizzi

Hello,
I am sorry to bother everyone with more student angst. But i need some advice on a pretty big decision in my life. i'm currently a freshman doing a bachelor of arts degree in drawing and painting at some local college and i was planning to apply to a bfa degree at a more well known art college. Last year i was enrolled for computer science but i did not like it and i decided to spend the rest of the year learning 3d modeling at home. Due to family pressure on getting a college degree i enrolled for something that seemed relevant for what i want to do as a career, which is to be a 3d modeler. But now im starting to realize that college probably isn't for me, i feel like im wasting time with gen ed classes, i can't choose my own projects like i used to and most of all.. i'm not able to dedicate enough time to 3d modeling, and if i do my grades will drop which is already happening... i was supposed to do homework but i started sculpting in zbrush and got distracted, i can't find motivation to go through with these assignments too, i know drawing and painting is important to learn but i just enjoy modeling so much more. I really want to go back to self teaching and online classes for another year and then apply for gnomon 2 year program or any specialized type of school for 3d modeling. 

My question is.. should i just suck it up and continue with the traditional college education or should i go back to learning by myself and hopefully get accepted into gnomon? Also i know gnomon has a 4 year bfa but i don't want to be too much in debt, the 2 year seems more affordable and i feel as i am starting to get pass the beginner stage of modeling.

Alex_J

Could you get a job and make money while you study on your free time? No matter what you do, you're going to have to deal with a bunch of crap you don't want to. But if you  can do something that might be a nice counter-balance to all the computer time -- like maybe work part time construction or something -- that might be worth looking into. It's also good, just in general, to have a variety of experience. What you learn framing houses or pouring concrete can be very useful for you to take into other careers.

Going into debt can really suck the fun out of life. There's so much free and cheap material to learn from on the internet, I just can't believe these expensive schools are really worth it.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Review through this just in case part of your question has already been answered:
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Game_Industry#Education

dizzi

BIGTIMEMASTER said:

Could you get a job and make money while you study on your free time? No matter what you do, you're going to have to deal with a bunch of crap you don't want to. But if you  can do something that might be a nice counter-balance to all the computer time -- like maybe work part time construction or something -- that might be worth looking into. It's also good, just in general, to have a variety of experience. What you learn framing houses or pouring concrete can be very useful for you to take into other careers.

Going into debt can really suck the fun out of life. There's so much free and cheap material to learn from on the internet, I just can't believe these expensive schools are really worth it.

Yes definitely i was planning on getting a job, being inside all day is not good for the mental health lol, One of things thats really bothering me about not getting a degree is that i won't have a back up plan so ill be kinda screwed if it's been several years and no job. 

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

Review through this just in case part of your question has already been answered:
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Game_Industry#Education

Thanks for the link, i was reading a lot of threads about this before but i was hoping i could get answers specifically for me. Anyways, i was reading through them and i feel more secure in my decision to being self taught. It seems that most of the community agrees on getting a degree is mostly for visa and i live in the us but i was hoping to move to europe sometime in the future so that might be a problem. Also sorry for asking a repetitive question i feel guilty now haha.

Bluefley

My general life advice is don't ever take debt for art education, worst life decision of 99% of the people who do (always some exceptions).

Gnomon is good, but not good enough for the price it charges. The premium they have to charge students for their BFA after having to go through all the legal hoops to get their program government-approved is usually 10x or more what it's actually worth. (I was considering it with my ART School project so I looked at the entire process to get a course recognized, but I'd have to charge incredibly more to justify the added work load  and it just completely defied the purpose)

You can get equivalent of better classes by looking around and asking people who are teaching themselves. The alternatives to traditional school don't get a lot of visibility since there's no big money being pumped into marketing them, but it's usually a much better path if you take a bit of time to seriously look into it.

The only reason to have a degree would be if you live outside the US, and want to work here under a visa. If you're already a US citizen, it's more often than not a massive waste of time and money (but big emphasis on money here).