DigiPen Institute of Technology — Attraction in Redmond

Do not go. If you are at all good at programming, design, music, art... learn on your own. Networking isnt something youll get out of it either.

Further Reading: Everything they base their teaching on is old news, or they tout the games students worked on at big studios like "portal" or "halo 1" etc. Might sound awesome on paper, but i assure you its not.

Programming wise, youd learn more if you just learned on your own because anyone who could keep up with any course offered here is smart enough to do so on their own or by loosely following a community college. Seriously, a website with some apps on it, or knowing a programming language will get you a job in tech, not your degree. Put out your portfolio, dont make it crap and BOOM get hired.

Art? Dont go to a school for art. Youre either good or not and you are better off taking individual classes to learn specific skills anywhere (online, or elsewhere). You should go to a school for a specific subject or study at a school that inspires you. Art is inspiration, grief, relation, etc. Making something fantastic won't come from a place where they worship bad/lazy furry art. You won't get proper critiques from the general class because it's all drama, no gain. The profs here know what they are talking about but the school is mostly a people experience here rather than a learning experience.

Design? The most useful thing you need to know about design as a whole is to listen to the player and the audience, know your product, and know the market. if you are a designer worth a damn youd know that before going at all. Want to know more? Learning design is just knowing more words to use and writing documents. Google that stuff.

20k a semester is stupid. You wont make a single connection here worth anything more than just impressing a recruiter and if you want to go crazy high at a place like Google, or have your Art in a gallery you need to be talented. Your degree and where you got it doesn't matter from a place like this. Nobody cares you went to DigiPen. I promise.

I strongly recommend looking into the background of various staff members, everything googled is true. Every youtube video is true.

Please do not go here if you are international. It is not worth it!

Please do not go here if you are from a family with little money, it is not worth it! I met too many people with no money.

Please do not go here if you are talented: you are better than this school.

The surrounding town of Redmond has totally changed in the last 5 years. it is very much turning into all housing and no place to work.

Lastly, I held a position working as a pal student secretary. As far as I can tell, they really just blow your 40k a year on nonsense.

I have no issue saying any of this because it's all true. Unless you are from the area, or have really rich parents who love to waste money: Do not go!

Personally: They kicked me out with no listed reason as to why besides vague comments leading up to it and a vague conversation over teams (vague as in, no information). I was devestated and still have no idea why i was kicked out. The reasons leading up to it were all based on lies from people who didn't like me who seemingly mixed me up with someone else, and instead of asking for my side they said "bye" with no remorse. They did not give any specific reason as to why, they didn't tell me who/what happened, they simply kicked me out of the school and my apartment. Additionally, the person who was directly in charge of the choice didn't like me on a fundamental level and ultimately illegally evicted me from an apartment I paid for giving me a 3 day period to vacate. (didnt know it was illegal at the time).

Final: There is nothing to learn here if you know anything about the gaming industry or are even mildly talented. Go anywhere else for a normal, applicable, degree. I learned nothing besides that a school like this is a drama den where they slander you.

I still, to this day, have no direct reason as to why i was kicked out. They just want your money.

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DigiPen really only works for people with a very specific kind of disposition. If you struggle with depression or don't have an extremely high tolerance for stress, don't even think of applying. Not everyone can learn in a stressful environment and DigiPen has zero ability to accommodate different learning needs, nor really any interest in doing so. They pride themselves on the fact that 2/3 of their students drop out and that many "discover that they have no real love" for the subject they went there to study. That's bullshit. What actually happens is they destroy those students' self-esteem.

To be clear, I did graduate with my BFA, but I left feeling my skills were unemployable after spending 90% of my time forced to work in every area except the one I wanted to specialize in (animation). I know for a fact that I came out with worse drawing skills than I went in with, mainly because it just wasn't taught in a way that I could internalize.

They made a big deal when I visited the campus about artists and programmers working together; that a programmer could just walk down the hall to an art classroom and say they needed "x" for their project and an artist could volunteer to help them extra-curricularly. Actually it turned out that doing so was very vehemently discouraged by the teachers, as it would take away from the time you needed to spend on your own homework. So really you were only supposed to work with programmers if you decided to do a game project for your capstone project in your senior year (which less than a third of the artists did). The reality, though, was that it was the students that did extra-curricular game projects from the first year who typically ended up in the best position for success, because they had made connections and knew how to work with the programmers..

Falling through the cracks was incredibly easy, especially if you have problems with socialization. Despite spending years with the same small group of people, I was unable to make any friends within my program, which made partnering for projects difficult. The instructor support for this was virtually non-existent.

Support for artists who wanted to work in the game industry was also lacking, mainly because the school really just wants their artists to produce pretty videos that they can show off on the TV screens in the lobbies and artwork that they can use as marketing materials.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, DigiPen owns everything you make in your classes.

I've talked to quite a few former DigiPen students since graduating, and I've found far more who were unhappy with the experience than those who were happy. I left with a mountain of debt and a useless degree, and unless you excel under pressure, are socially assertive, and have no learning disabilities, you can probably...

I'm giving 4 stars because DigiPen is an incredible school, but it can be very unforgiving. I attended from August 2015 to October 2015, and do kind of regret it. The experience was incredible and surreal, going to a school like itself. It's a good school with a great learning community if you are very, VERY committed and into it. I went in wholeheartedly believing I could push myself to excel, but I quickly learned that (in my case) staying would be a very bad idea. I'm not an artist, and I suck at math.

The half-semester experience left me $20,000 in debt, which I might have paid off by the end of next year. Also, if you owe the school money, the minimum payment is $500 a month. Keep this in mind: this is the real world, and if you have any doubts about this school, do not attend unless you have enough money to come out unscathed should you decide to leave. If you graduate (or complete most of your degree), you will be WELL over $100,000 in debt. Also, should you need to finish at another school, keep in mind that no classes will transfer at all. This is a highly specialized curriculum. Lastly, if you suffer from homesickness or don't hate where you live now, the move will take a toll on you. I moved from South Carolina, and it was very difficult after the first month.

If you 100% believe that you can handle this school, and know for a fact game design/art and animation is what you want to do with your life, then go for it. Keep everything I've said in mind, and PLEASE talk to DigiPen students before you enroll. Ask them about the workload and the difficulty. Check out their assignments if possible, and be sure to go in with full understand that you will be pushed to...