DigiPen Institute of Technology

Very good environment to learn, and make friends in the industry! I’m a freshmen but I enjoy every moment of my learning experience.

They try to make the school out to be like computer science Hogwarts, and it does have that feel… including the attrition rate, except instead of being murdered by death eaters, you either run out of money and have to quit, or you realize that it’s a scam intended to draw new blood, drain your funds, and toss you out so more new bags of cash with legs and dreams can be processed.
My wife went to this «school» for four years, leaving in 2014 without graduating since it ran us out of money. It’s expensive and predatory. When you sign up, they talk about how great it is, and how the high attrition rates are more like a challenge to defeat. When you’re on the tour, the place looks amazing. We could only afford to send one of us though, so my wife went while I worked. The first two years were decent. Nothing stellar compared to traditional unis. Unfortunately because of how their classes are structured, nothing from her previous college transferred so she had to start over as a freshman. It’s also worth noting that none of DP’s credits transfer out of it, which can add to the sunk-​cost fallacy that makes you stay to the last.
By the third year, most of the classes were taught by masters students who, while good at programming, had no idea how to teach. If you didn’t already know a lot about coding, you were SOL. The people who do their best at this school are the ones who don’t need to learn coding and are just there to get the diploma to prove that they can. If you have questions, use google, but don’t use the same sources as your classmates or your professor can accuse you of cheating for writing code that’s too similar, and that can cost you your grade and force you to retake the class, meaning paying for the class again. Grading can also be arbitrary. There’s a group project as a part of Game Class where, in theory, the whole group gets the same grade. Not so in practice. Part of my wife’s group passed, part failed and had to retake the class the following year with no team to work with. That fail was only for the second semester part of the class, but apparently that’s enough to be a complete fail. The three relevant professors were unreachable, so to this day we have no idea whether or not this was a clerical error or if something was done to deserve part of the group failing.
As a result of this decision, the group members who passed dropped out, as their group was fractured and completing next years project would be impossible without a full team, and those who stayed tried to retake the class but without a team, they failed again. There were no resources for them to try and find other people to work with.
I accompanied her and her team a few times during their game project and finding space to work was difficult. The main area with a bunch of computers seems to be perpetually reserved for seniors and freshmen. Also, on tour days, they clear the rooms of everyone but the seniors so new blood doesn’t see the bedraggled dreary faces of the overworked sophomores and juniors.
There may have been a time when this was a decent school, but if the other Unilocal reviews here and their timestamps are any indication, it has only gotten worse with time.
Save your money, go to a community college and transfer to a proper state school. We’ve been paying more than the minimum into her student loans and we’re still hovering under 20k and all we have to show for it is disdain.

I’m currently a Junior at DigiPen. And I’m not lagging behind; I’m on track to graduate on time. But DigiPen is not a place I’d recommend any one go.
As a BFA student, and someone who was in the game industry prior to DigiPen, this place is ridiculous. It’s not healthy. The administration looks to tout how it’s gearing you up to prepare you for the rigors of the game industry; to prepare you for the stressors of a real job, but I’ve had a real job in the game industry, my friends and former coworkers still work there. I know what it’s like. It’s not like this.
DigiPen is sky high prices with piss poor processes. And halfway through the DigiPenitentiary you feel trapped by the sunk cost fallacy, always thinking that if you just put more in you’ll get more out. People hear how hard it is here and they think that it’s a challenge that if they overcome they’ll be stronger, better, more talented.-and sure by the end they’ve learned, but not so much more than they would have at a different school in their discipline. Optimism at Digi is broken down, happy well-​rounded people break down into hard angry pessimists who graduate regretting the experience with impossible amounts of debt. My friends at DigiPen who’ve graduated don’t remember DigiPen fondly, even as they go out into the industry, they’re more excited about being free of the Institute then they are about entering the field they worked so hard to join, or finding a career.
Let’s go through some basic policies
At DigiPen:
You may not miss class. There is a roll sheet that you must sign at the beginning of every class, and if you miss too many classes your grades will fail. If someone signs in for you, both will be punished. Some absences are excused, but most students come in even when sick because if not you’re typically doomed to fail, and often teachers can be unsympathetic to your absence and do not help you recover from time away. I believe this absence policy has something to do with DP’s accrediting body, which as far as I can tell, is not your typical choice for accreditation.
You may not eat meals outside the cafeteria. On it’s own this policy does not seem too bad, but in light of the rigorous round-​the-​clock work many of the students do, it makes it impossible to eat healthily. Many students don’t stop working to eat, at least not more than once a day, and as three meals a day are usually eaten at DigiPen students end up eating unhealthy fast food or vending machine snacks they can scarf down at their desk. I recognize that college is not typically a time for healthy food, but even those who want it struggle to get it. A common complaint among students is the high cost of meals, from the entrees in the café to the sandwiches in the «bookstore» food is not cheap as far as college cafeterias go. I suspect the reason they give free meals to visitors is because they don’t want them to think about dealing with the cost on a daily basis.
Core classes (which are most of them) must be passed with a C– or better. This isn’t so bad a policy in my opinion. I think it’s reasonable to expect that level of work from students, but–
Within the BFA all assignments must be passed with a C– or better. This is the policy that wrecks us. It’s less than two years old. Because previous years haven’t been doing well enough the fine arts administration has attempted to rectify this problem with this policy. Instead of evaluating teaches better and attempting to improve the quality of education at DigiPen, they thought it best to weed out those who struggle. When I enter a class within a discipline that I am not familiar with I expect to be taught and given the opportunity to learn before I have to stress about every little detail of my work, and what I’ve done wrong. As you go on in your classes you are permitted to resubmit your work; which is intended to mitigate this draconian policy, but in practice, it fails to have the intended effect. If teachers don’t regrade in a timely manner, you will see a 68% in your grades report — an assignment that you’ve already fixed — for the entire semester, and you might not know until the semester is over if that assignment will pass. And perhaps it won’t. And then you’d fail the whole class over one D.
DigiPen has some amazingly talented and knowledgable teachers, that’s their main strength. But many of them have no aptitude for teaching; they can’t communicate, the can’t portray their points, they have no respect for the struggles of the students, even though some of them are studying at DigiPen as well for masters degrees. Though many of them are good people and likable individuals, that’s not what I’m looking for in a teacher. There are definitely good teachers at DigiPen, one teacher I respect most is communicative, knowledgable, and strict. His strictness makes him disliked some, but he teaches effectively. DigiPen needs to teach the professors how to teach.
There’s more but I’m out of room. Stay away.

I’m in agreement with Don B.‘s and Billl J.‘s reviews. I went here for a year and a half as an art student. I can say with 100% confidence that this school is not worth your money if you are looking to become an artist in the game or entertainment industry. Their CG department is just bad. Save your money and go to Los Angeles where you’ll get a real education in CG with competent teachers who ARE WILLING TO ANSWER QUESTIONS AND DO WHAT YOU ARE PAYING THEM FOR.
There are a few gems at this school who have worked for Disney and other teachers that don’t necessarily follow the school’s philosophy and are punished for it. If you go to school here; expect to bask in the good teachers’ awesomeness for a hot minute before you graduate to the crappy teachers.

I’m in the same class as the review below, and I think the BFA program might be going through a transitional period, because its founder just left in the Summer of ‘2012. Like the reviewer below said, the education is very industrial and corporate in style. The ratio of instructors to students at the underclassman level is honestly terrible. If you’re not already extremely talented, it can be a baffling experience.
Many people will hype up how difficult DigiPen is, but it is designed to get you used to a professional culture where you live at the office. It isn’t just about intense constant work. It is about hanging out while you work, all day, for hours and hours. In an academic setting this can create a lot of space for people to get lost in. Again it buoys the people who come into the school with a lot of skills already, and discourages those who need hands on instruction.
The facilities for fine arts students in particular are pretty awful. Believe it or not this is a private, for profit school that can’t always accommodate a full size studio class will space and materials. Most space at DigiPen is dedicated towards computer labs, computer labs with tablets, computer labs with projectors, etc. FA space is more for complementing upperclassmen curriculums than supporting the underclassmen who need it all the time.
There are also rumors flying around that DigiPen may lose its accreditation because they haven’t been able to prove gainful employment for many recent graduates of the BFA program. If that happens, they lose their funding, and they would probably have to shut the program down. That said, the underclassmen instructors aka the «gatekeepers» and being asked to apply more draconian grading policies to keep students from progressing.
Most people aren’t going to be able to afford to take private education college courses over more than once, especially when class sizes are so huge, and many professors, if incredibly skilled/​intelligent/​decorated/​etc, are also arrogant and inaccessible. So all in all DigiPen is a pretty mixed bag. There are many amazing talented people here. It is the ultimate school for networking if you want to work in gaming. But I would be dishonest if I didn’t advise people to tread lightly when considering matriculation.

My daughter has been attending DigiPen as a BFA student for a year and her grades are great but we have all concluded that it’s not worth the cost of her returning.
Up sides:
Student community (the one reason this review isn’t one star)
A few really good teachers
Down sides:
Most teachers are either lackadaisical or obnoxiously critical. And feedback is sparse and arrives at the end of the semester, not early on where students can use it to improve
The «work harder not smarter» corporate slave approach only leads to poor quality and students perpetually fatigued and sick
Nice facilities? You can’t count on printing in time to deliver a project or having the right software installed to complete tasks. Seriously? In the shadow of Microsoft?!
Expensive. Hideously expensive for the quality of the return.

I attended this school before it was fully accredited with federal financial aid options, and because of that I was only able to attend the RTIS program for two years. However, that having been said, I STILL came out more prepared to deal with the demands (and especially the related stresses that come with the typical game industry workload) than the majority of the ‘Real College’ graduates I work with. This school will separate out those people who think making games is as fun as playing them from the people who know games are their calling regardless of the blood, sweat, and tears that are required. I’m thankful to this place for the things I learned, and for the friends I made in and out of the industry.

I am a graduate from dP who has worked in the games industry for the past 7 years. DigiPen prepared me to perform as well or usually better that most other graduates from any other CS departments around the country.
You will work from 10 AM to 10 PM every week day and often 10 AM to 6 PM on Saturdays, or you will not make it (in my day, the attrition was 66% from freshman orientation to graduation; I hear that it’s better now). This school is not for everybody, it takes a certain passion for creativity and games, but especially hard science, and if you lack the latter it will be a painful experience. But, if you come out the other side you will have a host of comrades that you’ll have that shared foxhole survival bond with for the rest of your career.
When I was there the CS and Math tracks were top-​notch, better that most under-​grad tracks I’ve heard tell of from other people.

Currently a Junior here, and i can easily say this school will let you really know whether or not you want to make video games. Most programming schools teach the «theory» of programming and have you do relatively little programming itself… probably lucky if you get a program larger than 200 lines. At Digipen a 200 line program almost reaches the bare minimum… almost… for a small 1 night homework.
It is a great school to learn from, and most of the professors are good, and if you have one that isn’t there’s usually another prof. of the same area willing to help you with what you need.
While the education is great and i do recommend people coming here if they really, really want to learn programming or art i will warn you that this is not a school for the weak of heart. At 20 credits a semester for 4 years there is a LOT of work to be done every week, with about 60% of my class gone since freshman year I can easily say i know the survivors simply from seeing them in the halls in the late hours of the night working on assignments every night.

My boyfriend just graduated from DigiPen, but I’ve been contributing to his tuition bill for the past three years, so I think I have a pretty valid opinion of the place.
This is a school. As with any school, there are definitely hits and misses amongst the staff. However, if you put forth your best effort they are willing to meet you half way — he has had some pretty awesome professors over the past years [including this year’s prof who brought fireworks from Boom City for the 4^th of July, and made his resume look quite spiffy].
Fortunately, at least on the RTIS/​programming side, DP is pretty good at «separating the boys from the men» [yes, if you are female at this school you will have an entourage… and I’m going to go ahead and group you in as boys because there is about a 1:100 female to male ratio and I can’t come up with a comparable analogy that is gender inclusive but doesn’t sound stupid] — if you graduate from this school, at least before 2010 [the last of the years to have classes with Ghali] your degree will actually mean something: you worked your ASS off… which is more than I can say about other video game schools… *cough* Full Sail *cough*

Go here to learn how make videogames! Good videogames! Don’t expect it to be all fun and games, though.