Get a degree or not ?

[Schmung]

My degree is barely worth the paper its printed on, but as a bit of life experience going to University is great IMO. Plus it gives you a LOT of spare time (even if you have a very active social life) which you can use to work on your portfolio or develop other skills (if you have the motivation to do so).

I can't comment on the relevance or whatever of games programming/design courses, but a degree will certainly help your cause when applying for a job, it's another box they can tick and if it comes down to you and some other guy and your portfolios are equally strong then it may well be the deciding factor.

[Thrik]

I'd say education after school is good, though I haven't been to Uni. I just went to college, which in the UK is more like a school format (ie: live at home, go there) rather than somewhere where you actually live and breathe education for a few years. Those three years I spent at college were worthwhile though as it gave me lots of time to work on hobby websites as well as explore a different type of social life such as parties and just different people, etc.

As far as actually impacting your career itself though I'm not sure. Certainly it'll help, but when it comes to art and design mediums I think work/portfolio speaks louder than paper. At best, a qualification is potentially a tiebreaker between two candidates with superb portfolios.

[OrnateBaboon]

One side that is also worth considering is the financial aspect. I have a Politics degree, and a Masters. I thouroughly enjoyed every aspect of my course, and University life. In fact, if I had the money, I probably would have stayed on to do a PhD.

However, when I left, I was about £30, 000 in debt. Course fees, living expenses, student loans, a mini graduate loan, and a career development loan all meant that when I left University, I was faced with the prospect of paying back all that cash. In fact, I am still paying it off.

University is great for expanding your mind, meeting all sorts of people you might never meet, giving you options later on in life etc, but I do think that this needs to be weighed up against the financial burden you might run into.

A lot of people I knew at University had wealthy parents who payed for everything, and even gave them a weekly allowance for "social expenditure". If anyone is lucky enough to have their parents pay for it all, then I would say that it is an opportunity not to be missed.

[Thrik]

Yeah, another major reason why I didn't go to Uni.

[FrieChamp]

If you ask me - you do the right thing min0, good luck and have fun at uni

[Ginger Lord]

To be honest, If my parents were average earners I wouldn't have gone to Uni.

As it is we are technically classified as poor, earning under £13k a year or something, so the Government pays all my tuition fee's (£3k a year) and gives me a £4k loan a year which has to be payed back and a £1.5k grant which doesnt.

Good thing about paying it back in the UK is its automatically taken out of your wage (or something) and scales with what you earn. Earn a lot it takes more out, earn a little it takes less. If you're 60 then it get cancelled.

[Defrag]

It's the hobo lifestyle for me then (re: 60 y/o)

[Ginger Lord]

I take it your an Englishman lost in Scotland then else Uni should be free no?

[Bic-B@ll]

i go to shitty community college and it is the worst educational experience ive ever had and definitely the worst socially. i wish i had the money to go away to a better college and stay away, but that's not happening.

[Rick_D]

I work as an electrician and am trying to get into game development, so if I ever get a job and then get sick of it I can just go back to earning 20 grand a year and drinking myself to death. Either way I don't see university as a necessity, just an excuse to get into debt, fuck loads of slappers and eat badly.

[KoKo5oVaR]

£3k the year ? holy crap, i only payed 250 euros to go to a public university in france! £3k is more the fee for private schools

[Ginger Lord]

Yeah, you don't want to see the private school fee's

Public education ftw. Universities used to charge something like £1.5k a year for tuition fee's, then this year the Government said you can charge upto £3k if you want. So they all did.

[Defrag]

I take it your an Englishman lost in Scotland then else Uni should be free no?

free-ish. I had to pay the fees for the last couple of years because I did two years at Dundee University doing Applied Computing but then changed to my current uni to do games tech. They fund something like four years total (max) so I was two short as this is a four year degree. Not bad (compared to England) but it meant my summer job funded bugger all (I saved up for a 2407WFP and then had it cruelly snatched from my grasp ).

[Bic-B@ll]

state colleges in new york want 4,350 as tuition and another 6-9 thousand for room and board.

[⌐■_■]

Alltough my studie has almost nothing to do with gaming or even computers, I pay about $1800 dollars a year for college and I have to pay for everyting else myself, since I don't have wealthy parents.. I have to work to pay my college and rent and what not but as long as I can stay alive, study and have some weekly fun I'm happy, but I seriously dó think all knowledge and education should be free of any charge..

It sucks not being able to learn what you want for financial reasons.. I know what it feels like.