Graduate School

Miscellaneous Topics
#1

Hello there my trusted comrades :slight_smile: In a year and a half I’ll be out of undergrad and so I’m starting to have thoughts about graduate school. I have a lot of interest in game development of course, and also in AI and neural network in conjunction with games. In one hand, I feel that the right school could really feed me with all the best stuff that I’m passionate about and enable me to do something really great with a career. On the other hand, I might feel restricted by school like I have for the past 15+ years of it and could probably do well to start making money now and really developing a stronger base with GameLizard and similar persuits.

My question to you guys is, what do you think of my options for going to graduate school? Are there any that would simply give me such great benefits that I just can’t pass up the chance for… or would I perhaps be able to teach myself faster than a structured school could?

I’d like to see some conversation drummed up and then maybe I can start asking better questions :slight_smile:

#2

If you want to go into research or academia then you really want an advanced degree. (For academia you really want a PhD.)

Otherwise it depends a lto on your options. In the field my rulke has always been thwat 1 year of real world experience is approximately equal to one year of school SO as to here you’ll be in 2-3 years career wise otherwise its probably a wash. The two things I’d consider are (1) what is it going to cost you and (2) what would you rather be doing?

The one thing that might be useful if you are erally set on the game industry would be a masters with thatf ocus, but I really don’t know of any school doing that that would be worth going to. Most of the real game-engineering focused schools have only just reached the level of BS programs…

#3

This is something I’ve been struggling with for years; ie my desire to earn an advanced degree and the fact I’m not going to stop working to commit to it full time. Although, unlike you I’m not interested in a game developement, my interest is more toward physical simulations of molecular mechanics.

I think Jeff makes a good point about work and school. You learn so much in the workplace both about programming and non programming. There’s nothing like working with a massive production codebase to really give you a feel for what real world progarmming is all about and just working with people day to day, learning, growing and taking on more responsibility as you gain experience, these are things you’ll never learn in school.

BUT it’s really easy to get into a rut and stop learning in the workplace too. I work with ALOT of people who just show up for work everyday, do the bare minimum, and go home.

Regardless, I’ve seen the work some people have done toward a ph.d in comp sci, and it seemed to be not very impressive. So that lead me to think maybe the degree isn’t worth so much.