Another newb who needs some input

SoNofHuD · 07-08-2009, 07:26 PM

Ok so just to give a brief history- btw, I just stumbled upon this site by searching for austin gaming schools.

I am 26 yr old male - married with 7 month old child. I currently work for a large auto insurance company as a claims adjuster. I am severely unhappy with my job and am looking to make a career change. I have a B.S. in accounting; however I never pursued a career in that field because I determined it just didn't interest me about a year before I graduated.

So now I am looking at possibly going back to school to get some training in a field that I knew in my heart I wanted to do - computers, specifically more along the programming side as I am more of an analytical person than artistically talented.

My Dilemma: At this point, I am not in the position to go to school full time so I am looking at these online schools. The way they are marketed just makes me feel like they are all scams. I have read on the Full Sail web site there is an Online Game Design degree they are starting up next month; however, this is obviously more geared towards design than development.

I have seen several topics on Devry and a few other schools - any particular program that is most recommened? I am even considering a software engineering degree if I could find something like that somewhere other than University of Phoenix.

jwalters · 07-09-2009, 06:23 AM

Well, it sounds like you're kinda busy with a newborn and full-time job at this point, but you might consider just taking one or two night classes per semester. If you can attend a local university, try a class or two in Computer Science to see if you even enjoy it first. My cousin has been taking online courses and is not a big fan of it because he says the instructors don't put as much effort into it as they do their regular classes. My take is that it is better to attend a brick-and-mortar school if possible.

Also note that a CS degree may not be entirely necessary if you have the motivation to teach yourself. Even with a standard CS degree there is a LOT that has to be learned on your own to work on games.