Thanks. We will take a look. I think it sounds like it might be promising but I find she’s picky. She seems to know what she wants when she sees it. She likes the animation program offerings at Kent State. She stumbled across that this morning.
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We look at Industrial Design in general and she’s not interested in that. Thanks for the suggestion!
A lot of colleges offer some sort of degree in technical animation but what can make it hard to find is they all use different names for the major and it can be found in different departments/colleges within each university. For example, the degree programs my daughter applied to and was accepted at and all seriously considered:
-Creative Computing at SMU
-Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication with Animation and Games Concentration at UTD
-Art with a concentration in Animation at ASU (she also considered the digital culture degree and other degrees within ASU’s Herberger School of Arts, Media and Engineering)
-Visualization at A&M (which used to be a degree program within the school of architecture but now a degree program within and the cornerstone of the newly developed school of performance, visualization, and fine arts. Still a BS though, not a BFA).
Other degrees are more consistent in terms of name of degree and content of degree program: e.g. engineering , education, psychology, nursing etc.
Here is a good resource that we used to find and learn about highly ranked animation programs:
And here is a YouTube video (6 min) about A&M’s visualization program that aired just last night on the local pbs station.
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U. of Central Florida, on the list that @martinezcs linked, is another school where your daughter has a good chance of getting in-state tuition if she gets even a small merit scholarship. But there’s not much in the way of varying seasons in Florida… Of course, once she gets her degree she can certainly move to a more preferred location.
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Today I learned that there is such a major called optics/optical engineering. There are currently only five colleges in the US that are ABET-accredited for the field (and since this is totally new to me, I don’t know if ABET accreditation is as important in this specialty as it is in something like civil engineering).
U. of Central Florida: https://creol.ucf.edu/academics/undergrad/
Norfolk State (VA): HBCU, https://www.nsu.edu/engineering/bs-oen
U. of Rochester (NY): The Institute of Optics : University of Rochester
U. of Arizona: Optical Sciences and Engineering Degree | University of Arizona College of Engineering which also has very generous merit scholarships for students with high GPAs
Rose-Hulman (IN): Physics & Optical Engineering – Academic Departments | Rose-Hulman
I’m not sure if this field will be exactly up your D’s alley, but thought it was worth a mention as she continues to explore.
We will take a look. I had never heard of that until maybe 1.5 years ago. Rose-Hulman was my son’s top pick and we saw it listed there.
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Today I learned that there is such a thing as Modeling & Simulation Engineering. Old Dominion offers a major and a minor. From the page on the major (emphasis added):
Students will gain skills necessary to create a concept or a design and testing it in real-world conditions through graphical and mathematical models, virtual reality simulations, software development, and data analysis.
From College Navigator (feds’ website) it appears as though there are 16 colleges in the U.S. that offer a major in Modeling, Virtual Environments, and Simulation. I’d investigate all, if your D feels as though it’s of interest, but in particular these which I think would be most likely to hit your budget:
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U. of Wisconsin - Stout: About $25k for OOS students at sticker price, and I think your D would be a good candidate for merit aid. Also, this seems to be a pretty popular major here.
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U. of Cincinnati (OH): Your D would need an OOS waiver or similar to bring this in-budget.
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U. of Tulsa (OK)
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Robert Morris (PA )
Rochester Institute of Technology seems to have the largest number of majors in this field, but would probably have the toughest time meeting your budget.
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I’ve found that this is the problem! So many names for the same type of thing. I will look that one up.
Western Michigan has a Kinetic Imaging major in their art department. IUPUI has Computer Graphics Technology. We are working on making a list of all the schools and adding the name of the major.
I think we will visit UA Huntsville this spring. We will be in the area. It has animation as part of the Game Design major. It is missing Chinese and she’d like to continue with that. But I hope we can talk to someone in the department about the animation classes and we can get a feel for what is really offered compared to what she wants to do with it.
Thank you for continuing to contribute to this! I appreciate all the help.
I agree that RIT has quite a few options that look good. But it is likely well out of our price range.
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Any update on where your D has decided to apply?
She applied to Western Michigan, Central Michigan, Michigan State, Alabama, UAH, Ohio, and U of Tulsa. She is accepted to the first Michigan and Alabama colleges. Still waiting on the other two. We haven’t visited Ohio at all. We did a brief drive-thru of UAH, but it was mostly dark, so not exactly a visit. We will probably visit in the spring, unless a scholarship at one of her top choices comes through. Western and Tulsa are the leading two right now.
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