Pardon me if I'm missing some posts but this reply is being typed over a long period of time (don't have time to write it all at once).
Anyways, it is worth it to go to a Game School as long as you do your research.
- Research the school and what they offer.
- Make sure the school offers what you want. Do you want to do art? Make sure they have an art program. Want to do Game Design? er...go somewhere else (I'll get into that in a moment).
- Research the professors
- If someone is teaching you how to make games make sure that they have in fact made games. Someone who has never made a game has no business teaching you how to make one.
- What happens to the graduates?
- When visiting (because you should) make sure you find out how many graduates get a job in their field of study and how long it takes them. Most places like the Art Institutes will just take your money and couldn't give two shits if you find a job. Those lucky students who do find a job usually get a job as a tester, which there isn't anything wrong with, but if you're paying $50,000 for an education you should make sure you get what you want.
- Do they prepare you for life after college?
- What do they do to help you with a portfolio?
- What do they do to help you with a resume and cover letter?
- Do they give you contacts?
- What is the schools reputation?
- This one can be harder to find out but if you know someone in the game industry, see what they and the people around them think of your potential schools.
- Look at the curriculum
- Is the curriculum really just some liberal arts degree called a game design degree because they threw in a programming class or is it an actual game degree? Note that if you are going to school for game design you should have made many levels, documents, and even a few games by the time you graduate.
- What is the dropout rate?
- Just good to know.
- What do the students think of the program?
- While visiting the campus (because you should) ask the students what they think. Try to find freshmen through seniors and get their opinions on the program.
Now that you've done the research on the school, lets talk about what I meant by don't go for a game design degree.
If you're going to school for gaming you need to pick a specific discipline, whether it be art, programming, or level design. After you know what your specific discipline in, decide your specialty and then make sure your school of choice offers that. These people that go to school for game design really are just taking a degree that is a mixture of a lot of things and doesn't do crap to actually prepare them for a job.
When it's time for you to look for a job you're going to be competing against veterans for that coveted entry level game design job because there just aren't many of them and a lot of people want it (even experienced people). When you finally figure out you aren't going to get that entry level game design job you're going to realize you're just not good enough for those other jobs. You won't have the portfolio to be an artist, you won't have the skills and practice to be a level designer, and you won't have the mad coding skillz to be a programmer.
So what's left? Tester. Now I have nothing against testers as they are absolutely necessary but that's all that's left for you. Congratulations, you just spent 2+ years of your life and likely put yourself in debt to be a tester, something you could have done without all that.
That is why you don't go to a school for game design, you go for level design, programming, or art.
To my knowledge there are really only three acceptable game schools out there now: The Guildhall at SMU (the best one at the moment), FullSail, and Digipen.
