College and choices...

[Lord Anglekos]

So, I plan on going to college, hopefully by this summer. I'm going for the music business (song writing, lyricist, etc...My voice sucks too much for me to sing) and/or becoming a video game scriptwriter, and have been looking at different colleges for these. Now, I've basically got my sights focused on two. Digipen, in Seattle, Washington, or Fullsail, in Florida. Does anybody know much about these colleges or do they have any other suggestions? I'd really appreciated the advice.

[Eburk]

I have a friend who goes to Fullsail, and his schedule is rather intense. By rather I mean very. He only had about two weeks off for Christmas I think, maybe one week, and he goes all year round. Obviously he's done in two years, but it's very challenging from what I've heard.

That said, he loves it there. I haven't talked to him in a while, but last I heard he was really enjoying himself.

As far as being a script writer for video games, you could probably go to about any college and major in English or Communications and then use your degree to get into the industry. For instance, one of Cryptic's newer Community Managers was an English teach previously. It's more about experience in the industry than specifically going for "video game script writing."

Just my two cents, hope it helps.

[Lord Anglekos]

It does help, a lot. To tell the truth, I'm mostly working on a time constraint here, and am going for video game scriptwriting or something similar because it's something I enjoy, am relatively good at, and because no matter what the industry will always be in business. My parents and I were just talking about that when I told them I was considering Journalism for my major. My mother was a journalist and reporter for a major newspaper (I don't know which) and told me that I shouldn't go into that because to tell the truth, it was a dying industry. Video games and in essence the entertainment business itself, on the other hand, will always be had, even though I found the notion a bit paradoxical. I enjoy video games and have come up with a few ideas and notions, but I'd never really considered that I'd become part of the industry before until now. I'd always figured I'd go into some physical labor kind of job and write on the side, but that doesn't seem so inevitable now. Thanks, Eburk.
Anyone else want to throw in their two cents?

[Taskmienster]

I have a friend that went to Fullsail. It was crazy from what he told me. He used to write here and mod here too, Unseen...

From what I was told you can choose a major, and go for it. If you don't like it you can change it once. After that you're not allowed to change it again? That's my understanding at least. However, if you aren't opposed to an intense schedule, little to no free time, and paying out your ass for an amazing education it's the shit. Granted, I know a bunch of people down there, and they love it. It's just Unseen that didn't like it from the people I know that have gone.

If you want to chat with him and get an opinion from first hand experience I can probably get him online to chat with you. Just have to call him and bother him about getting online, lol.

[Lord Anglekos]

That would be helpful, Task. I need all the information I can get at this point. I've checked out their site and seen they have some great credentials and several of their students have been involved in very big items (Such as Repo, the Genetic Opera: w00t.), but I'm not sure if that kind of fast paced hard-hitting lifestyle is for me. Albeit, Eburk said that it's a two-year college, or does that depend on what you're getting into...? On the other hand, Digipen requires that you produce a game a year and is a four year college, and I semi-know someone who went to that school and got hired by his second school. He was the co-creator for the game "Drawn to Life" for the DS.

[Taskmienster]

I'll catch him today then and refer him to this thread, or at worst get him online so that you can talk to him.

[Lord Anglekos]

Right, thanks.