I feel compelled to speak up in agreement with rileyriley, another UMD alum. [smile]

I didn't know that I wanted to do game programming until my junior year of my Comp Sci degree. I don't think I had much of idea what to do at all until then. I dabbled in writing, physics, math, and philosophy until I settled on programming, something I wouldn't have been able to do had I gone to DigiPen at first. The specialization that DP specializes in is a two-edged sword; you'll be ahead of the game in the game industry, but not much in any other field. As cool as programming 3D model animations is, there's not much call for it outside game development.

That being said, I amend my earlier advice. If you're absolutely sure you want to go into game development and nothing else, do a game school. If, like 90% of anyone else, you're just not sure what the hell you want yet, do a traditional school. The broadened perspectives are worth it, and are a far sight better than being stuck in one field for the rest of your career.

Yeah I understand what you guys mean... I'm completely clueless on what I want to do, I mean there is so much out there that I want to do, i've thought about being a chef, business, computers. Out of the 3, computers are my best skill, I have so much experience in computers at my age, i've been working with them since I was like born, my dad was in the technology field and we always had a computer in the house. I like programming but I like the art side of it more as in for entertainment because I'm very creative and if I don't have a job with creativity involved, i'd go insane. Also I need a career with computers, something that interests me (web design..., GAME DEVELOPMENT, or animation/special fx), otherwise i'd just find myself doing it outside of work, hating my job, being on the computer all the time, doing these as a hobby, which right now I do as a hobby and it's something I want to live up and do, enjoying it with a passion. I think you guys are right, I need to goto traditional schools first, learn a lot more stuff, afterall the art inst. is expensive, while I can goto other schools in Georgia for free on the HOPE scholarship for high gpa. I looked towards Georgia Tech, they have a great computer science area, teaching everything including graphics and games, and etc. I'd also like to continue on my fine arts and maybe some economics. Afterwards, I'd like to find some schools and learn more game programming and/or animation, so if by some chance I get sick of game development :-\ I can go into animation or special fx which I also enjoy. So I think Georgia Tech would be the best bet for me to go, I think they have a great program :

GA TECH:

http://www.cc.gatech.edu/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,116/

I also found this place which has a game/design program, it seems better than the others, what do you guys have to say about this one?

http://www.scad.edu/academic/majors/itgm/courses.cfm

To reiterate what jwalsh brought up, the two big schools that game companies know and trust currently are Full Sail (Florida) and DigiPen (Washington), both because they've been around long enough and they've produced good developers. There are a lot of schools trying to get onto the "Game Design degree" bandwagon with varying success. Most of these curricula have had much less time to fully blossom, and some schools just want your money(!), so you have to be very critical of exactly what you're getting for your cash.

First off, classes. The school should offer classes that move you towards your final job goal. If you want to program, they should offer a lot of programming classes, etc. Also, you want to maximize your class-to-portfolio ratio, i.e. you want walk out of each class with as much to add to your living body of work as possible. If you see "Advanced Animation Techniques", you think, "Ah, I'll get a good animation demo or three out of this." and so on. "Game Project" classes are golden as ideally you walk out of them with a full, hopefully impressive game. Plus, they give you the best feel for how working on a game development team will be.

Secondly, auxillary resources. How hooked up is your school, resource-wise? Schools like UAT and DigiPen have access to SDKs, computer labs, books, people, etc. that smaller schools may not. Any good program can teach a student to program real-time graphics and game engines (note the adjective "good" [smile]), so resources can be the tipping point for whether or not you decide to drop $40K and 4 years on a school.

All in all, the name of the game is scrutiny. Look up various programs' curricula and compare. See which has more comprehensive classes, more opportunities to develop your demo reel, more tools to help you develop more impressive content while you're there. Any classes / resources that a school is lacking you'll have to make up on your own in addition to the money/time you're paying the school. Make sure not to waste either.

Get you're degree from GA Tech in CS, keep learning more about game programming on the side, and when you're finished, you should be able to get a foot in the door.

PS, I got a CSdegree from GA Tech, and while I never wanted to be a professional Game DEveloper, I have a great job, making great money, and I'm only 6 years out of school.

I haven't exactly read any of this long thread. But I can assure you, if you want to learn exactly how games work (including modeling, art, programming, PR, we even design a damned box for each game, etc), you have to go to Digipen. I'm going there currently. www.digipen.edu It is the most intensive school I've been to by far. I toured Lehigh, GA Tech, and went to Oklahoma State and Northwestern Univ. Now I'm going here. You will be happy when you only have to attend 20 hours of class per semester, and the only reason I'm getting out in 3.5 years is an internship counting as credit and a ton of transfer credit. Currently I have, that I'd have to say has a pretty good work ethic, and he is taking a class for the 3rd time because he can't pull a C- in it. So if you are up for a challenge and a half, look in Digipen's direction. I promise, that no other school could compare to classes and everything else we do.
The majors offered are RTIS (Real Time Interactive Simulation) - programming; and art something (a lot of concept art / sketches, then 3D modelling with 3D Studio Max). As you can probably tell, I'm on the programming side.

Personally I would advise the OP to go to GaTech for free. They've got a fine program, and (at least 10 years ago) had an exceptionally large and skilled bunch of gamers there. You can always use the money you saved via scholarship to attend DigiPen or FullSail as a post-graduate.

[edit: typo]

i was on a site, i believe its studentreview.com, and there was about 10 pages of comments on Full Sails. Completely and utterly destroyed their rep. 99.9% of the feedback/comments were negative. I wont even look into Full Sails anymore. As for digipen, i havent heard anything about it except that its a good college.

And honestly, unless your rich you are probably going to pay for college so you're going to pay $50k or more. Choose wisely is all i have to say.