Ivan and his major/education feflection

Getting a job once you’re out of college can either be easy or hard. People will either get a job right out of college or it will take them a while searching through craigslist until they find something. Whether it is easy or hard depends on the person, but also is largely dependent on the school they attend. If your school takes the right steps to prepare you for the outside world then snagging that dream job should be no problem. I am part of ADGA program in City Tech. This is probably the most popular program in the school and it’s one the school is famous for. I would consider City Tech to be one of the better schools in the city for ADGA comparatively speaking. However, I am part of a smaller block under the ADGA program. I study 3D modeling & animation. City Tech puts a lot of focus on ADGA but some of the smaller blocks get largely ignored.

In the course catalog for City Tech you can see all the required courses under ADGA for all the programs the school has. From this you can see that City Tech does adequately prepare you for the types of jobs that are actually available out there. Unless you’re studying 3D modeling & animation, then City Tech is lacking. Many of the courses that are required in this field are either unavailable to be scheduled, or if you actually get to sign up to one of them, it gets canceled. The upside here is the courses they do have for this block are all hands on and practical, which means that everything you learn is something you will use day-to-day while working. The school also helps with getting an internship through an internship course which is a major bonus and is something not all schools offer.

Many schools offer the same classes and courses for this program, because of little variety. However not all are named the same way.

To be prepared for the job market you really also have to depend on yourself along with the school you attend. If you don’t put in any effort outside the school hours, no matter how much the school helps you, you will not be ready.

City Tech does a good job preparing you but it can do better. Some schools like Rochester Institute of Technology focus more on the courses that are needed for your specific major. When you pick a program in the school all your courses will be based around it. Whereas in City Tech I am studying animation, but most of my courses are in the graphic design block because there are either not enough students studying animation so they don’t offer many classes for it (but do offer the program for some reason) or there are not enough teachers for everything.

All-in-all, I think i am prepared enough. The school offers a well rounded education for graphic design though it can center it’s focus better on individual programs. I am self-taught in most of the programs i will need (photoshop, 3Ds max, maya, illustrator, indesign) but i feel bad for people don’t didn’t take the initiative. they will come into the school expecting the school to teach them all these things extensively and it just doesn’t do that currently.

City Tech catalog listing
http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/academics/catalog_listing.shtml

Bachelor of Design – Carnegie Mellon
http://design.cmu.edu/content/bachelor-design

university of florida
http://www.dcp.ufl.edu/academics/degrees-and-programs/undergraduate-degrees-and-programs

rhode island school of design
http://www.risd.edu/academics/fav/courses/

university of minnesota
https://webapps-prd.oit.umn.edu/pcas/viewCatalogProgram.do?programID=207&strm=1149&campus=UMNTC

Pennsylvania State University
http://bulletins.psu.edu/undergrad/campuses/details/21/GD

Boston University
http://www.bu.edu/cfa/visual-arts/prospective/undergraduate/design/

American University
http://www.american.edu/cas/graphic-design/BA-DSGN.cfm

Texas Christian University
http://art.tcu.edu/graphic_design_ba.html

Point Loma Nazarene University
http://catalog.pointloma.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=8&poid=313&returnto=870

Bradley University
http://www.bradley.edu/academic/undergradcat/20142015/cfa-artcourses.dot

Florida State University
http://admissions.fsu.edu/apply/majors.cfm#1