Hi there, my name is Andy! Right now I’m trying to decide which college has a better program for Game Programming and/or which college is just better overall (for dorms, campus, safety, etc.). Please be very descriptive on why you think one school is better and even better if you can make a pro and cons list of both schools that would be awesome!
Just a bit about me, I’m a Senior in High School and I personally liked the feel of Columbia’s campus the best but it’s not very hard to persuade me to go a different route if a statement is strong enough.
DePaul has a very solid reputation in the gaming industry for their grads. Ranked in the top 10 in the US for Game Design by Animation Review. I know some of the gaming companies out here in Silicon Valley like Sony PlayStation and Electronics Arts have hired DePaul grads. Their College of Computing and Digital Media (CDM) school is perhaps the largest Computer Science school in the nation in terms of numbers, with 3,000 students and 16 different undergrad majors to choose from.
The campus is split into a couple of locations, Lincoln Park and downtown. Lincoln Park houses the Liberal Studies programs, while downtown houses the Business programs and CDM. It’s a 20 minute El train ride from one campus to the other. The school has come such a long way since I went to school there eons ago. The dorms in downtown are really nice from what I can tell. Columbia College is only two or three blocks from DePaul’s downtown campus so you should have a general sense for what the vibe is like.
I’m not familiar with your potential major, but I have been told anecdotally that while Columbia can provide a great education, their career counseling/services department is less than great and that the people who do best there are real “go-getters” in terms of seeking out opportunities on their own. This may or may not be current info, nor may it be directly applicable to the area you are planning on studying, but you may want to check it out nonetheless.
I have a son who is currently at DePaul in CDM (Graphic Design major). I have been very impressed with the types of classes and the “real world” approach that his professors have. The CDM facilities seem to be first rate and he loves living in Lincoln Park and taking classes on the Loop. I don’t know anything about Columbia. Oh, he also got generous merit aid (and was not a 4.0 student).
CDM Dean Dr. David Miller is very diligent about coming out to Silicon Valley, LA and Dallas often to keep up with the trends in computing, and for recruiting, not only students but teachers. He and I go back a long way, he was my AI professor there almost 35 years ago!
Columbia College has a solid reputation as a dedicated arts college, but DePaul is probably both better known and more widely respected as a traditional university (albeit one that has a sizable commuter and off-campus population). I’d definitely look into outcomes. Also, I would strongly consider what might happen if you need to change majors. You might be convinced that you can make it through the game design program, but such studies are not easy. DePaul would offer solid fallback plans. That said, if you know that game design is the career for you, take a close look at what each college has been able to do for its graduates.