Before you take out a 100,000 loan to attend a ‘for profit’ college, graduate, find no job prospects because the education and training you receieved from aforementioned college was sup-par at best, left in the dust with a crippling loan that you are in no way capable of ever paying back and force to live in misery for the rest of your life because the loan will always overshadow any joy that may come into your life, read a few of these testimonies and watch the Frontline documentary College Inc.
Why are ‘for profit’ college bad?
They have a profit motive. The thing is, academic standards aren’t really profitable; to get the most money, you want to accept as many students as possible and ensure that none of them drop out. So a for-profit college’s degree doesn’t really mean anything; nobody will care if you have it. The problem with these universities is not that they have such big classes, it’s that the courses are not as intensive and difficult as more traditional schools.
If I want to hire someone, I’d like to know that they are willing to work hard, jump through hoops, and succeed in a difficult environment. You simply don’t get this at a for profit school.
And the more people they enroll the more they get from gov’t grants (including GI bill) to help with tuition–regardless of if the student can ever earn enough money from those degrees to repay them.
And the recruiters are basically salesmen, who use high pressure sales tactics and will accept anybody who can qualify for a government backed, student loan.
1. Currently attending an Art Institute school. The Game Art senior project is a 9 month long class with a team of 20+ people all working on one game. Its a fucking nightmare. At a senior level anywhere you should not be teaching people basic skills like how to bake out normal maps or explaining why you need to adjust pivot points before you export models. Out of the 24 we started with we have lost 10 that have realized they couldnt cut it or we have outright fired them from the project. Out of the remaining 14 only 6 can make a case for being good at what they are doing.
The problem with AI, and the teachers will tell you this if you ask them outside school, is that the recruiters take ANYONE. they dont care how talented they are. You draw crappy anime all day and have no sense of anatomy or proportion? thats fine! you can be a character modeler! They make you suffer through a year of “foundation” classes that are largely irrelevant before you even get to your major. When you are there they insist you take their shitty general education and humanities classes at the same time that are 2000 a piece. Yeah thanks ill take those somewhere else and save 25 grand.
While im on the money subject. You are forced to write down the total cost for your degree on paperwork at LEAST a dozen times so its not a suprise at all. However 1/3 of that 96 grand is their student housing, another 25-30 is the general education classes and another big chunk is the foundation studies classes. If you came here and took just the Game Art, and Media Arts and Animation classes you could walk away for under 25 grand
I was lucky and had already had lots of artistic experience and a bunch of computer science under my belt. However like i explained that puts me in a very small percentage here. Tezius
2. Just a heads up, I know a lot of these for-profit colleges advertise their "game development" programs heavily. I’ve been told by multiple managers that resumes from say the Art Institute won’t even hit their desks unless the inpidual had proven themselves outside of "school". If you’re in a "Game Developer" track program check if your program is accredited. If it’s not seriously reconsider where you’re putting your money. I’ve been told numerous times that a "Game Developer" is not a position that is ever hired, they are grown internally. Focus on something you’re good at whether it be art, programming, modelling, or mapping. If you’re in a program that is doing all of those at once I’ll guarantee you will have a hard time finding a job. I went to a state college for computer science and only paid 2K per semester for classes, yet every "game developers" conference I go to seems filled with kids who paid 70K for their "game developers" degree and have absolutely no accreditation and no real mastery of any skills. I have seen people absolutely crushed by recruiters because their 2D/3D/Programming portfolios are on the same level as high school students. The last conference I went to half of the for-profit "college" seniors had their "final projects" made in Flash, are you fucking kidding me. 70K for Flash games!? The other half made simply scripted UDK3 levels that all used built in assets. I asked one student what programming languages he used for his project and he said "kismet". If you don’t know why that’s bad you seriously need to re-think things. I’m sorry if I seem angry but I’m sick of shit "colleges" sucking away folks money for absolutely no gain. DevinWatson
3. 27 years old, still living with parents. Went to 2 "for profit" colleges getting a useless associates and a 3D art bachelors. Moved out of state for 2nd college, and lived entirely off of loans for 3ish years. Over those 3-5 years, the gaming / film industry has started seeing corruption in outsourcing majority of their jobs across seas. Rendering me with a useless degree until my skills are at godsend level or I get really lucky while networking. (Don’t ask to see my portfolio, I’m going to get enough shit from my bad financial decisions to get shat on more on my work). It’s been roughly 2 years since I graduated, spending about 10 months unemployed and looking for work. I work at a job that’s "Somewhat" related to my field making around $34,000/year. I also do part time 3rd shift at a job at a hospital making about $12 an hour. I’m trying to find a 3rd source of income and I keep jumping around between ideas. Do I code an android app and hope for the best? Do I make funny youtube videos and hope for the best? Do I write a shitty book and hope for the best? I am constantly trying to learn new skills that could help me knock out a good portion of these loans. choadsauce
My Debt
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