Full Sail University Reviews

"Let’s get this out there first I graduated top of my class with a gpa 3.8. I earned this because of my own hard work! Not Full Sail’s great courses. Facts of the matter are the classes are outdated not kept up with or even looked over. I had to personally fix multiple problems in multiple classes cause teachers were no help not all teachers but most are lazy and unprofessional. I feel it was a waste of money and I could’ve learned it with free courses with better materials. For any one denying this I have videos and pictures and conversations saved proving what’s being said here. Out of my whole class only two students graduated and that’s due to the poor standards of full sail. I also have multiple files documenting all my complaints that full sail throws under the rug and does nothing about it. I actually had two teachers in a live meeting with students for class belittling students, complaining about students, complaining about doing there job , complaining about students messaging them to much yup all in a live meeting with the students watching them pretty crazy huh but true I recorded it! Did these students get an apology or anything nope it got swept under the rug like everything else at full sail. If a student needs any guidance or anything like it don’t count on full sail you will waste your time getting no where. My question is how does a school charging that much have 2 year old courses or courses that are incorrect or not best practices. Ful sails tutoring is a joke by far and you have to jump through hoops just to get it and 95% of the time you won’t get the help you need in time before they fail your assignment not to mention if your late it’s a 0 for the assignment. The online program needs a complete overhaul because it latterly does nothing for students unless you learn yourself which defeats the reason of going to a college I mean after all that’s why we’re willing to pay the amount is because it’s supposed to be more then go learn your self. I can go on and on about full sail and it’s negative features and there is a lot of them, most fall on students which is wrong and they should be held accountable. I was reported and almost punished for reporting problems in classes and directors not doing there job correctly or plain just ignoring students yup that’s right program directors that ignore you for weeks and then act like it’s a gift when they actually finally answer the student. I made sure I graduated and showed every director / teacher that I did also so all the directors that refused to help with issues repeatedly happening over and over in classes. I would not go back to full sail for any other education due to there inability to correctly teach classes and to have resources that are up to date or looked over. I wasted 20 grand for a degree I could’ve got for a couple thousand. Do your self a favor if you want to learn find a good learning web site that offers certified classes with degrees or certificates and save your self a bunch of money and time and aggravation! Student mean nothing to full sail ! You was warned !"

"Full Sail looks attractive and shows it as this massive school whos graduates go on to contribute to these massive projects like movies, shows, games, songs and list goes on. DO NOT EXPECT THIS AS AN OUT COME! I took audio production and graduated in 2017. I graduated salutatorian and would have been valedictorian if I had stuck with the bachelors course. I was so done with this school and I went to drop out but they I found out I could complete 3 more months and receive my associates so I did. After paying $27k at this point I wasn’t going to leave empty handed. Online is a joke, classes are a joke and out dated. The pro tools shown in the lectures was about 2 years old and the instructor didn’t record a new lesson and half the time didn’t update the lesson plan so you’re left to google everything. I learned more from google, YouTube, Lynda, udemy, and asking friends than I learned from Full Sail. The work is basic and you don’t ever learn a fraction of the software before you move on to a new month. If I had relied on just learning what Full Sail taught me I would only know how to set up Pro Tools and Logic and a few basic things I could learn from a 30 min into video about each DAW. Just dumb, boring and unoriginal. I graduated with a 3.8 gpa so I put in the work, I studied and put in all the effort to make it work but after paying $27k I didn’t know enough to land a job. And people with a bachelor degree couldn’t find work either. Just so everyone knows, everything that is taught at this school requires no degree to get a job. Don’t think this school will give you an advantage either because you will end up doing internships and getting paid nothing which is the same as if you didn’t have a degree and just starting out in the industry of choice. I really wish I could say something positive about this school. The only thing I can think of is the launch box they send you but everything they send you is over priced and you pay more for it later on the back end so that’s not worth it. Just hope on udemy or YouTube and learn that way because you will be relying on those sites anyway, only difference is it won’t put you tens of thousands in debt to still land an unpaid internship."

"I want my money back! This "school" is real world experience, in the fact that you're on your own. There is a fake support team and all these empty promises. However they trap you, they get your money then say you cannot transfer out. My TEM instructor said ' you're not here for the material, you're here to network.' I should've ran. I hope that this school is sued. During the pandemic they got my whole GI bill, while I was supposed to be an on campus student...so I could NETWORK. This place takes OUR money from the government and buys themselves new toys. This for profit school does not care...it shows in the results, not the promises."

"I started Full Sail in January, i was very excited to pursue the Computer Animation program until I actually started the course. It is a very difficult course which should not be learned or expected to be perfected in 4 weeks. My 3DF teacher also discouraged me heavily by mentioning to the class “if you guys think you will be in the company you want to work with when you graduate you are wrong a lot of students do not get to reach their goal” (which we did a class assignment discussion and everyone was commenting how they want to be with Marvel, Disney, Pixar, etc) I think it was very wrong and unprofessional for him to say that, especially since some students including myself dont have the luxury of coming to this expensive school without a bank loan. So now my future looks like I will be in Debt over 100k and not even getting to pay off the loan and work with the company i want. Even though, this school is based on connections and the “networks” they promised us when enrolling and doing a school tour. My father also asked the tour guide “how many students reach that level of success” and he was very nervous to answer and said it is not guaranteed. I gave this school the benefit of doubt since my passion has been art my whole life. I tried to ask my teacher a question about my work and he was rude about it and told me to “go watch the video online” (i asked him the question because i watched the video and it did not discuss my problem so i had to google it) but he proceeded to answer every other students questions in detail. This made me feel uncomfortable to ask again. What kind of a teacher is that? Why can’t the school hire someone better that actually enjoys teaching. For the money I paid I deserve better. You also get graded on having a profile picture, which is legitimately unfair and superficial. I have been to college before and not once did I recieve a 0 on all my assignments because my selfie was not on my profile. (3DF class failed my assignments for this reason)I also spent 9 hours doing one assignment just to recieve a 0 because my “sizing proportions were off” it was a very minor mistake and it was my very first time ever experiencing the Maya software. One of 3DF assignments takes 5+ hours depending on how experienced you are with the software, and he assigns up to 10 assignments a week. also, school advisors are not even on campus. They told me to wait 3-5 business days for a call back. Why should i be graded on attendance and be forced to fail a class even though i received an A or B when the staff of the school does not even attend. In my opinion (and the 3DF teachers’), They are selling you a dream. Good luck to anyone doing good in their major I wish you success, but I do not think this is for me anymore. Just sharing my honest experience."

"Full Sail University is a cash grabbing joke. I literally removed myself from a course 12 hours after the designated time required and they refused to remove my financial obligations. They took me through the credit process and after saving 6 months to pay what i believed to be the full payment, sent me notice of additional funds to close the account in full. So... in a nutshell, Full Sail University is unwilling to negotiate payment totals, like every other organization much less UNIVERSITY. Like I said upon starting this review: not only is your degree a joke, the organization is a cash grabbing COW."

"My experience with Full Sail University was disappointing, to say the least. While the campus, its courses and degree programs look impressive and promising at first glance, the quality of education and support left much to be desired. The absence of qualified instructors is obvious. Many I had were unprofessional, disengaged, and lacking of passion or knowledge for the topics they were supposed to teach, was one of the major problems I encountered. Numerous instructors lacked teaching experience, and it was clear from the way they approached teaching. The quality of the education that students receive is directly tied to the quality of the instructors. Maybe that’s why they aren't referred to as professors. Another disappointment was the housing department. They didn’t do much to help students find adequate housing, resolve housing issues, and the options they suggested were poor and often managed by unprofessional staff. Living conditions at properties listed in the housing guide were frequently subpar, and priced well above what students and parents can realistically afford. It was difficult to concentrate on studying because of things like mold, pests, violence, and noisy roommates. I felt similar disappointments in the career development department. They claimed to help students find jobs and networking opportunities to secure jobs, but their efforts were at best minimal for certain degree programs. While they provide mock interviews, they didn’t provide relevant counseling or actual development. One of the career development managers even said I should just take any job, even if it's not in my degree field or relevant to entertainment. Career development is an important aspect of any university experience, and students should receive support and guidance throughout their time at school, not during the last two months of school. Also, several staff members, particularly instructors, the department chair of the music business program, and the director of student development, participated in discriminatory, unethical, and dishonest acts. I was the target of and witnessed their actions towards others. It was meaningless to file a complaint because the staff is corrupt and will protect their own before the students. There was no doubt that some degree programs received preferential treatment over others, giving students an unfair advantage and lack of opportunities. And last, Full Sail University’s tuition was insanely expensive. It’s difficult to justify the excessive expenses associated with attending this “university” in light of the inadequate curriculum, unqualified instructors, subpar living circumstances suggested by the housing department, mediocre career support, and power hungry staff. They don’t support your dream as they claim; they sell a fantasy that isn’t worth buying. Overall, I wouldn’t encourage anyone searching for a distinguished and respectful educational experience to attend Full Sail University. There are several better options available, and students should get a substantial education in exchange for their time, money, health, and social life."

"If you are pursuing MUSIC PRODUCTION, do not attend this school. Full Sail is a terrible school for music production, especially if you're a beginner. You'll graduate only learning music theory and how to set up a Pro Tools session. That's pretty much it. Yes, you'll have a degree and your basic education to pursue further education, but if you're looking to join Full Sail because of its accelerated program thinking you'll be able to make money sooner by getting through school quicker, you're fooling yourself. Your future reality will be a whole lot of student loan debt with basically no skill to be independent. This school is great at marketing itself--basically they are great at sales. Do your own research! There's a reason why their graduation rate is so low compared to other schools. They brag about how graduates get most of their first jobs through other graduates, and there's a reason for that. It's almost as if the school is designed to put you in a dead end loop that only they can get you out of. ONLY if you're willing to kiss others behinds and live your life the way they want you to. Basically, your passions has to align with their vision on how you'll have any level of success--even if it's less than $100K/yr just looking to live a simple life. Attend at your own risk..."

"Fantastic school. Most of the other reviews are pretty BS, I had none of the issues that the other students here spoke about, most likely just people that think you come into fullsail and get the degree handed to you on a silver platter. I know, because I went through the degree and experienced the lumpsum of you that forget you're in college 😂 My entire class were all smart enough to do proper research by ourselves, work through each class without having to look at anyone else's code, and be able to speak and understand each other when it comes down to understanding the concept of the thought process needed for an assignment. All of us have graduated fine, with lots of awards, and we have all gotten into either good of amazing jobs... especially since the alumni career fair is basically handing you jobs on a silver platter 😁🤷‍♂️ I don't have a single friend of mine that graduated FullSail that is making less than 70k a year right now, with a few of us making around 145-160k a year too. *Sigh* some people just need to learn to do things on their own, cheating and thinking that the instructors are there to GIVE YOU THE ANSWER is not the way to do it, as I've heard the horror stories of CS and GDV majors basically saying "I have no idea what its doing" and NOT DEBUGGING, NOT TRYING ANYTHING, and EXPECTING your instructor to read through ur code and tell u exactly where u went wrong and why... Your instructor is not there to do your assignment ITS YOUR JOB. It's sad, some of you lot giving 1-3 star reviews because you struggled or probably dropped out because "you werent getting enough help", lol, go attend another school and then try and see if you know how to program in the industry after that, because FullSail is the only school I've attended out of ALL my colleges, that has taught me everything I need to know for Game programming, every class was necessary, and I now hold a high position at a company now 🫢 Goodluck to any of you that decide to take up the challenge of attending this school and looking to move further beyond the grasps that you reached before"

"Only thing I'm glad for going to this school was some of the friends I made. The professors and advisors I talked to before taking this program pretty much said you go here you take this degree and you WILL be hired right out. Utter b.s. they say their grad services are great, but really they'll only pay attention to you for the first bit after graduating then stop helping in almost all ways, unless you bother and annoy them enough. I could write so much more, but really this place is only worth it if you can enroll for cheap do not double your school loans to attend this school."

"TL;DR is this: Full Sail Instructors are so out of touch with their students. The assignments have so many typos, bad links, and obviously have no interest in properly teaching their students. If the assignment isn't done the way they want it done (professional level) even though we only JUST learning - then it's a 0 or a MASSIVE deduction in points. Don't waste your money - please just look up YouTube videos to teach yourself (it's no different from the many classes I've had so far where they simply link a TedTalk or YouTube video). I'm going to start off with the clique of saying, "I never write reviews but this is just absurd." It's true. I am beyond frustrated with the "instructors" at this school. For the sheer amount of money I have spent, I should AT LEAST get adequate feedback on my assignments IN A TIMELY FASHION. Not at the end of the week. I work full-time at two different places, run my own business selling art prints and stickers, and keep up with school full-time. I was fully aware that I would be stretched thin. I've managed myself well until this point. The frustration I feel towards my instructors ludicrous! They wait until Thursday or Friday to gives grades for assignments that build off of each other (so if I need to fix anything I either have to wait for the end of the week or just assume that I am okay to proceed when I move on to the next assignment). Not only do they inconvenience us students CONSTANTLY, they also don't seem to care about the welfare of out learning. Typos everywhere in the assignments, bad/expired links, zip files only containing half of the content we need, and rude instructors. At the beginning of the Computer Animation program, I felt the instructor genuinely cared - I could feel the good intent. The further I progressed, the more it seemed like the instructors progressively got more irritable. They have this attitude of "I know more than you and you'll never make it," type attitude. Now, I submit an assignment about my future goals for my career (which I am supposed to look back on in the next year and see how far I've come) and my instructor deducted 10 points from my PowerPoint because (get this) my goals are "too lengthy and elaborate." I ask why I was deducted for this (one would think it would be good I have thought this far ahead...) and I never received a response... Don't even get me started on even asking a question about an assignment either...most of the responses I have gotten have been, "You should watch the video again," or "I already answered that in the instructions." Why do I need you then? If I just sign on to my Portal and see you've assigned us to watch another TedTalk or video on Youtube...then why am I paying you thousands and thousands of dollars? I am so incredibly close to stopping completely and quitting. What a waste of time and money. Full Sail, it's fine if you're burnt out from teaching others about the animation industry. I get that there are a LOT of people in the program who don't take things seriously sometimes...but don't screw over the people who put their blood, sweat, and tears into this. They can see you don't care about them (and you wonder why the graduation rate is so low!)"

"I am currently an online student studying audio production and studio engineering. The class assignments have broken links to necessary videos and examples... Assignments might not upload... Tech support is only able to help with software issues- they have little to no experience with hardware- interface, mics, keyboards- etc... The instructors are as helpful as possible and professional but they are extremely limited with assisting with many problems. I have had major issues trying to attend live lectures, Im only able to watch the live recordings. When it comes to most issues, we are recommended to ask our classmates via dischord groups... This "school" is a rip off."

"I am halfway through my degree in the Entertainment Business Sports Management Master's Program Online. I love it. Growing up, I always had a passion for sports and technology. It was always a dream of mine to attend Full Sail but it was too expensive at the time. Now that I am older and have a steady job, I am able to pay for it. One thing I LOVE about FSU is the accelerated programs. I have always wanted to get my Master's degree but I hesitated because I didn't want to go back to school for two years. Instead, I lowered the intensity of things going on in my life for one year and dedicated myself to getting this masters, and I don't have any regrets. With all due respect to the other reviews I have read here, many of the complaints are from personal experience. I quite enjoy the online classes I take and with a full time job the schedule fits perfectly for me. I don't think it is healthy nor productive to rely heavily on an instructor to pass or fail a class. I have found that if I just work hard and ask my professor for help as a last resort, I will be just fine. Also, anybody with a basic understanding of economics and money management should know the financial risk you are taking when enrolling at Full Sail. They do not hide how expensive it is to attend, and I think everybody who enrolls know the debt they are creating for themselves when they decide to go here. If I wanted to go to a different University to save money I would have, but I knew the programs and advantages that Full Sail offers and I have not been disappointed in the slightest. I have attended 3 different Universities and the instructional experience that I have had at Full Sail is second to none. The detailed videos each week are more than reasonable and give me everything I need to complete the assignments for the week. The only complaint I would have for FSU is the lack of job opportunities for online students who don't necessarily live in the Winter Park area. I would love to work in the Sports Entertainment field as I work on my Masters degree, but I haven't had much success in finding one through Full Sail. However, I put more of the blame on me than Full Sail, as this was something I discussed with my Guidance Counselor before I enrolled so I knew what I was getting into."

"I’m currently doing this major right now, but I am truly not enjoying it, not one bit and this school sickens me so badly. Yeah, they just want our money and all, but it gets worse and worse. It’s really sad to see all of us suffering in that school because the classes became completely unfair and ridiculous. Teachers don’t even have any idea how much hard work we put into assignments, yet they lower our grade even if we tried our best. Teachers don’t know what they are talking about and aren’t even specific. And not only that, when we do what the instructions/rubric told us to do, it doesn’t matter. They lower our grade or give us a 0. Assignments didn’t really taught us anything. Oh and good luck on asking instructors for help because they’ll never help you. They just get you into discord having only students to help you. I know for sure students are experiencing the same problem too. Also, keep in mind that some students might have a chance to graduate, but I doubt that will ever happen since this school has the lowest graduation rate. They also give you YouTube videos, and then later on, the questions were the ones we all never learned throughout the assignments."

"This school is a complete and utter joke, it's was not worth the massive amount of debt I got put in to attend. They're marketing makes it sound great until you go almost like how a ponzi scheme is. The instructors barely explain anything to you. When you need help with the work they give you a link to a discord where you can have other STUDENTS help you with the work not instructors, The work consists of mostly youtube videos with very little hands on. The classes are only about an hour long which isn't a lot of time to actually understand the class most of the things you learn you can learn without spending the massive amount of money it costs to go there. I had to withdraw from the program because I owed over 20k. There are very little options for student loans as it's mostly an out of pocket cost school. You can not transfer your credits to other colleges, long story short this school is a complete scam and the students saying it's not a scam and "its just not for everyone" are full of themselves. As long as you have a pulse they will accept you. They just want your money and that's it once you enroll good luck trying to get ahold of any assistance whatsoever. Heed my warning and stay as far away from this school there are much better options than this puppy mill of a school the other one atar reviews are not people exaggerating with skepticism it's the unfortunate truth of of dread of how this place takes your money as they don't even offer room and board as you have to find your own place to live/food etc."

"Sad to see people actually falling for fsu. I dropped out and transferred to my in-state university and I have to say the difference is night and day. Yes i attended online classes but the classes are honestly ridiculous. The teachers have no idea what they are talking about and I once spent 2 hours on a lecture watching an “instructor” trying to figure out why the code wasn’t working(P.S he never found the solution and ended up scraping the example and moving on) I was a computer science major and the classes were complete jokes! the assignments didn’t build on each other and taught me next to nothing. For those of you assuming i probably thought the courses were too hard, quite the contrary. I left the school with a 3.8gpa. The classes were taught by complete idiots and they offer no financial aid at all! For comparison I only had a federal pell grant my freshman year of 6,375 but for my new university i received a pell grant of 14,740(this includes federal pell grants and university pell grants i received). I will end up paying less for all four years than one semester of fsu. My advice is get out while you can, trust me you won’t regret it."

"As a current student in the Film Bachelors program, my overall rating should be in the negative. Once you are in the program, responses to phone calls or emails are non-existent. I emailed the program director 3 months ago and never received a response. Financial Aid, neglects to inform you on issues pertaining to your funding until you ask questions and then they are rude. Phone calls are never returned. Instructors are previous students with little to no experience in the field to which they are teaching. Some teachers are so full of themselves and never really get to the point to which they are trying to teach. They overwhelm you with work weekly with little to no guidance or explanation on how to complete an assignment. Some months are easier than others but when you have two classes a month and both classes require tremendous amount of time to complete is nearly impossible and when you do complete it, the criticize you for not spending more time on the assignment... hello, you gave me 3 days to do it alongside another class that is also asking for something. They say you can use the studios, soundstages, etc. but make you just through hoops and make it nearly impossible. All the photos of these extravagant things are just that, photos for promoting the school which 99.9999% of the time aren't student project. My advice or my take, don't waste your $90k+ dollars to come here, go elsewhere where you will excel and succeed, you go here...you're on your own with no help...this place is a fallacy"

"I am currently enrolled Full Sail University and I’ve had huge issues with them because as a returning student, they had me come back with a schedule missing several key, progressive classes. They admitted they don’t have a great policy for returning students and didn’t really have a plan. Eventually the course director said she would handle all of my main assignments herself and we’d come up with a plan together. She then went on to miss our first zoom call, and then never gave me any feedback on work sent directly to her, for months after. I wanted to escalate the issue but the program director called me on his personal phone to make every excuse in the book for what happened. I have been trying to complete my last five classes for a year now, I’ve contacted the program director directly again, as I was told to by student advocacy and he is refusing to respond now, as is his supervisor. Both of my experiences here were good until they absolutely weren’t and there’s no accountability for administrators."

"I started Full Sail in the spring of 2019. Everything was going good until fall of 2020, when I THOUGHT I was going to graduate. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed all of the classes I took. They sent me my graduations information and everything...but NO GRADUATION! I called them to get an understanding of why I wasn't graduating and they told me I had TOO MANY CREDITS! Never in my life have I ever heard of "having too many credits" so you can't graduate. Smh. They need to get it together. I was very upset about it. I won't say I won't recommend anyone to this school, nor will I say I will. Enter at your own risk."

"The biggest problem that everyone has already said is that Full Sail is not regionally accredited. Suppose you plan to pursue a graduate degree after getting an undergrad at Full Sail. In that case, you will run into a lot of problems. I was turned away by so many regionally accredited institutions because Full Sail is not regionally accredited until I was finally accepted at one of the best research universities in the US. While I am not getting a graduate degree in a research-related field, I was finally accepted into a legitimate school. Suppose you plan to get education equivalency in another country like I was. In that case, Full Sail won't cut it because it is not regionally accredited. It is also expensive like crazy, and I took out so much financial aid. The education itself was good, and many alumni have gone on to very successful and lucrative fields in their majors. If I were to rewind back to when I enrolled and was given the option to attend or not, on the one hand, I would say no, due to the accreditation issues that happen after and the massive amounts of student loans. On the other hand, it has enabled me to get more professional jobs. Currently, I'm in the last semester of my MS degree. Once I earn it, I can then do education equivalency. So Full Sail served a purpose for me on a long trajectory. And it serves a purpose for people who know without a doubt they want to have a career in their major. It is a career school. It is not a school to help you get into graduate school."

"Communication at full sail is horrible they only took a few credits from my previous school which I had 30 they didn't even use half. I am in my first semester and I was doing fine not like a top of the class student but I have been doing my best. While I have still been in my current class I got an email saying I was being taken off my current degree and moved to a media certificate which is no where to my goal! I've talked to the advisors and it has just been a nightmare now I owe $6000 and have no idea why I'm being put in to a certificate program when I only struggled in one class and passing grade for the rest! I do not recommend this school and I fully regret going to this school!"