Full Sail University Reviews of Bachelor's in Video Game Design

"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"

"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."

"I say this from experience in my time here at Full Sail University (pursuing a degree in Game Art and in the past Computer Animation), this has everything to do with how the classes are formulated throughout the Computer Animation and Game Art degrees specifically. Courses are four weeks in length or shorter. It's like bootcamp and even for bootcamps and workshops they teach things that are "useful to know" but are not aimed at preparing folks for career ready degrees that will be used to get an industry career. Four weeks is not enough time to learn and demonstrate career ready knowledge and be 80% successful. Maybe 30-40% successful. In which case, in my opinion, Full Sail is not internally setting their students up for success. Classes only get more difficult as students climb closer to graduating; with no breaks in between classes to reset the mind, this whole heartedly feels like a set up for disaster and student failure at best. If the goal is to break students and see who climbs out of the flames alive--then Full Sail should keep its rigorous bootcamp structure and continue making money off of the students who burned in the flames. I think as time goes on, it will gain a reputation for how low of a success rate it keeps and deter collage age and adults alike from choosing this institute for knowledge. If the day ever comes that Full Sail starts to wonder why it only has a 29% success rate, maybe they will begin to change their ways after listening to the honesty of their students. If this wasn't enough fo a statement as to whether I would recommend the school, my answer is no. It's true that game art industry and computer animation degree knowledge is hard to come by and there aren't many schools who offer this knowledge or area of study. Yet the truth remains that there are better schools with better structured course length times who will offer you the same if not better industry knowledge. I have more knowledge where I am now--but I have paid a hefty price for what knowledge I've retained throughout the fast paced structure. Find better and do better for yourself, your mind, and your overall health. Sincerely, Game Art Student"

"I Am Currently in school here at Full Sail University Online for Video Game Design. So far what i can say is it started out ok but after the first 3 months it quickly made it see like they didn't give a crap about their students. Matter of fact I had one of the professors there tell me and some of my classmates that we will never be at his level. I am overall disgusted with what I have been put through and if I could have know what I was about to get myself into I would have gone somewhere else. This is utterly disappointing and if anyone ask me if I recommend it I would say no. If you wanted any chance of having a break for summer or much break at all during the year you are screwed because your not going to get it along with they give you pretty bad feedback on assignments you have turned in. So if you are thinking of going here quickly think of any other options because you can get a whole lot better education somewhere else and not have to deal with the big egos of the professors that team the curriculum at this school. I still have like 13/14 months left and I have thought about dropping out multiple times and going somewhere else to finish off my schooling because this is ridiculous."

"I'm currently considering dropping due to the insensitive grading and fact that the major that is used, is YouTube, kinda of a disappointment, sense I now realize the educational system is at a all time low, this school is a prime example. The instructors: obviously the teachers can care less about you, especially when your online, if anything they just give you a grade to just to pass you nothing more, also the fact that these people rely on zoom and discord is rather sad, discord is not really well known and using it, is not really reliable, they use more free sources or sources that might just cost 50 bucks. Assignments: I have actually received feedback stating that I was "slacking " or "winging it" these are not professional terms and should be reviewed and discouraged, instructors are also too busy and would rather flex a out there projects while doing lectures,lectures tend to be an hour long, but hardly are constructive or instructive, I would also be kicked from lectures, for not doing anything, despite the fact that it is required you attend. I do regret attending this school."

"They failed to tell you that all the documentation that they need in a string you on for a month then roll team it is a joke their whole entire criteria of accepting students is practically unexcusable and after I had my high school diploma I was told that I need to take a GED test in order to enroll in their school as if they were saying I did not get my high school diploma. what a joke don't anyone come to this school they are absolutely terrible. Any other school that I've tried to apply for accepting me no problem this is the only school that gives you half answers in gives you the runaround as you're trying to call them in receive information they are absolutely . No sense of time and how urgent things are I definitely will say do not waste your time with Full Sail you might as well go to California where they will give you the best video game designing school in America. These guys are not even raid in the top 50 and I can see why no class absolutely terrible. No be on their team seems to be on the same page whatsoever I have had to go through and tell these people how to do their job after speaking to their Associates once again I will say with emphasis save your money do not go in debt over a school that is not going to get you anything you desire but waste your time."

"I never write reviews for anything but this is one that I cannot ignore. I went on campus for the first half of my degree which to say was alright until you slip up and then it is a downfall from there. My fourth month, my grandmother died and while they understood that I was grieving they didn't extend my deadlines. I had to retake the class and that devastated me, I never failed at anything but I sucked it up and retook the class and let's just say for a 20 month degree it's taken me almost 30 months to get this degree and it might be even longer now because the last class that I'm currently taking now just gave a 0 on a 25% of my grade project. Most of the instructors are either new to teaching or just got out of the degree themselves. They give conflicting feedback that was fine one month but is a sin the next just for it to be okay the one after that. No one is on the same page and either the classes are extremely easy or ridiculously hard. I once was on a class with a boy had insomnia and the teacher told him that was a great thing to have. WHAT? I have to have a freakin' disorder to pass a class. I have drank so much caffeine to stay up with this classes that my husband has had to, on multiple occasions, rip energy drinks out of my hands and throw away all the coffee in the house. Even my doctor told me I had to stop at one point because I'm too young to have as high as a blood pressure as I do. I'm 20 and I have almost been in CARDIAC ARREST more than once from the mix of stress and caffeine. I know as soon as I'm free of this hellhole, I will have nightmares long after. The hours are ridiculous, the criteria changes drastically from month to month, the instructors are no help, and the assignments are bogus. Just buy the equipment and programs and learn it yourself. Literally the only great thing that has happened there for me was finding my husband and he quit there after a year too and he was a veteran. He got to go on his bill, all expenses paid and he said the pressure of being in the navy was less stressful than this."

"I must say Full Sail has beaten up my expectations.By those means the instructors don't teach you anything.You rely in info out of books written by game design authors.The teachers on the phone aren't friendly and have smart remarks.The chatting system such as discord are their for questions to your instructor despite that they might come at you like if you're sick they'll be like no it was due and that's it for the tests.The tests online aren't retakeable at full sail.I had three teachers fail me and only one to pass me for having two classes with him.If you're looking to be taught by a "real one" and not by your unprofessional self then go to another university then.Good luck."

"This school is a joke. I took online classes, which Ive always done great with, but I left each month without understanding a single thing regardless of how good of a grade I got. The staff are ridiculous and the price of this place is through the roof. I was told the school is accredited many times by the customer service reps, enrollment persons, and my advisor. I specifically asked if it was accredited the way a normal university was (nationally) and I was assured they were. My fault on trusting them. Theyre not even accredited to the point that I can transfer credits from this waste of time. This school is an expensive joke. Thankfully I got out after only getting $7k in loans. The best part is that, because I could get loans they took away my at need scholarship, which gives money to people that cant pay out of pocket. I couldnt pay out of pocket so I got a small loan and they ripped the scholarship away because I had the ability to pay out of pocket. Dont waste your time here or even looking here. Go get an associates degree at a community college. Youll get better help and a better degree than here. My only hope is that this institution gets shut down and has to pay back large sums of money for their lies and hidden truths."

"I went into this degree attempting to gain more knowledge on game design. I currently work as a systems engineer and do program modding on the side. I had a GI Bill to use and always saw advertisements for the school. I loved the way the program was laid out with core classes like history focused on gaming. History class is all on mythology and how mythology plays important roles in gaming. I have not got to that class yet and likely will not because it is not worth spending rest of my GI Bill. I work 50+ hour weeks and spoke with the student liaisons about needing full access to classes to be able to manage and plan my time. I was assured multiple times that after the "core four" ,core classes including math, english, etc, that all classes would open. Ok great sign me up! Get through the core four classes and no classes have been open. I ask professors to open them up for me, some have tried to, failed and got confused on why it didn't work. Some stated it would stress out other students to much to open it up and refuse. I speak to my new liaison and get told no class would be open normally. Glad I asked about it before enrolling!!!! So basically the lied to ensure I enrolled even though they knew they would not meet my expectation. So the class material and how its going. Very little challenge to the classes at all. Professor interaction may include a 1 hour live group chat a week, maybe not. Mostly the classes a bunch of PDFs, youtube links, and some vocabulary assignments, I had one class with a vocabulary quiz each week, are we in middle school? Really depending on the teach assignments will take 1-2 weeks to get graded. Some professor provided great feedback during the "core four". Since then I get good job, 90. So why did I get a 90 professor I would like to improve whatever I did wrong. No response. So currently I am enrolled in a degree that will basically be a piece of paper I can put on the wall and say I completed that and not improve my overall knowledge in skill more then a 10 dollar Udemy course could. Actually when I get free time I have been doing some online courses from sites like that and learned much more. Also I go via online. All the nice stuff they do like design competitions or any extra stuff is normally marked Campus Student Only. Why could an online student not create something and submit just like the campus student??? During my military career I went to 5 different schools dabbling in different fields of study and by far this is the WORST."

"Seriously don't go here for game art. I can tell you now in a few sentsences what you need to know without going through the bulls*** I did. They will teach you how to model in Maya, sculpt in Zbrush, and texture in Substance Painter. And that's about it. They'll even say "Oh we don't teach anything about Photoshop" (one of the most basic softwares) and expect you to learn it on your own. What a waste of a degree."

"Full Sail only cares about the money. They could care less about the value of the education. Professors are under-qualified, rude and rarely go out of their way to help you out. They simply copy/paste the class material at the start of the month and come back at the end to give you a grade. That grade typically offers no feedback because they are too lazy to do it. I graduated from the Game Design program and then got 1/2 way through the masters program before I had just had enough."

"This school really fit my lifestyle, while working and supporting myself it was flexible for me. I was nervous at first that it wasn't going to be recognized by people in the industry as a real degree because I took it online. I'm happy to say that this was not the case, I live in LA and I already work at a studio. The job placement was pretty helpful but you don't start off as a senior director you have to start off as an aid and assistant which I get. Overall pleased with the experience but it was a journey and there were some bumps along the way. Definitely recommend the school they aren't just in it for your money."

"It's not worth it unless you really want to work on a degree they offer (Meaning you really know what you will be doing) and even then, it's too expensive and the classes are really shallow, most of the learning you end up doing on your own (so if you're dedicated enough, they are basically charging you to force onto you deadlines.) I wish i would have went for a normal solid Software Engineering degree taught by teachers with background on pedagogy and then breeze over the stuff they force me to learn on my own anyway. There's so many things wrong i'll just say I don't recommend it."

"You would be better off saving your money and investing in something like Lynda (which we use), YouTube (which we use), and other online videos and tutorials that teach Game Design (which we use). Hardly any of our material comes from lectures or books, as you'd expect with a real college. Half the time the instructors don't bother to teach you the material and instead expect you to find it on the internet on your own. The other half don't bother to grade or review material you've turned in and give you a half-assed grade that they made up at the last possible moment before the class ends. This "college" is a waste of time and money. Please, please don't bother. (Also, please keep in mind I am currently attending this "school" online.)"

"The first four classes were good, the instructors were always there for questions and there were weekly lectures and lots of interactions. Then began the real Full Sail school experience. I cannot speak to on campus students but I can tell you about one year of online school and it was bad. Vague instructions, no teaching or anyone to teach you, and extravagant assignments where you literally were told to watch You Tube videos to learn what to do. Save yourself thousands of dollars and just watch You Tube and you'd learn more and not have the debt than you will at Full Sail. Or find yourself a nonprofit university and see what the college experience can be like. Full Sail did not take any previous school credits. They are four times more expensive than my current university. They are a degree mill and likely will go the way of ITT when all their accreditations get pulled. Do not believe the advertising, it is false. You will be angry, frustrated, given intense assignments with no idea what to do and no help to get there. They will try to fail you in order to get you to take the class again, they have NO incentive for you to pass. They can make twice as much if you fail and they will liberally fail you or overwhelm you to the point of failing. I beg you, look elsewhere."

"I first arrived at FullSail University as a transfer student, from a college that had a traditional offline class attendance structure. The change to the Online format of FullSail's online courseware was a welcome, and very different change from what I was used to. It's truly no lie, FullSail's method of classes does allow you a great degree of freedom to learn at a pace that is comfortable for you, and to schedule your time for coursework appropriately, allowing you to work to any schedule. During my time with the University, FullSail was in the process of redesigning their entire courseware online, and the flow of my own degree program. This did present a lot of difficulty following the program as things were changed, giving a feeling of 'the rail being placed in front of the oncoming train.' Their improvements were relatively worth it though, it's a lot more streamlined. The only other complaint I could have with the construction of the classes themselves, was it seemed most of them still focused on being able to be in a physical location, when no one in the class was actually attending on-campus classes. This made for some awkwardness when a great degree of physical work or team interaction was required. As someone who learns at a slower pace than others, however, this program was perfect. I was able to break my study sessions evenly through the week, and being able to focus on just one class a month instead of multiple classes over 4 to 6 months made my education feel comfortable, and open to a pace that was more suited for students than professionals working in a corporation. The difficulty of the coursework was strong enough though that I felt sufficiently challenged throughout the program, and I felt like I was graded appropriately for the quality and amount of work I put into the course. The Professors helped with this by having a great degree of casual attitudes, but just as invested in my education as they might be if I were a frequent attending student in a physical class. To me, as someone who has worked with online courses with different schools in the past, FullSail provided the highest quality online degree experience I've ever encountered. If you're looking for getting a degree without wasting any time, wish to do it from anywhere in the United States, and want a quality education that'll teach you a lot about the subject matter, FullSail University is something I would strongly submit for your consideration."

"So Full Sail is very poor at communicating and even worse at helping online students. I started knowing I would need to apply for financial aid, which I've done before and have never had any problems. I have gone to school for two other degrees and have been perfectly fine. However, the financial aid department at Full Sail seems to be stretched too far. They have their financial aid team working with both on-campus and online students simultaneously. This leaves the online students such as myself feeling like an afterthought. Four months into the program and I still have documents to complete. I am now past the point of withdrawing classes without owing money and have been sent emails stating that I will be withdrawn from school if I don't pay up. The financial aid department will wait weeks before replying to any of my emails and are never there when I call. (Too busy with campus students.) This doesn't even get into the actual classes. My first class was amazing. Creative Presentation. I had a blast with this class and my instructor was very good at communicating and providing excellent feedback. After that, it all went downhill. My Psychology of play class was literally four weeks of creating a schedule for yourself to help you with time management. This fine but my instructor rarely communicated at all even when grading assignments. I had to constantly ask why I got the grade that I did so I could improve. I thought maybe this was just a not so great class so I pushed through it. I started my Technology in the Entertainment and Media Industry class. Surprise, it was another four weeks of creating a schedule for time management. This to me had nothing to do with the class subject. Again I also had an instructor who rarely spoke to anyone mostly because he was running this online class while simultaneously running a class on campus. All in all, it seems that at least from my experience Full Sail cares very little for their online students. At least not enough to have an instructor and Financial Aid team just for them."

"Full Sail IS NOT worth 80,000+ dollars, they shortened valuable class hours that used to be extremely helpful and over time have taken away the more challenging assignments that they had in the past. When you go on their website they claim that they give students all of this "creative freedom" and I don't know about other degrees but in Game Art it's NOT TRUE. I have yet to feel like I had creative freedom but in the first 3 months of attending Full Sail. And then after that I don't remember being able to put any true creative flare on ANY project after that. There's always bounds, and 99% of the time if it's not done the way the teacher wants it you fail or get a bad grade. Also as you progress you get a lot of teachers who don't seem as passionate as they are in the first few months, so those months can really get you down. The website is full of lies, from the photos they use on the Game Art page depicting students playing games, in a colorful classroom with posters on the wall, writing on dry erase boards, sharing ideas. Making awesome concepts all the time, working on awesome projects. THAT IS NOT GAME ART. And the best student work which they post on the tumblr blog and on their website all comes from people who 100% dedicate their free time to working on creative pursuits outside of school. (which you should be doing, but 80% of people in Game Art don't) If you really want to know how it is, first off if you're attending campus you have to make sure you're on time, it's such an easy way to fail a class and have to pay big money to retake. (and also makes you seem irresponsible) When you get to class it's about 1 hour and 30 minutes worth of teaching now, (rarely a full 2) In that time period the teacher can't do follow along activities like they used to, and you can't watch them work in a program thoroughly, all you really get are power points, and are told to watch the videos online. (which makes you feel like you should have been an online student instead) After that you have lab, where normally music is played that you may find very distracting, and you have people talking loudly, or chugging up the internet by being off task and playing video games when you may need it to watch that video online you were instructed to watch. And lab is mandatory, so you feel like a little kid, having someone (semi) watch over you making sure you're doing your work in an environment that isn't favorable (unless you're super lucky and your graduating class is highly mature, and your lab instructor isn't a social butterfly) So now you get home and you felt like you wasted 6 hours of your day because the lecture aspect is a powerpoint available for download online, and lab is just you being treated like a elementary school kid. On top of that, they don't care about you and you're problems or what life may throw at students-which is not a surprise because they're just money hungry. And If you're struggling I hope you have a nice advisor because the one I have is aggressive, condescending towards me, and not very helpful. Don't fall for the speech on the Behind the Scenes tour from the Dean. I've been on that tour 5 times, everything from beginning to end is 100% rehearsed, every little joke, "mistake", and "heartfelt" moment. And they take you in a circle around the campus through all of these cool buildings which you won't be in if you're Game Art, because the nicest buildings all belong to recording arts and film kids. You might leave the tour feeling like, yeah the Dean is awesome he get's it! I wanna go here, this school is so different and amazing. The Dean may be a nice guy, but the school is really just after your money, and will of course leach off of your fame if you make it. You don't even get physical copies of books anymore just it's subscription based online books. Almost everything is subscription based, and the model of Wacom that they give you is notorious for the charge port breaking midway through your time on campus. I can't figure out what's worth 80,000 anymore. Don't be a sucker, see past the launch box and the promises of being "different." This school isn't unique it's like any other money hungry college, although I do feel a real university would be 100x's better than Full Sail because at least they would treat you like an adult not a child. And if you honestly want to go here for Game Art/Computer Animation, take online. In the end you really don't need to waste so much money for this, if you're dedicated and work and learn at home, buy gnomon tutorials and learn from there, watch tutorials from famous modelers/sculptors online, etc.... you can make it. Be dedicated, live and breathe the CG lifestyle. You DON'T need to put yourself in an 80,000 hole if this is what you really want to do. Just be dedicated and be willing to reach out to people in the industry. (go to things like GDC to network) I really hope this review is helpful to some of you out there."

"Here's a review from the perspective of a current student. I've been in the game design online program since August of 2014, and I have precisely zero complaints about the quality of education offered. They teach you both primary skills, such as moderate programming, scripting, level design, and game design theory, as well as ancillary skills like communication, leadership, psychology and more. All of these areas of study can seem disparate and somewhat disconnected from each other, but it's astounding how many of these elements come together to form a comprehensive understanding and skillset. I'm already much more confident in my ability to work in the game industry than I was when I started, and I'm only half-way done. To those who are looking around to find out what the school is actually like, I'd whole-heartedly recommend it. You see a lot of sceptics pointing fingers at elements like the school being for profit, supposedly low graduation rates, and high cost. Firsthand, having been to several schools in my academic career, especially those with traditional academic merits, I would say that this school has absolutely been the most beneficial thing to my personal development in my life. This school will pay dividends on any effort you put in, and despite this being mocked in some other reviews the fact remains: If you are lazy, you will fail, if you work hard, they will match you every step of the way."