college

[rfrenc]

I have a decision to make and was hoping you guys could give me some advice. I think my situation is pretty unique but hopefully other beginners will be able to get something out of it as well.
I am currently enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I love art and plan to continue with it, however im not confident in an art degree providing me with a way to make money, which is necessary for obvious reasons.
I am looking at web design/developement to make money. I know graphics/motion graphics pretty well, and have basic experience in html, css, processing(a coding program apparently similar to c++ but specifically for creating art), and seem to have a knack for it. I guess my question is, how important is a specific college degree in a specific field for getting a job/being successful in web developement?i have completed 2 of 4 years for a bfa and would rather not transfer, but if necessary its better late than never i guess.
It seems to me that a lot of knowledge in the field is self taught, so if i am committed to learning and creating quality work(not just in terms of aesthetics but functionality as well) is it still important to have a degree in computer sciences as apposed to a BFA in new media and art with technology studies? I would think employers look more at past work/ portfolios rather than a college degree, but im afraid this may be wishful thinking.
if it is worth anything, as far as art schools go mine has a fairly extensive tech/new media department, with a lot of big names in net art and such.

i would greatly appreciate any advice/insight!
Thanks!

[d'Anconia]

As someone not currently working in the industry (just practicing it on the side for my own uses) I would tend to say that your actual degree is not that important. What's more important is your skill set and, most importantly, your portfolio of works you've completed to show you actually have the drive and skills to make something useful.

All the skills and degrees in the world are useless if you can't show that you know how to implement them correctly. And in general for coding there is a high proportion of people working in the industry who majored (in college) in a different or unrelated field.

A computer science degree might help but isn't necessary. In fact there are plenty of arguments against a college degree in computer science:
*It will cost you thousands of dollars whereas self-education (books and practice) cost only hundreds
*You may be required to allot time to learning skills that might not be useful to you and take time from working on the stuff that you do like or are interested in.

Again I'm not the most hardcore coder but this is generally what I have gathered from my experiences. If a more experienced coder feels like jumping in I hope they do just that.

[vincewicks]

It's up to you where you prefer to become, the decision lies in your hand. For me, It's only a suggestion that much better to finished computer related course, especially you are looking for a web design/development job. It is better to finished college degree to have a successful career in the future and experienced also are highly needed in applying jobs.Think twice before you decide.

[chrisrountree]

Degrees are not much that important if you have knowledge in you. But for any professional designation and to get huge amount of bucks you need to show degrees in any of the organizations. I hope you will go fr a degree in order to have a soothing career.

[susan12]

I myself think that you should keep learning to get a degree. You can get experience later, but chance for take a degree is not several. Never miss it!

[karanm]

Having degree is not important understanding it fully is important ie.learning is not important learning with knowledge is important

[myfayt]

To be a web designer requires no degrees at all. You just need knowledge and experience of programming. All of mine is self taught. If you're really good at what you do, you won't have any problems. But if you are a slow learner or can't grasp anything, then take online classes.