Careers.

[Anton]

Well I'm soon to be entering into my Senior year of high school, and I our counselors have been trying to help us set goals for life after graduation. I've been faced with two choices: Pharmacy, which I really would like to get into, or 3D Environment designs of some sort. Which I would most likely attend a school like Full Sail for.

I goofed around my first two years of high school, and my GPA dropped to 2.1. I really have screwed up any chances of scholarships and I'm afraid I can't pay for schooling after H.S.

I meet with my counselor this Tuesday to discuss what classes to take next year, and what goals I should set, and all that good stuff. I am thinking of taking AP classes to bring up my GPA. I know I can do well in the classes, I have no doubts in that, but what do you guys think I should do; What classes should I take, how could I bring up my GPA, How could I pay for college, and ultimately which career choice I should make. I'm leaning more toward pharmacy because I hear that in 3D careers it takes awhile to get established, and get your 3-5 years of professional experience with your name on major titles. ..Gah, I dont know. :|

Any advice would be great; and no I don't want to be a prostitue Selentic :]

[Monopoly]

Go to a community college, get in a program, get a good gpa, transfer.

[Bodzilla]

GPA seems like a fucking terrible way of Judging a person's skills and intelligence in an industry.

How does the scores of the past have any relevance on Current knowledge?
At the end of the day if you know your shit, You know your shit.
Not this stupid system of "he used to not know his shit, but now he does...... even though that has no negative impact on his current situation or knowledge, where going to bring him down anyway and severely limit his chances of employment" -academic Pooftas.
WHAT THE FUCK EVER HAPPENED TO LOGIC?
/rant

Look I'd do what monopoly suggested. Gaining pre-requisites in other areas not only gives you more knowledge, but makes you a more employable person simply because you have a wider range of skills.

[Zeph]

GPA seems like a fucking terrible way of Judging a person's skills and intelligence in an industry.

How does the scores of the past have any relevance on Current knowledge?
At the end of the day if you know your shit, You know your shit.
Not this stupid system of "he used to not know his shit, but now he does...... even though that has no negative impact on his current situation or knowledge, where going to bring him down anyway and severely limit his chances of employment" -academic Pooftas.
WHAT THE FUCK EVER HAPPENED TO LOGIC?
/rant

Look I'd do what monopoly suggested. Gaining pre-requisites in other areas not only gives you more knowledge, but makes you a more employable person simply because you have a wider range of skills.

A GPA is a great way of knowing about a person. School isn't just about learning things. It's a way to show that you finish what you start. GPA is a measure of how well you did that.

[Kalub]

I have an idea. Why don't you do both? You could get schooling for the pharmaceutical side of things and then do 3d environments and such in your spare time. The internet is a great place to learn; its pretty much where I turn to constantly.

[Zeph]

Well I'm soon to be entering into my Senior year of high school, and I our counselors have been trying to help us set goals for life after graduation. I've been faced with two choices: Pharmacy, which I really would like to get into, or 3D Environment designs of some sort. Which I would most likely attend a school like Full Sail for.

I goofed around my first two years of high school, and my GPA dropped to 2.1. I really have screwed up any chances of scholarships and I'm afraid I can't pay for schooling after H.S.

I meet with my counselor this Tuesday to discuss what classes to take next year, and what goals I should set, and all that good stuff. I am thinking of taking AP classes to bring up my GPA. I know I can do well in the classes, I have no doubts in that, but what do you guys think I should do; What classes should I take, how could I bring up my GPA, How could I pay for college, and ultimately which career choice I should make. I'm leaning more toward pharmacy because I hear that in 3D careers it takes awhile to get established, and get your 3-5 years of professional experience with your name on major titles. ..Gah, I dont know. :|

Any advice would be great; and no I don't want to be a prostitue Selentic :]

High school GPA isn't everything. Yes, you should take classes with the intent of raising your GPA, but dont pile on more things than you can chew; ala taking all AP classes and not being able to work through them all. AP might hurl your GPA up on a weighted scale, but not every place uses it and more than likely your final transcript wont reflect it. Take the SAT/ACT two or three times. That'll get you into college better than your GPA.

If you're wanting to go to college to learn 3d, you're going to be a good ways off from landing a job in it. 3d positions are starting to be outsourced and that's leaving pretty much only art lead positions in the studios. I'd go with pharmacy if I were you. It's a solid industry, cause Americans definitely need their drugs.

If you're heart-set on 3d, the only thing I can say is you need to start making things now and get them finished. Learn the programs and dont worry about whether what you make looks good or not. You'll always get better. While you're taking your pharmacy classes, look into getting an art minor. Taking 2d design, color theory, and drawing fundamentals will exponentially help you in your 3d modeling work. I honestly thing 3d design at most schools is a bunch of bollocks and not worth it, but if it peaks your interest go ahead and take it as well.

As for paying for college, student loans would be your way to go if you cant get a scholarship. Basically, the bank pays your tuition and you dont have to start paying them back until you stop school. This of course means you will definitely need to get a job or you'll pretty much be financially screwed for the majority of your life. I suggest you start a savings account when you start college and get a part time job. Use that money to pay for gas/food and split the rest up into recreation and savings. Over your time in college, that money will help you drastically in repaying your student debt.

[Kalub]

I really don't like learning anything "3d" from a paid teacher. They seem to teach everything from the book, and since I've tinkered around in PS/Max longer than they probably have I have more little techniques that work better for me.


Most of the time, the best way to learn something that has a artistic background is to watch and examine other peoples work. Although sometimes a good book on the subject won't hurt you either.

[Llama Juice]

I go to Full Sail, and honestly I agree with Kalub. The teachers here will teach their style and show you the tools of Maya, but overall it's up to you to learn your own style. However, the amount of work they make you do, and the quality they push for will make you better, faster than if you were to try to teach yourself.

Why? Will you ever sit down for 8+ hours a day just experimenting with the tools?

My roommate spent 2 years at a college in Michigan before coming to full sail, and already six months later he's doing what took the other school six years to get to. Other kids in his class look like they've been doing this for years, when I know that they first picked up modeling six months back.

[Corndogman]

If you cant pay for school, your going to have trouble going to full sail. its freaking expensive. My friend will went there for some TV thing. now he works for Disney making commercials. Its good school there. If you cant Afford full sail, Try DeVry uni. Its in orlando too and cheaper. it has game design classes too.

[Mr Buckshot]

While high school GPA isn't everything, the post-secondary masters think otherwise when they go through applications. If my GPA dropped below 3.5, my parents would throw me out of the house (or, more likely, throw ALL my video games out the window) and I'd screw up any chances I had of going to a high-class American university.

Seriously dude, if your GPA is at 2.1, you obviously have not tried hard. I'm sure you're a normal person with common sense and above-average IQ, but your schoolwork and GPA fail to prove that. School is not that hard you know. I, for example, am in the accelerated IB program and I almost always get A's in every subject because I plan wisely and study efficiently, and I only play on weekends. Playing games and socializing is important, but work is more important. I suggest that you stop playing games and start focusing on work.

I don't know how you guys do things in the West, but parents like mine constantly pressure their kids to study and get A's, whether the kids want to or not. It's rather meritocratic. I know many Western families are tolerant of their children failing in school (I personally find it very weird).

Overall, the whole point of having a high GPA is prove that you are as smart as you really are. There are autistic prodigies who get low GPAs - they may be smart, but they won't get anywhere because their GPAs show otherwise.

[legionaire45]

To be honest a big part of doing well in school also relies on your parents enforcing strict study habits when you are young - most people generally don't care about their grades unless they have some kind of goal, and most younger students generally think college is so far away that their shitty grades in middle school don't matter. My parents haven't given half a shit about my grades until recently and always told me that the bare minimum to pass was fine. I grew up never bothering to set up a studying system that worked for me and as a result I've been a C Student for my entire life. However, I found out about college, how much more you earn by going to college and other bullshit/academic crap and now I have a reason to get good grades. Many people generally don't care about their grades unless their parents ram them down their throat and hardly any of these people have the will to strive for success.

That still doesn't help me with my 2.9 GPA though :D. High Five fellow low GPA dumbass xD o/

Anyway, I agree with Zeph. It's sad that all these jobs are being outsourced, but that is kind of to be expected considering how large the video game industry has become. Remember, everyone wants to be able to tighten up graphics with a controller for a job xD. (http://www.tightengraphics.ytmnd.com/)

[Anton]

The first two years of High school I made decent grades, not good grades, but average grades usually in the B-C range.

Late sophomore year and early junior year, I really screwed around, and failed two classes that I needed. Spanish II and Arts and Humanities. I realize now that I have fucked up and need to fix the mistakes I've made.



Seriously dude, if your GPA is at 2.1, you obviously have not tried hard. I'm sure you're a normal person with common sense and above-average IQ, but your schoolwork and GPA fail to prove that. School is not that hard you know. I, for example, am in the accelerated IB program and I almost always get A's in every subject because I plan wisely and study efficiently, and I only play on weekends. Playing games and socializing is important, but work is more important. I suggest that you stop playing games and start focusing on work.Not everyone is a genius you know, and not all of western societies want there children to fail/are ok with them failing. I was punished severely for failing or even making a C or below.

But I took my punishments as I deserved them.

I know I can do great in school, but between work/homework/play I find it hard to study. I have really bad study habits and tend to drift off to do other things than study for a major test that is to be taken the next day.

You know something, your right. I do play to much, and don't even get me started on the ladies :D

Thanks for the directions you've guys have pointed me in, but does anyone here know of a way to get into a better habit of "more work less play"? yeah I am really desperate right now, I've went to all of my teachers and I have another meeting with the counselor tomorrow.

[Sel]

Any advice would be great; and no I don't want to be a prostitue Selentic :]

Oh, fuck, why not?

I want you.

Anyway, as for me, Im interested in getting a job doing some 3d modelling, hopefully take a course on photoshop, become a good texturer, go get a job and ubisoft or something local, I really dont want to go to far away from where I live.

The job requirements for ubisoft are 3 years modelling experience, including being a great modeller, so hopefully in another 2 years Ill be :D and get some money doing something I love.

[Corndogman]

I'll come with you selentic. I've always wanted to work at Ubisoft. but fuck, Montreal? this Florida boy is gonna get cold. =/

[Sel]

Its not my first choice either, but its the only place kinda close to me.

Unfortunately, I cant find any good game making companies here in Ottawa.

Also, florida pussy >:3

[Mr Buckshot]

Yep pal, playing video games too often is a surefire way to get bad grades due to neglecting schoolwork. You should always set limits for yourself. Weekends are the best time to hang out and play games and court the girls, but weekdays should be reserved for working. For today, I didn't get much homework, but nevertheless I choose not to play video games because it's not the right time.

Not everyone is a genius for sure. Not everyone can get all A's. But there's always the B level, and you should strive to make that your minimum. Having many A's is great but difficult. Having many B's is not as good, but it's a commendable level of achievement. Having zero A's, however, is kind of sad as you should always have at least one subject where you are very pro to make up for subjects where you're not so good.

I have a non-IB friend who had a 2.3 GPA last year (10th grade). But he woke up and realized he needed to pull up his socks to get to a good post-secondary, and now he's getting a respectable 3.25 GPA because he made it a point to try hard in school this year. Everyone's capable of improving their grades, and it's not because of the parents nagging. It's a matter of self-motivation.

[Anton]

Currently I'm accelerating in English III, I have an A in that class, and my teacher told me I should take the AP Eng IV. I'm also taking Anatomy, and retaking the two failed classes. I really want to make good grades next year.:(

Oh and my gpa for freshmen, sophomore, and semester one of Junior year is 2.7. 2.1 is for this semester only.

[Sel]

Currently I'm accelerating in English III, I have an A in that class, and my teacher told me I should take the AP Eng IV. I'm also taking Anatomy, and retaking the two failed classes. I really want to make good grades next year.:(

Oh and my gpa for freshmen, sophomore, and semester one of Junior year is 2.7. 2.1 is for this semester only.

Its not too late to become my personal prostitute you know.

[Anton]

Well, if you insist.

[Llama Juice]

Its not too late to become my personal prostitute you know.

Back off you whore, he's mine and he knows it.

Oh and Buckshot.... Are you Asian?

Anyhow.... It all comes down to what YOU want to do. Big decision, yep everyone has to make it. Do you really WANT to get into this field? Or... do you wanna play with your pills and creams? At any rate, you should come and check out Full Sail. It's a damn cool place and uhh... well... my apartment is only about a quarter mile away from it... ;)

[Mr Buckshot]

Yes, I'm a Chinese immigrant in Canada, and the city where I live in has tons of Asian immigrants too, so I guess it's no surprise that my parents and my friends' parents constantly bug us to try hard. Btw, the friend whom I mentioned is white.

Whether you want to be a game modeler, or an accountant, or an electric maintenance guy, you need to get decent grades, and you need to excel in the related course. In my eyes, your 2.7 GPA of the past doesn't seem too good either - I'd say a 3.00 GPA is what you should be aiming for (3.00 GPA = equivalent of straight B's).

Nice, an A in English. My school hosts AP exams (but not courses), and I'm too afraid to try the AP English (only doing Calculus BC and Statistics) as it is not my first language (out of all my courses, English and History are what I usually struggle to get A's in).

[Anton]

History is usually my best subject, until 9th grade I made straight A's in it since elementary school. I would have had an A in it this semester but the B is fine, as long as I pass it (I got the hardest teacher)

[Sel]

Im not worried about my courses, as long as I pass. If I can create stunning 3d models, and get good marks in any courses that are kinda relevant, Im hoping I can get a good job.

[Corndogman]

History is usually my best subject, until 9th grade I made straight A's in it since elementary school. I would have had an A in it this semester but the B is fine, as long as I pass it (I got the hardest teacher)

History is my strong suit too. Ive always gotten A's in it. If the game industry fails on me, I'm going for something with history, be it teaching or who knows what.

[Phopojijo]

I'll come with you selentic. I've always wanted to work at Ubisoft. but fuck, Montreal? this Florida boy is gonna get cold. =/Not if you're perpetually drunk. It *is* Montreal :)

[Random]

If you only goofed around for one year you might have been able to save it like I was able to.

I pulled a 3.0 weighted freshman year (B's and a C :x) because I had a ridiculously hard time at focusing and have some learning disabilities which I was still overcoming. However I finished HS with a 4.0 weighted overall. F-3.0 S-3.9 J-4.2 Sn-4.7 (4 out of 5 classes were AP + a college class).

I wouldn't worry too much if you can get above a 3.0 because thats enough for many good schools and there are always the public universities which have great programs.

Don't worry about getting scholarships (they are nice but really I just got smaller grants from schools that gave me scholarships), if you do not have the money to pay for college you will get a grant. For instance next year I am going to Johns Hopkins University, which is one of the top universities in the United States and the world, and costs around 52k per year to attend. However the costs after a grant (not a scholarship) is around 20k which is only 1k-2k higher per year than Penn State or Pitt for me.

P.S. not bragging with the top university thing just trying to show that crazy/perfect scores and GPA's are not what you need to get into a top university. You just need to prove that you can work hard and that a 2.1 GPA is a thing of the past.
Ultimately just try your hardest academically from here on out, take some AP courses if you know that your able to handle them, and get a good score on the SATs or ACTs 1300+/1600 puts you in a comfortable position for the majority of schools in the United States.

[mR_r0b0to]

imo, if you want to bump up your gpa, take easier classes.. easy A's
that's what my class's current valedictorian candidate did, kinda lame and cheap

i ofc took the hard way and took a bunch of AP courses :x
3.9 gpa instead of 4.0 so far

[Random]

imo, if you want to bump up your gpa, take easier classes.. easy A's
that's what my class's current valedictorian candidate did, kinda lame and cheap

i ofc took the hard way and took a bunch of AP courses :x
3.9 gpa instead of 4.0 so far

I would honestly take more AP classes because my only non A my senior year was the non AP class :/. Because AP classes usually skip the bullshit homework that I forget to do or have bullshit assignments that are just memorize this poem. Now tell me what you remembered.

[Anton]

Well I talked to my counselor today and I'm going back tomorrow. I chose next years classes, and most are easy and some are hard, but I can handle them. I'm eager to get started!

The two classes I failed are going to be retaken, well Spanish II. For Arts and Humanities they are sending me to a summer program that lasts one week total, from June 2nd through June 6th. It will take the missing credit away from my transcript and replace it as if I had taken the course with a High C or Low B. I'm kind of excited about it, even though it takes a week away from summer, but hey whats a week compared to the rest of my life? :)

I'm glad I'm starting to get this all worked out and you guys have been a great help.

My cousin's husband is a pharmacist, and he went to Walter State in Morristown Tennessee for two years of pre-pharmacy. Then he went to Birmingham Alabama to a school I haven't looked into for his Degree in Pharmacy. He's currently working for a privately owned pharmacy in Knoxville, TN but he started at wal-mart for a year. So if I needed help in that area I could always just talk to him.


imo, if you want to bump up your gpa, take easier classes.. easy A's
that's what my class's current valedictorian candidate did, kinda lame and cheap

i ofc took the hard way and took a bunch of AP courses :x
3.9 gpa instead of 4.0 so far

My A+ teacher (homeroom or Academic Plus) told me that colleges look at what you "tried" more than your GPA. So getting a 4.0 GPA isn't as good as getting a 3.5 with ALL AP courses; At least that's what she said..

[flibitijibibo]

Lots of colleges also like to see improvement. Oh wow, you've had a 3.8-4.0 all your life. Shows how much you've grown! If you were to have like, a 2.5 freshman year, and 2 years later you have a 3.5, thats almost as valuable as getting generally high grades the whole time. If this weren't true, I wouldn't be getting scholarships from my college picks.

Joining the right programs can help too... Woo high school intern/mentor program.

[nooBBooze]

Meh i barely made it to uni with an average final score of C.
im wondering wheter i should pick up philosophy+history or take off and serve a year or two in the peace corps or stuff like that :/

[Mr Buckshot]

It's not just about taking easy courses. The whole point of being in school is to learn. You may want to major in woodworking or engineering, but it's always good to have a strong grasp of mathematics, another science, and at least one second language. Focus hard on the course that's related to your planned major, but try in other courses too. I think it's quite pointless if you take a bunch of useless easy electives and get an easy 3.5. A student who's getting a 3.3 GPA with three sciences and two math courses, etc looks better than a 4.0 GPA student with a host of weird electives that the universities don't look at.

[Zeph]

The whole point of being in school is to learn.

You dont seem to understand American schools. The whole point of being in k-12 is to get your local school federal funding. In my state, if teachers dont pass a certain percentage of students they will lose their job. It doesn't matter if the students are braindead fucktards. Educational standards have been lowered to allow more students to succeed and thus get said funding. In America, you go to college to try to learn.

[Mr Buckshot]

Ah, thanks for the heads-up! I've only experienced American schooling up till 7th grade, while my sister went to a private school.

Same thing here, in my IB classes, the teachers often do a "bell curve" or whatever it's called to avoid being investigated as to why class averages might be lower than expected (although the curving is very minimal). Unlike regular classes, however, IB reserves the right to kick out got-off-the-waiting-list students who have an average that is below 80%. One of my friends failed two IB courses and she had to drop out into regular because her average dipped to 76%.

The Western schooling is quite...fascinating and kind. Back in my home country, you're kicked out of the normal schooling program if you're a stupid student who gets all C's and D's, and you're forced to attend the special school for stupid people. Elitism at its finest.

[Bodzilla]

The Western schooling is quite...fascinating and kind. Back in my home country, you're kicked out of the normal schooling program if you're a stupid student who gets all C's and D's, and you're forced to attend the special school for stupid people. Elitism at its finest.
and we all see what a wonderful person you've become because of it. :rolleyes:

[Tweek]

im too stupid to get a carreer.

here in the netherlands, school actually teach you shit.
i always paid attention in class, finished homework, and slept trough my final exams, because i soacked up everything that was being thrown at me like a spunge.

did highschool without any effort at all (at the highest level too btw, VWO, short for voortgezet wetenschappelijk onderwijs, meaning progressed scientific education, more or less)

that education pretty much opens up any job in the country to me.
too bad i'm 19 now, and that's the only education i've got, did 1 year of college and hated it, maybe i just wasn't ready for it.
but now i'm just sitting at home. as i've been doing for over a year now, working a little job at a big indoor kids playground, as bartender.

SUM CARREER HUH GUISE

[TeeKup]

Ah, thanks for the heads-up! I've only experienced American schooling up till 7th grade, while my sister went to a private school.

Same thing here, in my IB classes, the teachers often do a "bell curve" or whatever it's called to avoid being investigated as to why class averages might be lower than expected (although the curving is very minimal). Unlike regular classes, however, IB reserves the right to kick out got-off-the-waiting-list students who have an average that is below 80%. One of my friends failed two IB courses and she had to drop out into regular because her average dipped to 76%.

The Western schooling is quite...fascinating and kind. Back in my home country, you're kicked out of the normal schooling program if you're a stupid student who gets all C's and D's, and you're forced to attend the special school for stupid people. Elitism at its finest.

Please, get off my continent. You may be in Canada but the fowl odor coming from your elitism rant is decaying your neighbor to the south, some of us are busy as it is to try and reform our mistakes from the inside, we don't need a petty and bigoted individual like you even near us.

[Bodzilla]

working a little job at a big indoor kids playground, as bartender.

SUM CARREER HUH GUISE
Since when are you Australian O___o?

[Anton]

<3 You guys.:lol: