Right now I’m a junior in high school, and I am planning to go into college to major in animation. I’m starting to build up a portfolio. Unfortunately and I’m sure many students can relate, art school is just too much. I cannot afford such high tuition’s, and don’t want to be crippled by student loans in the future. However, art and animation has been a long time passion of mine, and I need to find some different opinions to make my dreams come true. I’ve already received a scholarship for University o South Carolina in Beaufort, but I’m not sure if their animation program is what I’m looking for. Clemson also seems to have a program, yet I’m looking for a primarily 2D course rather then 3D. When i was small i always dreamed of going to SCAD as it was a 30 minute drive from where I lived, and I loved the atmosphere of the place, but reviews of the school are pushing me away from it. I’m kind of at a loss, and its scaring me a bit…
Advice is appreciated, thank you!
Can you be more specific with the type of animation you’re looking for?
I want to study 2d animation, hopefully having a job as a storyboarder or working freelance afterwards. I don’t mind 3d animation, but I need somewhere that at least keeps traditional/2d animation in mind.
Have you looked into your local CCs to see what art and CS type classes they have?
Check out Utah? It’s also got a policy whereby they encourage you to register as a resident after a year and thus you get instate tuition, and they’re generous with scholarships.
http://eae.utah.edu/
http://www.uvu.edu/dgm/pages/programs/animation.html
http://www.film.utah.edu/animation/
BYU isn’t a traditional college (it’s better if you’re LDS or Christian conservative) but its animation dept is top-notch.
http://animation.byu.edu/
There’s also New Mexico State:
http://cmi.nmsu.edu/
Out of the box, but cheap AND well-considered (lots of job offers for the graduates): Québec cegeps.
Downsides: a lot of them are, logically, in French.
http://www.cvm.qc.ca/animation/
http://www.cegep-matane.qc.ca/programmes/animation3d/
Matane has a Movement Capture studio, for instance.
John Abott has a program but it’s only got 2 courses in animation, whereas the above have top-notch facilities and full degrees.
http://creative-arts.ca/
You can look into Dawson, too.
I googled animation programs in the southeast . There are quite a few in Florida. You may want to start there . Also College of Charleston has a computing in the arts major and a studio art degree.
San Jose state university has great animation program. Out of state estimated cost of attendance is $36 per year which includes room and board but not art supplies.
Ball state university in Indiana has a good animation program that might be affordable
Thank you everyone replying! I would like to go to a college close to my home in South Carolina, but I’ll take whatever I can get! 
One thing to think about is how with a public university you may well be there for five years. That should be factored into your financial calculations. Private art colleges are more expensive on a per-year basis, but you can end up spending one fewer year. There are exceptions, of course, so it’s best to look at each school’s program.
Check out University of Central Florida in Orlando. Fairly inexpensive for OOS students with a top-notch animation program (not sure about 2D and storyboarding specifically). You will likely be there more than four years and they might require a summer residency (all the public Florida colleges do this, I think).
There is also FSU which has a great animation program as part of it’s film school. Not sure of tuition or admission requirements.
SCAD has the storyboarding minor, as you probably know. What you might not know is that they offer academic and achievement (creative) scholarships depending on your stats and your portfolio. It may turn out to be more affordable than you think and you should be able to get out of there in four years if you stay on top of what you need to graduate. Your academic advisor can help you there.
One more school to consider - and it is nowhere near the SE - is Columbia College of Chicago. They have an animation major that allows you to focus on 2D specifically, offer merit aid, and are relatively affordable for a private school (and again you should be able to get out of there in four years).
My D2 has SCAD as her first-choice and UCF as a second choice. She also plans to do animation/storyboarding and also prefers 2D (although she realizes that at the BFA level at least one should be well versed in both).
Good luck to you!
Oops, I meant Bowling Green University and not Ball State.
Good approach to look for lower-cost schools. You. Do. Not. Want. To. Graduate. With. Student. Loan. Debt. ESPECIALLY in this profession.
My son wants to study animation and applied and go into SCAD, SVA and University of the Arts in Philly for fall 2016. His grades and test scores were ok - enough to get a small academic scholarship from SCAD. SVA will make merit scholarship decisions after Feb 1st - so haven’t heard from them. But U of Arts was very generous - $19,000/yr merit scholarship. It’s not in SC, but you may want to consider them. They have fairly well respected animation and film programs.
In our days 2D animation is widely used in video games (mobile applications, casinos)
Find any relatively cheap state college that has connections with video game industry, and you’ll be fine.
Don’t take any loans, don’t go to any expensive private art schools, they are not worth it.
I can give you 2 examples of people who work in animation from our state (Texas)
It’s just those who wanted to report where they work and to be bothered with networking from current students.
A&M Visualization, very old and well established program with strong connections in LA
http://viz.arch.tamu.edu/people/former-students/
UT Austin GAMMA, very new program, about 3 years old
http://gammaprogram.utexas.edu/alumni/