Check this website out. There’s a great blog by a student who goes there now and he’s documenting his experience I think. I checked it out and it fleshed out Full Sail a great deal for me.

Please contact us at: http://tinyurl.com/yzjrgxg

Thanks – Courtney

For those of you considering the school here are my thoughts:

First and foremost, do your research (if you are reading this, then you are likely in the midst). There very well may be another school that is going to cater to your needs better then full sail will be able to.

In this process though, I would recommend talking with people in your field of choice (if you can find one…12 degrees of separation right?) and get their opinion on the school, after all, it will be the people within the industry that will hire you once you graduate, so their opinion matters. DON’T base your entire opinion on the postings online! Every product has a failure rate, and the few consumers that happen to get a “failure” are more likely to complain about the product and their experience then one who has had an amazing experience. I think that car reviews are a good comparison. If I buy a car for $30k that is everything I expected, I am not likely going to be thinking “I have a great car that has given me no problems… I should tell people that I have no problems” while on the contrary if I bought that same car and had constant problems I am likely going to try and “warn people” telling them that “EVERY car made is bad…stay away”. The truth is that I am one of a handful of people that managed to buy a lemon, but there is a much greater majority that had a good experience.

In the case of Full Sail, I don’t think it is a good idea to step into this school (or any school) with the expectation that there will be a guaranteed Return on Investment. NOBODY can promise this!

All this crap I read on message boards about “the whiners are just students who couldn’t cut it” and “you get out of it what you put into it” is garbage. A bad school is a bad school no matter how dedicated the student and Full Sail is a BAD school. I’ve been to real colleges and Full Sail isn’t one of them.

First of all, they lie upfront when they tell you that they have industry contacts that will help you get a job after you graduate. NO ONE at Full Sail has industry contacts. Let me repeat that, no one at Full Sail has industry contracts. No one working there knows anyone who works in any of the trades they pretend to teach there.

If anyone at Full Sail had contacts, he would use them to get a real job. Anyone who could leave, has left. Almost all the teachers are there because they can’t get a job anywhere else. The ones who remain are long past caring about the students. Only a few new guys care and try to teach students what they need to know and they get burned out pretty quick because they get no support from the corrupt administrators.

Students believe that what they learn at Full Sail will enable them to get a job because that’s what the school tells them. No way. Nothing in the curriculum will prepare you to compete in the industry, especially against guys with real degrees and more experience. It’s totally superficial. No depth of training at all and in-depth training and experience is exactly what you need to get a good job.

Everything at Full Sail is a front to sucker in new students. Full Sail spends a tremendous amount of money and effort on decorating and flashy equipment to create the impression that it is a high-tech, state-of-the-art facility. It’s not. It’s just an illusion. If all that energy was spent on teaching, graduates might be able to compete in the job market.

Many are of the Full Sail teachers are Full Sail grads. (I was one of the exceptions. I went to a real university.) A common joke at Full Sail goes like this:

“What’s the difference between a Full Sail instructor and a Full Sail grad?”

“Three months.”
(The three months between graduation and getting hired.)

The placement program is a joke. They do NOTHING for the graduate. They have NO contacts in the industry. Any industry. IN order to fudge their placement statistics, they do things like this:

“A grad got a job at Blockbuster. Well, that’s a job in the film industry, isn’t it?”

No. That’s a job in retail.

But they list that as a grad getting a job in the film industry. Orlando is full of video stores staffed by Full Sail grads.

Everything at Full Sail is a lie. They tell suckers that Oliver Stone lectured at Full Sail. Wrong! Stone gave a lecture at UCF and, as a courtesy, the dean at UCF extended an invitation to Full Sail students to attend. But they still tell that lie today. I personally heard this lie told by tour guides at the school.

What kind of school has 24 hour a day classes? One of my students told me that he had been scheduled for 28 straight hours of classes. He fell asleep driving home and nearly crashed his car. Does that sound like a good way to study? The administrators don’t care about the students. At all. You could die on campus and they wouldn’t care as long as your check cleared.

How much do you think you’d learn or remember with that ridiculous schedule? There’s a reason Full Sail is the only college in the world to use a 24/7 class schedule with no semester breaks. Full Sail crams as many suckers through as quickly as possible to make money. Because Full Sail is all about the money. And the lies.

Make your own movie? That’s what they tell students. Not a chance. The teachers pick the script (not yours) and the director and you get ASSIGNED a job on the crew. Whatever job you get, you don’t get to do it long enough to get good at it. I never met a student who was satisfied with the way the film turned out and it was often the teachers who had screwed it up. And Full Sail provides no continuing education for their staff so every day their knowledge becomes more and more outdated. I hope you like paying for obsolete training!

As for show production, save your money and just get a job at a company that does show-pro and learn for free. Lots of people do.

As an alternative to Full Sail, if you want to make movies, here’s my advice.

Read books on screenwriting.

Write script.

Buy computer.
Buy and install editing program.

Buy camcorder.

Make movie.

Sell movie to distributor.

It’s cheaper than Full Sail, you get to keep the gear, and you get to do what you want.

Don’t fooled by their flashy marketing. For the love of God, do NOT go to Full Sail !!

Sincerely,
Former Full Sail Teacher

Money isn’t an issue. ARTi of New England is pulling me in at $93k just for one degree in advertisement. I DO NOT PLAN on staying in FL after I graduate. I plan on going back to Boston immediately and pursuing the online courses for Internet Marketing for a Masters. Will this be worth it? I don’t plan on buying this unless I’m fully aware of what I can get out of it, and I know what precautions to take and what I have to do (i.e. get out of FL after I graduate to look for a job).

ex. when i was in the 16mm class i had to show my new TA how to properly load film because he had no expirience with it. he graduated from Valencia and i was “teaching” him in a class that cost me $5000. does that seem right?

Fullsail is privatly owned and is a for-profit buisness. they only care about the buck. if you go to the school you know everyone there talks about it.

I am trying to discuss with a friend how one can do anything they put their mind to, no matter what the cost…thank you!