Recently I decided to go back to school. I had a successful year in 2003-2004 in the mortgage industry; I learned a lot, made a lot of friends, a lot of money, and I generally liked it.
However, I’ve recently decided it’s not for me and it’s time for me to finally go back to school. I’m turning 23 in July and I have nary a college credit. I went for about half a semester after high school but I didn’t finish any classes.
Now I have three major things I want to go back for and I can’t decide which path to follow: #1. English - My favorite and most inspirational teacher ever was an English teacher (nearing completion of her PhD last time I talked to her.) Because of her I love the subject and I love to write. I also love film and I recently found out that Steven Spielberg has an English degree, so that was somewhat motivational. If writing or film making didn’t work out I would love to teach English.
#2. Biology (or similar life science.) I love science and I love animals. I would love to do some kind of work with animals (not veterinary though.) Maybe work in a zoo or out in the field collecting data and doing research. For this I suspect I would need a masters or something beyond a bachelor’s (experience, maybe?)
#3. Video Game Design. I’ve all but been accepted to a video game design school, financial aid and all. I’ve been an avid gamer all my life, starting with Atari, and I absolutely love them. There are a few problems with this one however. I’m not very artistic, so I wouldn’t want to do the graphics, and I don’t like programming all that much so I probably wouldn’t want to program a lot. I would want to create the storylines and characters, and design the level and interface layouts for the games. The problem is that, from what I’ve read, you pretty much have to be an artist or a programmer before you get into design. The second problem with this option is that the video game school is very specialized. If I didn’t like English or Biology as much after a year or two I could switch majors, if I go to this school and don’t like it I will pretty much have to start over. Nonetheless, I love video games and I would love to work with them. This one will be hard to turn down.
So, do we have people here that are in these fields, or in school to go into these fields, that could offer their viewpoints?
You’re starting with a blank slate. And they won’t make you declare a major for a couple of semesters probably.
Go to school. Get in the rhythm of it. Begin to learn. Worry about the major after you’ve exposed yourself to the school, the teachers, and the classmates around you. Take the basic required fundamental course and some electives your first year. Then start exploring your options.
I freely predict that you will be sorely tempted, once you begin broadening your horizons with different subjects, that you will find others that interest you as much as the three you’ve outlined.
So don’t sweat it. Consider going back to school as a chance to grow and explore…not to meet some arbitrary goal set by society.
In any event, having a degree (and degree) is likely to make your long-term prospects better than they currently stand. A professional without a degree (any degree) is going to be continually fighting with one foot in a bucket.
My decision to go back to school was based on what I wanted to get out of a career. start the violins When I completed my undergrad degree, I was really at a loss for what I wanted to do with my life. Six months later I was working as an administrative assistant for a company that held zero interest for me, I just needed a job. I hated the job so much it made me physically ill. I worked there only a month, and when I left it I realized what I needed from a satisfying job was people interaction, a feeling of being able to make change, and a need to be able to see results of my work. It was from this revelation and some searching that I ended up going back to school for social work. And I tell you, I’ve never felt more focused.
I’m just saying it’s a way to consider what you think you want to do down the road. Think about what you want to get out of a career, what aspects will leave you feeling fulfilled.
I’m in the industry, though I haven’t managed to break into design. And I’ve only worked 2 days, so I don’t know how much my word is worth. You could be writing my post–aside from the video game school part.
If you want to be a designer, your routes probably look like this: Get in as an artist or programmer. Work your ass off in QA/Testing and hope you impress someone enough to let you stay on full-time and work your way up. Write other stuff and put together a pretty good resume of paid work, then try and break into gaming. Or you can try the route I used (though I’m not in design, like I said): Write for free for a lot of websites for years, design a bunch of games on your own, intern at a fairly big name pen and paper company, and network like a madman.
However, I think a couple of the big name gaming schools have pretty good routes into the industry (I think DigiPen is basically a Nintendo factory, though I could be wrong) and will admit I know very little about them. From what I’ve read, though, the coursework is brutally difficult and completely life-consuming and you can’t just be a writer/designer. You’re going to have to learn to program and even do some art and such. If you have any doubts at all, this is not the route I’d take. What if you go through all this and it’s not for you? It’s not going to be widely applicable and, let’s face it, when you show up with a BS in Gaming Studies (or whatever), a non-gamer employer is going to think you’re joking.
Congrats for deciding to go back to school! I was in a similar situation as you, I went right from high school into the work force. At 24 I decided that I’d go to college. I started out as undecided, took all the classes that interested me and 3 semester later voila science major.
One of the great things about a liberal arts college education (as opposed to technical school) is that getting exposed to many different subjects is encouraged. I’d suggest that you start out as undecided and see where it takes you.
Watch out for the kids straight off the bus from high school though. Half of them make me feel really stupid and the other half don’t take classes seriously (but they drop out after a couple of semesters).
Like Doomtrain, I would caution you against doing the video game major unless you are without doubt that that’s what you want to pursu. (Judging from your OP, you do have at least some doubt.)
A degree in video game design is highly specialized, like law or medicine. If you spend two years doing video game classwork and then finally decide it’s not for you, you’ll essentially have nothing to show for all that work. So I’d try and be darn sure beore heading down that road.
Why not go to a traditional undergrad college and take classes in both bio and english?
If you want to explore being a designer–which, IMHO, you should do before committing to it–I’d suggest reading a few books on game design and writing a few design documents. Maybe consider joining a review-kinda website and writing some reviews, so you learn how to analyze games for What’s Hot and What’s Not.
The problem you’re going to face is everyone, from CEOs to artists to loudmouths on message boards (i.e. me :D) thinks they are or can easily be a game designer. It’s actually a lot like being a writer. Everyone thinks they can do it and it’s really easy. So the few junior positions that open up get deluged with applications and if someone has, say, programming skills and a decent design background, they’re going to get picked over someone who’s just another “OMG!!! I HAVE GREAT IDEAS!!” applicant.
So I’d study English or something and explore design on the side (which is exactly what I did, actually) and then decide whether you want to get into it. You may want to start reading Gamasutra. They have some great articles, but points of interest should be the Designer Notebooks and the Post-Mortems. Explore the industry and find out about it before you commit your life to it, because this is a tough, tough industry to get into, especially since you seem unsure.
Thanks again. I went and registered for classes today. I’m taking English and Philosophy at night during the summer and hopefully I’ll be able to take a full load come fall.
I got a perfect score on my English practice test so they recommended honors English but the person I need to talk to about that isn’t available until Tuesday, which is the day classes start :smack:.