I'm back!

[Poltergust]

AiB post: http://allisbrawl.com/blogpost.aspx?id=28738

I came back home yesterday, but only had the energy to type this up today. This trip was almost as exhausting as my trip to Japan.
Almost.

Anyways, I visited a lot of different colleges in the Northeast (and even went to Six Flags and a water park in Pittsburg). We went to University of Maryland, George Washington University, Princeton, Yale, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and Carnegie Mellon. Below is my list of colleges I'm going to apply to in order of preference:

1. Carnegie Mellon- The campus is great and I really liked how clean the city was. It offers a ton of good programs for computer science and I'm sure I'll find like-minded individuals there.
2. Worcester Polytechnic Institute- Also has a good computer science program. This college stands out because of its abnormal schedules, which has 4 semesters lasting 7 weeks each. It even has a 5-6 week long winter break!
3. Princeton and George Washington University (tie)- I couldn't decide between the two. I mainly like GWU because of it's location and campus, but Princeton seems to have a better program (plus, it's Ivy League). If I had to choose between the two, I would choose Princeton.
4. University of Maryland- Nothing really stood out to me here. This is just a back-up college.

Here is a list of the other colleges I'm applying to that we couldn't visit:

University of Texas- I first found out about this university by searching up a list of the best video game programming schools and this came out as #1. So, to keep my options open I'm also applying here. It looks pretty nice, and I'm sure I'll find what I want here.
UC Berkeley- Located in California (yay, Smash scene!), this college contains a great computer science program. It'll be extremely tough to make it in, though.

Unapplicable (because I'm not applying <_<):

Yale- We only went to Yale because my mom wanted me to. She FORCED us to go. We even had to change our vacation schedule mid-way because of her. I have no interest in it whatsoever.

Some notes:

-Six Flags is too good. I LOVE roller coasters. It's like my second-favorite thing. Too bad the "Flashpass" system sucks and costs WAY too much money. Still, it has the fastest wooden roller coaster in the world apparently, which only I was brave enough to ride it. =P

-Sorry that I couldn't go to your tournament, Seibrik. By the time I arrived home yours already finished. =(

-It was surprisingly hot up north. I thought that it would be in the 60s-low 70s, but at times it went over 80-degrees. We were lucky enough to have nice weather for both of the theme parks we went to.

-Screw Yale and my mom's weird fixation for it. >_>

(And FlatSoda, I'm a ladder ref over at AiB, so I actually do have moderating duties)

 

[Laijin]

Best video game programming school?
University of Texas? Thats new to me.
Actually I'd almost say thats a complete lie.
Best computer science schools to go to if you want to be in the video game industry:
1. Digipen. Without a doubt this is the best school in the world to go to if you want to be a programmer in the industry. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.

2. Full Sail. This is where I go. They have a very good reputation in the industry and its a very good school to go to. The best part is you learn 4-5 years worth of schooling in like 18 months. So you graduate in less than 2 years with a BA. Thats just icing on the cake. ;o (The other degree programs there are pretty debatable on how much their degrees are actually worth. But without a doubt the game dev degree is worth a lot.).

The following schools are pretty debatable on the order of which ones are better than others, but i'll list them in the order than I think their in. haha.
Georgia Tech, Art Institute.. etc etc.
Actually, if you for some reason can't get into Digipen or Fullsail..just find a highly reputable school that has a good computer science degree. But to be honest, you really should not have any problems getting into either of those schools. I got accepted to both of them. Digipen is pretty straightforward. Talk about how you love to make video games and mention nothing about money and they'll accept your essay. ;o Full Sail takes anyone who can pay their tuition.

Just thought I'd give you a bit of random school advice. I'd hate for you to go in the direction your in now for school choices(which is really not a bad one if your looking to just be a computer scienctist) when you can take a better direction since your interested in working for the video game industry specifically. Being a video game programmer is actually a much different job than being a normal programmer. But I've already ranted enough in this post already so i'll save that for another time.

 

[DRD]

Well I'm hopefully going to Ringling in a year, most likely for Illustration or Game Art and Design minoring in Visual Development.

So once you finish doing whatever programming stuff it is you do, hit me up and I'll do little sketches n **** for you

Nice work man; hope you're successful in the future.

But seriously, we should like...collab on something. In 4 years.
hah

 

[Laijin]

You guys can collab a lot earlier than 4 years ;o
such things as side projects do indeed exist.

 

[DRD]

You guys can collab a lot earlier than 4 years ;o
such things as side projects do indeed exist.

yeah except I'll still suck =(

 

[Laijin]

Well thats another purpose of side projects.
To improve your skills

 

[Poltergust]

I can't even begin to tell you how much I wanted to go to Full Sail. But... my parents (well, mostly my mom) won't allow it.

"I'm not paying $50,000 a year for high school just for you to go to an unaccredited college!" -Mom

Carnegie Mellon will definitely help me get that career, but... *sigh*

 

[Laijin]

Full Sail is a University..
I'm pretty 100% sure all universities are accredited. lol.
Unless by some crazy logic I am wrong.

 

[Poltergust]

I have no idea. =_=

But if what you say is true then I may be able to convince her (even though I failed for the past 2 years). The thing is, she hates the place so much that she threatened me to take me out of school if I decided to apply there. Dead serious.

 

[Laijin]

I have no idea. =_=

But if what you say is true then I may be able to convince her (even though I failed for the past 2 years). The thing is, she hates the place so much that she threatened me to take me out of school if I decided to apply there. Dead serious.

Full Sail's game dev program is very good.
The other programs I can't vouch for on how much their degrees are worth. But if your going for game dev its totally worth it.
You get out what you put in. Give it your all and you'll find yourself an awesome job when you graduate. Full Sail even has a guy whom which, all he does is find jobs for the graduates and people close to graduating.
Besides that, there is also the chance to network with people from the industry since we get frequent visits from companies in the industry. A lot of people have kept in contact with these people and have gotten jobs out of that too.
I can rant on and on about all the good things about the school. The best part is that its getting better and better as time goes by. The students coming in now are getting so much more out of some classes than I got coming in.

Soo..convince your mom! lol.
Edit: But seriously, you can still get into the industry with a normal computer science degree. You just need to actually make games on the side while you go through school to show that you want to do this/know what your doing.

 

[CRASHiC]

Full Sail is nationally accredited.
I talked to a representative when they came to our school.
Its not just a school, its a chance to work with pros with high connections. High connections is what matters most when getting a job.
Its a great school Polt for game design. Go there.