Quote:Original post by Fredalbob They told me I need at least these programs for the first year.
3D Max Adobe Flash CS5 Pro Adobe Audition Adobe Photoshop Zbrush Visual Studios Unity
Perhaps the school only said that these are the programs you'd be using at the school - not that you have to go out and buy them before showing up at the school? Because as others have alluded, it's unusual for a school to tell you to go obtain these beforehand. (That's the gist of what I get from the above.)
Then on the other hand, it seems like your motivation is to get as much preparation done as possible before you start. As noted, student versions are highly recommended (for the discounted price) at this stage.
Quote:Original post by TacoGrande Sometimes counselors do not know much, I would recommend asking the head of the degree you are in, at my college there is the department chair which runs the department. Then there is the dean of the cs and is degrees. We go to the department chair for software needs, our counselor is horrible and does not know anything. just a suggestion.
I wouldnt go crazy and buy everything wait a week after classes start to see what is really needed. Most of the time professors dont even use the books they posted for students to buy.
good luck, maya is so fun, get books at the college library on it to help you out. The rigging and animation part can be tricky.
I've met the head of the department face-to-face and asked her a lot of the basic questions I needed to know. She's very busy though and my counselor practically lives at the school and knows everything. Everyone there is pretty laid back, but knows everything about the school. Thanks for you input and I'll speak with the head of the department next time I'm down that way.
Quote:Original post by Fredalbob They told me I need at least these programs for the first year.
3D Max Adobe Flash CS5 Pro Adobe Audition Adobe Photoshop Zbrush Visual Studios Unity
Perhaps the school only said that these are the programs you'd be using at the school - not that you have to go out and buy them before showing up at the school? Because as others have alluded, it's unusual for a school to tell you to go obtain these beforehand. (That's the gist of what I get from the above.)
Then on the other hand, it seems like your motivation is to get as much preparation done as possible before you start. As noted, student versions are highly recommended (for the discounted price) at this stage.
The campus is fairly small, but very functional. Each student is responsible for his/her own laptop and the software/files on that laptop. If the student wishes to purchase his/her own laptop they need to double check with the technical department to ensure that the laptop they have chosen will suite their needs. (Already done this) The reason I ask if any software is similar is because not all the software will remain the same. A lot of software "rips off" features that the public seem to like the most. I just want to be accustomed with these features encase I go into a Game Design job that uses different/their own software. Plus, I'm really bored and it's another month before I start. xP I don't have to buy them before attending school (Never said I did, but maybe it was accidentally implied), but I would like to get a price range from different places as well. Try to save myself the most money. About a week before school the guidance counselor meets up with each student and checks to see if they are prepared for the upcoming school year. If the student is unprepared they have all the required items/software at the school.
Right off the bat just from that software list I suggest a different school, specifically a computer science degree or an art degree depending on what you want. I hate to tell you but most companies aren't looking for a jack of all trades person (especially for entry level positions). If you are a programmer, you don't need to be able to model, if you are an artist you don't need to program. Now understanding the other side is important, but when they try to focus you on both, it actually makes you worse in both areas. You won't be as strong of a programmer as someone who went straight comp sci, and you won't be as good of a modeler as someone who went for a straight animation degree.
Most of these schools have no idea on how a game is actually done and the type of people companies want, they are doing the flavor of the month degrees. Think back to the 90s with the dot com boom, everyone went for comp sci related degrees because they figured that was where the money was at. That also produced a ton of people who don't understand comp sci but had the degree from a small "accredited" private institution. Now there are very few straight computer science students, a lot of it comes from horror stories from family members and the likes who didn't actually get a good education / put the effort into their education.
I highly suggest staying away from any "Game Design" program unless its one that you know that school regularly produces people for the industry. (Something like Digipen).
Fred, you are clearly in the right. Why would a moderator in a community of professional game developers have any relevant input on game development education?
He's just giving you advice on things to look out for. They are very real concerns, and you should be thanking him (her? o.O) for the advice before you spend $7000 of your money. I know that if I had gotten it sooner I would have saved $10,000 of my money even though I don't regret any of my decisions.
Things most notably questionable are that they want you to buy 3D Max, Audition, Photoshop, and ZBrush for a computer science degree. Flash is questionable because it's easy to teach game design in it, but it's a horrible horrible IDE for programming. You can also get Visual Studio for free as a student through dreamspark, so don't pay money for that educational license or otherwise.
Like Tom said, make sure they said you need the software. It's a lot of money to spend to get familiar with software that will probably be old news by the time you graduate.
edit: To reiterate Tom's point again and counter to the above, it's very possible it's a good degree and that you are misunderstanding what you will actually need vs what you get on school laptops. If the school provides laptops for art students and CS students the laptops probably have everything for both, where either side only needs half the programs. This would be much much less suspicious and would save you a lot of money.
Googling "Collins College scam" comes up with some interesting results. As jpetrie pointed out, a college calling themselves accredited doesn't actually mean much. Its been posted to death but you really ought to search this forum for the dozens of game school vs. regular CS threads before you actually start.
I would certainly be having second thoughts about a school that requires you to buy so much software when the actual use of it isn't all that important. As has already been pointed out it, its the theory behind it that matters. You shouldn't have to buy any non express version of Visual Studio at all. If the college doesn't have a MSDNAA account then something is wrong. If none of the computer labs don't have any of this software installed for student use its time to run away. I came from a state school, its kind of expected anything you need for class software wise is provided for you.
You should add Blender, GIMP, and Code::Blocks to your list. Its always good to see how OSS does things. And since they are making you learn sound editing programs for some reason and you seem to be in the mood to just spend money: ProTools. Pretty much the standard in the professional digital recording world.
Quote:Original post by stupid_programmer I would certainly be having second thoughts about a school that requires you to buy so much software when the actual use of it isn't all that important. As has already been pointed out it, its the theory behind it that matters. You shouldn't have to buy any non express version of Visual Studio at all. If the college doesn't have a MSDNAA account then something is wrong. If none of the computer labs don't have any of this software installed for student use its time to run away. I came from a state school, its kind of expected anything you need for class software wise is provided for you.
With dreamspark you can get a lot of microsoft's professional stuff even without MSDNAA.
Quote:Original post by Fredalbob Also, the head of the department loves me and I always go down there to say hello and check in.
That right there strikes me as a big, red, flashing warning sign. You haven't even arrived on campus, and the department head already loves you and goes out of his/her way to make small talk and answer minor questions in person. Perhaps I am overly cynical, but along the lines of a pyramid scheme, I wonder whether the smiles will continue once your cheque has cleared?
Further reinforcing my cynicism, their website has been carefully designed to hide all relevant details from the viewer. Although there appear to be links to tuition and fees, faculty bios, etc. they are carefuly looped to take you back to marketing drivel. They also appear to be misreporting their tuition and fees to collegeboard, in order to appear considerably cheaper.
Collins College is owned and operated by CEC, which was recently investigated by the security and exchanges commission, and is still under investigation by the department of justice. CEC schools are famous across American for wilfully misleading prospective students.
Also worth looking at the hundreds of horror stories about Collins. You may argue that the internet is not the most reliable source of information, but I challenge you to find such a quantity of vitriolic hate for my university...
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In short, I offer friendly advice that you call your bank to cancel the deposit cheque, and run like hell. Take my advice, or not, as you choose.
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And on a purely comedic note, lets not forget that they are responsible for some of the worst ">TV commercials of all time [smile]
