As May 1st quickly approaches, I’m having trouble deciding between two schools: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Cal State Long Beach. I’m planning on studying animation at both schools with the hopes of one day landing a job at a large animation company. However, upon searching for information regarding either of the programs, I was unable to find anything that directly pertains to my situation.
As for a little about myself, I am currently a high school student residing in California, thus, CSULB would be significantly cheaper to attend. My stats, for those that are interested, are as follows: 4.3 unweighted GPA, 4.0 weighted GPA, 1420/1600 SAT, 30 ACT, and a total of 9 AP courses throughout my high school career.
Ultimately, I am searching for a school that would best prepare me for work in my desired field, whether that be through a rigorous program or strong connections. For those who have attended or are attending RPI, how is the EMAC (or Electronic Media, Arts, and Communication) major at the school and what are some possible opportunities that would be available to me. Would having a BS rather than a BA or BFA help me in the long run in terms of job opportunities. For those at CSULB, how does the Illustration/Animation major compare to other art focused institutes (I understand that SJSU is the strongest school in the CSU system for animation).
@eyemgh It would cost about 23k more a year to attend RPI. However, my family is willing to invest the additional money if RPI’s program will truly grant me with the means to succeed.
RPI is a great school but if you are from CA and have the option of Long Beach, I would strongly urge you to consider the weather. I live very near RPI and our winters are brutal. Fall is beautiful but by November 1 it is cloudy, the trees are bare, it starts to get cold and sunny days are few and far between. Some winters we are hit hard with snow, some winters not as much but its always cold, dark and we have what I call the “Hudson Valley Cloud Cover.” Spring is slow and late to appear. Currently we still have no leaves on the trees and it is slowly warming up. 60F is warm for NY. By the time it gets beautiful again, the semester is over. Maybe you are fine with upstate NY weather or maybe you are looking to experience it but for me, it would be CA.
I can’t make a comparison with CSULB as I’m not at all familiar with it, but I can tell you that RPI has a very strong reputation in game design/animation. (That’s the GSAS program, not EMAC, but it does have an Arts/Animation concentration http://www.hass.rpi.edu/index.php?siteid=17&pageid=102.) So if you’re leaning towards game design/animation, I’d say RPI is probably worth the extra cost and would provide good job opportunities. As far a traditional illustration/animation, I don’t know, but RPI is known for its advances in electronic media and experimental digital media/art. So if that’s of particular interest to you, it could be a good choice.
You should look at job placement from both. And yes, the weather in Troy is COLD!
As for “is it worth it.”, you can quantify it. That money has opportunity cost. What they are doing in essence is gifting you the opportunity. They’s say you choose to stay in CA, but the gift you the difference anyway, with one stipulation, you can’t touch it until age 65. If you earned 6% over the life of the investment! you’d have well over $1M. That’s the true cost of choosing RPI. Will you make that much more probably not. Is it a reason not to go to RPI? No. It’s an important exercise in determining what that differential in money is worth in strict dollars and cents.
With that said, my son chose Cal Poly over Oregon State knowing full well that it was going to be roughly $50k more and we fully supported his choice, even after doing the math above. As I said, it’s a gift. It’s not just a financial calculation. IF you were going to have to take the $100k difference in debt, that’s a much different story. I would not recommend that.
@empireapple Weather is not that much of an issue. I have family on the east coast and we frequently visit them during the coldest months of the year and I haven’t had much of a problem dealing with the cold. Also, as a figure skater of 11 years, I’m quite used to being in the cold year round.
In that case, the math is even simpler. Your monthly loan payment will be $921 per month for 10 years for the difference to go to RPI. It may not seem like much, but if you stay in CA and force yourself to make that payment instead to an investment for the next ten years and then sit on it, not adding any more money until age 67, you’ll have $1,100,000. That’s how much money MORE you will have to make if you choose RPI just to break even. So, it’s not just as simple as “yea, I think it’s worth it” as has been suggested. You can KNOW if it’s a wide investment or not.
If your family has to take loans to send you to RPI, take CSU LB. Once there, it’ll be up to you to show your talent and resourcefulness, but the program is good (and well-located.)
If your family can afford RPI without loans (beside the federal student loan of 5.5K you’d take), then RPI because it’s got a terrific reputation in the industry. But it’s not worth parental loans when you’ve got CSULB as a CA student.
If you want to continue figure skating there are many rinks in the area and a couple of great figure skating clubs. You could probably even teach. One club practices right at RPI. The RPI hockey games are the best - the student fans have a blast.