Throughout my life in the educational system, I have never encountered any academic problems. In fact, at risk of appearing tremendously egotistical, I would go so far as to say that I have never encountered any kind of academic work which I found insurmountably difficult.
Currently, I'm considering whether or not to go to university. Having always attained quite highly in terms of grades, I have always taken it as a given that a requisite for getting employed was to do well in my GCSEs, do well in my A-levels, and finally do well in university.
Recently, I've been increasingly encouraged to look at universities to attend in order to get a degree in either Mathematics or Computer Science. The process of deciding on a university for this purpose is arduous, slow, and above all very tedious.
The question comes down to a difficult dichotomy between unpleasant certainty and ambiguously pleasant uncertainty.
The case in favour of university is quite simply that it is the most "safe" option. I know that if I go to university, I can get some indie development job and I can pay the bills and live, but for what? Is the case for life simply living for its own sake? That seems awfully redundant and honestly, very pointless.
The case against university is obviously the inverse of this, I may not be able to get a job, and I may not be able to pay bills to live comfortably, if I don't create anything worthwhile. This option does alleviate student debts, so the monetary burden is lighter, but so as the strength with which to carry the burden is weaker.
Honestly, as far as indie development goes, how useful can a university degree even be? Considering so much is based off of portfolio, it's a trade-off of a marginal increase in employability with thousands in student debt.
Maybe I'll see what I can get accomplished before I need to go to university. Maybe I'll take a gap year and see what happens then. Maybe, if all else fails I can simply acquiesce to the unpleasant certainty that so many others choose willingly, for whatever reasons they may have.
Either way, I'm not making this decision now, and I'm likely not making it soon.
If you have done, thanks for reading.
I chose not to go to university. Similarly to you I did well in school and was always taught that I should do well in school, do well in uni then get a job using that degree. However the possibility of "some job in the game development industry" is about as appealing as stocking shelves at a grocery store. For me it's indie development I soecifically want to do for a living, not just game or software development. With that in mind, university would just be a great way to lose a lot of money for me.
ReplyDelete