Full Sail?

Don't know anyone associated with Full Sail, but a kid (by kid, I mean 23 year old) at my dojo just finished his degree in engineering/music production. His dad runs a studio in Nashville and this kid has been around studios his entire life and been engineering and producing since he was a kid. He just got a job selling cars because there is no $ in the big studios anymore.

I live right down the street from it--it's literally 5 minutes down the road from me. I've run across a lot of people who have or do go there. From what I've heard 1) It's very expensive and there's little if any financial aid and 2) Most places don't take it seriously if they see on your resume that you went there and it's no better than anywhere else.

I really have no idea how true 2) is--could be these people are just bitter and looking to blame someone other than themselves for them not being able to get a job.

I work with someone who still attends there (I think). If you have any specific questions I could ask him.

I live right down the street from it--it's literally 5 minutes down the road from me. I've run across a lot of people who have or do go there. From what I've heard 1) It's very expensive and there's little if any financial aid and 2) Most places don't take it seriously if they see on your resume that you went there and it's no better than anywhere else.

I really have no idea how true 2) is--could be these people are just bitter and looking to blame someone other than themselves for them not being able to get a job.

I work with someone who still attends there (I think). If you have any specific questions I could ask him.

I think the issue is that there is no "anywhere else". It's really the only sound/video/stage technical school I've heard of. There are universities (NYU, BU, etc) but they are out of reach for my nephew. Money is always an issue, but wasting time and effort is worse. They claim an excellent placement rate into legitimate jobs, but it's hard to verify.

I'd love to hear from someone who went there 5 years ago as to whether it helped them along, or did more harm than good.

Thanks!

I was finally able to catch up with my guy at work. He actually just very recently graduated from Full Sail with a degree in Recording Arts. I asked him how he liked the school. He absolutely loved it and said it was worth every penny. He said the knowledge he gained there was unbelievable, and didn't think he'd have been able to get that sort of hands on experience anywhere else really. I asked if he knew anyone who had graduated from there and how well they did in finding jobs. He said most were able to find jobs quite easily, you just have to be willing to relocate. And according to him, having Full Sail on your resume does indeed carry a lot of weight with the people doing the hiring. As you said, there really don't seem to be many other options. He has a couple friends, one from Dubai and one from Turkey, who moved here specifically for this school and have jobs now.

I asked if there was anything he didn't like. The only thing he could really think of was (and I didn't know this), it's a 24/7 school, so it's quite possible you could have a class at like 1:00 in the morning or some random time like that, and that your schedule changes each month. But for a college student, that should be a piece of cake.

My son was considering getting an audio engineering degree (Full Sail wasn't the school of his choice, though). I talked him out of it, for two reasons:

First, the money isn't there in a career path to ever repay the cost. Audio engineering used to pay well when the equipment was expensive, and they wouldn't let just anybody touch it. But my home studio today is far better than anything I ever worked in in thirty years ago - at roughly 1% of the cost (and this is before adjusting for inflation!) Audio gear has become so ridiculously cheap, I'd put the tuition money into gear and start learning at home. You'll have plenty left over for books, seminars, and community college classes - several universities around our music school have opened programs in audio engineering, as has at least one local high school!

Second, consumer demand for high quality audio engineering has gone way down. In my home systems, I've always been a gear fiend - I've got Altec Lansings that I spent a fortune on back in the day. Now I've got some studio monitors that blow them away - at about half the cost (again, ignoring inflation). But what can I play on them? wav files are worse than vinyl (or the stuff I record); mp3s are 10x worse. The download your tunes era is killing high end production values - which means studios can pay low-end people for results that will end up acceptable to the market. When everything is played on earbuds, that's the mixing standard - and it isn't very high.

Three years later, my son is still considering audio engineering, but with a different goal in mind: there are still paying gigs available in acoustic design (for concert halls, etc) and forensic analysis (is that really bin Laden on this recording?), but the market ain't what it used to be. Kinda like the market for live performance :(

Many thanks for both detailed responses. I've forwarded them to my nephew, and he'll decide. FYI - he is looking into the full stage production management route. From multi-media conferencing to concerts to Broadway. If it works out, it's a good choice for him.

From what I've heard 1) It's very expensive and there's little if any financial aid and 2) Most places don't take it seriously if they see on your resume that you went there and it's no better than anywhere else.

VERY TRUE! I had actually beat out for a production job with WWE someone who went there and I went to a community college. You can only teach the fundamentals, you can't teach talent or art. They have STATE OF THE ART stuff, but if you don't have the ability to think out side of the box and be creative, then you aren't getting the job, and you can't teach that!

BTW, I DID have Pro Wrestling experience with a WWE developmental company, so that might have weighed in to the decision, plus I had some of "the boys" pulling for me....but at least I had some demo material..

Full Sail is pretty much Fool Sail in my opinion.