education - Game Development Degree vs Computer Science Degree

I'm at the point in my life where I'm starting to look at schools, and was hearing a lot of mixed things about schools such as Digipen or Fullsail that target game development specifically. As someone who is planning on becoming a programmer and getting into the games industry, would getting a game development degree be better than a traditional computer science degree?

Answer

Schooling isn't going to get you a job.

If you're good at what you do, and you care about it, you don't need a degree.

A game-focused degree is good at helping you getting your foot in the door since a lot of those schools have teachers or advisors who are actually in the industry. It'll also help you by providing you useful team experience.

Also, and this is very important, a Computer Science degree is not about programming. You might have a class here and there that might be useful, but the degree as a whole is not about good programming practices or really anything pragmatic that you would need on a day to day basis. (Note: this may vary based on your school.)

That being said, getting a CS degree usually implies going to a non-game-focused school, which also implies getting a more well rounded education, which might pay off int the end. Also a lot of regular schools have game development programs these days which could get you some connections to the local industry.

At least in my experience, getting a certificate from one of these game development colleges is almost worthless on its own. Unless you have side projects or have some kind of way of proving that you care about whatever field you're interested in other than just going to school, you'll be going in the "maybe someday I'll get around to these people" pile of resumes (hint: I won't).

Edit: since I really didn't answer the question, basically my opinion is this:

If you have the motivation to work on games in your spare time, do that and get a traditional education. It'll pay off in more ways than if you just went to more of a niche school.

If you're the kind of person that works better when somebody is telling them to do something, or if you need to feel like your money is on the line, try to go for a game dev school instead.

If your sole focus in life is to get into the game industry (it shouldn't be), and you're smart and motivated enough, try taking a year and working on things in your spare time (mods, solo projects, demos, whatever) and bypassing both options.