What to Expect

A multimedia program can be as intense as students want it to be. And some students push the intensity level to the maximum.

That's what David Gratton did. A graduate of a multimedia program, Gratton says he sometimes spent 24 hours straight in the computer lab. And he says he was one of the less committed students.

"There were other people who would spend days in school," he says. "They would literally sleep there."

Janet Zagoria also committed a great deal of energy and effort to the wb design program at Santa Rosa Junior College. "I just poured my whole self into it," she says. "I was day and night at the computer. The people I probably made the closest friends with were also like that."

Many programs try to teach a lot in a short period. The program Gratton completed was only 10 months long.

During that period, Gratton had to learn several different programs and languages. He even had to compose an original piece of music for animation, using a keyboard and samples. And he had no musical background whatsoever.

Many multimedia programs also require students to work on real-life projects for nonprofit groups. Zagoria, for instance, led a team of students who worked on a website for the National Women's History Project.

"For that semester,...I put in 900 hours, working on that site from mid-January to mid-May," says Zagoria.

Gratton says he constantly talked to his instructors about anything and everything that had to do with multimedia.

Zagoria also sought out her instructors. And if they didn't have the answers, she and the other students would turn to each other.

"Learning from other people was a big thing," she says. "It wasn't just learning from the teachers, who knew a lot. But...they couldn't know everything. And the students would find out incredible things, and you would pass out the information either with e-mail or verbally."