Three years of studying are finished. Between 2003 and 2007 I became a professional bachelor in applied computer science. In short, a “programmer”. During the last weeks I joined my first Alumni reception (allthough I’m not an old student yet, but I guess they needed some people), I went to presentations of IT companies, received a lot of online and offline recruitement material, and checked hundreds of RSS feeds (I really need to stop this) and professional magazines.

But while most students of my class are already applying for a job, I’m one of the few persons that want to continue studying. Yes we are only with a few, I guess about 5, if I may believe the number of people who joined the sessions regarding “Verder studeren”.

So what are the possibilities for young IT graduates ? Which are more interesting : Banaba’s (Bachelor after bachelor), Manaba’s (master after bachelor) or post-graduate ? I checked all Flemish educations, and even some educations from Brussels, Wallonia, The Netherlands and France.

After that, I compared the list of reasons why I want to continue : doing something more artistic, being able to express ideas, fantasies, require more experience and distinguish and develop myself in a wider area of computer science. If possible, implementing these skills on a computer and thus extending my diploma.

• The most obvious choice for our school is the Manaba “Industrial Engineer, option computer science“, which can be followed on the same school of Hogeschool Gent. But it’s no option for me, as this is really for people who are good in science, with a lot of attention for chemistry, physics and math.
• Post-graduate applied IT-management, same school : A big rehearsal of what I do now, but with lot of attention to management. Quite intersting I must admit, but not really what I’m looking for.
• Manaba “Computer Science”, at the university of Ghent or Brussels. I tried this at the VUB in Brussels when I left school at the age of 18. A very interesting eduction which learned me a lot of implicit programming (Scheme), but too many math.
• Post-graduate E-design, Hogeschool Gent, at campus Aalst. I was quite disappointed that this degree wasn’t mentioned last week on the afternoon sessions, perhaps because it isn’t teached in the city of Gent ? The subjects though are not very outstanding : web develoment, CD, DVD, E-business (f.e. e-shops), virtual reality, with tools as dreamweaver, photoshop, illustrator, director, premiere and cinema 4D. Stupid.
• Advanced Master in E-media / Game development, GroupT, Leuven : 3D, digital media processing, web publishing, mobile publishing, user experience, e-media impact, games engines, large scale programming (c++), managing team dynamics and software engineering. Looks very interesting. But the prerequisites are too difficult, as it is mainly ment for young engineers.
• Postgraduates multimedia KaHo Mechelen, Multimedia and communication technology KaHo Antwerpen, Postgraduate ICT and Multimedia Management Ho Antwerpen : NOT interesting
• Bachelor in multimedia and communication technology at Kortrijk (HoWest) : The better alternative if you want to do something with multimedia. A very modern minded school. Two disadvantages though : 1. It’s in Kortrijk (…), 2. Very applied, which will, like we’re used to say in Dutch, “push you in a box”.
• Bachelor in graphical and digital media, Artevelde school, Gent. I currently prefer this eduction. There are 4 options : Cross-media design, Grafimedia policy, Grafimedia technology and Multimedia production. Main subjects are : image styling, sketches, layout, marketing, authoring, visual communication, calculation, press techniques, workflow, and so on.. I think I’m gonna go for cross-media design, as multimedia is mainly working with computer (coding, adobe products, ..), while the cross-media design is more about drawing, styling and designing. Oh and, it’s in Gent !
• Going to Lille (North of France), to a specialised school www.efficom.fr. But I’m not very aloud to do this in my relationship

I’m more and more focusing on the education at Artevelde school in Gent. This because it’s all about designing, with a strong link to computer science, and still an eduction skill on it’s own. I hope it’s not only about techniques, but how to “invent” and “develop your ideas”. The people from Artevelde even made a special course for IT graduates, which lowers the amount of years from 3 to 2. But I really wonder if there will be lots of IT graduates.

Almost every student wants to go get a job immediately, there is little interest in the banaba’s and manaba’s. Is it because there are so many job vacancies for IT students ? Are they all satistfied with the little communication and coding skills they’ve learned at BINF ? Or is it because companies like Dolmen and Ordina offer step-in courses for unspecialized graduates ?

Still three months to think about it. It’s only a pity that I will almost certainly need to leave my student house in Gent. If I want to do the education at Artevelde school, I need to move more close to the center of Gent. Does somebody know a good student house at Rabot or the city center ?

Things I still need to do this summer :

• Go to 2 procclamations
• Search for new student house in Gent
• Make final decisions on what to study
• Working on payed website project
• Cactus festival
• Student job at HCW
• Gentse feesten
• Microsoft Summer School (oh anti-microsoft people, I know what you will say )
• Walking in Portugal, Norway or Italy (same concept as in Ireland last year, but perhaps with tent instead of b&b)