Super original post incoming - the game development course?

iCooper

So, I did the thing. I applied for the game development course. Anywho, I have a few questions.

Firstly, how are the lecturers? I saw a post a couple pages back, which admittedly was a few years old, but didn't have a great deal of good to say about some lecturer. Do I have any reason to be worried about this?

Secondly, I'm a mature student and female to boot. Now, I'm not ancient or anything, but I'm in my... wow, technically my mid-twenties now, and I was told that the intake for this course typically consists of 90% 17 year old boys. How accurate is this? It won't be a major issue for me, but it'd be nice to know if there are more guys my age, or girls in general, signing up.

Finally, as much as I'd love to work in the games industry, I'd like a job more than anything. Do the game development students get offered internships at local companies (lookin' at you Pramerica), or are digital forensic and applied computing types generally favoured for that kind of thing?

raze_them_all_

iCooper wrote: »

So, I did the thing. I applied for the game development course. Anywho, I have a few questions.

Firstly, how are the lecturers? I saw a post a couple pages back, which admittedly was a few years old, but didn't have a great deal of good to say about some lecturer. Do I have any reason to be worried about this?

Secondly, I'm a mature student and female to boot. Now, I'm not ancient or anything, but I'm in my... wow, technically my mid-twenties now, and I was told that the intake for this course typically consists of 90% 17 year old boys. How accurate is this? It won't be a major issue for me, but it'd be nice to know if there are more guys my age, or girls in general, signing up.

Finally, as much as I'd love to work in the games industry, I'd like a job more than anything. Do the game development students get offered internships at local companies (lookin' at you Pramerica), or are digital forensic and applied computing types generally favoured for that kind of thing?

Can't help with most of your questions but I'm mid twenties and male and will be starting in september so you won't be the only old one if you got in

iCooper

raze_them_all_ wrote: »

Can't help with most of your questions but I'm mid twenties and male and will be starting in september so you won't be the only old one if you got in

I did get in and I'm glad to hear I'm not the only twenty-something year old, haha.

I was legitimately concerned for a while.

raze_them_all_

iCooper wrote: »

I did get in and I'm glad to hear I'm not the only twenty-something year old, haha.

I was legitimately concerned for a while.

congrats, Don't worry about it lyit is a really social place, made a load of friends in it when I lived in letterkenny last and I didn't even go to college

iCooper

raze_them_all_ wrote: »

congrats, Don't worry about it lyit is a really social place, made a load of friends in it when I lived in letterkenny last and I didn't even go to college

Thank you. And yeah, it seems like a really nice college. I'll just have to make more of an effort to be social this time.

paulmclaughlin

I'm a soon-to-be 3rd year Computer Security & Digital Forensics student so I can answer a few questions.

Lecturers can be shared among classes but the majority I've had are pretty reliable. Some people expect them to bend over backwards to help you, but they're just there to guide you, the learning has to be done yourself. Fellow students are very helpful, especially in programming classes.

Regarding age, around 50% of my class were mid 20's or older. I think the Games Development might have a lower average age though.

I wouldn't be sure about internships for GD, I know Pramerica take on CSDF and Business interns graduating 3rd year.

On a side note, if you finish 1st year and decide GD isn't for you, switching to another course's 2nd year is possible, due to a lot of similar subjects shared in 1st year.

iCooper

paulmclaughlin wrote: »

I'm a soon-to-be 3rd year Computer Security & Digital Forensics student so I can answer a few questions.

Lecturers can be shared among classes but the majority I've had are pretty reliable. Some people expect them to bend over backwards to help you, but they're just there to guide you, the learning has to be done yourself. Fellow students are very helpful, especially in programming classes.

Regarding age, around 50% of my class were mid 20's or older. I think the Games Development might have a lower average age though.

I wouldn't be sure about internships for GD, I know Pramerica take on CSDF and Business interns graduating 3rd year.

On a side note, if you finish 1st year and decide GD isn't for you, switching to another course's 2nd year is possible, due to a lot of similar subjects shared in 1st year.

Thanks for the information, that's very helpful. c:

I am aware of the 2nd year switch over and was considering CSDF pretty seriously. On the off chance game dev turns out to not be for me, how did you find CSDF?

paulmclaughlin

iCooper wrote: »

Thanks for the information, that's very helpful. c:

I am aware of the 2nd year switch over and was considering CSDF pretty seriously. On the off chance game dev turns out to not be for me, how did you find CSDF?

You will like it, if you enjoy a very technical approach to things!
There's a lot of time-consuming subjects, especially the digital forensics module.

It has a lot of possible careers after too, so you can pick a job in your strongest subject, such a network security, application security or digital forensics.