Is Full Sail''s Game Design Associate degree a good degree to persue? Is it taken seriosly amoungst the game development community?

Been wondering this myself a little. I''m almost out of high school and have already decided FullSail is where I want to go.


*ahem*
~All your base are belong to us~

Well the quality of the degree Full Sail offers is highly dependant on the person in the program.

The 15 month program is short, and the hours are long. 8 hours of class/lab a day 5 days a week. However Full Sail can not teach you "everything". What they do is get you up to a comprehensive knowledge level at which point learning new things becomes almost a trivial task. Obviously no ammount of training can pre-pair you for a job in the game industry, you will be better off than most CS grads though.

Full Sails'' program is still fairly new. And their reputation is based on the students who are currently employed in the industry. Obviously Full Sail has no control of what people choose to do with their jobs/lives. So it''s realy hard to say what the industry thinks of Full Sail as a whole. However Full Sail has recently gone into a partnership with VSearch a well known placement company which deals soley with the gaming industry. So VSearch is now doing most of the industry placement for the grads.

I myself have also pondered full sail. I have thought about all of the colleges that offer a degree similar to the one at full sail and have thought of just getting a computer science degree. After spending many hours researching these colleges and asking the attendants and some alumni, I feel that in my opinion DigiPen in Redmond WA is the best college to go to school for gaming. I myself plan to go there and take the 4yr BA degree for Real-Time Interactive Simulation (game programming). However, I cannot decide for you what you feel is the best suited environment. A huge thing to think about is will I like it their? If you can''t see yourself living in Washington, but you''d love to live in Florida, that should have a huge influence on where you go. Also, your grades in High School may influence where you go as Full Sail will take anyone with a High School Diploma. DigiPen requires a 3.0 GPA in your senior mat class as well as a 2.5 cummulative GPA.

How can I create a forum?
Can anyone teach me?

Yea, I narrowed my choices down to DigiPen and Fullsail. Was difficult deciding which I preffer, but eventually picked FS. Both schools seem to have their pro''s and con''s, so it''s just a matter of finding which suits your better. What really won me over in the end was the Career Placement Assistance they offer. Though it mentions that there is no guarantee''s, it does help me mentally knowing I''ll have some assistance... which could be one of the most difficult part of the Game Industry

Both schools appear very great, and I love playing the games DigiPen has for download on their site (projects from students I presume ).

Oh, and didn''t Digipen require a 4.0 GPA? I''ll check when I''m feeling a little less lazy :D


*ahem*
~All your base are belong to us~

I've visited Full Sail and it's a really cool place. I got a small tour of the Game Design Dept. & I talked with the department lead, he seemed like he knew his stuff.
I've had two friends graduate from there, one for Film and one for 3D animation. Both of them had many good things to say.
That's about all I know though.

// Edited because I can't spell.

"If consquences dictate our course of action, it doesn't matter what's right, it's only wrong if you get caught."
- Tool


Edited by - wayfarerx on September 21, 2001 3:31:45 PM

Full Sail is a vocational school, folks. Realize that the commercials you see on TV about air conditioner repair are for vocational schools.

Associate''s degrees are almost universally regarded as a joke. Realize you''re going to school for half as long as a bachelor''s degree, but getting about 1/10th the respect.

You know, I'm really failing to see the similarities between Uncle Bob's Heating and Cooling School and a multi-million dollar technology center that draws students from all over the world.
Oh, and I failed to say that both of those friends I mentioned landed jobs in thier respective industries immediately after graduating.

"If consquences dictate our course of action, it doesn't matter what's right, it's only wrong if you get caught."
- Tool



Edited by - wayfarerx on September 21, 2001 5:09:32 PM

Personally I wouldnt go to any kind of school for game design..
I went to a vocational school for computer repair, and no, I dont have a job in computer repair.. all I got was a nice fat $6000 bill. Im working at the mall right now making minimum wage, and Im expected to pay them back for it, when they barely taught me anything or helped me get a job at all.

So I would say a vocational school is a BAD idea..

Seriously folks, if you want to get into this field theres nothing a school can teach you that you cant go off and learn by yourself.. learn 3dMAX, learn OpenGL, Direct3d, and a decent programming language.. and you should be all set. All schools will do is point you in the general direction, and ream you in the as$ for all they can get you for! No thanks, Ive had enough reaming for one lifetime...!