Hi, I'm new here, and I've come looking for some advice. I am currently a 3rd year student at a somewhat prestigious Art and Design school (Pratt Institute). While I won't get into the entire history behind this situation, I have at least another 2 years (1-2 extra semesters) until I get my degree (I transferred in from architecture, and lost alot of credits and time). My problem is a bit unique (or maybe not). I am extremely advanced, well ahead of my peers, because I drove to teach myself and didn't rely on my professors or the cirriculum. My work is substantially better, and I am alot more passionate about it, and efficient. I currently have about a 3.7 GPA (A-). I have spent a semester and half in Computer Graphics, and I can't see myself spending another three or four semesters being in such an uncompetitive and unstimulating environment. However, to complicate the problem, I am receiving a large grant, and it will be difficult to transfer into another school with a CG department, because I did not complete my foundation year (it was partially waived during the transfer), let alone get money to attend a more challenging university (which can be $30,000-45,000 USD/year). Right now I'm paying $1300 USD for a $30,000 college. So going to a different school is unlikely. ALSO, consider that any extra time spent at the school will be near full price (at least a year), since my grant runs out next year. Well, like I was saying. I have seriously debated taking the next semester off, focusing on developing my portfolio and polishing my modelling and texturing skills, as well as getting some more animation experience. But definately to produce some high quality high-res characters and environments. I currently have a decent portfolio (well better than my peers, but not enough for me to feel confident it shows my best skills to a company). I also am the lead artist for a successful Middle-earth total conversion mod for Rome: Total War (www.thefourthage.net, we are releasing a demo Wednesday 11/16). I am confident with a few months of concentration I can put together some very high quality work, and produce a very good portfolio. The question I have is whether it is worth it to finish school, which will be another two years. Also assume that the portfolio from school would be less than the quality of my home-brewed portfolio at best. I am potentially paying $30,000 and spending two years to produce a portfolio that I can do for $0 and in 4 months that I actually enjoy doing, as opposed to just dragging through university, hoping for a project I enjoy, meanwhile working on the mod for enjoyment. Is it so important to have a BFA, to have a college degree, if your portfolio is excellent either way? Would I have trouble finding work if I had a very good portfolio, if I had no college degree? Would having a college degree change anything? What sort of salaries would I be looking at for with a degree and without one (this is perhaps the least important factor. I just want to be happy, I just want to be working). This dilemma is really eating me up. On the one hand, my mother, whom I love very much, wants me to finish school (I commute from home), possibly so I can find a job locally in New York and not have to move out to California (hoping I change my mind about what I want to do, she's suffering from a soon-to-be empty nest). On the other, I feel I'm wasting my time dragging my ass through school, though keeping a very high GPA, I'm not learning anything (almost everything I've learned from my CG courses over the last year has been self-taught, the professors are terrible. The only useful stuff I've learned has been the fundamental/non-CG stuff, much of which I've also self-learned). I'd rather be happy, doing what I want to do, take some months off to make my portfolio and then enter the industry. But what is the liklihood? Is it a mistake to not finish school? Is it unlikely that I'll find work, and if I don't, will I be up the creek without a paddle, or a degree? Thanks for reading this long post, and for helping me out. I'm eager to see what you guys think. I've read through whatever I could find on this site, but thought my situation warranted a seperate thread. -Rob G New, York, USA

Finish school - dropping put of school won't look good to employers. Also, having your degree will stand you in good stead in the future should you want to change industries or possibly spend some time working overseas.

Finish school. You have the rest of your life to be a wage slave. I dropped out and tried my hand in the workforce; it was brutal. I went back and finished a different degree. I still intend to finish the first one.

Completing what you start says a lot about you.

Finish school.

Although you think that now you want to work in the game industry and can create a grezat portfolio on your own, what happens if you want to change careers in the future? You'll probably have to go back to finish your degree.

The 1-2 years you put in now will save you so much time in the future. Also, as was already mentioned, employers also want to see people who can finish what they started. Seeing someone who dropped out of school because they "didn't like it" is not really a good trait to have in an employee...the boss will always wonder if you'll quit doing your work because you don't like it.

Suck it up, stay in school and get your degree. This will benefit you more in the future than you realize. Work on your other interests on the side if you want but finish your degree.

Rob what part of ny are you from. i am also from ny i am from Manhattan. i go to NYU so if you are close by let me know. i have being looking for people to work with that lives around ny. so if you are interested let me know. Right now my site is down so i cannot direct you there to see what i have done but if we can meet up i can show you some of the stuff i have.

I have a question about this changing career thing. If I do want to change careers, into something else in the CG field, is having a BFA going to be more important than having, say, 10-20 years of work experience?
As far as the rest of it goes, I knew when I posted that that heavy odds were I'd finish school anyway (its pretty difficult to defy a mother), but I wanted to see what some industry people said (since the handful of things I've read have said a good portfolio was the very most important thing, and mentioned less about a degree). Working overseas was a good point.
I guess I'll suck it up and stick it out. I'll see if I can get some money for CG at a different school (any good programs come to mind for any of you?) if I have a substantial amount of time left (I'll find out tommorrow exactly how much school I have remaining).
BorntoCode, I live in Nassau County, but go to school in Brooklyn (Pratt Institute), only a short AC subway trip into Manhattan. Perhaps we could talk more on MSN messenger, if you have it? rgalanakis@optonline.net . If not, just PM me, and we can arrange a date to meet, and you can tell me what your company is about.

Another question: Would completing a Total Conversion mod count for anything about my committment? How long would one work until a BFA degree doesn't really mean much to employers (or is this never the case?). I'm pretty sure what the answer is already, but I just don't want to have any regrets or what-ifs when I decide to finish college.

Quote: Original post by Professor420
I have a question about this changing career thing. If I do want to change careers, into something else in the CG field, is having a BFA going to be more important than having, say, 10-20 years of work experience?

No, but getting 10 - 20 years' experience is going to be hard without a degree because getting that first job without a degree is hard.

Getting recruiters/interviewers to look past the degree and at the candidate is hard, because there are so many candidates and the majority of them have done due diligence and paid their obeisance to "the rules" and went ahead and got a degree. Don't give yourself any disadvantage.

I could see dropping out of school to start your own business - even if you fail (and you very likely will) it will probably be valuable experience and you can still go back to school to finish up. But I don't really see the point of dropping out of school to go work for someone.

It may not seem that way now but frankly life doesn't get any better than when you're in college. You have more freedom and less responsibility than any other time in your life. Life only gets tougher once you graduate. If your current coursework is so trivial your should have plenty of time to work on private projects in addition to it.

Get a degree.

A degree says NOTHING more to a recruiter than "This person is capable of learning."

However, NOT having a degree says, by default, the opposite. "This person does not have a degree and is, possibly, incapable of learning."

What you learn is fairly unimportant, so long as you get the degree.

-Joe