Best College for Web Development

1. Did you, at any point, consider not going to school for web design/development? If so, what factors caused you to take the plunge? Was the cost of attendance a big issue?

"I always considered going to school for development, Computer Science in particular. I saw the University as a way to bolster the fledgling development and design skills that I had, but also as a way to enrich myself in other studies that were never taught in primary education. A major factor is that piece of paper that they give you when you successfully graduate. While a portfolio is of utmost importance in finding employment, be it with a firm or as a freelancer, I find that the diploma and going to University helps perk up the ears of those that may know nothing about our field."

"The cost of attendance was a big issue. I knew this when searching for the right place to go, and so chose what was within my means. I'm not sure how it works in foreign countries, but in the States, we have residency rates for public schools. I can consider myself lucky that I had a great University, at a very cost-effective rate, right down the road from me."

"Web design and development have always been areas of focus for most of my life; so at no point did I consider not going to school to further my knowledge of the subject. At no time was attendance cost an issue."

"I really didn't have plans to get into web development. I had taken programming courses in high school and knew I wanted to do something with Computer Science. As I progressed in Computer Science studies, I realized that the college curriculum had not kept up with the real world needs of programmers. The future is obviously in web development, as more and more applications move to the cloud. Universities are struggling to keep up with this shift, and continue to teach traditional desktop application development. Of course, the fundamentals apply across both areas, and for those teachings I am thankful. I never considered not going to school. However, I didn't finish :)."

"I attended university on the Gold Coast, Australia. There were no web design related courses, so I studied for a degree majoring in graphic design. I always planned to go to University. Unfortunately, I found that, at the end of my degree, I did not learn as much as I would have hoped -and believe the price of the degree was not worth the cost."

"Still to this day, I feel I can quit web school at any time. I have always felt strongly, believing clients choose a designer without even thinking about his degree. If you have a killer portfolio, and no degree, you have a much better chance over the person with a degree and a portfolio that's garbage. With that in mind, I chose to do both - have a good portfolio and a two year degree."

"Back when I first decided to study, there wasn't any doubt in my mind that I did not want to study a form of web design/development. The first factor was having a degree under my belt - I enjoy learning. The cost for the degree was a little daunting, but I knew that with a degree behind my back and the passion I have for this industry, I would be okay when I graduated."

"I went to University to study Mechanical Engineering with the dream of designing roller coasters. After a year, I wasn't getting along with the course, so I changed to Computer Science. That seemed like the logical choice as I already had a grounding in programming from learning PHP to write a pretty heavy personal website (about roller coasters). I wasn't sure at the time where this new course would take me, but the answer was certainly not a career in web development."