Is it a good idea to get a MA in Graphic Design with a BS in Civil Engineering?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>I'm currently a Computer Science major, but I'm rethinking this because it feels like I'm loathing CSC more and more with each passing day, and I don't think I can see myself enjoying a career in this field.</p>

<p>I've done some research and might be changing my major to Civil Engineering. I know CVE involves a lot more study, but it could be worth it when I'm not regretting my career choices in the future.</p>

<p>Regardless of what my Bachelor's is for, I've always been planning on getting a Master's in Graphic Design or -maybe- Architecture (and this is a huge maybe).
Is this a good idea? Will it be hard to find a good career with a BS in CVE and a MA in Graphic Design? I ask because it feels like the two fields are not very related.
I'm interested in careers related to graphic design, digital media/game design, architecture, and physics/engineering.</p>

2

<p>Bump and grind</p>

3

<p>Have you thought about an Industrial Design degree?</p>

<p>I would recommend against getting a (costly) degree that you won’t use. If you are interested in Graphic Design, you could probably take a couple of community college classes or study on your own. </p>

4

<p>The reason I was thinking of doing engineering with graphic design was to make myself more marketable; a multifaceted and versatile career prospect. I want to be the person who can design something in terms of how it looks and feels (artistic side), yet also be able to understand how it works and how to make it possible (math and science side).
I WOULD just pursue a bachelor’s in Graphic Design, problem is my current university (URI) does not offer that major.</p>

5

<p>Is think engineering or CS would provide more career options. Take as many graphics & design courses as you can fit in your schedule. S didn’t have much space in his when he took his courses for EE but did take a few geology courses. He was hired as a project manager and now is also doing some robotics. </p>

6

<p>The problem is that on the sorts of projects that concern civil engineers and the firms that hire them, there is no need for a graphic designer. The aesthetics are handled by architects. I guess if the company needs a new logo designed they would go for a graphic designer, but they aren’t going to want to draw that from their engineering pool.</p>

<p>Basically, this path makes you no more marketable. It may (probably will) make you less marketable for engineering jobs specifically. Pick one and run with it. Be the best civil engineer or graphic artist you can be.</p>

7

<p>After having a few intense moments of self-reflection, I came up with these options:</p>

<p>A. Just stick it out and continue with CompSci in pursuit of a BA
This feels out of the question right now. It’s not that I find CompSci really difficult, I just find it really aggravating. I die a little inside each time I have to do a lab or an assignment, not to mention that I have no interest in the majority of careers associated with CompSci.</p>

<p>B. Transfer to another school that offers degrees in Graphic Design
This is ideal, problem is I’m not sure if I can actually afford to transfer to a school with a graphic design program (I’m looking at maybe Temple) unless I take out some huge loans. I kinda don’t wanna leave URI either, I like it here.</p>

<p>C. Major in Film Media
This sounds nice, but is it too far off from Graphic Design? So many questions.</p>

<p>D. Double major with a BA in Art and a BS Mathematics
You can see that I’m REALLY reaching now, as I’m not even sure if a Math degree will be useful for the field I’m heading towards. You might be wondering why I don’t just do the Art major, it’s just that I don’t want to be the Art grad who has trouble looking for work.</p>

<p>E. Reconsider my career choices and just settle for an Engineering degree
This is pretty much the white flag of surrender for me. I’m very good at math and physics and I do find it interesting, but graphic design will always be my passion.</p>

<p>Anymore insight will be appreciated.</p>

8

<p>Bumpitty bump</p>

9

<p>Reach out to campus resources (adviser, career center) to get their input. You have diverse interests, and they may have some good insights. </p>

10

<p>Let me try to help. Just for background, I have undergrad degrees in Civil Engineering and Comp Sci, and grad degrees in Comp Sci and Human Factors Engineering… I make a living designing consumer electronic product user interfaces. I have a daughter who’s a senior in Architecture, plus I’m an avid gamer.</p>

<p>So… Civil Engineering is not much into buildings necessarily. It could be sewers. Roads. Materials. Structures. In my birth country Civies did some design work (I had a few studios) and the specialization came during grad school. Here you may do it as undergrad or grad or both. But for design related stuff, there’s Architectural Engineering.</p>

<p>For video game buildings and the like, there’s a couple of architecture schools that seem to send lots of architects to video game type work. SciArc in LA was mentioned by my daughter. A few of the other more ‘modern’ architecture schools also (you know who you are :)).</p>

<p>If you hate coding Comp Sci is not for you. Coding should be like cold pizza after waking up from an all night of gaming and a couple hours sleep. It should be nirvana. Cloud 9.</p>

<p>Graphic Design (and Architecture, and Industrial Design) are best left to those who are talented. My daughter and I use a lot of the same tools - but she’s got talent. Lots. So if you don’t have years of art training in high school you’ll be competing against students like her. People who don’t have a problem sleeping once in 3 days. I can design pretty well but when it comes to the artistic part she’s lightyears ahead of me. That’s where the years of art training (that I gladly paid for) come in handy. To make it as a stand-alone graphics designer you need to be supremely talented. I have a few Industrial Designers in my team, they’re amazing. But they can’t do what I do and vice versa.</p>

<p>Game design… Not sure I’d go there. I see a big shift into two camps, the super games on consoles (Destiny, Titanfall, Halo…) and the phone/tablet games. I’m not sure there are enough jobs for the first group. </p>

<p>So…</p>

<p>If you like graphic design and still want to stick with what you do now, look into URI’s (as an example) program here in Cognitive / Information Sciences (<a href=“http://www.cs.uri.edu/academics/undergraduate-studies/proposed-undergraduate-tracks-in-computer-science/#CognitiveInfoSci”>http://www.cs.uri.edu/academics/undergraduate-studies/proposed-undergraduate-tracks-in-computer-science/#CognitiveInfoSci&lt;/a&gt;)</p>

<p>and add graphics as a minor, and take extra courses. The end result is to understand both the cognitive psych / design / computer programming parts of designing a user interface for a complex product. It is very entertaining (I’m 55 years old and work on new technologies every year), keeps you on your toes, and with a graduate degree you can specialize more into UX / UI, graphics, and so on.</p>

11

<p>@turbo93, First off, thank you very much for the words of wisdom. I really need it in my little identity crisis.</p>

<p>Regarding URI’s program in Cognitive and Information Sciences / Interactive and Collaborative Gaming, I’ve already looked into these courses, but my main issue with the course plan is I would still have to continue as a CompSci major and therefore have to deal with a large amount of coding and programming. I realize now that wrestling with code makes me aggravated, miserable, and depressed. I will never forgive myself if I continued onto a career in this field.</p>

<p>Also, what’s your opinion of a major in Film Media? Are you or your daughter familiar with the type of program? I have thought of pursuing this major while also taking plenty of the Digital Art/Design, Computer Graphics, and Cognitive Psych courses offered at URI.
Do you think this would help me as a Graphic Designer? I would say that I have the knack and talent for Graphic Design, but I still have much to improve on.</p>

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<p>I wasn’t sure if transferring is an option money wise. There are programs that are offered out of psychology department or industrial engineering that are quite good and should not be too expensive. I know University of Dayton and Wright State U (also in Dayton, coincidence? wonder why) have good programs, of course you have the perennial top schools (U of M, GA Tech, Purdue). I went to Purdue for graduate school, and have seen their undergrad courses as well. Very impressive. I’ve also worked with a kid from GA Tech (intern) who was beyond good. U of M is pretty good (like 1? 2?) also but very expensive. As an undergrad you can explore a double major to cover design as well as the science of human factors part or you can do it as a grad degree.</p>

<p><a href=“Human Factors Degree Programs | Psychology Degree Guide”>http://psychologydegreeguide.org/specialty/human-factors/&lt;/a&gt; and <a href=“https://www.hfes.org/web/Students/undergradprograms.html”>https://www.hfes.org/web/Students/undergradprograms.html&lt;/a&gt; have a list of some programs, there are others, too. You will be able to combine (some) programming, especially in strange languages or environments (strange as in specialized) like Altia, a good amount of math, design, writing, building prototypes… It is an incredibly fun profession. </p>

<p>My work for example involves anything from storyboards to sketches to prototypes to production code. Coding is usually in languages like Javascript or Java, some C/C++, PHP, and everything in between but it;s a small percentage of what I do. Lots of time on Photoshop, Altia for modeling, more time in the lab testing, and so on. You won’t expect a college to teach all that but a fair number should be mastered ahead of time. Nowdays you can do miracles with Javascript/HTML5/CSS that took an army of coders to do just five years ago and runs everywhere in a browser. </p>

<p>Film media… Not a fan. One friend’s daughter spent a BIG house’s worth of tuition in that famous design school across the street from you and has worked on and off in the last couple years, hoping for the best. </p>

<p>Graphics… Take a look at ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ and see how your own skills match up with the skills of kids who get into such programs (for graphics design). A friend of my daughter’s got into the graphics program at the same famous design school across the street from you. I have seen his work at the high school art shows and local art shows and as far as I can tell the kid deserves his own wing at the National Gallery. He’s THAT good. And he barely got in.</p>

<p>The creative arts in general (and I count computer programming in there too) have a spectacular variety of skill. I’m not the best coder. I have kids half my age that can code circles around me. I’m not the best designer either. But the combination of skills I have is incredibly hard to find. There isn’t a week that I don’t get requests for interviews from a lot of the big name companies people fawn about. And I’m well past my expiration date (55).</p>

<p>But, in all retrospect, I can do so many different things that the typical single-focused person can’t do. That’s why my suggestion would be that to learn the stuff well you need to be proficient in the 3 areas - some coding, some design, some analysts. To me this suggests a couple of degrees’ worth. But then you get to spend the rest of your life designing cool stuff and weeping when you read reviews of your stuff on Amazon or other review sites :). As my job involves upfront design and face to face with clients or consumer groups etc it’s also a relatively safer position than just coding that can be offshored in a hurry.</p>

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<p>As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of my goals was to be multifaceted like you are, to be versatile with a variety of skills so that I can be more marketable. I wish that URI had a little more to offer. My primary reason for attending was the proximity to home and the cheaper price compared to other schools. My family is not the most fortunate, which means I would have to land some crazy scholarships and take out loans if I wanted to transfer. </p>

<p>Coincidentally, as you probably have guessed, as a high school senior I applied to “that famous design school across the street”. And as you have also probably guessed, the reason I did not attend was the LUDICROUS cost of attendance and RISD’s highly competitive applicant pool. However, compared to back then, I am light years better now. </p>

<p>I mentioned Film Media because I honestly don’t know what else I should do if I want the skills in art, design, and technology. Maybe major in Film Media with a Minor in CompSci and/or Psych to have the background knowledge? I guess the real question is: What options here at URI do I have if want to be a Graphic Designer? This may not be a fair question to ask you if you’re not very familiar with URI, although trust that I have already made an appointment with an academic advisor to get some more answers.</p>

14

<p>I would stick it out at URI CS with the Cognitive and Information Sciences / Interactive and Collaborative Gaming and take more design classes to help you build up a portfolio. Then grad school in UX / Interaction Design / Human Factors where they will cover the psych side a bit more. If the plan does not work out at least you have a more useful degree (CS). Film Media is great if you go to one of a half dozen schools but it won’t help much with a stable 9-5 job down the road. Not when they can hire someone with a more ‘useful’ sounding degree (which is wrong of course but that’s reality). </p>

<p>RISD is an awesome school, don’t get me wrong, but the crazy cost of attendance and less than practical curriculum for the safety side of things should be considered.</p>

15

<p>@turbo93, In case you’re wondering what became of my little identity crisis/fork-in-the-road, I’ve decided to persevere and see it through to the end with CS.</p>

<p>I now realize that CS is not something you can just pick up a book and study then POOF! everything clicks. You have to practice with it hands-on. I’ve come to the conclusion that a huge reason for the misery and depression that CS causes me is my lack of familiarity with it. Too many times in the reckless CS class that I’m currently taking have I been expected do things that I was never shown nor taught how to do. I would go through notes forwards and backwards and still not know what the heck I was doing when I sat down to write some code, yet those who have a stronger background in CS figured things out so easily. So hopefully I won’t hate it so much once I do everything in my power to improve my understanding, whether it be doing Khan Academy, going to office hours for every single assignment, or making friends with a code wizard. </p>

<p>Originally, I was on track for a BS in CS, but I’ve since changed that to a BA. This allows me to do two things:

  1. Avoid being required to take too many CS courses that do not interest me whatsoever.
  2. Have more freedom in my general electives so that I can take more Art classes. I’ll probably use all that Art credit to get a Minor in Art, just as a little extra somethin’ somethin’. Then I can go on to do Graphic Design in grad school.</p>

<p>Thanks again for your professional and expert advice. I’m lucky that you happen to come across my question, 'cause you’re just the kind of person I needed to gain some knowledge from!</p>

16

<p>Glad to be of help. It sounds like you’ve got a good plan!</p>