# Full Sail; The Untold Story!



## digitaltec (Jul 14, 2004)

Ok, so I had a little fun with the title  

I decided to start a topic on Full Sail to give you all my perspective on the school and to try to answer as many questions, rumors, etc that I can. This is not geared torwards starting any wars, but informational from a students perspective. So anything you might want to know, ask away.

(I'm going to touch on some of the things I have been asked)

First, I will say no school is perfect. No school will meet every need you demand. No teacher is perfect, no student is perfect. 

With that being said, a huge problem that most people might find with the school is the fact that the instructors are not educated teachers, they are industry professinals that teach from experience and knowlege verses what some college taught them to say and do. The instructors at Full Sail will bend over backwards to make your learning experience the best it can be. If you dont understand what they are saying, they will break it down as many times as they have to, to make sure you understand. They will meet with you one on one to go over gear or even a lecture. They are there to work for you. It's not like HS where some of the teachers walk in, teach a lesson, assign homework and give tests. The instructors are very hands on and will do what they have to, to make sure no detail is left out. I have yet felt intimidated to ask a instructor a question.

In terms of what the instructors teaching style's are, that all have their own way to get the information to you. all of them will use personal stories for you to understand what they are trying to teach. You will look at alot of pictures and video clips to help visulize the lesson. Just about every lecture is off of a powerpoint. Some classes you have to take notes. Some classes the powerpoint is in the book. Just about every class has a textbook written by the instructor teaching it. Plus you will get several published books. Ex. the Yamaha sound reinforcement handbook, The backstage handbook. etc. I can list several. There is plenty of material availible to help you out.

While talking about education, a thing I llike about full sail is the fact that you will have a lecture and usually the same day will have a lab on what you were tought in lecture. It keeps everything fresh in your mind and you have the opertunity to acually do it rather then hear it from a instructor.

Ok, im sure everyone is waiting for me to talk about the schedule. I'm sure you have heard all kinds of stories. Let's see what I can do about that. Full Sail is in operation 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Most lectures are 4 hours in length as well as labs. For every one hour, you get a 10 min break. Most instructors will go for 2 hours then give you a 20-30 min break. Expect to have something just about 7 days a week. In terms of hours, expect anything from an hour a day to 20 hours a day. Mostly expect 8 hour days. Yes, I have have been at school for well over 24 hours straight. Mostly because im crazy  . You can expect about two months a bunch of 16 hour days in a row. I would say about 30% of the time you are acually having long days. Sleep is not in the curiculum at full Sail  . Nor is it part of this industry.

Let's talk about the courses. You will take a total of 17 classes. Over 1552 hours of class time, for 56 weeks or 13 months. Out of those classes, 7 are General Education, 2 are lighting, 7 are audio, none are video, 1 is PML. All of those classes are two months long except gen ed classes and two show pro classes. Keep in mind Full Sail is build around Audio. If you want to know more about a class let me know. I'm not really going to get into each one, just more of giving you a general idea. I can talk about courses individually if you want me to. 

Gear... it is said that Full Sail owns 100 Million dollers worth of gear. Show pro owns enought gear to stage a stadium show from the ground up. So yeah, we own the best gear in the industry. What they dont tell you is the majority of the gear is from comanies that back us. They also dont tell you that most of the gear we have is only used by the top companies and most wont use the gear after graduation. We usually get gear before it is released into the market and beta test tons of stuff. Cause if we can't break it no one can  . 

one last thing before I wrap this up for now, you dont have to know anything about lighting or sound to come to Full Sail. Everything is tought from the ground up. 

I hope that gets the wheels spinning. As away about anything you might want to know more about or want me to go in depth about something. I'm here to help.


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## Source4Spike (Jul 15, 2004)

Thank you very much for that. Thats the most straightforward information about the school I have seen on this site. Now I have a question or two.

Firstly, I thought that it was possible to take mostly lighting classes, and much fewer audio, as while I respect audio for what it is, I dont hugely care for it. I was beginning to consider Full Sail, but if they dont have curriculums to primarily teach lighting, then I'll look elsewhere. So my question is, do they?

Secondly, what General Education classes do they require you to take?

Thank you,
-Nick


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## x-treme (Jul 15, 2004)

Thankyou so much for breacking the ice about Fullsail,

What about the Entertainment Business Degree?


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## digitaltec (Jul 15, 2004)

x-treme, 

> What about the Entertainment Business Degree?



I can't speak on that because, I'm not in that degree program nor am I planning on entering it. I have heard that you do alot of work on your own. Writing reports daily, and giving presentions. I'll try to find out more info.

Source4Spike,

> Firstly, I thought that it was possible to take mostly lighting classes, and much fewer audio, as while I respect audio for what it is, I dont hugely care for it. I was beginning to consider Full Sail, but if they dont have curriculums to primarily teach lighting, then I'll look elsewhere. So my question is, do they?



To get the degree, it's all or nothing. Can you come to Full Sail and just take classes you want, yes. But you can't get the degree without completing the entire program.


> what General Education classes do they require you to take?



Introduction to Media Arts, Behavioral Science, Computers Math & The Internet, Multimedia Audio, Media & Society, Business Communications, Entertainment Business

(those are the course names)

Taken from a PM,

> How much are you spoon fed? In other words, are you given all the information in your lectures, or do you in fact, have to do some self-directed learning.



My best answer to that is that we get alot of information in lectures but alot of it is for us to learn more on our own. Like the instructor will talk about the Martin Maxxyz, but if we want to know more about it, we should do our own research. I hope that answers your question.


> Do you ever get given a task/problem/scenario that you have to approach and solve by yourself (or in a group)?



You bet, A big thing about Full Sail is the break stuff to have us fix it. They will set up situations and we got to figure out what's wrong. Just about most of the things that can go wrong in the field that have re-enacted.


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## x-treme (Aug 10, 2004)

Re there any ways to get scholarships??


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## gremlin1287 (Aug 10, 2004)

also...how difficult is it to get into?


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## digitaltec (Aug 11, 2004)

> also...how difficult is it to get into?



In terms of admission, they take just about anyone who can come up with the money in one way or another. They only start so many people each month, but besides that, there really is no other requirments besides a HS education and even there are exceptions for that.


> Re there any ways to get scholarships??



From Full Sail directly, nope. Can you apply scholorships to Full Sail, I would check with whoever is incharge of that scholership. I ran into some orginiazations not accepting Full Sail as "school" because it is not a 2 year program thought if you count the hours it comes out to a 2.7 year school.


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## Amy (Oct 6, 2004)

im so convinced i wanna go!


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## VipermanGTX (Jan 25, 2005)

2 of my friends go to fullsail, one studies recording arts the other film. They enjoy the school and believe it is worth there time. I believe fullsail is the best place for Show pro but not film or recording. Most companies don't like seeing the words "fullsail: real word education" on your application. they even tell you this at fullsail. that to me sounds alittle bit iffy, if you knwo what i'm saying. I don't know. fullsails my back up school.


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## JP12687 (Feb 18, 2005)

Question, How much does it cost to go for the Show pro degree??

And you said exceptions to a HS diploma? what would those be?


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## thelightguy87 (Dec 20, 2008)

how in depth are the lighting courses? My main interest is lighting, but I also enjoy doing a bit of sound. So I won't mind the focus on sound as well. But I too am worried that its not really best for me to go there if there isn't much emphasis on lighting. And there really is no video courses? I'm kinda surprised.


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## Edrick (Dec 20, 2008)

Hey here's a topic on Full Sail that was just recently created.

http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/education/9953-help-me-please.html

1) Full Sails focus in Show Production (the closet you'll get to a Theater related course) isn't lighting oriented towards Theater. However there is quite a bit of lighting for Concerts / Events. You'll use Source Fours, and Intelligent Lighting, Pars, but you wont have a focus on Theater. 

2) Again same goes for this Show Production would be the closet you'll get for Sound that could be used in Theater as it's live sound again however this is focusing on the Touring aspect, Concerts and Events. 

3) There's also video you do Live Production switching, you also do some TV Production courses. Not sure how specific they get in Show Pro on that one however the Film Degree has a HD Broadcast Studio and we go through TV Broadcast in there. Again Film also has a Lighting course but it's geared towards film productions. 

So pretty much they have all of that and then some however it's geared towards other industries other than Theater. We don't have a theater space for that matter.


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## TimmyP1955 (Dec 20, 2008)

VipermanGTX said:


> ..... Most companies don't like seeing the words "fullsail: real word education" on your application. they even tell you this at fullsail. that to me sounds alittle bit iffy, if you knwo what i'm saying. I don't know. fullsails my back up school.



The vast majority of the comments I've read from soundcos and such have been something like this: "We've seen a few FS grads who have a handle on things, but most don't seem to know anything about mixing beyond pushing faders up and down." I expect that this is the reason for the comment. (It's like law school - they may graduate and even pass the bar, but it does not mean that they have any competence when it comes to doing the job - just ask my two friends who are currently in the middle of divorces.)


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## thelightguy87 (Dec 20, 2008)

I'm looking for concert lighting, so the focus on concerts and events is what i want, I've done theater, I've designed in theater, and i'm sick of theater. I've been slowly growing more and more interested in concerts and events. So my question was how in depth does it get. Do they just show you how stuff works or do they actually go through programming and designing for a large scale concert. 

Would you suggest someone else that is interested in concert lighting, and a little less interested in audio to go to full sail?


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## Edrick (Dec 21, 2008)

If you're going for concert stuff then I'd recommend Full Sail for that. My opinion of wether someone should go to the school in general swings both ways. I can see why the school has it's bad feedback but at the same time I think it's a great school. I think all the people who say its a horrible school however, and all the people that say companies in the industry WONT hire you based on going to Full Sail really don't know what they're talking about however. 

Does the school have a reputation? Yes
Do all schools have a reputation? Yes
Do other schools aside from Full Sail have some people who have a bad feel about the school? Of course

It's not Full Sail specific, in the industries you're going to go to Full Sail for it's not about the school you went to as it is what you know. The people who go through Full Sail and don't gain anything that's their fault the schools not going to baby you. So it's perfectly possible to go through the school and not know how to do crap. However if you put what you want into your education you WILL come out ahead of other schools in these fields. The school has so many more opportunities to get somewhere then a regular institute does.


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## Pie4Weebl (Dec 21, 2008)

Ricky Smith said:


> I think all the people who say its a horrible school however, and all the people that say companies in the industry WONT hire you based on going to Full Sail really don't know what they're talking about however.


Well I suppose you really won't know about that until you graduate from there and are trying to find a job now will you?


Ricky Smith said:


> Does the school have a reputation? Yes
> Do all schools have a reputation? Yes
> Do other schools aside from Full Sail have some people who have a bad feel about the school? Of course


Other schools do have reputations, but some of them are you know, positive. And while other schools may leave a bad taste for some, its no where near the amount of bad taste that full sail leaves in the collective amount of bad taste left by full sail. There is a reason the two FS graduates at my shop won't readily admit where they went to school.

You might turn out good from the school, and I'm not saying you won't. You will just have to content with all the stupid that school is turning out too.


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## Edrick (Dec 22, 2008)

Pie4Weebl said:


> Well I suppose you really won't know about that until you graduate from there and are trying to find a job now will you?



Well I know good amount of students who have recently graduated from the school and have received jobs offers and jobs even before graduating. So although I may not have graduated from the school yet I have seen quite a few students get jobs. Now again I'm not saying they don't have a bad reputation in some places out there I know full well they do. However I also know that people who apply them selves and do the work to find a job don't have a problem with that. 

The other thing is nothing against the theater industry as I love theater, however you guys aren't looking to hire Full Sail Students. I'm not sure what industry specifically you work in but unless it's the Show Production (Live Concerts, Events, Etc..?) or Film, Recording Arts, Game Development, etc... then I don't know how true of a feeling you can have for how negative the schools reputation is. However anyway you slice it for example our Game Development students come out completely different than say the Recording Arts students do and the Game Devel program is known quite well and for good reasons. Where as the RA students are the ones that tend to give the school a bad name.

Pretty much I'm just trying to say don't completely take the school down based on what you've heard.


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## Pie4Weebl (Dec 22, 2008)

fair enough, as long as you can find work that's all that matters.

Personally I do a mix of everything under the sun (except tv and movies)


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