Full Sail Real World Education

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Full Sail Real World Education
Established 1979
Type Career college
President Garry Jones
Staff 832
Students 5,000
Location Winter Park, Florida, USA
Campus Suburban (91 acres)
Website fullsail.com

Full Sail Real World Education is a private, for-profit college located in Winter Park, Florida, geared toward the entertainment industry and known for its around-the-clock schedule. It offers degree programs in Computer Animation, Digital Art and Design, Entertainment Business, Film, Game Design & Development, Recording Arts, and Show Production & Touring. Full Sail awards associate's and bachelor's degrees after 12 to 21 months of an accelerated education.

The school is owned by Full Sail, Inc.

Contents

[edit] History

Full Sail was founded in 1979 as a recording studio workshop. A Film program was added in 1988, and the school was accredited to award specialized associate’s degrees in 1990. A third degree in Digital Media was added in 1995, followed by Game Design and Show Production & Touring in 1998.

Full Sail received additional accreditation in 1998, allowing the school to issue associate of science degrees, and 1999 saw the addition of a Computer Animation associate’s degree. In 2003, Full Sail added its first bachelor’s degree in Entertainment Business (designed to be combined with an additional Full Sail associate’s degree), followed quickly by the Game Design & Development program. The company was originally called Full Sail Recorders, Inc., and that the name was changed to Full Sail, Inc. in 2000.[1]

In 2005, three programs – Computer Animation, Digital Arts & Design (formerly Digital Media), and Film – were expanded and accredited to be offered as Bachelor of Science degrees.

[edit] Academics

[edit] Degree Programs

As of February 2006, Full Sail is offering the following degree programs:

Bachelor of Science in Computer Animation
Bachelor of Science in Digital Arts & Design
Bachelor of Science in Entertainment Business
Bachelor of Science in Film
Bachelor of Science in Game Development
Associate of Science in Recording Arts
Associate of Science in Show Production & Touring

Full Sail has become known for offering an “accelerated” education – the school’s degree programs can be completed in less than half the time of a typical college degree – the associate’s programs are 12 months long, and the bachelor’s programs are 21 months long.

[edit] Scheduling

Full Sail has gained a reputation for having a challenging lab and class schedule. The school essentially operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with students in class or lab for 4 hours at a time; lectures generally take place between the hours of 9:00am and 9:00pm, while labs run throughout the day.

Full Sail’s degree programs start monthly. Throughout the course of a program, the average Full Sail student will have two courses at one time, with one course occurring on three days a week and the other course occurring on two. This course load can fluctuate, however, according to the student’s program and month.

Courses are generally four weeks long, but some are longer, and new courses start every four weeks. This schedule allows Full Sail a fluid, if intense, operating method. If a student fails a course for poor grades (as opposed to poor attendance), they can take the course over again the following month at no additional cost, as long as the schedule for the degree is maintained. If a student fails a class for poor attendance, however, they must pay the course cost again to retake it.

[edit] Costs

Unlike many colleges, Full Sail’s tuition prices cover all expenses for a degree program. Course manuals (sometimes created by the school for the specific courses) for all classes are provided at no additional cost, and any art supplies or other materials are provided at no cost upon entering the course requiring them.

Tuition costs range from $43,005 (for Show Production & Touring) to $64,775 (for Game Development). As the school is located in Orlando, Florida, relocation (and living expenses, if necessary) will add additional costs.

[edit] Student life

Student life, like the school itself, is different from a typical college. Since a new class starts every month, classmates who start at the same time frequently stay together throughout the program. Class sizes vary from 21 to 85 students, with a maximum number of 120 students in classes where students from different degree programs are combined.

There are several groups and clubs within the different degree programs of the school, each oriented toward student interests. Students in the relevant degree program generally manage the groups, with an instructor providing support.

Full Sail does not have on-campus student housing, due to a surplus of apartment complexes in the immediate area of the school. Most students live within 5 miles of the school, and popular apartment complexes include Summerwalk, Crane's Landing, Whisper Lake, The Park, and Auvers Village among others. Most Full Sail students choose to live with roommates, to lower the expenses of apartment rental. The school has a housing department, which provides prospective students with information about local apartment complexes, and keeps track of students who are looking for roommates.

[edit] Industry Recognition

In 1996, Full Sail was named the “Most Innovative Program” by the Florida Association of Postsecondary Schools and Colleges (FAPSC).

In January 2003, Electronic Gaming Monthly named Full Sail one of the “top five game-degree programs in the world,” alongside DigiPen, University of Advancing Technologies, The Art Institutes, and Academy of Interactive Entertainment.

In August 2005, Rolling Stone magazine named Full Sail "one of the 5 best music programs" in the country, noting the school's training in music production, engineering, and show production. The other schools in this list included Berklee College of Music, USC Thornton School of Music, Oberlin College, and Juilliard.

Also in 2005, UNleashed Magazine named Full Sail’s Film program as one of the 5 “best film schools,” alongside New York University (NYU), UCLA, American Film Institute (AFI), and Vancouver Film School (VFI).

Additional recognition for the school has come from Shift Magazine, which called the school the “third best new media school in the world,” behind the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and New York University (NYU).

In 2005, Rolling Stone publications released Schools that Rock: The Rolling Stone College Guide, which named Full Sail as having the “#3 Music Business Department,” behind only New York University (NYU) and Belmont.

[edit] Notable Productions by Full Sail Alumni

Full Sail alumni have contributed to the following projects:

[edit] Games

[edit] TV & Movies

[edit] Music

[edit] Criticism

Full Sail's educational programs sometimes attract criticism, like many high profile educational facilities. Because Full Sail’s educational model places a high value on instructors with 'real world experience,’ faculty members can vary in their ability to convey the material to students that are new to the field. However, for most programs, the course directors need to have a bachelor's degree or be working towards one, as well as pass accreditation standards.

Another frequent criticism concerns the admissions process. For many of Full Sail’s degree programs, the only requirements are a high school diploma or GED. This comes from the school's focus on ambition over academics, but can cause extra stress on students who find themselves overwhelmed by the challenge of the programs, particularly the Game Development program, which features several high-level math and physics courses. This problem has been tempered by additional assessment testing the school has implemented for the Game Development program; prospective students must display proficiency in certain subjects prior to enrollment.

Full Sail's curriculum has also been criticized due to the fact that credit earned for coursework completed at Full Sail usually cannot be transferred to most traditional colleges and universities. Full Sail is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology, which is a national accreditor of primarily vocational schools and career schools within the United States. Most four year colleges and universities in the U.S. are regionally accredited, and do not recognize national accreditation such as ACCSCT (see [2]). To guarantee transferability of credit from Full Sail to traditional four-year colleges throughout the United States, regional accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools would be required. Fundamental changes to the current Full Sail curriculum would be needed to meet the necessary requirements of regional accreditation, including switching to a more conventional semester-hours based schedule, requiring a wider variety of general education credits, and utilizing teaching faculty with Master's or Doctorate degrees (see [3]). As an alternative method to facilitate transfer of Full Sail credit to certain regionally accredited institutions, Full Sail is seeking articulation agreements with those schools on an individual basis.

[edit] Notable alumni

Some notable Full Sail alumni:

Full Sail maintains a website with notable industry activity by alumni, called Grads on the Move.

[edit] Notable faculty

Notable faculty members include:

  • Dave Arneson - Co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons and co-founder of Zeitgeist Games.
  • Richard S. Wright, Jr - Co-author of the OpenGL Super Bible (ISBN 0-672-32601-9).
  • Dustin Clingman - Head of the Orlando IGDA chapter and co-founder of Zeitgeist Games.
  • Chris Maraffi - Founder of Rhythm Fist.
  • Christopher M. Murray - Autodesk Training Specialist for 3DS Max (one of 19 such instructors world wide) and veteran production artist, and author of Mastering 3DS Max (ISBN 0-7821-2561-1) for Sybex Publishing.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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