<p>I liked neu’s campus. Obviously in Boston, but didn’t feel like a city campus. Compared to Drexel where you’re crossing busy city streets to get to class. Champlain is probably #2 on our list. Love Burlington, although I will say I take it with a grain of salt their “upside down curriculum”. It’s not a differentiator as most schools have some element of actual game design and development from the get-go. We considered RPI but didn’t apply. NEU was my sons stretch school and RPI seemed like the same level, plus it was in Troy- which my son wasn’t impressed with as a city. Believe it was expensive too. We’re waiting on responses from RIT, NEU and Champlain and then we’re going to decide.</p>
<p>Boston is a lot better than Philly (I lived in central Philadelphia for nearly 20 years). My son’s cousins are at school in Boston and it’s an easy train ride for us. I think we will give NEU a good look and probably skip RPI.</p>
<p>Different majors, my son is CS, but I liked RIT way more than I expected. I had heard negatives about the campus, but I liked it. I probably liked the “feel” of WPI the best, but as you know from another thread, I’m struggling with the finances. I’m a little unsure about the 5 years for coop and I don’t like the distance, but I never feel that I wish he didn’t go here.</p>
<p>Here’s his others…</p>
<p>Drexel - Never visited.
Marist - Offers a few full-ride CS scholarships. Good relationship with IBM.<br>
NYU Poly - Another school I liked a lot more than I thought I would.<br>
RIT - Mentioned above.
RPI - This was the first school I fell in love with. Since, others have grown on me.<br>
SUNY Binghamton - Great school. Reasonable in-state tuition - Accepted EA
SUNY Stony Brook - Great CS program. Reasonable in-state tuition. Mostly commuter, so I didn’t love it.
UVM - Never visited. They solicited my son. Offered decent merit. Heard some good things. - Accepted EA
WPI - Mentioned above - Accepted</p>
<p>Also… visited Northeastern and Lehigh but didn’t apply.</p>
<p>^ WPI’s IMGD degree is 4 years according to the college’s website. In a 5th year is an optional masters degree.</p>
<p>@ecnadad- what are you unsure about regarding the 5 years for coop at RIT?</p>
<p>For those with juniors, RIT has a really terrific summer overnight program for students, with excellent activities for parents too. It’s not very expensive either–it was $145 for the student, including a night in the dorm and all meals. The kids did 2 or 3 little classes with real professors, had all kinds of activities, etc., etc. The parents’ program was optional but offered real opportunities to talk to professors in their kids’ areas of interest.</p>
<p>[RIT</a> College & Careers](<a href=“http://www.rit.edu/emcs/admissions/careers/]RIT”>http://www.rit.edu/emcs/admissions/careers/)</p>
<p>oldmom - YES College & Careers</p>
<p>I really enjoyed RIT’s College & Careers with my son last summer. I thought it was well put together - liked the fact the prospective applicants attended the different classes as it allowed my son to see there was more out there that he truly liked. Also thought the parent piece was well presented. Met some really professional staff from RIT and caring parents as well.</p>
<p>I second College and Careers. It influenced my D to apply Early Decision. Also introduced her to a major she wouldn’t have thought about. GO!</p>
<p>student4ever:)… not exactly sure… just thought of college as 4 years. It’s just something I wonder about. I know it’s a terrible answer!</p>
<p>I had hoped my son would have gone to College & Careers, but we didn’t. We did make it for a visit and I think it was the best of any school we attended. Very organized, very focused on the student and their specific interests. It was impressive.</p>
<p>I always thought of college as 4 years also, but being it is a paid co-op experience and no tuition I thought of it more as a career development. And, since the co-op is built within the college years, it also gives them a chance to experience different areas of interest within their major. </p>
<p>My only concern with the co-op is there are enough opportunities available because I had read somewhere that students were having some difficulty getting the co-op.</p>
<p>Someone upthread mentioned a motto of being easy to get in, but hard to stay in. Not our experience. Son is getting better grades at RIT than HS because he likes what he is studying. (Game design major) He also found a great group of kids like him there.</p>
<p>His friends who were on the ball and went to the Oct job fair did well getting summer co-ops. My S is still interviewing but we have hopes as he is being flown to a company for an interview next week.</p>
<p>We have known kids who have graduated in 3.5 years. My S went in with 5 AP credits (RIT is very generous with these, giving credit for 3’s in some cases) and could graduate in December if he gets his co-ops in.</p>
<p>Mamabear how is your son doing with the RIT core (is there one)? This is my son’s biggest issue. He wants to study what he wants to study. We are looking for a strong math and game programming curriculum that is light on humanities requirements.</p>
<p>mamabear - good luck to your son on his interview. Is the interview for a job in the Gaming field? </p>
<p>Is it 5 AP credits or 5 AP classes? And, are these credits good towards any requirements or towards electives?</p>
<p>Snowdog, RIT’s “core” is called “perspectives”. Each student is also required to complete an “immersion” of three related classes in a liberal arts field, which with two additional classes turns into a minor. This may be different from mamabear’s experience – I think the requirements were revised with the changeover to semesters this year. My D is a freshman, and they were very generous with her dual enrollment classes from HS, fulfilling some perspectives and many free electives. She had 26 hours approved from dual enrollment. </p>
<p>The outline for the perspectives and immersions is here <a href=“http://www.rit.edu/cla/documents/General%20Education%20Semester%20guide.pdf[/url]”>http://www.rit.edu/cla/documents/General%20Education%20Semester%20guide.pdf</a></p>
<p>^ Super helpful mamaduck, thanks. This actually looks a lot like USC’s core.</p>
<p>RIT Student here (CE '14) (almost done!), just wanted to chime in on a few things in this thread.</p>
<p>The game design major is an up and coming department and strikes me as an interesting field, but I would implore anyone entering it to be aware of the competitiveness of the job market and the need to develop a broad set of skills. I wouldn’t spend the kind of money RIT is asking for on an education that is solely applicable to making games. Encourage your kids to possibly minor in something, or maybe take a co-op that isn’t directly in the field to broaden experience. I’m not being a downer on the major, just pointing out that it (like many other majors at RIT) is quite specific and students need to be aware of that in how they approach their studies and any opportunities they might get to try something that broadens their knowledge.</p>
<p>In terms of the campus, the weather is NOT worse than Chicago! Rochester happens to sit directly west of Niagara falls, meaning there is no bodies of water directly to the west which (along with water to our north) actually makes the weather here slightly milder than places like Buffalo or even points south like the Finger Lakes. It may be a bit colder than Chicago, but not by much. The one problem is it is always grey, but you get used to it.</p>
<p>I noticed food choice as a Con in OP’s post, but we actually have a decent food system here. There are over a dozen places to eat on campus, and you can use 5 of your Gracie’s meals per week as credit at the other places, along with any debit you get. As soon as students gain 2nd year status (a certain amount of credit) they usually move to all debit to get away from Gracie’s.</p>
<p>The reputation RIT has for being tough may start to soften with the move to semesters. To those of us that lived and survived on quarters, semesters make classes harder to focus on (you’re taking more classes with fewer hours per week) and make them drag on for what seems like forever. To new students who never experienced quarters, it will probably feel like business as usual. Everyone who got used to quarters hates this transition, but it might be for the better once us complainers are flushed out.</p>
<p>I’ll try to watch this forum if anyone else is interested in a student’s perspective on any questions, but as I’m sure you’re aware I’ve only got one day of freedom left and then it’s back to the grind :)</p>
<p>Thank you for your perspective. As someone who grew up in western New York, currently lives in Chicago and has family living in the Rochester area I am going to have to disagree with you on RITs weather. The amount of snow, fierceness of the wind chill and the number of grey/rainy/snowy days is certainly worse. But it is my son who would go there, not me, and he says it is not a big issue. We will see…</p>
<p>I would still recommend people to take a co-op in game design if that is their major especially as it may help strengthen their portfolio which is key for this industry. Having said that, my preference is for my son to get a CS degree with a minor in Game Design or even a dual CS/GD degree (RPI offers this with 4 more CS classes).</p>
<p>I am curious as to your opinion of the GD faculty as that is one of my major issues. What have you heard about them?</p>
<p>I had heard the same thing about Gracie’s; there is a way to manage the “food issue” by choosing a meal plan that gives more flexibility.</p>
<p>I continue to waffle especially now that WPI stepped up with a better than expected FA package.</p>
<p>My son is also a freshman, in SE. Like Mamaduck, he was able to transfer in a lot of classes from high school. This reduced his perspectives and the number of electives he had to take in addition to one of the English classes. What was even more important to him was that after last semester, he had enough credits to qualify as a 2nd year student meaning he could transfer to all debit and eat wherever he wished without having to eat a certain number to meals in Gracies.</p>
<p>We also considered WPI and I liked the smaller feel while my son did not. We also both liked the heavier creative influence at RIT and wider choices for food options.</p>
<p>Haha maybe I have gotten used to the weather. I’ve been here too long. I always hear terrible things about wind in Chicago, plus this polar vortex thing has made it a lot colder the past few weeks over there.</p>
<p>I completely agree with doing a CS degree with a GD minor. My personal opinion is that game design is too specialized to even be an undergraduate degree. If your son is considering the possibility of a graduate education, a CS undergrad with a GD grad is another good option. </p>
<p>I hear from a lot of people that the biggest thing that doing a straight GD program adds compared to CS is the art-focused classes. A lot of early GD kids either found they liked the artistic part and switched to a New Media art major, or found they liked the coding and switched into CS or SE. It really is a tough choice - but on the bright side I think GCCIS as a whole is VERY accustomed to people switching majors, because the nuances between them become more apparent once you get here. The downside is a super-specific major like GD gives you less credits to transfer elsewhere after a year.</p>
<p>As far as the GD faculty, I don’t know all that much about them specifically. I can tell you that all the other kids in GCCIS are jealous of the GD kids though. The college has been funneling money and resources into that program, since it represents a fledgling major that we’re on the leading edge of. The department has gotten a ton of attention after that #4 ranking in Princeton Review. Of course, we all know money isn’t directly correlated with a good education.</p>
<p>I think a GD student can be successful if they are active in creating outside of class - most of the biggest game companies like to see a pet project on resumes. I would just tell your son to keep his eyes open in his first year and make sure he likes where he is and what he’s doing.</p>
<p>I don’t know if you’ve come across this, but the department has a public FAQ forum - <a href=“http://igm.rit.edu/forum/50”>http://igm.rit.edu/forum/50</a></p>
<p>I really appreciate your perspective. Actually Chicago isn’t as windy as you would think. Some people think it got its “The Windy City” nickname from all the political bluster. The cold weather this year has been rediculous and I’ve lived here almost 20 years.</p>
<p>My son won’t do grad school although I have heard that option of CS undergrad and GD grad before.</p>
<p>My son is not at all interested in the art aspect but he is very interested in the music comp/sound design aspect in addition to straight GD and programming. This is where both USC and WPI have the edge over other programs.</p>
<p>On what the developers and publishers like to see… Actually they want to see a complete portfolio. In fact my son had to create one for his USC and RPI college apps. It seemed so backwards to me. Aren’t you supposed to go to college to get the skills? Why do some schools expect you to already have some skills? It was a good thing he did the 6-week GD program at Carnegie Mellon this past summer otherwise he would have been out of luck. </p>
<p>The importance of a portfolio is one of the reasons I like WPIs project based curriculum and RITs co-op. </p>
<p>Have you ever been in the new MAGIC studio? Does it have a motion capture studio?</p>