<p>My brother is in the computer game field. He hires and manages game designers for a major company (your kids would know all the games). He loves UMBC grads. He also said Carnegie Mellon turns out lots of strong kids in this area. </p>
<p>Probably not a direct parallel to digital media studies, but may be worth checking out.</p>
<p>gweeta - UMBC - University of Maryland, Baltimore county honors college? I had to google. What would be the major there? The closest I see is CS, and that’s not worth paying OOS tuition for. </p>
<p>I guess I should have made son’s stats more of a priority. Son is most likely a 3.0 to 3.5 student. Also, he probably won’t be going OOS unless there’s is some merit aid or a lower cost to begin with. We CANNOT afford $40,000. a year schools.</p>
<p>The University of Pennsylvania has a Digital Media Design program in their engineering school. It’s pretty good, definitely consider it.</p>
<p>Kathiep, that’s the school. They have a program called the Computer Science Game Development Track. It’s listed under Computer Science. </p>
<p>I didn’t look at costs, so sorry if I put you on to a dead end. </p>
<p>Edit: I took a quick look at UMBC. I think tuition there for out of state residents in 2008 was less than $20,000. Also Avg. GPA was 3.6 and Avg. SAT was 1190. However, not sure it really correponds to your son’s interests even if it’s doable admissions- and finance-wise.</p>
<p>This was from the NYT. It doesn’t concern games as such, but rather something more worthwhile. 
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/jobs/14starts.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=%2BEngineering+%2Bbill&st=nyt[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/jobs/14starts.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=%2BEngineering+%2Bbill&st=nyt</a> **In Simulation Work, the Demand Is Real ** " AS employment headlines go from grim to grimmer, it’s appropriate that one job category with expanding demand involves helping people avoid reality. Designers of computer simulations are sought in many fields to help understand complex, multifaceted phenomena that are too expensive or perilous to study in real life."</p>
<p>That’s more like it csleslie. This son is NOT looking for a game design program. Digital media is broader, and IMHO, a little more job worthy. </p>
<p>gweeta, All suggestions are welcome, besides, I’m sure there are other parents out there that have kids with similar interests. </p>
<p>The definition of Digital media is (according to this [UCF</a> > CAH> Digital Media Department](<a href=“http://www.dm.ucf.edu/about_index.php]UCF”>http://www.dm.ucf.edu/about_index.php) website) “Digital Media fosters a fusion of a well-defined scholastic structure in the arts and sciences with the tools of bleeding edge technology. The Digital Media program continuously reshapes itself to stay on top of the ever evolving technology our students and faculty work and play with every day.”</p>
<p>For him to go OOS, at another State University the criteria should probably be that we can’t get it at one of our State U’s or it’s less expensive or an assured acceptance. Private schools will have different standards because of the potential merit aid. My son is a good student but he will not get into Penn or Carnegie Mellon and we can’t afford $50,000/yr in tuition anyway. We’re not talking about one of the CC students that’s getting 4.0’s and is president of the National Honor society. My son is a 3.0 - 3.5 student that is taking a fairly rigorous course load but getting mostly B’s.</p>
<p>Northeastern offerss a BFA in digital art with an option to specialize in animation. The school is noted for co-ops, which help focus students’ career interests and often lead to post graduation employment.</p>
<p>[Digital</a> Art - BFA](<a href=“http://www.art.neu.edu/undergraduate/majors/digital_art/]Digital”>http://www.art.neu.edu/undergraduate/majors/digital_art/)</p>
<p>The D of a friend is interested in this field. She is a rising junior and regrets the route she took. She decided to attend a liberal arts college and design her own major. Her college is part of a 5 college grouping. She has had the problem of several of the courses she needs for her self designed major have not been offered in the last yr. Her advice would be to make sure the school has a wide range of classes in your area of interest. She loves her school but it has been frustrating.
She is looking at the option of taking a semester off and going to the local CC. Our local CC has a wide range of classes that she feels will help her find a job. She is doing this with the blessings of her college adviser at a fraction of the cost.
Your son might look if he can try some evening courses at a local CC in this field.
Also another thing this young woman did was do a summer program for high school students in Digital Arts at Cal Arts. (not sure if the program is just for Ca residents or not)</p>
<p>One thing about a digital arts that concerns me a bit is that a lot of the skills learned are technical skills that in many cases, can be learned without a class or in a community college setting. Is it worth $200K for this particular set of skills? Is there some body of theory to go along with the learning of industry tools?</p>
<p>One of the things I like about this major is that the more techy colleges that have this major also have other majors with some of the same class requirements. For instance you could start out with digital media and perhaps switch to computer forensics or game design. </p>
<p>Good suggestion about a trial run at a local CC over the summer, but I think I looked at their schedule for a dual credit math class and the timing conflicted with son’s camp schedule.</p>
<p>Try the UT Dallas EMAC and ATEC programs. They just built a new facility for those programs, they seem to take a slightly different approach to the curriculum which I think could translate into higher employability, and it’s affordable. My daughter visited and absolutely loved the professors and the facilities and equipment. Not sure how they do on merit aid, but I would imagine it’s worth a look. When you apply to the school you are automatically entered into the pool for merit aid, and they start distributing that Jan. 1 every year. He may also meet the guaranteed admissions criteria. It’d be a good school to apply to early fall of senior year and have all his answers early - admissions, aid, etc. by the spring.</p>
<p>[UT</a> Dallas Emerging Media and Communication (EMAC) Program - The University of Texas at Dallas - EMAC Program Home Page](<a href=“http://www.tixolabs.com/emac/]UT”>http://www.tixolabs.com/emac/)
[University</a> of Texas at Dallas Art & Technology](<a href=“http://www.utdallas.edu/ah/atec/]University”>http://www.utdallas.edu/ah/atec/)</p>
<p>I suggest that your ds get some real, people-to-people sales experience. Direct sales will teach a lot what works and what not; Be it windows (some at the door now) to knives.</p>
<p>It seems like that there has great program in Graphics Design at RIT.</p>
<p>DePaul University has a grad major - Human-computer interaction which I am not sure it is good or not.</p>
<p>Ummm…this post is almost 4 years old. The op’s S is prob. about to graduate from college by now.</p>
<p>Yeah, kathiep’s son is thriving in the program he chose. ;)</p>
<p>How funny to see this thread pop back up! Yes my son is now a sophomore in College majoring in Computer networking and Information security. I think his roommate is a digital media major though!</p>
<p>So what college does kathiep’s son attend, if I may ask?</p>
<p>Now I’m curious!</p>
<p>[Champlain</a> College | Academic Degree Programs | Colleges in Vermont](<a href=“http://www.champlain.edu/]Champlain”>http://www.champlain.edu/) An excellent small LAC with a decidedly geeky bent for B students in most majors, but better then avg. students in Game Design. And a great school for cyber security majors. [Champlain</a> College Named ?Best Cyber Security Higher Education Program? by SC Magazine](<a href=“http://www.champlain.edu/newsroom/sc-award-2013]Champlain”>Champlain College Named ‘Best Cyber Security Higher Education Program’ by SC Magazine)</p>
<p>Excellent!</p>
<p>I mentioned this college during the initial discussion, so I am giving myself a pat on the back! :D</p>