I am currently trying to decide which school to go to, OU or OSU for computer science. I like OU a lot better and dislike the OSU area but OSU is more reputable and has more classes in areas such as AI and computer Graphics/animation. So my question is how important to employers in the game industry is the school that you go to vs things like co-ops/internships, grades, etc...
any advice will be much appreciated
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How Important is the school that you go to?
It's what you know, not where you went.
More often than not it's who you know, not what you know; and as a new graduate, who you know is pretty much your professors/peers/internship company. Where you go will influence that, as well as those cases of you vs candidate #2 who seems to know the same amount.
But realistically I've only seen a school's reputation come into play with new grads, and only then for the far extremes. (Stanford, CMU on the high end, ITT, DeVry, UoPhoenix, San Jose State on the bottom end)
Short answer: Not very. As was stated before, it's what you know more than where you went. Who you know plays a huge part, but what you know is what lets you keep the job once you land it. You may be interested in this and this (particularly the second one).
Wheat, when you make your decision grid, it's okay to consider "reputation" as ONE factor among many. But by no means should it be the sole factor, or even the most important one.
Definitely "who you know".
I graduated several years ago with a BS from a school that doesn't really have a graphics reputation. I got a job that I am very happy with by calling up a friend who had graduated a couple years earlier and said "hey, get me in the door".
Now I'm actually quite deeply involved in hiring for a team that I manage (and related teams). I am not in game development, but rather graphics driver development, so maybe that colors my view somewhat. In my area of the company, at least a quarter of the people we've hired start the process with a personal recommendation (and I expect that may be higher in the real games industry).
It is important to avoid schools with a bad reputation, but other than that, other factors can matter a more than a 'best reputation' school: ability to get in contact with employers in the area, internships, larger class population so you can know more peers when you are done with school, attending some trade events to meet people, some time for personal projects so you can show that you are interested in more than just completing assignments, etc. Other factors, such as location, personal finance, etc, can definitely be more valuable to you than pure reputation.
I graduated several years ago with a BS from a school that doesn't really have a graphics reputation. I got a job that I am very happy with by calling up a friend who had graduated a couple years earlier and said "hey, get me in the door".
Now I'm actually quite deeply involved in hiring for a team that I manage (and related teams). I am not in game development, but rather graphics driver development, so maybe that colors my view somewhat. In my area of the company, at least a quarter of the people we've hired start the process with a personal recommendation (and I expect that may be higher in the real games industry).
It is important to avoid schools with a bad reputation, but other than that, other factors can matter a more than a 'best reputation' school: ability to get in contact with employers in the area, internships, larger class population so you can know more peers when you are done with school, attending some trade events to meet people, some time for personal projects so you can show that you are interested in more than just completing assignments, etc. Other factors, such as location, personal finance, etc, can definitely be more valuable to you than pure reputation.
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