Personally I'm dubious of the implication that everything has to be "geared towards game development". I feel that the people who take that course are fundamentally locking themselves into a path of repeating what came before. Yes there are exceptions (the Portal group seems like the best example), but the simple truth is that those are people who would excel anywhere.

But it always struck me as incredibly pompous to proclaim some part of your education not relevant to your career that you know nothing about.

Here is my 2 cents, you may goto a gaming school, but what if you don't get a chance to work for a gaming company, you don't have a well rounded degree and hence your degree isn't going to help you much since you are probably not going to take any kind of business classes and speech, things that jobs will want you to have if you were to want to take the step up into management or something that isn't about game development. I myself find that I am almost done with college with my major geared towards programming, but now I am moving where I might not have the chance to get a programming job due to limited opportunities... well I can tell you this it was a good thing my school is accredited and I have taken speech, math, writing, research, etc... You get the point I am sure! But then again I just might get the job I want there, if they are taking on newly graduated programmers.

Things I would think you would want to find out about these schools,
Accredited: ?
Well-Rounded degree: ? //Always need a contingency plan!

I used to feel pretty strongly that Full Sail was a second-rate citizen to University. With that said, I think the perception in general is changing. I've met people who attended Full Sail and now work in the industry so I know you can get a job that way.

The biggest benefit I see is that Full Sail offers a course that pretty much guarantees you have a portfolio worth showcasing at the end of your schooling. Traditional University really doesn't encourage this explicitly as I find most courses allow you to focus on smaller projects which may not be showcase-able outside of your studies, and many of the courses I took frowned on doing game related tasks.

At the end of the day you have to make a decision based on your actual career goals. Personally I figure university doesn't really matter, it's what you can do (and demonstrate that you can do) that counts. A strong portfolio, good networking ability, and industry experience is worth more than a degree when applying for work.

Are you getting a degree to help you get a job, or because you want to learn something and achieve self-actualization? This is a trick question because university will achieve neither of these things (at least not directly because of the courses you take.) University for me was a time during which I didn't have to be held accountable for moving on with my life. This was very valuable in allowing me to build personal relationships, become a better programmer, learn that the world is a bigger place than my parents basement, take advantage of the co-op program to wrangle a job at Black Box, and to realize how little I really know about anything and how little other people know as well. It's really an opportunity to see adults as people instead of authority figures, and a chance to grow up.

Overall, university isn't about the classes, it's really what you make it out to be. The goal shouldn't be the degree, and it shouldn't be to get a job, or to really get a lot out of your classes. It should be to get a lot out of yourself. This isn't how I went into it, this is really a retrospective feeling.

[Edited by - M2tM on May 2, 2010 3:26:10 AM]