My Take on Full Sail
October 1st, 2006
Well, it’s been a little over a year since I graduated from Full Sail University now, which is absolutely crazy really. I’ve always wanted to write something about what I thought about the school, my experience, and if it’s ‘worth’ the cash you have to pay to attend. I guess after a year, I’ve had time to really think about it, and work a few jobs to see how the skills I learned have translated to a career in the Design world.
First off, I’ve always been more of a ‘coder’ than a ‘designer’. I’d like to think I have a good eye for design, and I’ve certainly learned over the years what works and what doesn’t. But I don’t think I’m the most creative person out there, either. I know what principles work, which don’t, and typically just make design choices based on that. When I enrolled in school in Orlando, I was hoping to get a better background than another Atlanta area school supplied me in, design wise. With that said, I think I did expect Full Sail to supply more design theory versus a simple crash course in certain applications.
Right out of the gate, I did feel like I was going to get a lot of that. Once our core classes were out of the way, some of the early classes I was in had names like Fundementals of Design and Computer Grahpics, real basic names that would lend themselves to being classes that would stress the ins and outs of the wonderful world of design.
I’m not implying we learned nothing about practical design concepts - we certainly did. I am simply saying I wish we had spent more time on it. I felt we rushed through that part of the courses on the way to how to use whichever application we were going to focus on that month. The practical knowledge we learned at school is second to none. When I left, I had intermediate to advanced knowledge in the following software: Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, GoLive, After Effects, Flash, Dreamweaver, Final Cut, 3D Studio Max, and a host of others. I learned, or honed my skills in, 5 different programming languages, and worked on tons of projects by myself and in groups. A lot of the things we churned out (in just one month!) rival anything I’ve seen from other design-related schools. When I left, I really did feel like a well-rounded designer, and felt I had a huge leg up over many other entry-level students due to the amazing number of programs I had learned.
However, this also makes a lot of the students who graduate from Full Sail Jacks of all trades; master of none as the saying goes. A lot of students come out of school and are kick-ass web designers, or they go to school for some other field we dabbled in but are masters in it. Full Sail students can speak the lingo, but can’t always deliver the goods as well as someone who has been doing it for years can.
Bottom line: is Full Sail University worth the price tag($40k or more, depending on living expenses & your specific major)? I honestly think it depends on so many factors that it’s impossible to say yes or no definitevely. I’ll be paying off student loans for the next 10 or so years, and while my earning potential has certainly skyrocketed due to the knowledge I acquired while at Full Sail, I’ve also been handcuffed by the loans to gain that very knowledge & skill. I pay approximately $6,000 a year right now to Sallie Mae to cover my loans from school. If you factor in how much I have to make hourly to pay that off, that’s almost $8,000 a year (before taxes) in income to pay off my debt. Did Full Sail enable me to make $8,000 a year more than I would have if I didn’t go there? Perhaps. The only skill that I use at my current job that I did not have before going to Full Sail was my background in Flash. I’d say I spend about 5 hours a week in Flash right now, so it’s hard for me to say whether or not it was ‘worth’ it or not.
I just think that it’s something for anyone considering entering a school like Full Sail. Really think about what you want to be doing with your life when you get out of school, because this isn’t some broad degree like, say, some sort of Business degree that will allow you to enter a huge amount of fields when you graduate. If you attend Full Sail and get out, odds are you’re going to get a job in your specific degree-related field, or you’re going back to college somewhere else afterwords. Of the 30 or so kids that graduated with me, roughly 10 of them are in Digital Media/Graphic Design related fields. The rest of them either moved back home with their parents and are doing nothing, or they’re back in school somehwere else.
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October 4th, 2006 at 12:44 am
Thats cool…. where have you been i havent heard from you in like 20 years…. Full sail is good for some people but bad for me!!! i am broke now
October 4th, 2006 at 10:25 am
I’ve just been really busy with working & getting settled into the new place. It’s been right at a month now, but it’s really hard to get much done when you only have the weekends to unpack & all that jazz.
October 4th, 2006 at 12:22 pm
I think a lot of the problem with Full Sail (in the argument you present, anyways) is the same thing that makes it appealing - the short timeframe you spend overall.
A lot of people see college as a 4-year experience, so when they see 14 months for an Associates’ Degree or 28 months for a Bachelors’ it becomes appealing to the point of “Maybe I can get good at that and not spend that much time in school” rather than looking for something they REALLY want to do.
What do you think about it, Dan? (BTW, how’ve you been!)
October 4th, 2006 at 1:18 pm
I agree - I think that some of the things were glossed over or blown thru in an effort to teach us so much in such a short period of time - which I am truly thankful for, because the wide variety of skills I learned has helped me work my way up to a position that’s pretty comfortable for me after only a year of being out of school. But I think you’re right - people kind of show up and go thru the motions in an effort to get a degree in something, and come out with a very limited knowledge of what they went to school for.
Heck, if you look at the kids in our class, there is a very defined line between the people who put a lot in (and got a lot back) and the kids who showed up and just passed. The ones that just went through the motions are now living at their parent’s houses doing the same thing they were before school, but with a big debt hanging over their heads.
I’ve been really good, thanks. I’ve been keeping pretty busy I guess, but I think things are about to get a little more sane. I really like where I work - I’ve been there for about 10 months now and I really enjoy it and the people I work with. We do a lot of real estate web design, so it might not be the most exciting stuff in the galaxy but I can’t think of a time where I’ve dreaded going into work.
How’s Orlando treating you?
October 5th, 2006 at 1:53 am
It’s treating me pretty well, actually. I’ve been learning a lot of stuff here, so I’m happy to have taken the position. I finally got a girlfriend, so that makes life quite a bit more interesting - which helps tons!
Beyond that, I just launched GamingTruth.com. It’s a gaming site I started to display news, reviews, and editorials on the gaming industry from yours truly (as if it’s a surprise).
Things get good for it this weekend. I have a major launch meeting scheduled with a pretty big game company, so subscribe to the RSS feed and let me know what you think!
May 22nd, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Stumbled across ur blog. Thanks for posting this. I’m 26 and thinking of going back to school to make a career change from sales to the music business.
I’m thinking of transfering an associates degree to FULL SAIL for their Bachelor’s in Music Business; but I’m really unsure if the education from full sail is gunna make a big enough difference in my earning potential to justify the expense and time.
What do you think?
Brandon
November 10th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
As a non-rich dad of FULL SAIL grad, appreciated comments and advice. You get what you give–but there are no guarantees. Of those who sit and wait at home after graduation, maybe there’s hope. I think the FULL SAIL experience may get threaded into a variety of life experiences. There were lots of people from my generation that never did anything with their degree–some with PhD’s! More often, somehow, the “purpose” turned out to be to put bread on the table for those you love–not bad, really. My own experience was I got both. Many didn’t and were just as happy. Work can be “worth it” in many ways. I’m not trying to give false hope to those who may suspect they wasted their time. I’m just trying to suggest all is not lost if you don’t see how the education investment might be useful.
December 15th, 2007 at 10:55 am
Full Sail is a joke. High priced and for what. Like you said student loan repayment limits what you can do. the worse part about Full Sailis there credits are non-transferable! If you want to continue your education you are locked into FS. I found they were great to work with until you had a problem. Once the student loan funds were in their hands they forgot who you were. I got the hell out early and attended ARTI and found a job two months after making 43,000 a year. There credits are transferable to any state colege including UCf which they have a working relationship with. Could FS do that? I don’t think so. STAY AWAY!!!!
February 7th, 2008 at 6:19 am
[...] little over a year ago, I wrote a review on Full Sail’s Digital Media program. It was met with a minimal amount of controversy, with a few folks saying that the school was a [...]
February 21st, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Eric,
With all due respect, 43k for a college grad isn’t any more or less than a normal FS grad can expect if you’re a talented designer. My student loan is roughly $300/month and if you do the math, that means that Full Sail only had to increase my ability to earn 4k or so a year for it to be ‘worth’ doing.
It’s safe to say it’s enhanced my earning potential by much more than that.
May 14th, 2008 at 12:30 am
Do you have an opinion about the online degree Full Sail is now offering in Entertainment Business?