Cogswell Polytechnical College is a private for-profit college located in San Jose, California. It holds accreditation through the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). Cogswell had a small student body of 315 full-time and 148 part-time students in 2013.
Programs at Cogswell range from Digital Media to Engineering and include Entrepreneurship & Innovation.
History
Cogswell College was founded as a high school on March 19, 1887, by Dr. and Mrs. Henry Cogswell. It opened in August 1888, offering technical classes for boys and business classes for girls. It was the first technical training institution in the West. On June 30, 1930, it became a technical college.
The original campus building, located in the Mission District in San Francisco, was occupied in 1888. When the 1906 earthquake partially destroyed the campus, the College relocated across the street to an existing home on the property. After the City of San Francisco purchased some of the land by eminent domain in 1917, a new building was constructed at Folsom and 26th Streets to house the school. In 1974, having outgrown the existing campus, the college moved to a location at Stockton and California Streets. In 1985, it moved to Cupertino, where it remained until 1994 (its old San Francisco building became a Ritz Carlton hotel). In 1993, the college purchased a campus in Sunnyvale, which it moved to in 1994. This campus was sold in 2012, and in 2015 the college moved to a leased building in San Jose.
In 2010 Cogswell was acquired by Palm Ventures. The following year Charles "Chuck" House, executive director of the Media X program at Stanford University, became chancellor. Deborah Snyder was appointed president of the college in 2014.
Degrees and enrollment
About 24% of the student population are women. The student to faculty ratio for Fall 2010 was 7:1.
Cogswell currently offers the following degrees:
- B.A. Digital Art and Animation
- B.A. Game Design Art
- B.S. Game Design Engineering
- B.S. Digital Audio Technology
- B.A. Digital Media Management
- B.S. Software Engineering
- B.S. Digital Arts Engineering
- M.A. Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Cogswell specializes in digital animation and video game design. Its computer graphics degree program is the longest-running in the Bay Area. It includes Project X, an invitation-only animated film production course that approximates the experience of interning in the industry.
In November 2007 Cogswell announced the addition of a minor in business management. In January 2011 Cogswell started its Entrepreneurship program; it expanded this in 2012 into the first Master's program in Entrepreneurship & Innovation.
Awards
Cogswell students won first place in the 2007 SIGGRAPH SPACE-TIME Student Animation competition in the category of Storytelling/Narrative
A Cogswell student won for “Best Editing†at Columbia University's National Undergraduate Film Festival.
Worlds Apart, an 8-minute film created by a Project X student cohort, has won 23 awards. The previous year's film, The Offering, also won several awards and was screened in June 2010 as part of the New York City Downtown Short Film Festival Audience Choice Screenings and in August 2010 at the New York City International Film Festival.
References
External links
- Cogswell College's Official Website
