How important are my final grades for application?
Hey all! ^^
I'm a 19 years old student in my final year at school and after that i want to study game design. However my grades are at what would be a D in american schools . I don't really worry about them being too bad for studying but if i'd apply for a job in gamedesign how important would my final grades actually be?
It's really important for me to get a quick answer because if it matters (what i don't hope) i would repeat this year and hope for better grades
I'm a 19 years old student in my final year at school and after that i want to study game design. However my grades are at what would be a D in american schools . I don't really worry about them being too bad for studying but if i'd apply for a job in gamedesign how important would my final grades actually be?
It's really important for me to get a quick answer because if it matters (what i don't hope) i would repeat this year and hope for better grades
Replies
I have to keep this quick because I'm on my lunch break but consider the following.
1) It's quite possible to skip college and, just by portfolio alone, land a job in the industry. I do not recommend this approach though. It's a high octane industry and having a degree to fall back on for other things is a good idea.
2) Speaking of which, I would advise you to not get a game centered degree. The games industry is hard to break into and it's only a fraction of what you can apply design talent to.
3) High school grades don't matter unless you're trying to get into a good college. I was a C/low B averate in High School and got accepted to a local college for animation. Don't pay out the ass for an expensive school... just get that piece of paper called a degree that certifies you can learn and do the learning yourself.
4) Grades in college? I doubt they look much at those either. It's all about portfolio.
5) Game design is a hard thing to go to school for. Very rarely do developers put design decisions in the hands of fresh college graduates or junior/entry level staff. Even animators and programmers can make design decisions, so it's not like 'game design' is a niche degree too much. I highly recommend you break into the industry on a talent that is highly sought after, such as art or programming, and again, I highly recommend you get a more generic degree (one that isn't game related per say) to fall back on should you not make it.
EDIT: Yeah, it may matter more if you work abroad.
Follow your dreams, but be smart and realistic. Also, there's a ton of threads on this around. It may make for some good reading.
Okay back to work =P
If they were all straight As, they wouldn't help you, either.
Grades are not relevant in a creative field, outside of the academic programs they qualify you for (scholarships, advanced programs, etc).
BUT, i treated every art class i took wicked serious. If your not passing with a A+ in those classes, your not doing enough. and even if you do get A's, go online and make sure your getting profesional eyes on your work.
Desing wise, I hope your getting A's in grammer and english, cause your gona be writing a lot~
Amen to that. I went to a "Game Design" program that cost me way too much money and I spent most of my time there learning tools rather than the skills I needed to do the job effectively. A 3 year degree that spends 2 years teaching specific tools (3DS Max, Photoshop, Torque 3D, Adobe Audition) and only one year actually making actual games and building a portfolio. Suffice to say I didn't finish (couldn't afford it) and was left feeling pretty shorted when I looked into what the industry really wants from you as an artist. It's better to get an education in the foundations that support your preferred field (art, programming, etc.) and then learning the tools independently. I only realize this after going $87K in debt and without a degree to show for it. No job either.
I regret ever taking classes there. It would have been better to go to an art school. At least there, I would learn some more transferable skills rather than training for specific tools. What good is it to know how to use hammer if you don't know how to build? I learned how to use 3DS max, but I didn't learn a thing about poly flow, efficient modeling, form, sculpting, or other fundamentals that are needed.
If anything you can use the grades to rate yourself. If you are doing A quality work, you are doing pretty well, If you are doing D quality work, then you better work harder.
I live in germany and plan to work abroad since the industry here isn't big enough for me yet
But if i shouldn't study Game Design, what then? I definitely want to work in the design field and money isn't really a big problem
Personally, I think such an objective and inflexible method of quantifying quality of work is wholly ineffective for such a subjective discipline as art. It may work for math where your responses are typically right or wrong, but art is not so cut and dry. One man's feces on the wall is another man's Rembrandt or Da Vinci. Grades also don't communicate where your strengths and weakness lie in your creative style. They only portray what portion of the assigned criteria have been met. It's far too easy to just satisfy the requirements of the project without actually expanding or exhibiting your skill if you simply "grade" it.
It would be far better if your work was awarded a form of "progress points". As you turn in work that shows effort and progressive improvement of your skill, you will be awarded points that count toward the completion the class. Improvement of your abilities as an artist should show a marked improvement, over time, compared to your earlier work rather than merely "going through the motions", as they say. It would also be good for the instructor to talk one-on-one with the student about the good and bad points of the work the student completed to give them a better understanding where they are doing well and what they need to improve.
Ok, tangent closed. Resume topic at hand.
And I'll be the devil's advocate here: the purpose of university isn't to get a degree.
It's to meet people, learn how to communicate / give presentations, know how to cope with stress and try things you wouldn't have (e.g. an acting class, a geology class, etc.)... in that respect, it's incredibly important for your life in general.
Think about who you were 4 years ago: really different, probably. And in another 4 years you'll be someone else. Are you sure you know what you want for your life, already?
It's risky to go all-in on any career path. Assume you do get in, only to realize you don't like it. Now you're stuck! So keep your options open. That's what uni does for people -- well, hopefully -- and that's what good grades would've done for you.
As long as you do your best... is all anyone can do.
About as important as your hair color.
Your portfolio/body of work, how you do in interviews, and how you do on any given tests for the company you're applying to will be pretty much the sole deciding factor. You've got to be able to prove that you can do the specific job that company is looking to hire for.
That said, right now your grades probably reflect on either your apptitude or your work/study ethic. You really should be asking yourself why your grades aren't better and why you don't care about them being too bad. Do you dislike learning? Is studying something that bores you? Are you easily de-motiviated by things you dont' understand? If so, you're going to have a serious issue getting a job much less having a career in this field.
So, if you're interested in becoming a game designer, then you should probably start designing some games. Then, once you design those games, you should actually start making them. Get Flash or Unity or Game Maker or Scirra or UDK and make something. Make something cool, show it to the right people, polish up your skills and make something of yourself.
If you have the right skills and you can show that you're willing to work hard and get shit done, nobody will care how you did in school.
Hey i said i dont worry about them being too bad for studying
Interesting. You say your grades were bad because you had "bad priorities". Seems to suggest that you, on some level, believe that your studies should have been more important than whatever else you were doing.
Kind of curious what exactly you were learning that you felt would be useless. I'm kind of hard pressed to think of any classes I had in high school outside of electives that weren't somehow relevant later in life. But that was a while ago, and an entirely different educational system.
i dont know the correct terms in english for the stuff we're doing but in math for example its the kind of thing where you have a x² function and make it into a 2x to see where the original function rises and where it falls. i dont think i'll ever need that for game design
It might sound strange to say "math", but so much of the work that we do in games is based on math.
You'd probably be surprised on how many different fields of knowledge come in handy with game design.
If you're having trouble with math check out Khan Academy, it almost makes math fun.
If game development is your business then make an arcade game, something small but with enough going on that you will seem a good asset.
I'm working on my "portfolio" by making a series of games called "The 20 Pages" I'm 18 and I've been looking into this subject for about 6 years. It seems 1 year of experience. Can be worth anything from 1 year in school to a life time.
Your work is more valuable than your education.
Hope I helped,
Bombshell