Schools with Game Design Major and good Merit Aid for National Merit Semi-Finalist/Finalist

College Search & Selection
1

Our son is a NMSF and we expect he’ll make NMF. He’s interested in Game Design, and we’ve visited both Champlain College and DigiPen. He felt like DigiPen might be too much of a technical school (which actually surprised us) and also would have liked more diversity and on-campus housing. He loved Champlain, however, and especially liked the “upside down” curriculum. However, Champlain doesn’t have a reputation for giving great merit aid.

We have another kid in college and are still paying for my PhD, and although our income is high I’ve only been out of graduate school for six years, so we aren’t in a position to pay full tuition of 50k anywhere, especially when there are a number of solid schools where he can get great merit aid, especially given his status as a NMSF/NMF.

I would also prefer that he go to a school where he graduates with a BS in CS but with a major in game design. I’d feel more comfortable with him having more options. I know there are a number of great schools in CA for game design but don’t expect much merit aid there.

He would prefer at least a college town to urban environment and generally would NOT prefer Alabama or Florida (we’ve lived in Atlanta and he’s okay with it) though for enough money and the right school I think he’d consider any geographic location.

Any thoughts of the list below? Right now Champlain is his first choice, but we haven’t visited many of these schools. He would also prefer a project based and/or coop environment. His parents, of course, care about his ability to get a job afterwards, hence my preference that he graduate with a BS in CS.

Carnegie Mellon
Champlain College
DePaul
DigiPenRingling
Drexel --no longer seems to give money for NMF
Georgia Tech
Michigan State (mom is alum for undergrad, so good merit options)
Northeastern
RIT
SCAD
University of Central Florida
UCLA
USC
University of CA, Santa Cruz
UT, Austin
University of Utah (Salt Lake) Good merit aid/GPA & Test Scores/Apply by December 1
WPI

2

You’re right about merit being tough in CA. USC will give 1/2 tuition for NMF, if accepted, but don’t expect anything from the UCs and OOS tuition is no bargain.

Don’t know much about game design specifically, but Univ. of Santa Clara is know for its CS, I believe, and is often a feeder for the Silicon Valley companies. It has CS/Eng programs as well as Web Design/Eng programs and does give merit.

3

USC not only gives 1/2 tuition cut for NMF ( as mentioned by the above poster), but is the best in the Game in the nation (rank#1). He may even get more cut on tuition if has the stats.

4

Why not just a regular CS major, if the department otherwise has sufficient offerings, including the usually popular electives in graphics and artificial intelligence? Non-CS electives in physics, creative writing, and art/animation can also help.

Game companies hires CS graduates just as easily as their hire game design graduates (take a look at the job openings listed on game company web sites), but having a game design major may cause other companies hiring CS graduates to question whether one would only stick around until a game job comes up.

DigiPen does not have regional accreditation.

5

DigiPen is a fantastic school for this industry, though. This industry moves so fast, don’t take advice from old fogeys or posts from 5 or 10 years ago.

My vote is for Univ. of Utah. It’s big enough that there is plenty else there should he change his mind.

FWIW, Champlain gave my son a decent package that met full need. It included 20K in Parent’s Plus loans but also a huge grant. He didn’t go there but I can see what you like about it. Adorable school.

Your son might like WPI. It’s small and cute like Champlain. Although Worcester is not as sweet as Burlington, there are 5 or 6 other colleges there. He will likely get merit aid there as well.

6

WPI is a much better school academically than Champlain. I wouldn’t suggest the IMGD art program at WPI though. I second Utah, but I’m not sure that it’s good from the artistic side.

7

I just looked at some game company job ads. When an education requirement or expectation was specified for a software developer, it was for computer science, not game design.

A computer science degree, with appropriately chosen electives, should be just as marketable to game employers as a game design degree. But a computer science degree will be more marketable than a game design degree to other employers if one chooses to leave the game industry or does not find a job there.

8

Oh, agreed in general. But a huge part of this industry is in the indie or startup category and most new graduates will not start at one of those well-known companies you probably looked at.

It isn’t a traditional industry with a traditional trajectory.

Most important of all is your portfolio. Wherever you can build a stellar portfolio is where you should be. It doesn’t matter if you have a degree at all to be honest. You need a stellar portfolio to be employable in this field. You also need to be extremely flexible and psychologically able to job hop. Industry connections also help.

Think of it like the film industry, not like IBM.

9

FYI, Michigan State is a full ride for NMFs. It’s not immediately apparent because they stack two different scholarships to do it.

10

^^really? Is that assured??

@parnassus Sounds like you wouldn’t qualify for aid. How much will you pay per year? 1/2 tuition at USC would leave you with an annual bill of about $40k per year.

11

I totally agree with @ucbalumnus - a traditional CS program with internship, co-op, electives, special projects will provide a fuller education - with equal opportunity to get into game design. Game design/programming - one needs the fuller scope of knowledge for career. Certainly if a student is adept at game design/programming and is so creative that he/she can do it w/o a degree - but non-degree technical people often will not earn what they may have the potential to earn. A broader CS degree helps with the bumpy road employment can have - one wants to be able to have the skills/knowledge/ability to have a full career.

12

Game design minor is the way to go

13

Film majors don’t specialize in producing one type of genre. We learn to use the tools and understand the language so we can apply it to a broad range of products. I think someone who wants to make games should approach it the same way. Learn as much as you can about the industry by taking CS, and add electives such as those mentioned by @ucbalumnus that will aid in game design.

14

UT- Dallas would be a full ride for National Merit. In addition to a great CS program they have an Arts and Technology program which might offer courses that would interest someone into game design.

UT-Austin is very difficult to get into from out of state and is not known for merit aid even for in state kids.

15

I would be very careful about picking a school or major based on a very risky/limited career goal based on the desires of an 18 year old.

there are thousands and thousands of gamers, including many smart ones, who want to major in Game Design. I would imagine that success in that area is like wanting to become an performance artist…many want it, few make it. Talent doesn’t always match desire, and probably there is some luck involved as well.

A CS degree with maybe some sort of Graphics Design minor would provide the foundation, but also allow for the student to seek employment if Game Design does not end up paying the bills.

1 Like
16

I work in the game development/design industry at a major company with tons and tons of developers and designers (Xbox). A degree in computer science is absolutely fine and honestly what the vast majority of of newbie developers coming in have - that or an engineering degree. Honestly, I would advocate for that over a more specialized degree because of the reasons everyone else said:

-Game design is very, very difficult to break into. Many of our developers started as developers in another field entirely (not even at a small game startup - I’m talking about started out developing office productivity software or something) and then made the jump into games. So having a more generalized degree will allow you to get employment somewhere else and then transition into games later.

-On the other end, you may decide that you want to transition OUT of games someday. It happens all the time! People get tired of working in games (it’s exhausting), or they want to expand their horizons and try something new. People hop back and forth. So that gives you some flexibility to move somewhere else.

Not to mention that looking specifically for a game design major or minor will limit your options to schools with that.

Question, though: does your son want to be a developer (so writing the code) or a designer (hard to explain and different at many studios, but at mine mostly means people who direct the overarching design of the game) or an artist (draws the art)? Because he’s got SCAD on the list, and aside from the fact that he just shouldn’t have a pricey art school on the list if your family can’t afford to pay $50K a year, SCAD’s program is focused on the art and design of the game and NOT programming. I don’t even know how many computer programming classes they have there. If he is undecided about which arena to enter, know that there are far more jobs in development (coding) than there are in the other two areas, and it’s harder to break into the last two, especially art.

DigiPen is a good school and respected enough round these parts for game designers, but honestly, where I work most of the developers come from more traditional schools/backgrounds.

I wouldn’t do the pricey art colleges like SCAD.

Carnegie Mellon, RIT, DePaul, Northeastern, USC, WPI - those are great private schools on the list. Many of the publics would be great too - LA has a lot of big and small gaming studios and companies for internships, so UCLA would be good, and UT-Austin, Michigan State, Georgia Tech (we have so many GT grads here! So many!), Utah and Michigan State are just good schools overall. (I would add UW-Seattle to that list, although you probably won’t get much aid there either.) If he’s got CMU and GT level stats he also might want to consider MIT and the Media Lab, and Stanford.

Remember, also, that there are lots of places where the students might be programming games together even if there’s no game design major/minor. There simply might be an artistic interest in it.

Champlain’s curriculum looks cool and the study abroad in Montreal is a nice opportunity (there are a lot of game studios there, including Ubisoft). I’d ask, though, where their graduates get employment. Their list of places where students have interned recently only include four studios, and while one of them is Ubisoft, I would expect a game design program that brags about how nationally recognized they are to have more.

17

Oh, and one other thing. While it is true, in theory, that you can work as a game developer/designer/artist without a bachelor’s degree if your portfolio is amazing, in practice the vast majority of people in those roles have bachelor’s degrees.

18

I think you should be very wary of for-profit colleges like DigiPen. Agree that Michigan State gives great merit aid, and it’s a really nice place and community!!

19

Thanks all for the advice.

@ Julliet

We actually do have University of Washington on the list but somehow I neglected to list it. It’s actually my top choice, and they give full tuition for NMFs! He really likes Seattle as well. They don’t have a huge history of start ups, but I think that’s changing. DH worries that Seattle is too far away, and I don’t know that he can minor in Game Design, but I know they do offer classes in game design.

DS is currently in an STEM magnet for high school. He’s considered Olin as well, and really likes their project-based approach and the school in general. Up until about a year ago he thought he’d go into engineering.

I think realistically he is most interested in being a designer. He likes programming and art, but because he went to a specialized high school he hasn’t been able to take many art classes, and their art program isn’t strong. He has done summer programs at Interlochen, but I don’t think it’s enough. That’s also even riskier than game design. And I agree regarding schools like SCAD. I think it should come off the list.

We don’t have MIT or RPI on the list because he has anxiety and ADHD–inattentive type. We can’t afford Stanford or out-of-state tuition at CA publics. We won’t qualify for financial need.

20

Unfortunately, WPI used to give very generous merit aid to NMFs but just recently dropped out of the program. I don’t know if they’ll offer enough to make it viable or not, but it sounds like a very good fit. He’s very much a kid who is strong across the board, and will be bored if his core classes are too low-level.