• Registered: April 6, 2009
  • Posts: 11

Topic: shopping for schools and advice

so im graduating with a ba in communication studies with a multimedia concentration and i will earn my certification to be a web designer later this month... 

but personally i dont feel i learned enough to make my way into the real web design world, so im considering going for a masters.. i was looking at csu-east bay which is only about an hour or 2 away from me, but im curious if anyone has gone there and are willing to share their experiences?  also if anyone knows of any accredited online grad programs that would be great...  even a masters in digital media or web development would be awesome..

i do think that some schools dont do a very good of teaching multimedia. my uncle, who works in this field,  keeps telling me to not worry about it because I will most likely get trained, but like i said, i dont feel confident that my skills will do me much help in even getting an entry level position.  so i feel like i need to go back to school. 

i hate the scripting and coding of computer science because i have a hard time with it and i cant do the art, designs, and layouts on pages for hours straight... ive been told that im in the wrong field if i dont like to one or the other.  i ditched my thoughts of becoming an animator in high school when i got tired of drawing and doing simple 2d animation.

im even considering getting a teaching credential to teach multimedia in a high school if i am unable to find a masters program or going for a ba in interior design since i seem to be pretty good and enjoy 3d modeling. 

ive given this a lot of though over the past year and evaluated the pros and cons of each and they all come to the same conclusion: what i want to do is to create things that people can appreciate through interaction or by simply looking at it through any medium.  i realized this about a year or so into working as a cake decorator. 

i know ive gone off on a tangent, but i need some serious counseling and guidance.  the advisors at school arent much help and my friends and family tell me to not worry about it and do what will make you happy or tell me to go marry some rich guy who will support me. 

so do you guys think a masters might be a waste and i should just get an entry-level and learn that way or should i really reconsider my career plans or something differently?

sorry for the long message, but i appreciate any advice.

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  • From: Florida
  • Registered: December 19, 2008
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Re: shopping for schools and advice

You seem to enjoy some aspect of multimedia and communications but you would like to obtain more skills. This doesn't mean you have to get a masters to learn everything there is to know about it. Google serves quite well as a college substitute as far as obtaining information.

I personally know of four people that are in the web/graphic design business and all are doing quite well. Only one has a BA.

Do I think getting a master is a waste of time? It is if you have no plans to make a career in multimedia/communications.

And as for your family and friends comments, yes, do what you love to do and then build on it.  Of course I don't know about finding a rich guy and marrying him. Being rich doesn't provide happiness. smile

Imagine Building and Managing an Online Business
The Kasper Group

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  • LSW
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  • From: Juneau AK
  • Registered: December 20, 2008
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Re: shopping for schools and advice

Finding a rich guy may work for you... not for me though, I'm male. wink Can't help there.

Usually I suggest ITT, I was going to go for an Associates with them... but they would have to send me to a different University for anything higher, so not much use for you though you could try it and see what they offer, having another degree would not hurt.

Schooling - Hard one. First off a believe in it, my father was a Art Professor and Doctorate holder and it was pounded into me at birth... and I joined the Army Infantry and still do not have any. roll

The problem is pigskin vs. quality. I have been a web developer since 1999. Learned at a unknown and now defunct school in Potsdam Germany. It was just a Certificate and now I know just how poor the training was. Most everything I know I learned online... and you can tell here that I was one of the lead regulars. But having gone on to programming I have sort of dropped from the radar now. But in that time I have seen here and in other forums allot of "University taught" kids come in talking trash and disapear as quickly as we "street taught" regulars cut them down in size. Degree owners talking about using Frames, Tables, XHTML is HTML and replacing it and deprecated tags. So the degree is only as good as the school teaching it. To many are not in the business or long out of it and not up to snuff.

That said, in 2006 I came back stateside. I was picked up by a headhunter in Detroit who sent me to a well known company in the business with big name contracts and Gov. contracts. The headhunter thought I nailed the job, the personnel chef for the company thought I nailed the position... and the team lead killed it because I have no degree and he did not believe I could handle the pressure based on a phone interview as he was not in the original interview. Ex- Infantry, Ex-Bodyguard for Daimler-Benz, 8 years in the biz and he felt I could not handle pressure due to lack of a degree.

So degrees can be very important, especially for working in the top echelons of the business. If I would have a degree, if I would have that company on my resume, I would be set and be much higher ranking in the State than my current position. Instead I had to start as a AP II even with my street experience and have to work my current rank (AP III) for two years before moving to an AP IV. I could have started as an AP IV and be looking at a management position (AP V) now.

So you have a degree, you are well off already. You just need to find your niche. I come from a family of teachers and taught in this forum for years. I have watched some of the regulars here who came in beginners and now are solid members teaching others. It is great and I commend you on that idea. But due to the reasons mentioned above I would be hesitant to see you now teach others without having worked in the industry. You may have learned old techniques (like the XHTML/HTML, frames and tables types) or learned technology that goes no where. I was taught Python as it was the next great thing... but never took off. So you may be teaching things that are not relevant to todays market if you have never worked in it.

Maybe specializing may be good for you. Have a look at Flex, it is basically Flash for programmers. I think it will be going somewhere. It does work with Actionscript and MXML... but you can also be creative and do alot more. It is used allot for photo galleries and shopping carts... is may be the hybrid that may work for you, not hardcore animation or hardcore programming, it is something inbetween. You can see my Flex thread for more.

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  • Registered: April 6, 2009
  • Posts: 11

Re: shopping for schools and advice

thanks tkg and lsw.  most of the stuff i have learned has been self taught, which is much of the reason way i dont feel i have learned much in the past four years.  i got into web design about the same time as you lsw, but the big difference is that i was only about 12 years old at the time haha..  through the years i taught myself basic html through msn groups and wed design, the lovely group we were from, helped me out a lot especially with understanding usability. 

but because of the limited things groups could do, i went on to myspace and taught myself css.  but i eventually hit a road block.  i didnt really understand the programming so my senior year of hs, i took a class on vb and realized then, i dont like programming.. haha..  so when i started college i took the simplest language offered which was qbasic so i could get a better grasp on the basics. 

i then tried java and i did horrible.  i was ditching class so i could get help to pass the class.  i was so happy i passed with a D.. i went to class everyday and did the homework, but the teacher was not very helpful when i asked questions and i failed almost every test.  that was when i decided that i would never be a computer science major.

i then took a class on html and xhtml because the instructor wouldnt let me challenge out of it because i didnt know how to use frames at all or tables very well.  i told him i usually use css, but i was stuck in the class for the semester.  the next year i took javascript and was actually happy i took that java class since the languages looks so similar.  by that time i started using director (which was stupid since not very many people use it), but the lingo was helpful for me when i started to learn actionscript. 

i never really got into using actionscript because the flash class i took was an electronic art class.  the actionscript class that was being offered was canceled because i was the only one interested in taking it...

this year i think was the most productive year i had.  im enrolled in two classes:  one on asp.net and visual studio and the other is on databases.  the database class which was specifically for web development was canceled because only 5 people were signed up for it, so we were put into a computer science majors only class on databases and file management.  we only stayed for the database portion and stopped going for the file management so we could go on independent study to create a website which uses php and mysql.  of course none of us learned php so this week has been interesting. im just happy the project is over with and due tomorrow.

but getting back to something that you mentioned lsw, i would not want to teach web design in high school, but 3D modeling is what i would most likely want to teach.  if i did teach web design, i wouldn't even know what aspect i would like to teach even if i did have the experience or the skills.

as for marry the rich guy, i would agree with tkg that i wouldnt be happy.  thats what i tell my father all the time, i dont want to marry someone who will never be around because they are always working or are going crazy because of the stress from their job.   but i will check out the flex thread when my semester is over and when i have the most free time.

thanks guys for your feedback!

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  • LSW
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  • From: Juneau AK
  • Registered: December 20, 2008
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Re: shopping for schools and advice

Ohhhh another M$Ner hugh? We have I think 5 or so here that came from M$N "Web Design" - are you aware that Auntie did rescue the site at the last Minute? Let me know if you want the link.

Flex uses Actionscript so if you have worked with it and Javascript then you should get that part well. The interface is easy to work with and based on the free Eclipse IDE, you can even use a Eclipse plugin to build flex apps without using the Official Flex interface.

VB is a dying breed. QBasic I have never heard of, just guessingthat it is a basic based language.

I work for the state and it is mostly Java or ASP.NET (C#). I too had Java in my programming school but a lousy teacher and hate it... no one in the class even managed a working project.

Flex at the basic level deals with (M)XML files. I am frustrated as I am trying to get a simple interface to work that calls up one line of data from a Oracle database and the rest of the shop is using complicated stuff like Hibernate or JBoss to do the same. But Flex may be what you are after. But don't say programming is not for you because of java, it is a complicated top heavy language. Try PHP or Python even, Python was my first and I learned it well. PHP is about as easy as it gets. Perl is not bad either.

SQL and database development is a must for the good company jobs. Database management and security is  good money though and good on your resume.

As for the rest, as a fall back look for "Marrying Rich Guys for Dummies" big_smile (Although I was shown a book called "Native American History for Dummies" by the woman teaching my family native Alaskan skills like Beading, mochasin making and carving. We all had a good laugh at that, so there be one!).

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  • Registered: April 6, 2009
  • Posts: 11

Re: shopping for schools and advice

i do have the new link from auntie in a saved email somewhere.

i think python would work very well for me.  i do 3d modeling in blender 3d and from what i understand, the programming is done in python.  i tried doing some php about a week or two ago, it didn't look that difficult, but i was overwhelmed with it because of a project due, so i mostly copy and pasted without completely understanding it.  when my semester is over, i plan o going back to read up on it.

And thats pretty funny.  i might actually look for that book.  it would be great restroom reading material.

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  • Registered: December 27, 2008
  • Posts: 437

Re: shopping for schools and advice

Blimey, all that gobble-de-gook learning of different disciplines is enough to turn anyone off.

It's a good job though, that you did at least get to grips with css along the way (and cake decorating too. Hmmm). Trouble is, css, apart from jQuery, is the only code that you can instantly make things happen with. Doing the same thing with php isn't going to happen, unless you take the time to learn how to do stuff, which is something I'm not very good at.

I wouldn't mind having a go at Blender meself, as a little while ago I was playing around with something called Kinemac, but from the looks of Blender it's like way too much work just wrapping my head around its interface. roll lol

If you do get around to having another go at php -- as I am now doing, check these titles out...

   
PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy
by David Powers

PHP and MySQL Web Development, Fourth Edition
by Luke Welling and Laura Thomson

Head First PHP & MySQL Head First PHP & MySQL
by Lynn Beighley and Michael Morrison

Learning PHP 5 Learning PHP 5
by David Sklar

Build Your Own Database Driven Website Using PHP & MySQL
by Kevin Yank

The PHP Anthology (101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks)
by Davey Shafik, Matthew Weier O'Phinney, Ligaya Turmelle, Harry Fuecks, and Ben Balbo

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  • Registered: April 6, 2009
  • Posts: 11

Re: shopping for schools and advice

MacRankin, thanks for the titles.  i will have to look them up when i get the chance.   

as for blender, i completely understand what you are saying about being overwhelmed.  i freaked out when i first saw the interface, and i thought 3ds max had too much going on.  if are really interested in learning blender,  get a copy of The Essential Blender by Roland Hess, or even check out the blender wiki.  blender is an amazing program, i made my avatar using blender.

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  • Registered: December 27, 2008
  • Posts: 437

Re: shopping for schools and advice

Thanks for the book title smile I may just get a copy. Not saying I'll be doing anything definite with Blender, as I much prefer the looks of Kinemac.

I was playing around with the idea of having one or two 3d product images, where they could be adjusted manually by an interested visitor, rather than just annoyingly have the things rotate. Beyond those delicate, flash 2d, banner transitions that I've seen done by susie there isn't really a lot that I'd want to see moving around on a web page.

Btw, I came across a really useful set of Blender video tuts that you're probably already aware of. I think they're mostly geared towards Windows users' who have a 3-buttoned mouse. I do have a multi-buttoned mouse meself, but I've been playing around with the keyboard / mighty mouse combos.

Anyway, about those tuts...

http:// blenderunderground.com/ 2007/07/18/blender-basics-part-1-video-tutorial-completed/ (please remove spaces)

There's an humongous amount of material for newbies in which to cover in just the first part alone. That's way too much video at one sitting for me. It might be an idea to watch a chunk of it at a time. yikes

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  • LSW
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  • From: Juneau AK
  • Registered: December 20, 2008
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Re: shopping for schools and advice

Lynda.com is  a great place for tutorials, I am sure they cover Blender.

Both of you should have a look at Computer Arts, I used to get the magazine in Germany, good forum too.

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  • Registered: April 6, 2009
  • Posts: 11

Re: shopping for schools and advice

i actually did not know about blender underground.  most of the time i refer to the book and the tutorials on blender . org.  most of the tutorials i have looked up were on lighting since that is my weak point. and i would agree with the videos are lengthy but im pretty sure they would be very helpful.

and lynda . com helped me learn dreamweaver when i was not able to figure things out on my own.  i wouldnt be surprised if there is a book for blender.  and also thank you for sharing the computer arts site.  i will have to look through the tutorials when i have the time.

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