Do you think a strong alumni network might help counter the effect of that in terms of employment opportunities?

Do you think a strong alumni network might help counter the effect of that in terms of employment opportunities?

Effect of what? The Princeton review being bullshit? That probably doesn't matter much to your employment opportunities one way or another. If you mean instead the HR filtering problem, there's really nothing to help you there except knowing somebody already at the company who can help you skip the initial HR filter, if it exists. A strong alumni network may help you there, but not likely as much as doing your own networking with industry people would unless that alumni network overlaps heavily with people in the industry.

Yeah I meant the screening problem xD

Switching to a standard CS degree and simple taking the games classes as technical electives may be something to look into. From what I know, it's not difficult to switch majors, especially if they're in the same department.

Am I missing something? You said that the core CS curriculum is identical except for the difference between taking 10 free CS electives or the 10 pre-chosen games electives -- ergo, if you enroll in one program but also take the 10 different courses from the other program, then you will in effect have both degrees. There is no switching. I would presume that the school will give you both degrees (literally) if you complete it all satisfactorily. There is no 'switching', you just start with one and then do more.

Since most entry-level jobs are fairly siloed, could a dual degree balancing both sides potentially work against me? Or would some studios see it as a possible benefit in the future?

When it comes to skilled work, I've never really heard of being more educated being a problem. You might be perceived as 'overqualified' I suppose, but if that's so clear cut then surely you'll be able to get a presumably better position anyways. Now, if you go into an interview for a technical role, and when they ask about why you took cinematography and suddenly your face lights up and its all you want to talk about, that could cost you that job because they might become concerned you're not in it for the long haul and are really just waiting for a film job to come along -- but there'd be no problem just saying its something you were always interested in and took it mostly for your own enjoyment, usually that kind of initiative is seen as a positive.

I think in general most employers are looking to either fill an immediate need (e.g. they need brains in chairs to do a finite amount of defined work) in which case they only care whether you'll be able to jump in be immediately productive, or they're looking to make a longer-term hire (someone who has a well-rounded base, and can be shaped into more specific roles) in which case they certainly do want you to be well-rounded. Basically, their feeling on your less-related educational experiences is not going to be harmful to you, it's generally a positive if they care at all.

They're considered two separate majors, and technically, I could have an almost identical curriculum regardless of the path I pick, in one I'll have (Games) at the end of my Comp Sci degree, in the other I won't.

And thank you, I really appreciate the insight on the hiring aspect :)

Also, just looked up the school's cost.

For one school year (two semesters) they charge $49,464 for tuition per year.

Holy <assorted swearwords>! Are you just picking that because it is the most popular local school?

Because that is a really expensive school. Even for a private school that is expensive.

For comparison, Harvard is $43,938 in tuition, $5,526 less. MIT is $43,720 for tuition, $5744 less.

It is cheaper for you to go to Harvard, Yale, MIT, or assorted other schools well-known for their expense than USC. Are you coming from an extremely wealthy family?

We were talking not too long ago about another school that was $19,000 per year, and people were saying that was expensive.

For comparison against my local schools for one year:

University of Utah $8,240 resident, $26,180 non-resident, per year.

Utah State University $5452 resident, $17,560 nonresident, per year

Weber State University (my own undergraduate school) $4,454 resident, $13,368 nonresident, per year.

You really need to shop around, including shopping around out of state.

The first school on the list, U of U, has a distinguished list of game-technology alumni, such as Pixar's co-founder Ed Catmull of "Catmull-Rom Splines" fame; Nolan Bushnell the founder of Atari and notably the first person to write Pong; Bui Tuong Phong of "Phong Shading"; Henri Gouraud of "Gouraud Shading"; Jim Clark founder of Silicon Graphics and Netscape; Jim Blinn of many graphics systems and books; Jim Kajiya of "The Rendering Equation"; assorted game studio founders, and so on.

It was recently written: “Almost every influential person in the modern computer-graphics community either passed through the University of Utah or came into contact with it in some way.” So yeah, that is a big school.

Great program, they offer a games-centric cluster of classes in their CS courses, and you can likely attend it for about half the cost of your chosen school even at non-resident rates.

You seriously need to shop around!

Hey Frob,

I completely agree, it's incredibly pricey. As Josh mentioned, it's probably because of it's location in LA. In all honesty, as it were, I wouldn't be able to afford it, but they offered an academic merit scholarship for half tuition, and another $2500 on top of it for research work, which puts the tuition on par with a UC.

I mean, I have some fantastic options to choose from, UC Berkeley and UCI, notable for their CS and CS Games programs, respectively, among them. I put USC first due to a variety of factors- proximity to home (close, but not too close), the general campus culture, as well as some other personal reasons. I have no doubt University of Utah has a solid program, in fact to my knowledge it's on par. I just felt more at home in a city like LA.

Not to mention some stellar faculty as well. Richard LeMarchand, Tracy Fullerton, and Tom Sloper all teach there, either in graduate or undergraduate courses.

If anything, from both a financial perspective and a personal one, I'm fairly certain on USC as a school. I simply wanted to see how much of a difference the physical degree makes, especially from a hiring perspective as well as screening.

Ah, so "only" $22,500 in tuition annually. Again, compared to the <$10k available if you shop around. From the earlier discussion of national costs, the median cost was around $9,000 annually, so about 50% of the schools are well under the $10k/year cost.

If you willingly take on the debt, I trust that you won't spend your time complaining about it. Even their discounted rate is still more than twice, close to three times, what most schools charge. Don't take that kind of debt lightly.

As an analogue, consider it like a choice between a new high-end Ferrari and a somewhat used Prius. The sports car may give some small amount of prestige the few times it is discussed, but it is far more expensive and somewhat less practical for everyday use. The fancy expensive degree will only be mentioned a few times in your life, and you will be paying a premium for it. If you have the money to spend, that is fine, but just remember that a regular plain old CS degree is more than enough for the job.

Maybe college has changed a lot since I attended, but it seems if the CS(Games Degree) and the CS(regular) degree have most of the same credit requirements you could just double-major by taking those few extra classes they don't have in common.

That's a thought worth looking into.

Other options would include putting a Game Design Minor with a plain CS degree instead, allowing for greater breadth in Computer Science.

Another would be to simply double-major in CS and Interactive Media, although that comes with increased course load.

I plan to minor in something anyway. I mentioned earlier I was interested in Economic for the purpose of virtual economies, and I've also been looking into a Screenwriting Minor as well.

I guess at that point, my primary concern would be more about eliminating redundancy in my degree title.