I definitely agree with Decency’s post. My game dev classes are full of kids fresh out of high school, and they drop like flies from the program. Many of them complain about the littlest things, oblivious to how spoiled they are at Full Sail. Much of my appreciation for the school stems from my prior college experience when I was younger, and my continued concurrent education at public school now. Doing them side-by-side really makes Full Sail’s greatness stand out to me.
I also agree that most people in their teens and early 20’s don’t know what their passion in life is yet, and therefore should NOT make an $80,000 commitment to learning one. So many people in my first programming classes had absolutely no programming experience or even familiarity whatsoever. So many also frequently screamed out “I ****ing hate programming” out of frustration when working on projects. At least half of those people failed at least once if not more of the early programming classes. Some failed so many times they are no longer in the program. This is something I don’t understand. I knew I wanted to do Game dev because I dabbled in programming and discovered I LOVED IT. Even after an 8-hour class in programming, I go home and spend almost the same amount of time doing it just for fun. I’ve received an A+ in every single class at Full Sail so far. So yeah, if you’re young, even if you’re indignant and think you want to go to Full Sail and grown-ups don’t know anything, I’d suggest at least doing transferable general ed classes at a cheaper public school, then transfer into Full Sail later after adult life has had some time to marinate in your brain for a while. Even that little bit of public school will give you greater appreciation for Full Sail’s style, and hopefully expose you to enough other fields to discover your interest if it turns out Full Sail isn’t for you.
Next, and this is specifically for prospective game dev students, do some programming BEFORE you decide to go to Full Sail for game dev or game design. Don’t choose game dev just because you “like to play games a lot” and “have some good ideas for games to make.” Programming is ****ING COMPLEX. It’s hard, and infinitely harder if you don’t like doing it. Even for the Game Design master’s, you’re going to need to know a significant amount of programming. No, the game design MS itself does not entail any real programming, but you still need to know programming. Why? Because there is no such thing as graduating with a degree in design and then jumping straight into a job designing games (in which you would be leading programmers). If you want to oversee games, your best bet is starting as a junior programmer and working your way up to senior project leader. We’re talking YEARS of work in the industry before you’re ever a designer of anything more than a macaroni sculpture. Designers MUST have programming knowledge and experience to be qualified for their job. You can’t possibly design a game if you don’t know how a game goes together.
If you’re a student already pursuing an education in software development but are stuck in a watered down degree like Computer Science, then Full Sail’s Game dev degree could be a good choice for you. Like most trade schools and even many AAS and BAS degrees at public school (my programming AS required only 1 math, 1 humanities, 1 communication, and 1 public speaking course), much of the superfluous liberal arts is cut in favor of more pertinent job training. Having a well-rounded education is a good thing, but being proficient at your particular trade is better. The tuition is high, but don’t forget the savings in living expenses can be high too. I own my home, but from what I see most of the students in my classes share apartments and pay around $450 a month individually toward rent and utilities. What they spend on food just blows my mind. I spend about $300 a month on food for myself and my s/o, but these kids spend twice that with the amount of fast food and dining out they do. What ever happened to college kids who lived off Ramen noodles? In any case, if you’re spending say $1,000 a month on basic living expenses, not including transportation, entertainment, internet, phone, fun, etc., that on its own is $24,000 saved by doing 2 years less of school. It’s up to you to do the math though and figure out what your expenses come out to.
My last piece of advice is don’t major in film or music, don’t major in film or music, don’t major in film or music, DON’T MAJOR IN FILM OR MUSIC. Yes, Full Sail supposedly has some of the best training for film and music. Film and music are also extremely competitive but declining industries with extremely low pay for the majority of people trying to get into it. Ever notice all the political science majors working as restaurant waiters in and around Washington D.C.? The same thing happens with film and music majors on the other side of the country in and around Hollywood. Unless you have a rich family with money to throw at stupid shit, or you fully expect to make no more than $25,000 a year, unless you fully expect to never desire a better career, unless you passionately love drowning in film or music forever, and unless you have no hopes of ever having the money to pursue other common life goals like a nice house, raising a family, etc, don’t go to Full Sail and spend $80,000 on a pipe dream of being a famous director.
Also, skinny jeans-clad, dorky box-framed glasses-wearing, and miniature hat-sporting film and music students always seem to be annoying, shrill-voiced whiners handing out business cards for their fake ass studios and bragging about their non-existent accomplishments. Ugh, amusing, but annoying when they’re representing the school >.>
and will need a book or tutorial again if I approach it for complicated character rigs).