That was my bad. I changed it when you said Computer Science. I was originally doing a Computer Programming AS transfer to Computer Science BS at UCF, but I later decided to do Robotics instead. I’m no longer working toward a Computer Science BS because the curriculum was useless for me and I’d like to do robotics as a fun side project. I could retake Trig and Calc I as electives to complete a 2-year degree at Valencia because Valencia doesn’t require anything beyond College Algebra, not even for Programming. The BS requires these courses OR department approval (testing out), but testing out does not give me credit. Since I am still required to have a certain amount of math credits for the BS AND they can be used as electives in the AS, I chose to just redo the ones I already know for an easy A instead of testing out and doing more advanced math in the BS.
The GI Bill will pay for two schools at the same time, but only under certain conditions (if the classes at the secondary school will transfer into the degree at the primary school, or if you’re pursuing two related degrees at the same school but taking some of the classes at outside schools). I do pay for some of my education out of pocket, but the amount is negligible. Since I’m technically unemployed while attending school (apparently my property rental income either isn’t high enough or doesn’t count), I am still eligible to receive other federal education benefits such as the Pell Grant that I could use to pay for gaps in tuition if I needed to.
Yes you are right. Before going to Full Sail, the highest math I had completed was College Algebra in public school. I had low math-self-esteem, so I was procrastinating the advanced maths for as long as possible (and the Programming degree at public school didn’t require anything beyond MAC1105). I jumped straight from College Algebra into Calculus with Trigonometry. While I feel I am a fast learner when it comes to programming, I am not quite so fast at learning math. I’m good at it once I do learn it, but math takes a LOT more effort for me to learn. I won’t lie, it hurt. Luckily, that was the only class I had that month, and it met 8 hours a day for 2 days a week. I spent 6 hours a day after school doing the homework, for a grand total of 14 straight hours of math on school days. Then I spent another good 6-10 hours a day working on it on non-school days. I got a 78 on my first test in that class, which is the lowest grade I’ve ever gotten on anything in my life. I dedicated the vast majority of my waking hours to doing math, and managed an A on all subsequent tests, and a 100 on the final exam. Yes, some people are capable of acing that class in a month little work put into it (I sat next to a kid that could do calculus problems that took me 2 pages of writing to do, all in his head). Some people, like me, are only capable of acing it with a LOT of work and dedication. And of course some people simply can’t learn that much math in that amount of time, as many failed that class.
I don’t know which of Full Sail’s BS programs can transfer into a MS at which universities, since 1) I have no interest in a Master’s related to Game Development and 2) I don’t know what every university has to offer. The only reason I know it’s possible is because some of the lab assistants in my early classes were Full Sail grads who were working on an outside Master’s. One was in Computer Science at UCF, I don’t know what any of the others were. Personally, if I wanted to pursue a MS, I would do Full Sail’s MS. What that costs, however, I’m not sure. It is listed on their site, but I’m too lazy to look at it right now. I think it was something like $30,000 for the 1-year program.
The whole accreditation issue isn’t really an issue for most people. Full Sail tends to accept most incoming regionally-accredited general ed and math credits, and Full Sail is not designed to be abandoned halfway through and transferred elsewhere. If you go to Full Sail, you go because you plan to finish there. If transferring to an outside Master’s after Full Sail is a concern, I would recommend researching those possibilities prior to enrolling at Full Sail to make sure everything will work out for you with limited redundancy. If you can’t find something that works to your liking, then maybe you shouldn’t go to Full Sail, or maybe you should re-evaluate your educational goals.
Anyway, the purpose of my review was to lay to rest some of the misconceptions about Full Sail that have been propagated by people who base their knowledge off someone else’s review. There are a small handful of people who have been spamming negative reviews of Full Sail EVERYWHERE. These people include: one 50-year old woman (Nancy Ford) who failed out of the film program and claims to be a film industry professional in some places (in other places she claims to be a school teacher), one mother of a recording arts fail-out, and one recording arts grad who is upset that he didn’t get a high-paying job after graduation. These people have reposted their reviews on every Full Sail review page, comment board, and youtube video on the internet.
I’ve seen forums where potential students ask about Full Sail, and other random people who have no knowledge whatsoever link them to some of these reviews saying “sounds like a scam, I would avoid it,” and other such nonsense. When I was researching Full Sail before enrolling, I was a almost scared away by all the negative reviews and negative comments based on those negative reviews. Now I’m glad I didn’t let the comments of a few ignorant people sway my decision. I want to make sure these gross misrepresentations don’t influence anyone else either.
In my second programming class, there were two students who stood out to me. One was a guy who I swear had to be borderline autistic or something. He was about 400 lbs, regularly picked things off his head and arms and ate them, hiccuped to get attention, and frequently made retarded sounding groans, grunts, and shouts, and spastic arm movements. He was a huge distraction and everyone in the class hated him. He failed both his classes that month, so fortunately for the rest of us, he won’t end up on any of our teams later in the program. The other student is a female who said she had already taken the first two programming classes at Full Sail before, got caught cheating and got kicked out. She said in order to be allowed back at Full Sail, she had to take programming classes at an outside college for a certain amount of time (I can’t remember of it was a year or a semester). Apparently she did, and was also required to retake these classes her second time at Full Sail. She failed the second programming class again. I overheard her talking to her friend about it, and her scathing remarks about the school I’m sure would eventually make their way into an online review.
The two students above can be found in any school. There is always someone who is too lazy to stay awake in class, too dumb to major in a scientific field, or too inept keep up with their studies. Of course their reviews are going to have a negative bias, because nobody wants to admit their own failures when it’s so much easier to just blame the school, the teacher, or anything else. I wanted to provide my first-hand experience and knowledge so that others can make informed decisions based on real facts, not on some disgruntled drop-out’s complaint. Full Sail is a great school, but it is not for everyone nor for every purpose. I can’t stress enough how important due diligence is when making educational plans. You can’t let Full Sail’s flashy appearance and fancy tours coax you into paying tuition you can’t afford for an education that can’t get a job that will pay it back. You also can’t let random people on the internet talk you out of a quality education just because Full Sail is different.
That is all.
and will need a book or tutorial again if I approach it for complicated character rigs).