I've accepted an unconditional offer for a Games Art course, advice needed on what to do next.

K1TT3N

Hi everyone!

First of all sorry if this topic was talked about before, let me know if that's the case and I will delete this post.

Recently I have received an unconditional offer from my university of choice. I accepted the offer and thanks to that I will be studying with them next year. As a bit of a background, I am going into Games Art with character art specialism. Most of the people I know are telling me to keep on studying hard for my A-Levels, which have nothing do to with Art (I study Maths, Computer Science and Languages), so I am wondering whether it's really worth it? Should I keep on studying for my A-Levels, or should I sort of ignore them and work on my Artistic skills instead? I also heard that people hiring for 3D art jobs don't really look at your grades and focus on reviewing your portfolio instead, which again makes me question what's the point of caring about A-Levels anymore?

TL;DR I've accepted an unconditional. My A-Levels have nothing to do with art. Should I keep on studying for my A-Levels, or should I ignore them and focus on developing my 3D art?

Thank you!

Brian "Panda" Choi

Are you still in secondary school/highschool?  Are you a third year or fourth year?>

Taylor Brown

As someone who dropped out in 10th grade and only later in life decided to care about my education and future, keep focusing on school to be a better rounded person in case the art thing falls through or takes longer than you'd think to get to a hireable level. Trying to focus on your art when all you can get is a shitty low paying manual labor or service job is only going to make it harder in the end.

Alex_J

There is tons of great things you can do in life and it's going to be much easier for you to try them all if you got home base squared away first. That means set yourself up for success by learning skills necessary to get a cushy job with a comfortable salary without cutthroat competition in an unstable market. Hating a job that pays well is way better than hating a job that pays shit.

This isn't the non-romantic thing to do. It's what you do so that you can have the time to pursue your dreams without stupid amounts of risk involved. Don't be too short-sighted, there is plenty of time to do everything if you prepare.

Ex-Ray

I had a similar situation but for me I had accepted a ND art & design Foundation course. I still studied for my A-levels but not excessively, plus it took a lot of the pressure off the exams too, I tried my best. Instead I worked extremely hard on my Foundation course, which is what I used to get to Uni.

I suggest carrying on studying both, but know that if you're serious about art you'll be studying it for a long long time, so no rush now as you have plenty of time. Your A-levels is a short term, one time thing, so you might as well give it your best shot. 

sacboi

Complete your GCSE equivalent, cram like a Trojan and gain a high pass mark before embarking upon an academic 3-4 year artistic course of study, "don't put all your eggs in the one basket" this is a volatile industry with no guarantee of entry, which the same can be said for most pursuits these days but especially true for games, AAA or indie for that matter.   

zachagreg

Don't get in debt to learn art, that's the only thing I can say.