Short Courses

College is time-consuming and expensive. It may not be the best way for you. Hey, it may be out of the question. An alternative is the so-called "short course," an intensive period of applied training at a private facility. The glitziest of such programs, in this country, seems to be Full Sail, and there are a range of similar programs available around the world. In general, such courses are comparatively expensive for the amount of time they offer, but they are also comparatively intense. You can cover a lot of ground in ten weeks of twelve-hour days!

What such courses really give you is an intense experience within the field. That experience can be really valuable and useful, and can give you much of the leg up that you desire. You will learn a lot of jargon, a lot of process, and much about current industry practices and standards. What you won't get, of course, is depth, and you won't have time to learn how to learn. If you already have these things, fine. If you don't, keep in mind you're going to have to do them on your own either before or after you take a short course.

On Your Own

You can, of course, teach yourself. Particularly if you set aside some of the money you would spend on tuition for college or a short course to buy books, equipment, magazine subscriptions, and the like, you can give yourself a pretty decent education. Also, you can sign up for seminars and go to conventions and learn a heap for very little money. (For instance, I find the AES conventions an extraordinarily intense learning experience every year. Tuition is about $100, and books (preprints) are another $100. This is an incredible bargain, if you think of it as an alternative to college!)

What you are going to have trouble with, while learning on your own, is both the perspective and structure of more formal training. And you never get a diploma, which can be a serious disadvantage in our label-crazed society. Against these deficiencies, one of the huge benefits of self-education is that you really learn how to learn. You learn how to provide your own intellectual structure, discipline, facilities, and direction. You will acquire a level of self-reliance and confidence, as you teach yourself, that will serve you immensely well in your future professional work.

Finally, learning on your own is what you have to do after you finish all the other training, in any case, so you might as well get on with it.

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