Trios College Video Game Design Tuition

dushbadge [OP]: Newbie; Aug 31, 2010; 8 posts; ontario

Sep 1st, 2010 11:09 pm

I have a few questions about the VG Development program at private colleges.

Hello everybody,

I have a huge passion for video game development, and the Video Game Design and Development program caught my interest. I was going to apply for Trios College at first, however the tuition fee was too high. It was about more than 40 grand. I decided to get a programming diploma at humber college while working to hopefully accumilate enough money to pay off the tuition fees for Trios College's program but I started to read things online about how Trios College is a scam. I've asked questions about this program and those people told me they make "copy and paste code"; that's pretty awful. I've done google searches and they've yielded scam results. Because of this I had my doubts but then I noticed an ad for the RCC Institute of Technology. There's an Academy of Design at the RCC Institute of Technology that has a Video Game Design and Development course, so I went for an orientation there. The school seems nice and the staff is quite nice as well. I got accepted but I haven't payed yet, just decided to OSAP it. The tuition fee for RCC's VG Development course is 24000, which surprised me, I'd definitley take this over trios which apparently scams people. But all the info I read about Trios being a terrible school wasn't enough, I wanted to ask the people of redflagdeals,

Has anyone had experience with Trios College or The Academy of Design at the RCC Institute of Technology? I just want to know if I'm getting scammed. The guys at the academy of design told me the makers of Too Human (Not the greatest game) were students at the RCC, I thought that was pretty awesome. They even complimented and laughed their asses off at a game I showed them that I created. RCC Seems cool but I actually don't know if they're scamming me or not.

Thanks all!

Sep 3rd, 2010 11:29 am

r00t_decision: Member; Dec 9, 2008; 352 posts; 40 upvotes

Sep 3rd, 2010 11:29 am

Save your time the money, heart ache and disappointment. Go to Humber or Sheridan or wherever. Trios, IAOD, etc are all rip off schools that charge way too much money. Go to a college or university, you get better service, better teachers, better facilities.

Go to humber college, that program is better, it doesn't rush your learning, and payment is stretched out. If you're serious about what you want to do, you won't rush to learn what you want, and pay $25,000 grand to fast accelerate.

Trust me on this, don't even attempt to get suckered into those schools. Their programs just sprang over night.

Plus college life is hell of a lot more exciting.

I've seen students and the game program at humber college it's good learning experience and it's only $9.000 for 3 years. Plus with OSAP you can cover more money, and get more grants as a Ontario resident, bursaries and scholarships.

But hey if you want to be 40G's in the hole in 12 months, go for it, (that's sarcasm).

Sep 3rd, 2010 4:02 pm

dushbadge [OP]: Newbie; Aug 31, 2010; 8 posts; ontario

Sep 3rd, 2010 4:02 pm

r00t_decision wrote: ↑Save your time the money, heart ache and disappointment. Go to Humber or Sheridan or wherever. Trios, IAOD, etc are all rip off schools that charge way too much money. Go to a college or university, you get better service, better teachers, better facilities.

Go to humber college, that program is better, it doesn't rush your learning, and payment is stretched out. If you're serious about what you want to do, you won't rush to learn what you want, and pay $25,000 grand to fast accelerate.

Trust me on this, don't even attempt to get suckered into those schools. Their programs just sprang over night.

Plus college life is hell of a lot more exciting.

I've seen students and the game program at humber college it's good learning experience and it's only $9.000 for 3 years. Plus with OSAP you can cover more money, and get more grants as a Ontario resident, bursaries and scholarships.

But hey if you want to be 40G's in the hole in 12 months, go for it, (that's sarcasm).

lol I'm not attending IAOD as you mentioned above, I was planning to go to the Academy of Design at the RCC institute of Technology, I mean, does anyone have any experience going to this school? Unless you're talking about private schools in general.

Oh yeah, there's no way I'm attending Trios College at all, but I would like to know about the RCC Institute of Technology.

Sep 3rd, 2010 5:10 pm

iamzill: Sr. Member; Nov 20, 2006; 793 posts; 15 upvotes; Vancouver

Sep 3rd, 2010 5:10 pm

dushbadge wrote: ↑lol I'm not attending IAOD as you mentioned above, I was planning to go to the Academy of Design at the RCC institute of Technology, I mean, does anyone have any experience going to this school? Unless you're talking about private schools in general.

Oh yeah, there's no way I'm attending Trios College at all, but I would like to know about the RCC Institute of Technology.

I don't mean to be rude, but the first google result clearly shows that RCC IT is a scam.

The simple rule is: if the school make you sign any contracts it's a scam.

Whenever that I see any advertisement about a university or college, I make a mental note to be weary of that place and its alumni.

Sep 3rd, 2010 5:27 pm

databaseoracle: Sr. Member; Aug 12, 2010; 664 posts; 51 upvotes; Toronto

Sep 3rd, 2010 5:27 pm

Video game development requires advanced mathematics and software engineering knowledge. For example, to develop a mmo you have to keep track of hundreds of items per character and millions of locations. That requires advanced relational database knowledge. In order to have three dimensional graphics, you need physics, which is math heavy. Physics math is always one or two years ahead of the math you learn in math class, even in college.

For example the definitive book for game programming is this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Progr ... 654&sr=1-2

I wish I had saved this blog post I read a couple years ago, but it spoke of game programming from a hiring perspective. Entry level students were expected to do grunt work, not design games or do flashy stuff. And almost all of that grunt work is mathematical in nature, heavy on linear algebra and matrix transforms. In other words an entry level game programmer for a large company sits in a cubicle and does math.

So the route to become a game programmer seems to be this: take a computer science+physics or computer science+math major and take any courses you can grab which have to do with linear algebra and applied math. Spend all your free time (summers and so on) learning all the stuff "game programming" colleges will teach you on your own. When you graduate not only will you have a programming degree which you can fall back on if the game programming doesn't work out, but you will likely have a large portfolio of games built over four years.

Sorry to say that all the colleges you listed have a tiny to zero chance of getting you in the industry, because there are real computer science majors waiting in line who did exactly what I said in the last paragraph. They know everything these colleges teach (OpenGL, Direct3D, level design) because summer is four months long and that's more than enough time to cover all the stuff these game colleges teach on your own. Meanwhile they have all the math and physics you won't have if you go to these "game" programs in colleges. So your chances of being hired out of these is near zero, unless you are a graphics designer (which isn't really game programming).

If you haven't already spent much of high school making flash games, I would forget about game development and go straight for computer science. Then spend all my free time on game programming in the game programming club of a decent computer science program and create a portfolio of games.

I know this is not the answer you want to hear, but it's the truth. Every joe blow and their mother wants to "make games" and what separates those who make it and those who don't are one of two things 1. a portfolio built over many years and 2. math (not just any math but math specific to games). Neither can be gained through a two or one year game programming diploma.

Sep 3rd, 2010 7:52 pm

dushbadge [OP]: Newbie; Aug 31, 2010; 8 posts; ontario

Sep 3rd, 2010 7:52 pm

Ahh man, geez. I'm a bit afraid, the thing is I've already withdrawn from the humber program I was accepted to (Computer Programming, I would have done Game Programming but they didn't accept me from the admission test), and I got accepted into the RCC Academy of Design for October 4th. I'm not screwed right?

Sep 3rd, 2010 8:13 pm

databaseoracle: Sr. Member; Aug 12, 2010; 664 posts; 51 upvotes; Toronto

Sep 3rd, 2010 8:13 pm

dushbadge wrote: ↑Ahh man, geez. I'm a bit afraid, the thing is I've already withdrawn from the humber program I was accepted to (Computer Programming, I would have done Game Programming but they didn't accept me from the admission test), and I got accepted into the RCC Academy of Design for October 4th. I'm not screwed right?

Trust me there's a lot more screwed people than you who have huge debt or kids.

See if you can get back into Humber and ask a Humber admissions person what their policy on retakes for the admission test is. If you are absolutely sure that it's just the test then you can go for a January intake instead if they offer it and retake the test and ace it.

Worst comes to worst you can take a year off like most high school grads do and spend the whole year learning solid programming and making a ton of Flash games. Which is what you say you want to do anyway .

Sep 3rd, 2010 8:34 pm

dushbadge [OP]: Newbie; Aug 31, 2010; 8 posts; ontario

Sep 3rd, 2010 8:34 pm

databaseoracle wrote: ↑Trust me there's a lot more screwed people than you who have huge debt or kids.

See if you can get back into Humber and ask a Humber admissions person what their policy on retakes for the admission test is. If you are absolutely sure that it's just the test then you can go for a January intake instead if they offer it and retake the test and ace it.

Worst comes to worst you can take a year off like most high school grads do and spend the whole year learning solid programming and making a ton of Flash games. Which is what you say you want to do anyway .

Oh my gosh man, another half year without school and I'm screwed, that is what I am most afraid of.

Sep 3rd, 2010 9:41 pm

databaseoracle: Sr. Member; Aug 12, 2010; 664 posts; 51 upvotes; Toronto

Sep 3rd, 2010 9:41 pm

dushbadge wrote: ↑Oh my gosh man, another half year without school and I'm screwed, that is what I am most afraid of.

Well Ontario used to have Grade 13, so this could be your Grade 13 except you can do whatever you want .

Trust me it is not such a bad thing... nobody cares about a year gap between high school and college. From your posts looks like you could use the year and get some "street smarts"... if you want me to be honest any adult would have smelled the RCC scam from a mile away. Credits generally non-transferrable to any public college, useless outside of Canada, and anyone who laughs at your "portfolio" (your game) is probably laughing at you and not with you.

Sep 3rd, 2010 11:08 pm

Mykester: Deal Addict; Nov 25, 2009; 1490 posts; 19 upvotes

Sep 3rd, 2010 11:08 pm

UOIT has a game development program.

Sep 4th, 2010 2:43 am

dushbadge [OP]: Newbie; Aug 31, 2010; 8 posts; ontario

Sep 4th, 2010 2:43 am

Mykester wrote: ↑UOIT has a game development program.

Yeah man, that program looks pretty cool but lol, I don't have Six grade 12 university courses on my OSSD. My OSSD is complete garbage. I've got my garbage OSSD, my General Arts and Science certificate from Humber college, and a credit for Functions which I did online.

That is nothing but a dream ;(

Sep 4th, 2010 9:45 am

databaseoracle: Sr. Member; Aug 12, 2010; 664 posts; 51 upvotes; Toronto

Sep 4th, 2010 9:45 am

You can take night or summer courses or even distance courses through Adult Learning Center even if you already have your OSSD. If you are only 1-2 credits short I would think about it.

It's a lot harder than normal high school but there's online chat with teachers. You have to be really motivated though and the dropout rate for distance learning is really high.

Honestly you don't have to wait for a dumb piece of paper to start making games. You can make games today on your own . With the cost of one semester's tuition you can start your own video game company.

Sep 4th, 2010 8:52 pm

diananas: Sr. Member; Aug 8, 2009; 653 posts; 59 upvotes

Sep 4th, 2010 8:52 pm

I hear that IAOD guarantees graduates a job placement when they graduate....

Unfortunately, those placements are at EB games.

Sep 6th, 2010 5:37 am

Firestorm: Deal Fanatic; Aug 24, 2006; 7418 posts; 530 upvotes; Vancouver

Sep 6th, 2010 5:37 am

Design is not typically an entry-level position. You're looking at going Programming or Artist (either modeller, animator, textures, etc) and working your way through that and then into design I'd say. That or the QA route. Maybe look at Computer Science degrees with some game design sprinkled in. Maybe it's because I'm not based in Ontario, but I've never heard of the schools you mentioned. See how many of their grads go straight into a game company afterwards and what positions they get.

I know Vancouver Film School is great even though it's pretty expensive. $20,000 for the one year program and you'd have to relocate. Very intensive program.

Sep 6th, 2010 2:17 pm

kittypink: Deal Addict; Jul 4, 2009; 1170 posts; 382 upvotes; Mississauga area

Sep 6th, 2010 2:17 pm

I think if you want to go into VG development, you should look through the job ads and see what most companies are looking for when they hire.

My brother works at UBI Soft in Montreal. He went to Sheridan for animation, then to Centennial for computer animation.
Whatever you do, don't go through colleges like Trios, they don't have a very good rep in the industry. If a company was to hire between a Sheridan grad or a Trios grad, who do you think they'll take? Game development is very VERY competitive so you need to do whatever it takes to have an edge.

Sep 6th, 2010 10:19 pm

dushbadge [OP]: Newbie; Aug 31, 2010; 8 posts; ontario

Sep 6th, 2010 10:19 pm

I'm going to Humber Tommorow at 7:00 AM so I can BEG to get back into Programming. I don't even have my money back yet which could possibily be a plus. I just can't believe it... I'm so pissed off that I didn't ask redflagdeals about this BEFORE I withdrew from Programming.

Wish me luck everyone...! lol

Sep 6th, 2010 11:26 pm

databaseoracle: Sr. Member; Aug 12, 2010; 664 posts; 51 upvotes; Toronto

Sep 6th, 2010 11:26 pm

If they say no don't be too hard on yourself and just start in January or the summer or next September.

You can even attend or audit courses in the meanwhile to guarantee an A. Honestly, it is not as big a deal as you make it. Nobody cares about a few months gap between high school and college, unlike the work world where a few months gap without a job is disaster both financially and career wise. Nobody will ever ask you when you graduated high school (unless that's all you have).

Better to start Humber next September than any private college right now.

Sep 6th, 2010 11:52 pm

dushbadge [OP]: Newbie; Aug 31, 2010; 8 posts; ontario

Sep 6th, 2010 11:52 pm

databaseoracle wrote: ↑If they say no don't be too hard on yourself and just start in January or the summer or next September.

You can even attend or audit courses in the meanwhile to guarantee an A. Honestly, it is not as big a deal as you make it. Nobody cares about a few months gap between high school and college, unlike the work world where a few months gap without a job is disaster both financially and career wise. Nobody will ever ask you when you graduated high school (unless that's all you have).

Better to start Humber next September than any private college right now.

Yes man, I absolutely cannot attend that private college. I guess if I do miss out on this chance tomorrow I can get a job to negate these feelings of depression.

Sep 7th, 2010 1:59 am

MacD: Newbie; Jan 29, 2009; 11 posts; 1 upvote; GTA

Sep 7th, 2010 1:59 am

If you can't get back in, you can take some courses online through Humber that can go towards you Computer Programming diploma. It's what I'm currently doing. Actually I'm taking as many as I can online, with minimal courses during the day in order to continue working full time. there's also evening courses. The cost per course is higher than full time tuition, and you may not make a huge dent in your course load due to some courses being pre-requisites to others, but you'll have a year until the next computer programming start date, so you might as well thin out that course load while you have the free time.

Glancing at the start dates, you can take COMM 213, HUMA 024, and some of the required General Education courses this month, and COMM 313, CPAN 210, CPAN 110 in January. Also CPAN 150 as an evening course in January.

There will be courses starting this month, January, and April-May of 2011. If the courses are offered during this time, you should be able to complete most of the first 2 semesters before September 2011. This will free up your first year considerably, which will allow you to either take second year courses in their places, or work full time

The only thing is that the online courses are very self paced, with (in my experience) very little input from the instructors, so you'll need to stay focused.

Sep 7th, 2010 10:20 am

dushbadge [OP]: Newbie; Aug 31, 2010; 8 posts; ontario

Sep 7th, 2010 10:20 am

MacD wrote: ↑If you can't get back in, you can take some courses online through Humber that can go towards you Computer Programming diploma. It's what I'm currently doing. Actually I'm taking as many as I can online, with minimal courses during the day in order to continue working full time. there's also evening courses. The cost per course is higher than full time tuition, and you may not make a huge dent in your course load due to some courses being pre-requisites to others, but you'll have a year until the next computer programming start date, so you might as well thin out that course load while you have the free time.

Glancing at the start dates, you can take COMM 213, HUMA 024, and some of the required General Education courses this month, and COMM 313, CPAN 210, CPAN 110 in January. Also CPAN 150 as an evening course in January.

There will be courses starting this month, January, and April-May of 2011. If the courses are offered during this time, you should be able to complete most of the first 2 semesters before September 2011. This will free up your first year considerably, which will allow you to either take second year courses in their places, or work full time

The only thing is that the online courses are very self paced, with (in my experience) very little input from the instructors, so you'll need to stay focused.

That's not necessary. Luckily I was reinstated. I start tommorow at 9:00, woot!

Thanks everyone at redflagdeals, especially databaseoracle. If it weren't for this topic, I'd be screwed man!!