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Anyone here doing this course? (Dundalk IT: Computing in Games Development). I’ve applied to a vacant place this year. Waiting for 2nd round offers from CAO to see if I got in. Any information or opinions would be welcome.
Any idea how many females are doing Game Design courses?
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As with most technical/game related subjects, the numbers tend to be quite limited. Couldn’t comment on DKIT in particular though.
Dave
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As far as I’m aware they only have 20 places. No idea on how popular it is. If its anything like their Commerical Computing Course the number of women will be low…very low…
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I doubt there would be many women. The number of women applying for courses is creeping up, but there’s still some way to go. I wouldn’t let that put you off the course. I’ve never really looked at it, but the IGDA have a special interest group for women in game development. You can find it here: http://www.igda.org/women/
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Cheers.
Thanks for the link Ronny, I didn’t know that.
Anyway the course doesn’t seem to be THAT popular considering they have vacant places. (Lucky for me though). I also noticed on another post somewhere on here that they had the lowest points requirements out of all the games dev. courses listed (in that post). I wonder if that’s because of the location or quality of the course. I really have no idea nor have I heard any good or bad things about the course but it looks good to me.
Will find out next Friday if I got in. Crossing my fingers.
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I won’t pretend to fully understand the Irish Leaving Cert, but the entry requirements do look extremely low. I’m very wary of courses with low requirements and tend to avoid them like the plague. Obviously people will have to consider them if their exams didn’t go as well as they hoped.
Some people will talk about how entry requirements are different for ‘games’ courses than academic courses, but those grades shock me. This is a programming course and you’re going to need to have some brains for it. Perhaps they’re so low as it’s quite a new course and has low admission numbers. What’s the point of having high requirements if it’s going to leave with you three students in the class?
All that said, grade requirements aren’t everything. It could still be a very good course that just hasn’t established itself. The only way you can find out is by researching it more, which is obviously what you are doing now. It might be a good idea to call up and ask for a chat with a tutor. Then you can ask all the questions you want. Have a look at their facilities if possible too. That should reassure you if it is a good course.
I tend to be very critical of education standards, but if you think the course is right for you, then it probably is. Just make sure that you’re not going to waste a year of your life, or even four. Good luck and let us know how you get on!
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just checked out the course details and entry requirements on the DIT website. It does seem pretty low, but as this is a new degree, as most of the core game development degrees are in ireland, they have to be a little low as they have no experience with these courses. I would say there would be a review of the graduate numbers in a few years and that would effect the required points. the course also looks very promising covering lots of aspects.
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I’m not sure exactly what the points requirements are for the course are but almost all computing courses are going down in requirements because there are a lack of people doing them. I know for my course the points were low when I applied and they’ve only gone lower.
For me it was a good thing, I didn’t have a good leaving cert and really didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. My sister picked my course for me because she knew I was good at computers. Luckily I enjoy my course and try and get the best out of it. Saying that, with such low requirements, you get allot of drop outs and people that are lost in starting up a computer let alone write a simple “Hello world” program. It is ridiculous that you get people like that on a course but the colleges are mostly just trying to get people to join so that they can get more money. There are many aspects of my course that aren’t that good but I just take my own initiate and read about or get experience working with it or something. There are always things to do.
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Hey thanks for all the replies. I’m not horribly worried about the low point quirements. It just means it’s not very popular. Which could be because of a lot of things. Also there are quite a few courses from DKIT that have vacant places this year. So I’m not going to worry about it. I’m going to try and find more information about the course though.
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Again just to put things in perspective. The majority of people who get jobs within the industry get them without a games degree. Just taking the recent stat on this site, only 1 out of 50 grads for EA last year had done a games degree.
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But that stat might have something to do with how new many of the courses are. Only time will tell.
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Again just to put things in perspective. The majority of people who get jobs within the industry get them without a games degree. Just taking the recent stat on this site, only 1 out of 50 grads for EA last year had done a games degree.[/quote:6301f29b53]
is that just a games degree or without any formal degree??
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I’m putting the finishing touches to an article on the current state of games dev education in Ireland at the mo. Not sure when it is due to go up on the site, but will talk to Aphra and Dave and see if we can get it up in the next week to ten days
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The degree games course in LYIT (letterkenny) has gone up points wise, I think the local paper said it was the most poplular choice in the college this year.
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how many points was that lagrange? and what paper was it?
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It’s 250 points! http://websr1.cao.ie/institutions/LVL76_06.HTM#lyp
Which is still low. But then again anything to do with computers is low these days!
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If you want to meet women in games, go in to HR.
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Or 3D modelling, lots of woman in that area in and about Abertay over the summer. Only met the one programming, but then again I hardly met everyone from every class
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Ok well I’m not specifically bothered to get into the industry. I’d really just like the skills to be able to do some cool stuff on my own. And a lot of the stuff I’d be learning will be transferable skills so I am pretty sure I’ll be able to get a job out of it – games industry or not.
I’m not particularly wanting to meet other women in the games industry I was just curious as to the numbers as I’ll be contributing to them. (aka. I’m one of them). I just finished a two year programming course where I was the only female – would be nice to have a change.
Anyway no idea if I’m in yet or not. Can’t wait for Friday.
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I second that motion….more women on games courses and computing courses in general. But I’m sure my motives for this are different to yours :P
Yeah on my course there was only one woman!! And a shed load of geeks and a few losers!! And then me!
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Ok well I’m not specifically bothered to get into the industry. I’d really just like the skills to be able to do some cool stuff on my own. And a lot of the stuff I’d be learning will be transferable skills so I am pretty sure I’ll be able to get a job out of it – games industry or not.
[/quote:5536c92cd8]
Are you really sure that a games course is right for you? Four years of intense work is a long time to commit to a hobby that may or may not become your permanent income. Outside of game development, a lot of companies will not hire you to program for them if you graduated from a games programming course. That’s right from the lips of a lecturer. This is why some students are deterred from going onto a games programming course.It may be worth considering a comp sci degree and then improving your speciality if you do decide the games industry is for you. I just don’t want you going onto a course then realising you’re screwed at the end of it. Trust me, a friend is in that position right now. (Who I think still surfs this site, so I’ll say no more!)
Anyway, good luck on Friday! :)
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