Full Sail University Reviews of Bachelor's in Computer Animation

"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!)"

"Admissions is honestly a joke, here's why. My twin and I attend this school and they kept getting me confused with him and messed up my documents. Due to this, I was forced to push back my start date to a later one. Now on to the staff, the staff do not care about you are education what so ever. You would be lucky to even get a response to a question from your instructor and when your day it would take 24 hours even when your instructor is online. They force you to use various social media to stay in contact but they hardly even respond on there. On to grading, The grading at Full Sail ridiculous, you make one small minor mess up, like for example your UV's are slightly out of 0-1 space they will deduct so many points form your grade and seem like they do this on purpose so they can make you fail that class and take it over gaining them more money. It's not worth it. I honestly regret joining this school but I have one more year to go before I graduate."

"For those interested, I have detailed a full account of my time at Full Sail University in my blog. To all the many naysayers of this school I do want to address a few things: You get what you put into your education anywhere you go. Half of being in these industries that Full Sail attempt to prepare you for are based in deadlines and being able to meet them. If this is discouraging, this might not be for you. Ask questions! Many professors or students love to be asked for help! If a teacher is not available, ask around about another professor that might be able to help you. Hell, ask a classmate who might understand the material better. Don't limit yourself, join Facebook groups within your industry to ask for feedback! Don't let the first few classes fool you into thinking this school is easy. You will be surprised at how difficult things get and then the portfolio Professors will be very strict on their requirements. There are some professors that suck, like with any college. One I had, in particular, was bad at giving grades on time to be any source of help and my classmates and I had to really communicate with each other in order to pass and we didn't even have any group assignments for that class. Also, being that I did my degree online, you had that issue as well. Getting time coordinated goes with the territory if you do classes online. This is the price you pay for having a more convenient way of getting a college degree. Lastly, I would like to tell people considering Full Sail or any college for that matter that once you are done, you will be surprised at how the pure grind of college has changed you. It will change how you work and give you creative ways to motivate yourself. It might even be a little difficult to describe but I know that, in general, I just feel like I can tackle problems a lot easier. I hope this helps someone making that expensive (but worthwhile) choice in colleges. And remember, do what makes you happy."

"Where do I begin!? Okay, well this is a FOR PROFIT ...lets call it organization that will be MORE than happy to accept your money! The credits are as useful as a mosquito bite, the instructors are often rude and take 2-3 weeks to grade your material, the work is that of "writing a personal statement " ...seriously! They do monthly plans that take days worth of discussions, the work most has nothing to do with anything! You can EASILY get and maintain a 4.0 gpa here! So if you want to pay gobs and gobs of money for an education that isn't worth the paper that the "degree" is printed on, then this is the place for you!! Oh yeah, get 12 "credits" and your still in the hole 5k."

"Online school gave me the flexibility to work in the field and go to school at the same time. Also going to school online was significantly cheaper than going on campus. Do not expect to just do the course work and get a job. You need to work in your off hours developing you skills and portfolio to stand out from the rest. If you do not do this, you will be leaving bad reviews on this site blaming the school instead of yourself. Most of my teachers were knowledgeable about their subject and very few classes were irrelevant. The school also has great financial services. Everything was a breeze and I always had my equipment sent out to me on time."

"Full sail is a for profit school, you don't need any prier education just as long as you can pay them. I can't speak for every degree program in the school but mine, the computer animation program. If you pull out a loan the average pay in your carrier wont be enough to cover the monthly payments of your loans. They wanted me to use Wells Fargo after they were no longer working with discover half way through my year. For some reason the School had the authority to tell Wells Fargo to split up my loans into separate loans without my permission and they wont combined them unless I cosign for another loan witch combines them...? To put it simply the School has a special tie with Wells Fargo. I was singed up in there hybrid classes. Online I experience a lack of help and feed back on my projects. When I was on campus It was the the same since most of the teachers were not industry professionals, Most of them are graduates. They are over worked and not pays well. I remember when the carrier development attended our finals classes and said that they will find us a job. I knew they wouldn't get me a job because I lessened to the graduates warnings about how carrier development won't help you. So I switched my carrier to be a freelance comic artist in the final months. Over the years I have saved up all the job leads I gotten from them and all the bad advice. They sent me leads on the sam day as the deadline supposition. Or a picking pull poll email for everyone to fight over in there job listings for free labor. For some reason you had to go through them to send them your resume but you can just google the job listing and just submit the resume on the internet. But they were all bad jobs. The best one was the free labor with the possibly of hire. I think they set up this system back when they had people in the industry but now its just a mess. The school and the staff breads the mindset of work hard, do whatever it takes to be the vary best and if you don't make it is your fault. Sounds good in the moment but in practice it is cancerous not only to the students but to the industry itself. When they encourage work for free they set the mindset of people and companies to think its ok for free labor. I know many graduates that have been burn by this. Many have not found a job in there felid, mostly because the combines don't count the full Sail degree as 4 years of experience in the industry. Even if you get into a big company you have to constantly fight for your job because someone can easily replace you. If you are amazing for years they will reword you by firing you and hiring students that will work for less pay. its a vicious cycle. I have been in the industry for 2 years as a freelance comic arts. I never needed the degree for my job. My advice to you is that you don't need to got to school to do what you love. everything I do now was not taught by Full Sail. If anything it was my photo shop know how and aftereffects that got me thorough the classes. Which they don't teach by the way. You have a powerful tool the internet to find what you need to know. If there is a will there is a way, you don't have to go to school or in debt to get there. The industry is not like a school, thank god."

"The programs are at a pace that will cause burn out rather quickly in the field that you chose to study. After you earn your degree you will have a less than 50/50 chance of finding work in your field. Here is the real kicker. Once you get your degree it is not worth that paper that it is printed on. YOUR CREDITS WILL NOT TRANSFER TO ANOTHER INSTITUTION. I am moving on and going for another degree at a state local college, I checked several including USF and NONE of my credits will transfer, I have to start all over again after spending over $100,000 to get a degree from Full Sail."

"I am currently an online student at Full Sail, finishing my 7th month. Let me start off by saying that my opinion is bias, I am reviewing strictly off of my own experiences so far, yours can be different. When my friend originally showed me this College, I was extremely excited to start ASAP.. environment creation was my passion and I had been working on traditional art by myself. Still I waited for a year and reviewed the college and gained as much information as I could before applying because this school isn't cheap. After starting the program personal issues led to me working full time and doing this accelerated program. As we started to get into the actual modeling process the work load became heavier and heavier which I expected. What I didn't expect was to receive minimal help from any instructor and learn solely off of YouTube videos and how well I can search on Google. Literally, the lessons for the classes are YouTube videos and the closest you can get to a live instructor is a lecture which usually isn't even your teacher. I didn't have time to join any lectures because of my busy work day so I was left to emailing my teachers for advice. On multiple occasions I waited for feedback that usually came after the assignment was due, and this led to my grades steadily getting worse and worse because each class assumes that you 100% grasp everything from the previous class. I was sick and tired of this same outcome over and over, so I instead asked for help from my classmates who did give me their advice and were very helpful. They provide a website called concept share where your classmates can look at your work and tell you what they think (it is a requirement). Multiple times did I hear that my scene looked wonderful and all was going well just to find out that things were not well in the eyes of my instructor. Receiving professional assistance is very difficult for me right now and my hopes and dreams seemed to be crushed after every time I submit my work. Don't get me wrong I spend an extremely high amount of my time left available to me on my school work with much dismay. I will continue the program and there is more to say but that is the general experience I have had so far."

"Horrible, horrible experience. An older student, with multiple degrees in areas of other studies. I'm quite experienced in the school process, along with both of my parents were teachers. I know it takes a lot of hard work, and I really put my blood, sweat and tears into this program. I live in Los Angeles, right in the heart of the industry, but I did the online program that FS offered in hopes that I would be working during that time. Many instructors do not really care about you unless you are a prodigy, those they guide as they know it requires little to no attention nor effort and in the end they can toot their own horns of the success of someone that could have just learned off of Youtube. However, for the true students with hungry minds and willing spirits, you will be crushed. That's not saying that there aren't a lot of lazy folks, not willing to put in the effort that this art takes, however, I'm speaking from experience. I put in 16 hours a day on my class projects, with a passion to learn as much as I could. Asking questions, with little to no answers from those there were getting paid to do just that, answer questions and guide. I graduated with honors, class salutatorian however, no reel. They pushed me through, why? Because they are a paper-mill, nationally un-accredited. For those that don't understand that, it means your credits are trash to other real universities. Don't be led in by false claims. Local accreditation doesn't mean squat. You will not be employable if you weren't a prodigy. Go to a real university that actually cares more for you than just your checkbook. Gnomon is highly expensive, however, I've seen their classes first hand, and they actually instruct and guide ALL their students. It's a rough world out there already, we don't need to be subjecting bright, talented artists to lack luster learning. Invest in Digital Tutors, watch youtube videos. Those are all great, but when you need the guidance to establish a firm foundation of education you have to find a real school willing to give you that foundation. Effort doesn't always equal success. Pushing a stone up a hill eternally, is always going to give the same results. You can keep doing what you're doing and without proper instruction, you will not succeed. I would think folks would want the best education possible. That is the fact, FS does not provide that. 98% of my class did not get jobs. Some, I can understand why, while others, I cant speak for them, but I can say, I am unemployable, sadly, as my skills have way too many holes in them. Unanswered questions, poor instruction, etc. I wish everyone luck if they do attend. For those that succeeded, kudos to you. Just don't belittle those that really did give it their all and received nothing in return."

"Full Sail is a for profit University that cost way too much money and at time it seem they are more worried about making money than giving their students a quality education. As an online student I was lucky enough to live near campus so I still felt like I was able to get the same type of experience the on-campus students get. If it wasn't for that I don't think my experience at Full Sail would have been as good as it was. I've heard of issues in the online degree programs pertaining to teachers not being available for their students and giving them a less than adequate experience."