The Illinois Institute of Art - Schaumburg

Date: Feb 22 2008
Major: Design Arts - Industrial Design/Graphic Design/etc (This Major's Salary over time)
I was in the Chicago Branch of The Illinois Institute of Art. The education there was well rounded (although gen-ed was a joke) as far as my major went (game art). However, focus and preparation was completely lacking from what the actual game companies are expecting. Beyond school, the job placement is horrible. I received only 3 relevant job leads in 6 months, one being an internship, another being akin to a janitorial job, the other being a quasi-internship. The job-placement guys gave me tons of leads to things i had absolutely no chance at getting though (like chef jobs and web design jobs). Worse of all, after the 6 months the school completely drops you and wont help you find a job at all.

A major problem with the chicago branch is their complete focus on the fashion design majors who have 100% job placement (because working at the GAP counts as being placed) - side note - for game art majors they count you as "placed" if you work at game-stop or some other industry where you even look at games. To be fair however, the game market is pathetic in the midwest (only about 4-5 companies, most very small) and few cross-country companies are willing to hire, move, and wait for a fresh grad with no experience.

To any prospective student looking to get into games i highly suggest going to a school in the state which you wish to work (most likely CA). The game companies in chicago are generally rude and hire based on a who-you-know basis, and the recent shut-down of EA in chicago has put many experienced people back into the job market which puts the newbie grads chance of being hired down to zero.

On the plus side, the school DID teach me alot, I have gained an excellent set of skills, and most of the teachers were wonderfull and the classes were fun. Right now I am working on developing games on my own, alot of the skills I use would not be available if it wasn't for my schooling. However, half of the skills (like programming) were things i learned on my own. Unfortunately, being really good at a hobby which isn't bringing in any money yet was not the goal of attending such an expensive school.

For anyone reading this who is considering another major, I cannot really comment as i dont know the job markets of the other majors very well. Ive heard that chicago is the #2 city in the world (NYC is #1) for advertising, so i imagine there are alot of related jobs. Web design seems like its fairly easy to find a job with from the people i've known. From the other students ive spoken to, they all loved their majors, teachers, and classes.