Hey everyone,

I am currently in the last year of high school and have decided to pursue UX as my long-term career. I am very torn about which degree to go after and thought some advice from some fellow UXers would help. What are you guys' opinions on the following degrees i.e. What it's like to to be in the UX programme- the people, atmosphere, resources, syllabus, teaching environment, student experience, is it worth it etc. ? The unis that I am more inclined towards are- UCL, UAL, NYU, SCAD, and U of T.

The degrees I have applied for are:
Loughborough University BSc User centred design
University College London (UCL) Arts and Sciences (BASc)
UAL London College of Communication BA (Hons.) Information and Interface Design
University of Leeds BA Digital Media
The Glasgow School of Art BA (Hons) Interaction Design
NYU Integrated Digital Media (BS)
Savannah College of Art & Design BFA UX Design
University of British Columbia BA Media Studies
University of Toronto Interactive Digital Media (Specialist), Honours Bachelor of Arts / Master of Information
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University BA(Hons) Communication Design

I was initially very keen on the SCAD UX Design course but am held back for safety reasons- drugs, alcohol, gun, racism against Asians and personal security issues are some things that I am very concerned about. I read the security report on the Savannah campus and there are 100+ drug/alcohol reports. Is SCAD Savannah a safe environment to be in? What are the things I need to be aware of?

I am also quite worried that the learning atmosphere might not be as active/motivated and the overall quality of students might not be as good as traditional universities of higher rankings where students come from better academic backgrounds and are more motivated to do better. Is the statement true?

Also, what are the prospects of computer programming in these courses- How advanced does it go? What are some tips you can give me in my portfolio submission?

If you have taken any of the degrees listed above, I would really appreciate your honest opinion! Thank you so much!

Serene

I don't think you're asking in the right place. I'd be surprised if anyone one here has personal experience with those courses, certainly not any outside of the UK.

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Also, what are the prospects of computer programming in these courses- How advanced does it go? What are some tips you can give me in my portfolio submission?

If you're looking at a design or UX course it's unlikely you'll do any programming. Some digital media courses might, but it's going to be incredibly basic in comparison to something like computer science.

I recently completed a business Computing degree which is a lighter version of computer science and as these degrees cover so many aspects of computing I only did 1 ux assignment in 3 years and that was a group project designing a smart watch interface. You may learn more away from university on a specific topic.