Degree and College Advice
polycounter lvl 14
Hey,
I am currently enrolled in a private college and I can go for free since my mom works here. I am majoring in Graphic Design, but I don't really like the program and the people here. I have been looking into some Online College's and The ones that I noticed were Full Sail and AI of Pittsburgh. Do you necessarily need a degree for getting into the game industry? or a BOA? I feel that if I spend my time modelling these next 3 years it will make my time worth while. I need advice because I am kind of getting stressed out
I am currently enrolled in a private college and I can go for free since my mom works here. I am majoring in Graphic Design, but I don't really like the program and the people here. I have been looking into some Online College's and The ones that I noticed were Full Sail and AI of Pittsburgh. Do you necessarily need a degree for getting into the game industry? or a BOA? I feel that if I spend my time modelling these next 3 years it will make my time worth while. I need advice because I am kind of getting stressed out
Replies
I'd be careful where you look though; some for-profit colleges like Full Sail are painfully expensive (a Bachelors course falls into the region of $65-75,000 USD after all is said and done - which IIRC works out at something like $3-400 USD per hour of tuition). I'd generally recommend avoiding those kinds of institutions as they are more likely to be financially motivated rather than motivated by maintaining high standards of education. This said, there are far worse places out there than Full Sail.
You may find your local community colleges may offer something that might not sound quite as enticing (well, they haven't spent tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising), but you'll pick up many of the same valuable skills whilst you're there for a fraction of the cost. A large part of your college education isn't just what you get out of tuition directly.
And I disagree that turning down a free degree is crazy nuts; even if a degree is free you could still potentially be wasting 3 or 4 years of your life by doing something that is not right for you.
Don't discount that it's also valuable networking. The people you're working with now might just be in the position to land you in the perfect job 5-10 years down the line
+1
The alternate would be to switch to a degree at the free college that you can fall back on.
No offense to anyone that has a graphic design degree but in this day and age it is a complete waste of time. Out of 30+ people I graduated with in my college I was the only non-graphic design major - and I still am the only one to have landed an degree-relevant job. And it seems like any recent graphic design grad I talk to these days can not find work, or is stuck working in some catalog firm doing a job they hate.
aajohnny, the point I was trying to make is that you need to do something you love. Don't settle for something that you feel is not right for you just cause it is free. You said yourself you don't like the program; quit tomorrow and pursue your true love.
If you're not aiming to work in graphic design, but still want the college education and the value you gain from that, it's not necessarily a poor choice. Let's face it, it's not going to be worse than a generic 'Game Design' degree. Now that is worthless.
Thanks man, I gotta take a long time to think about this, I just want a opinion from all the professionals and experienced.
Quite possibly. There have been several threads on this in recent times. You might not be college material if you can't use a forums search tool properly.
This This This
If I could go back and not do my design degree and instead devote the same amount of time to developing my art skills, then I would without question.
In my opinion, you need a degree to fall back on. My associates in animation wasn't that great, but my experience, personality and portfolio (and connections!) got me the job. Now I'm almost done with my BS in Computer Science. My point is, forget Full Sail, Digipen or any of those other high class schools. You will no doubt learn something there, but you will sacrifice so much. Go some place you can afford that will provide you with a piece of paper saying you can learn and use your time wisely to increase your skills on your own.
I went to AI and had classmates taking some online classes (I believe it goes through Pittsburgh) and the learning outcomes were a joke. They weren't taught a fraction of what in class students were taught (not at Pittsburgh campus).
Ex:
My 3d animation class we had 9 assignments to do, each one varying in difficulty and emphasizing different principles of animation.
Online student (same class) had one assignment - model a room and animate 3 objects in the room.
That was a few years ago, so maybe it's changed? But if I took the online - I would be pissed at all the shit I wasn't learning relative on campus students.
You are, absolutely, blind.
Well from another point of view you don't always know where these things will take you. it seems like a lot of people have some very set ideas about how useful art training is and what makes it useful.
You want a course that will train you in good fundamentals of art. Colour, composition, art history etc. These are the important things that will always help you in the creative fields. There's no reason why a graphic design course wouldn't teach you these things. (and in this case it's free!)
HOWEVER as much as paying for school sucks, I have a huge network of other DigiPen-related people which makes it much easier now. I learned a lot of useless crap like Flash and 2D animation, learned a lot of useful things too. Probably could have cut the degree in half though cause they make you take gen ed classes too such as mel scripting and physics, scriptwriting, film etc.
I know for a fact that DigiPen keeps tabs on people who post about them on forums and whatnot so that's all I'll say at this point. Feel free to message me privately if you have anything else to ask.
Thanks
http://www.polycount.com/forum/search.php?searchid=1735141
This, also its good to stick to what you want to achieve, and make your portfolio so that people might get inspired around you and hopefully do the same.
My plan is to go to Sheridan college, in first year have some sort portfolio ready so I can look for students for group work. It really helps for the final year term project and to start a small business. If you do not wish that, than I suggest you should just stick to the course and get your degree. Which is free ofcourse.
Do we have to do everything for you?? Fine, here is a search list of threads I have posted in, you can look yourself
http://www.polycount.com/forum/search.php?searchid=1735594
Sometimes the truth is hard I know; and you can call it trolling if you wish. But four of us can't be wrong. A search of your activity shows that 95% of your posting time is spent in GD, so you must have seen other college threads before... hell this is probably the third this month alone.
Good luck with your search...
I'll repeat what many of us have said in many threads. If you want to work outside of your country during your lifetime without having to jump through hoops, yes, its best to get a degree to be safe. If you are perfectly happy with living in your country forever, it's mostly down to your portfolio. However I have seen at least five games companies in the UK and US that state a degree is needed in their requirements.
(EDIT: Well, at least these threads are more legitimate than 'Where's my drive' threads...)
Good luck johnny I don't have any advice. just try to keep producing for your portfolio.. - I might take up some traditional art classes myself..