I'm currently enrolled at a 4-year university for a bachelor's degree in computer science. I really dislike the mainstream liberal-arts education style of the university and am thinking of going to ITT Tech. I'm not necessarily going into game development, but I was wondering if anyone here had any experience with ITT Tech? As a second part to the question, how do companies look at associates degrees vs bachelor's degrees assuming that the portfolio of the applicant is still exceptional? I'm worried an associates will restrict myself later, but I feel that my abilities should be enough to land me a job.

>> I'm currently enrolled at a 4-year university for a bachelor's degree in computer science. I really dislike the mainstream liberal-arts education style of the university and am thinking of going to ITT Tech.

For almost every company, both inside and outside of games, that will be seen as a lesser education. If you can't put up with liberal arts, you won't be able to stand most tech workplaces.

>> how do companies look at associates degrees vs bachelor's degrees

Get the BS from a major university. It's okay to get an AS degree as a way to get a slip of paper just in case, but you really should go all the way to getting the BS degree.

>> I feel that my abilities should be enough to land me a job.

Abilities are not enough. First, we have no crystal ball to let us peek at your abilities. Second, lots of people have the ability to do the job, far fewer are able to stick with it.

In the real world, we need evidence. Two bits of evidence include an actual BS or MS degree from a major university, and previous work which may include demos.



If you really don't like the mainstream liberal-arts education environmennt (which is the common techie environment), you should probably re-examine your life and make sure you are (as Tom Sloper says it) following your passions. It would be a big mistake to spend $80,000 and four years investing in a career path that you are going to hate.

I'll throw in some real life experiences here:

My husband is extremely talented in both software programming and in hardware design. In the 6 years he attended a University, he did poorly and decided to stop about 9 elective credits short of a degree because, like you, he disliked the liberal arts and all the bull**** that wasn't what he was interested in. He was 23 at the time, and I was 30, and I told him "You slam this door now, it's going to be near impossible to reopen." He decided he didn't need a degree.

His abilities and especially his ability with the hardware have landed him jobs, but here's the hitch: He gets the jobs, but at about $10,000 a year less than if he had that "meaningless piece of paper."

A friend of his, same age, but without the hardware expertise, cannot land any kind of job that isn't IT work (people call up when Norton keeps their Dell from working). It pays well, but is stressful, and he has no other options because he, too, didn't want to bother with the bachelors degree.

I don't know your talents, but yes, you can most likely get a job with an AS vs a BS or even without any sort of degree if you show a lot of great stuff.. but you'll be paid a lot less than if you have the 4 year degree.

From my experiences (and I got a 4 year degree in 4 years), the "style" of the mainstream University mimics a lot of what life throws at you later. My most valuable education at Rutgers was that I learned how to deal with various annoyances, bureaucracies, learned how to search for what I wanted and how to strive against odds.

Good luck in whichever path you choose. :)

Quote: Original post by ellis1138
In the 6 years he attended a University, he did poorly and decided to stop about 9 elective credits short of a degree because, like you, he disliked the liberal arts and all the bull**** that wasn't what he was interested in.

That in a nut shell is the reason why many employers require a BS. Life (and especially work) is full of all that crap that we don't want to do. Proving that you can stick all the crap to get the degree shows an employer you will stick the boring bits to get the game project done.

Quote: Original post by ellis1138
My most valuable education at Rutgers was that I learned how to deal with various annoyances, bureaucracies, learned how to search for what I wanted and how to strive against odds.

Good luck in whichever path you choose. :)

Hey! Fellow Rutgers grad here! (Class of '03). That degree was in English, however, and i'm now working on my BS in CS elsewhere. Your post brought up some great memories of tracking down everything I needed in life on College Ave. ;)

I was class of 1988, Mason Gross School of the Arts. I have a BFA in Fine Arts/Visual Art (as opposed to Dance, Music or Theater, which the school also offers). I had chosen it because it's a specialized school in the midst of a mainstream public University. I was also putting myself through, and at the time, it was affordable. Somewhere around $2,000 a semester for full-time.

As we being design on a game now, certain bits of my elective education come in handy. Expository 101? Used that to make the business plan and the design doc. Psychology comes in handy when pre-thinking what the player might do or want to do. So, it's a good education. However, if a person doesn't stick with it, it's no good. If the student would do better and finish at DeVry or some institute, that's still better than not ever finishing any kind of degree, in my opinion.