Full Sail by Orlando......

http://www.fullsail.com/main.cfm

anybody live near this place or know/heard much about it. sounds real nice but i always hate places without oncampus housing for people that come from out of state.

I have a couple of friends who are looking to go there in a year. I took a look at their catalogue, and I've become quite interested in it, as well.

i'm somewhat looking into that place myself. their game design degree is quite interesting. it's about a three hour drive from my house.

see id be all for it but like i said earlier....

theres no on campus housing which means no financial aide for housing which i would need. i worked during school when i got my BFA/AMA and i would never want to do it again. i can tell a big difference between my work when i had the spare time and focus. its just easier to do schooling when you dont have bills and living expenses/problems over your head as well.

the thing i DID like was that theres not semesters there. it says a new enrollment class starts every month and the program is only about a year to a year and a half.

cause right now my design degree isnt even turing up interviews. its near impossible to get a regular full time job as well. now im "overqualified".

It's not a real college...

If you can deal with a non-accredited degree, it's not a bad thing. You're basically getting a really expensive sheet of paper from Full Sail...

but...

the facilities they have are top notch, or at least what they show on the official tour of the place. very high end stuff. The class schedules are during really odd hours for some courses, like 2am sound rigging classes. the idea is that it gets you used to a professional schedule for whatever you're going into.

it's kind of industry fantasy camp, from my POV.

I've read really good articles about them before, and they seem to be a great place to learn about computers. I had seriously considered going there when computer programming/hardware/networking were my majors. If I ever went back to a computer-related field that would probably be one of the top places I'd look at attending.

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Originally posted by Yeller_Dog
It's not a real college...

If you can deal with a non-accredited degree, it's not a bad thing. You're basically getting a really expensive sheet of paper from Full Sail...

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thats the thing....i have an accredited degree and it aint doin shit for me atm. figured some more training would help.

My brother goes to full sail for the audio enginering department. Really nice place.

I was invited to tour the place when I was deciding where to go to college. The facilities are really, really nice. However it isn't a place for an 18-year old out of high school. It's extremely expensive and you have to live in an apt complex nearby since you'll be spending the majority of your time on campus. The atmosphere is a little too relaxed and I saw too many people just sitting around smoking. They showed me a couple of projects that people had done during their time there and spectacular wouldn't be the word to describe them. If you are really interested in video game production, film, or sound/music, I would suggest attending after you get a degree from either a a 2 or 4 year university. My overall impression is that Full Sail isn't that impressive and that's coming from someone who loves the kind of stuff they specialize there.

SC

I was looking to go back to school for a game related degree, right now I'm considering going to Carniege-Melon for a Masters in Technology, unofficially called "Video Game U".

If Full Sail is really expensive...and I do mean really since CMU is like the third most frickin expensive school in the country (that's an exageration, no idea where it places but people are always telling me it's "like the third most frickin expensive school in the country"...anyways) and it is an acredited degree, very much so.

But you do have to 'get in', as it is a master's program. I haven't heard if it's any good or not but CMU is a very good school so...

At any rate, the universal thing I've heard and the reason I'm posting this info, is...a degree or lack thereof is not a guarentee in the game industry, at all. Don't be surprised if you get LESS attention from some old-guard types. A lot of developers resent the 'new breed' of structured, educated entry-level people. Believe it or not it is a problem serious enough to be addressed in the industry (Game Developer magazine, January 2003, last page if I'm not mistaken I'm too lazy to check the shelf). In CMU's own literature Warren Spector was quoted as saying that he doesn't believe a Master's degree will increase anyone's chances of getting a job.

So what you're definately investing in is not the sheepskin, but the information you're going to gain. And all of that is going to distill down into your demo reel and samples. You may be judged, immediately, by that and that alone. You can see it's a difficult decision. I'm considering the master's at CMU because I'll never regret taking the course, even if I don't get a job because of it...it something I want to do. The fact that it's CMU will help if and when there is ever a doctoral program at a school.

That way, when they finally bring the hammer down on me for my student loans, I go out with style at my court hearing:

Prosecutor: "Isn't it true, Blaine That..."
Blaine: "Dr. Blaine. I may not have paid for it but I earned it."
Prosecutor: "Fine, isn't it true Dr. Blaine..."
Blaine: "Dr. Christian. Only my friends call me Dr. Blaine. I don't like your attitude, we're not friends anymore".

And so on.