Full Sail University

Date: Nov 25 2008
Major: Fine Arts - Painting/Sculpture/Photography/etc (This Major's Salary over time)
I'm sitting in class now, 5 months into my "education" at full sail, imagining ways of putting my fragmented college life back together. In my opinion, Full Sail is not for anyone that truly takes film studies seriously. Much of this rant can only discuss the Film degree, as it is the degree I am in. The students here try to impress others with their "knowledge" of film, while completely ignoring many literary and storytelling aspects of the art, rejecting to create a picture that utilizes all of the visual elements in order to convey a point.

The school prides itself in having a body of students that "know what they want to do", but based on my personal experience, it's quite frankly the opposite. There are people here who really want to take full advantage of their education—and it will work out for them. You get what you put into it. However, these people are a minority, and that doesn't work out for me since I like to bounce ideas off of people. Most of the kids here don't really know why they're going into film. They'll probably tell you "I like movies!"

I'd like to see where all of the money goes to, because most of the classrooms are nasty, and the chairs break all of the time. Some of the classrooms are awesome and comfortable, but we're only in these rooms every now and then. My guess is that a lot more of the money goes into Full Sail's public image than into things that matter, such as campus (Full Sail has no campus) or buildings (I'm sitting in a shopping center right now). As far as equipment, Full Sail is awesome. However, I don't see what the big deal is about all of that. What's the point in having millions of dollars worth of lights if you don't have a collaborative crew with the right leader and a good story to light?

The vibe I get from the pupils attending this school is sometimes that they unintentionally frown upon knowledge. There are definitely kids who are smart, but they're not appreciated like in Universities.

Many students struggled through the math course, which was nothing like I'd ever seen since 7th grade. I graduated high school with a 3.3 GPA, and was mostly just an average student. In Full Sail College Mathematics, my absent-minded, scatterbrained teacher often forgot why she did problems a certain way and made minor mistakes. I drooled on my desk while I slumbered through most of the lectures, and finished off the class with an A. I even took a friend's exam for him after finishing my own, and walked out of the classroom filled with still-unfinished tests.

Keep in mind that the degree is a bachelor of science, meaning you know how to work the equipment. It means nothing more than that, and from what I hear it's not a very respected degree in Hollywood, although Tarentino or Jackson never went to film school anyway. For the other degrees such as the programming ones, it does seem like you can take full advantage of the fast-paced education. However, I highly recommend avoiding this school for Film.

Half of our textbooks are published by Full Sail itself, and are filled from cover to cover with misspellings, bad grammar, inconsistencies, and formatting errors. This doesn't say much for Full Sail either…

There is no class unity. With no unified housing, you don't make friends as rapidly as in college, and it takes more effort to do so. The location of the school doesn't help either, there isn't too much to do around this poor tourist area, unless you want to go waste money you don't have on Disney. UCF is just 6 miles down the road, and luckily I have a friend there so I can hang out with the UCF students. For the most part though, Full Sail kids are always trying to hook up with the UCF chicks and party with them, but we are generally seen as nerdy and pesky.

One of the math problems on the powerpoint was:

6 + 3 = 9

And that's all I have to say. I hope I don't come off arrogantly but I really think this school should be avoided not only for the more intelligent peoples' sake, but for the school's sake as well. Realize that you really get what you put into this school, so if you take it seriously enough, you'll benefit. I personally cannot benefit because I prefer to be surrounded by people as motivated, as careful, and as detailed as I am. If you're not motivated enough to still try ten times harder, even though you're getting A's, then you might want to take it slowly at a 4 year university.

I'm dropping out, going back home, getting a job until the 2008-09 school year, where I'll probably go to either NYU, Chapman, or UCF. Please email me with any questions at all, I would love to answer anything.