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College Advice (King-Pierce-Snohomish counties)

StigmaticCorpseStigmaticCorpse Registered User regular
edited September 2007 in Help / Advice Forum
Hey, I'm looking into going to college for game development, using the Programmer angle, and I was wondering if you guys had any advice about what colleges around the Seattle or Bellevue area were good and bad. Just some positive or negative feedback on say, Strategy Computers, Digipen, the local community colleges, etc. would be awesome, as well as any success stories, etc. Also, if any of you know better places to ask about this, feel free to point me in the direction, please! Thanks.

Omeganaut 2005 - MotionSupremacist
StigmaticCorpse on

Posts

  • Xenocide GeekXenocide Geek Registered User regular
    edited September 2007
    digipen is a pretty dandy school for programming with a gaming angle.

    however, let's say you don't get into the game industry. now you're stuck with a degree from a specialized school and otherwise fucked, if you want to get a 9 to 5 cubicle dwelling job to pay off student loans and whatnot

    i'm currently planning on attending seattle university, which has a nifty computer science program, as well as a masters program for software engineering. it's suppose to be a great school.

    Xenocide Geek on
    i wanted love, i needed love
    most of all, most of all
    someone said true love was dead
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  • UnicronUnicron Registered User regular
    edited September 2007
    I refer you to Exhibit A and Exhibit B.

    Edit: Also slashdot talked about this the other day, here.

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    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • StigmaticCorpseStigmaticCorpse Registered User regular
    edited September 2007
    Okay, I thank you for the links, there's awesome advice in there. I actually DO have a fallback, it's just a hell of a lot less worth it than any code-monkey job out there. I work 40-50 hours a week, currently earning 10.75 an hour as a cook - but I can easily see myself becoming a sous chef here. That pays decent, but the thing is, the hours are *horrible*. I don't just mean a lot of them, though that much is definitely true. I mean, 50-60 hours a week, likely working such shifts as 2pm-1am, and almost never weekends off. Sous-chefs DO get vacation time, but it's like a two weeks a year. Most restaurants are only closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas - any holiday that tends to be busy, no way in hell you're getting it off.

    Now, I might be overestimating the horrors of being a chef, but seriously, I think I'd rather, at the minimum, get some sort of programming job instead. At least I'd have time off at the same time as most of the people I know.

    Anyways, enough of that bitching. I mostly just wanted specific information on these colleges, and asked here because I assumed a lot of the forumites here are from the Washington area. Though with that advice, I can see the advantage of going to a college that doesn't focus on games. So, keeping that in mind, and excluding Digipen, what colleges around here have a good reputation for delivering a solid programming foundation?


    *Edit* Err... I must admit to a little bit of encroaching fear on my part; I'm 23, going on 24. I'm kind of afraid I'll be stuck in this culinary thing as a career, and though it IS fun, I *really* want to try for this. I'm starting to feel trapped. So, becoming a chef is something I can work on later on, if and when this programming thing fails me. Also, though it doesn't sound like there'd be a connection, the cook job has instilled in me a sense of leadership - the ability to lead and train are things that can be applied anywhere, though obviously not at entry level. This gives me a little bit of hope.

    StigmaticCorpse on
    Omeganaut 2005 - MotionSupremacist
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