Which school should I attend for Visa?
Hey there, I'm in a bit of a tricky situation right now and I could use some advice. I am a Canadian high school student graduating soon and I have been self teaching 3D myself for a while but I realized it's going to be impossible to find work in the states without a degree for a Visa. I spent the past few days looking for schools but none of them seem to fit. Most of them are at least 30k a year in tuition alone and that is just something I can't afford in addition to living costs. So far the best fit I found was Full Sail University, but even that is 89k in tuition for the degree and the student work doesn't look the best. There was also the thought of getting a bachelor's degree in some sort of fine arts program and get the Visa that way but I'm not sure if that would hinder the chances of getting a visa since I'd be working in 3D. I would also have no connections to the industry and I would have to study a lot longer after graduation to even get a job. I'm really lost right now and if anyone could help, that would be great.
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As an aside, game art degrees / uni programs are dubious.. Copying a comment of mine from another thread -
"There are very, very few game art uni programs in the world that are worth the time and money. And even then, it still boils down to what the student puts into it and how much drive they have to research and experiment outside of established course work. You're better off getting a non game art bachelors purely as a tool for visa and to broaden yourself (something to fall back on too if this doesn't work out). Meanwhile focusing on your game art education through self teaching, online courses (CGMA for example), mentorships and getting involved in 3D art discord communities that push discussion and art challenges."
I feel like working up the idea of being in the US for particular studios you like is placing the cart before the horse. I have no idea what your skill level is but if you are just starting out then realistically getting to a hireable level is a 2-4 year journey. Many, many people burn out on it before they ever get to that point. Take a look through the graveyard of posts here of students asking "Why am I not getting job offers? I finished my bachelors program and it hasn't happened yet!".. then you look at their portfolios and feel sad because their school took their money and taught them nothing that couldn't have been covered by a couple weeks of youtube and we have to break the news to them that they are still at the beginning. Most of the time, those folks fall of the face of the earth because yikes... talk about a gut punch.
As you're already self teaching 3D you'll just continue learning this, the 'how' (tools).
You'll be an 'artist' that specialises in game art and the main gap in your knowledge would be industry standard best practises for a given genre, which is always evolving anyway.
Good luck.