<p>I've probably posted something about this a year or so ago but now my situation has changed. I'm an Animation and Game Design major at Kent State. I just finished my first semester of my junior year. Basically, there's no more game design courses left and they've left me feeling painfully unprepared for getting out there in the real world. They've mostly drilled us with only 3DS Max, very little Maya, very little UDK and I had to teach myself very little Mudbox. Most of the work here is "teach yourself via google or fail" and I don't know why but anyway, long story short, it's nearly impossible to teach myself this because it's something I learn better with by learning from another. I was able to teach myself Photoshop for my photography (I'm also a fine art and portrait photographer) because, let's face it, Photoshop is much easier to teach yourself compared to Mudbox or UDK. </p>
<p>Basically, I want nothing more than to graduate early like my current plans are. But I just don't feel like it's worth it. Taking more classes that are 100% useless and I will most likely get poor grades in no matter how hard I try. Core, math, programming. I'm on the art side of game design. No interest in programming.</p>
<p>I thought about transferring to SCAD's Interactive Design and Game Development major. Try to get as many art scholarships as I can and even a soccer scholarship. I don't know what that would tack off per semester or year. But pretending it doesn't, it would cost me 7 semesters of my time and money. Semester tuition (assuming I'd find a cheapo apartment and not need their dorming/food there) is about $11,000. So roughly $77,000. Minus whatever scholarships I get. I'm already about $30,000 in the hole with Kent if I don't decide to continue here for the spring semester. (if I do, it's about $40,000). </p>
<p>I am one hundred percent torn. Do (plan A) I stick it out at Kent, try to teach myself as much as possible on top of suffering through courses I'm awful at (I'd be able to graduate next August OR December) OR do I transfer elsewhere (SCAD, plan B) and risk my student loans piling up to nearly $100K or more? I keep telling myself that I'll be able to make it through this or that I'll be able to pay all that back but it just terrifies me. Hardly any program is worth that to me, with all the useless courses they offer. I can try to find another school in my area that does game design for cheaper than SCAD, and less time, so that's plan C. </p>
<p>I could also pick up another drawing class to give me more practice with concept art just to have another skill in the books, since I'm pretty good with storyboarding and planning concepts, but there's no concept art/digital painting courses here so no matter where I choose, I feel like I'm wasting either my time or my money. </p>
<p>What would you do in this situation? If you barely had money and felt as unprepared as I do? I'm disciplined enough to do well in advanced 3D modeling courses if I had a little help, but I just don't have the heart to pay for it or even tell my parents about how I feel about all this. Feel free to have at it, I could use all the advice I could get right now because I have to make a decision in less than a month. :( Past transfer thinking has been purely up in the air but now the actual choices have never felt more real and in my face and I don't know what to do. :|</p>