Devry and other institutions like it such as University of Phoenix and others are just about worthless, IMO. They also often engage in sketchy practices, such as not revealing the full cost of their programs up front -- in fact, University of Phoenix and some of the other schools are currently being investigated by the feds, and are at risk of losing what little tuition help their students can currently get from the government -- in other words, the feds may stop loaning money to students to go towards these types of colleges, even if that student was otherwise qualified.

From you brief description, and what I've already gathered of their program, you're not going to teach you anything that would make you even an entry-level candidate at any game studio, and about the closest its likely to get you is QA (which a high school diploma will also get you).

Personally, I wouldn't take a Devry program even if it were offered to me for free because its not even worth my time. I sure as hell wouldn't want to come out the other end 10s of thousands of dollars lighter or 10s of thousands of dollars in debt.

If you're interested in a game-centric program that's worth your while, there are several media-focused CS programs at reputable schools, such as the Guildhall at SMU and others. If a traditional university is not an option, Digipen is quite reputable and, while you may not receive the breadth of education of a University setting, they do teach in great depth and have a high standard for its graduates (probably fully half of the CS students or more don't make it through -- this may sound harsh, but do you really want to go to another school in which everyone can pass, no matter how bad they are?). FullSail is another option -- their educational offerings are not as broad or as deep as Digipen's, but they are still head and shoulders above Devry and its ilk.

Also, don't discount traditional CS programs from decent universities -- A 4 year degree in CS or a related program plus some independent study into gaming topics (and the portfolio to prove it) is often as good as the best gaming-specific degree -- and may be better at some studios, depending on their past experiences with game-degree-holders and their hiring culture).

Only you can decide, but I've given you some good options to look into. If it were my money I wouldn't spend another dime on Devry -- and in fact I'd drop my current classes if it would get me even a partial refund.

I wouldn't waste *my* time with it, but what you do with yours is up to you. If you're counting on the degree at the end of the program being your golden ticket, though, I think you're going to be disappointed.

If you know all those languages (and have a degree or certification to back it up) then you might do just as well to buy some good books and self-study where you are lacking. Pick a topic, investigate, then put your nose to the grindstone and implement. Do that a few times, put it all together and viola, you've got your first portfolio piece.

As for your positive friend, well, results and the willingness to go beyond what's provided varies from person to person -- one thing that *all* degree programs hold in common is that you get out what you put in. As for his knowing C++ like the back of his hand, well, most people aren't able to judge their own competencies accurately. The only guy I know who's come out of a Devry-like program will swear up and down that he's a great coder and knows C++ extremely well, along with linear algebra (3D mathematics) and other things, but listening to him talk about any technical subject makes my head hurt -- the guy is equal parts shit and hot air. Frankly, anyone who says they know C++ like the back of their hand either a) has written a book about it, or b) doesn't know enough about it to understand the depths of their own hubris. C++ especially, moreso than almost any other language, is full of oddities and other thorniness that will bite you in the ass if you're not aware that its there.

See, that's kind of the point I was driving at... pointers, references and recursion tend to be known as the great (CS100) weeder-outers, but they are really the least of your problems.

Things like proper use of Structured Exception Handling (which many experts argue has fundamental flaws in C++) or understanding when and how Sequence Points come into play (and thus, when seemingly valid, compilable code actually produces undefined results). If you haven't read and understood Meyers' "Exceptional C++" through-and-through, then you can't even begin to say you really know it at all, and that's just for starters. To say that C++ is a minefield of undefined behavior might be a little dramatic, but there certainly is a good amount of unexploded ordinance lying about.