What are the career outcomes for a dividend…I would find out.
I’d recommend looking at Marist Game Design program. There’s a core (Discrete Math, data structures, 2D/3D drawing, design… ) then students can focus their upper level classes on programming or on the creative side. It’s in the College of CS and Informatics, which makes it easy to combine with one of their minors.
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Thank you @MYOS1634. Very much appreciate the info! I honestly want familiar with the school or program, and will take a look!
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Your excellent point about program accreditation made me wonder if ABET has accreditation for CS in GD. I couldn’t find anything on their website that suggested they do, but that didn’t fully satisfy me, so for the heck of it I contacted the USC Comp Sci department to ask if their CS/GD was accredited. I figured that if there was such an accreditation then they would have it. Someone very nicely responded that ABET does not currently provide an accreditation option for the Computer Science/Games program. So, just to save research time of anyone reading this thread down the road, none of the CS/GD programs at any of these schools we are discussing have accreditation from ABET as of 2021 because ABET does not offer it.
On a similar note, I happened to email our college counselor yesterday and informed her that we have tours scheduled for UW and DigiPen. She responded “Not intending to throw cold water on your plans, but I need to caution you about schools like DigiPen Most four year colleges and universities that you will consider are regionally accredited. DigiPen is not a regionally accredited university. It is a nationally accredited, for-profit technical college. While it appears to be well respected in its niche, it is not the same as earning a degree from a regionally accredited university or college. I am also concerned that the campus experience will not be what you are hoping for, for your daughter. Credits earned at a school like DigiPen may not transfer to another university. So if you start at DigiPen and then decide it is not what you want, you should assume many credits will not transfer to another university.” She also provided a link to information on accreditation that might be useful for future readers who are kind of clueless like me: Article explaining accreditation
She clearly does not approve, and I suspect I’d get the same from any other private college counselor, as they definitely like to brag about the schools where they place their clients’ kids to help attract new clients. DigiPen definitely has, at least, a serious non-game-industry reputation problem. I would guess that a lot of high-achieving students they’d probably like to attract are turned off immediately by the lack of accreditation, for-profit factor, and low college-industry reputation (maybe even a negative reputation, as ucbalumnus suggests). Even if they do have the second-best program for CS/GD (which is hard to tell, but seems possible when looking at my supercoring of rankings), is it so much better that it’s worth the social stigma received by the stduent and parents when they tell people where their kid goes to school? With a 34% acceptance rate, though, maybe they get enough paying students that they just don’t have to care about their reputation outside the industry? I will do more investigating before I entirely write them off, but it’s all very sus.
(Confession/irony: When she was finishing fifth grade, we let our kid choose to bypass our well-rated feeder middle school to attend a neighboring school with worse stats and lower SES because it had a STEM magnet program that seemed like a good fit for her, so technically I’ve already done exactly what I’m suggesting most people wouldn’t do. We definitely got some raised eyebrows from others in our feeder system and there were not many other kids from our elementary school who applied to the program, but it did, in fact, turn out to be a really good fit for her. She had opporutnites to explore STEM through some amazing field trips (we’re near DC, so Smithsonian museums and big companies like Northrup Grumman and Collins Aerospace hosted phenomenal programs), none of which she would have gotten at our feeder. She bonded with the Director of STEM Education and got extra opportunties, like leading a team of kids for the school’s robotics demo at a special STEM festival put on for members of the state legislataure at the state house. Being in that program really cemented her self-identity as a STEM student during a period of time when a lot of girls start dropping STEM classes. Now she’s back at our feeder HS. Locally it has a very good reputation (people buy in our ZIP code almost entirely for the schools) and she kept up academically, but she’s just a small fish in a large, boring pond. That experience (or reading too much Malcolm Gladwell) is probably what keeps me investigating DIT before I write it off, but I am definitely struggling. This isn’t middle school. The stakes are so much higher.)
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ABET does not have a specific CS game design accreditation, but it is at least possible that a college can get general ABET CS accreditation for a CS major program that emphasizes game design.
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That is good to know. I wonder why USC hasn’t done that? Any thoughts? I’d email them to ask, but I’ve already emailed a second question and feel it would be, at the very least, polite to wait for an answer before asking anything else. That second email was a written-at-2:00-a.m. doozy so, really, they may very well never speak to me again…
SO i have a son who is doing the GDD program at RIT. When we were looking at schools , we did look at Drexel (he hated it for some reason), and also RPI (too many not great things going on there). For safety he was accepted to UAH (university Alabama Huntsville). They tend to lean towards using the Game design major for government type jobs. WPI is very project based, and my kid would not fit well , so that is why we eliminated it. RIT just was the fit he was looking for. He is currently in coop and plans to graduate a year early due to lots of AP credit.
The coop program is what really puts RIT above other schools. Also what I like is that they have to take classes in other areas, just not the technical ones. For example, they have an immersion they have to do, and my son did Econ and has turned it into a minor. They also have very interesting classes outside the major . He has taken a lot of classes that have web design and other similar areas, as well as the programming classes. Also pre covid they did weekend game jams. He loved those. I hope they come back this year. The school is very family oriented , which is nice. My D went to a school that just wanted your money and did not care about the family. many kids who attend RIT are Alumni kids. That says something.
The downfalls is that before covid we felt like there was not enough things going on during the weekend. Its definitely a geek school. But thinking about it, kids who are more social do find things to do. Also , not just with RIT but GDD is a niche Major. His current coop is actually programming for a manufacturing company, which he is enjoying, but yes his first love is game creation.
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Thank you for such a great report! The co-op program is definitely a huge plus for us. How much assistance did your son get from RIT in finding his co-op postion?
My daughter loved her tour there last weekend even though there weren’t any kids on campus. She also got to interview a former student (four years out now) and he said he loved the GDD program and would do it over again in a heartbeat. It sounded like the program was a lot of fun and the kids in it really got along well. He did two co-op stints and got hired right out of college by the second one, albeit in a general programming job and not with a game company. He really likes his job, however, and is still working on game projects on the side.
It is good to know that the GDD degree can still get you a job outside of games, but, TBH, this is the second report of an RIT kid not getting a job or co-op in a game company and it’s starting to worry me a bit. What do you think his chances are of getting a job in the games industry after he graduates? Does he know any RIT kids who have gotten jobs with game companies (in any position) after graduation?
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One thing I’ve been doing to get a feel for outcomes, because it seems hard to really dial into, is exploring Alumni through College pages on LinkedIn. It’s been interesting!
He really wants to develop games so he will pursue that route for his next job , but its good to try many things. He does want a smaller company. RIT provides help to get coops but the students need to put in the work.
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Apply to WPI if it is a good fit and you can compare the financial aid packages. There are multiple merit scholarships that they will bundle and they are more generous when recruiting females.
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That’s what our college counselor said, too, about merit aid, so we’ve put it back on the list and will try to get up there sometime for a visit. Thanks for mentioning those excellent points.
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