General Info: I’m
pursing a Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design at Full Sail University’s (based
in Orlando) online program. I’m currently a sophomore.
Admissions/Advisors/Liaisons:
The admissions process was pretty simple. I saw their ad on Facebook and
decided to check them out. I also checked
out the Academy of Art. I decided on Full Sail because of cost mostly and I
didn’t want to take a bunch of liberal arts courses at AoA. Upon admission,
I had to plead my case as to why “this is the program for me”. I discussed with
my admissions rep that I wasn’t an “artist” and drawing wasn’t my strong suit.
Basically, if this course required Portrait Painting 101 I probably wasn’t
going to cut it. I was assured that while sketching would be a part of the
course (which I understand; sketching ideas before taking them to the design
programs) it would not be a prominent factor in grading or classes. This
information is false. I actually had an entire drawing class. Grading was a
bit on the easy side (luckily for me) and in most design classes sketches are
required with final product submissions. I will say I have improved. I’m still
no artist but I’m more comfortable doing concept sketching. I just wish they
had been a bit more honest when I asked initially.
I was pleasantly surprised with their sense of urgency to
get me enrolled (time is money, friend!). They waited on the phone with me as I
downloaded an app and emailed them a “scan” of my diploma. They also required a
few faxed forms. When I informed them I would have to wait until the next day
to access a fax machine, they looked at businesses surrounding my home and
actually called a local hotel (within walking distance) and asked them to fax
it for me. Cool.
I believe a student liaison here is what other schools would
call an advisor. Mine is pretty cool. She calls to check in from time to time
and see how I’m doing in my classes. So far everything has been good and we
don’t have too much to talk about. To this day I do not know who my actual
advisor is. I’ve emailed for a few small things and always ended up back at my
liaison anyway.
Career
Services/Future Planning: These leave a bit to be desired. The impression I
get: as a sophomore it is too early to plan for future schooling or careers. That’s
fine but it just seems odd that I have classes with assignments centered around
future careers/plans. Seems silly to force assignments about the career they
won’t help me plan.
I emailed an advisor once about information on a Master’s
program I might like to take after completion of my current program. I received
little more than the generic information provided on their website and was told
it was really too early to even be thinking about it. I disagree. It is
a huge financial undertaking and being able to weigh my options early helps
guide me with my future plans. I recently mentioned something to my student
liaison and got the same treatment.
Scrapping that idea for the time being, I decided to try to
focus on my long-term career goals. Once I did, I was very excited to speak to
someone “in the biz” to at least provide some advice or resources on how I
should gear my portfolio. I emailed and was told, again, that it’s too early to
begin the discussion. Apparently, they aren’t interested in talking to me about
it until about three months prior to graduation. I was advised that I could
call on career open house days but that I may get the same response. Again, I
mentioned something to my liaison and she was surprised to hear of the
responses they gave me. So, I suppose I’m on my own for now with that as well.
Classes/Workload:
As expected, the workload varies by class. I’ve had classes that I felt I was
working 24/7 on assignments and others that I could knock out in a day and then
do next to nothing until the next assignments were available.
So far, the grading has been very easy (boy, do I love
jinxing myself!). There are a few classes where the class average was less than
stellar (yet still not bad) and in some classes the average was 100. It sort of
creates the culture in which a high B is a death sentence.
Instructors: VERY
hit or miss. I’ve had some great instructors that are active with the students
within the discussion platform and some that merely grade and move you on.
We’re able to offer “anonymous feedback” at the end of course but I’m not sure
if that holds any water. I’ve had one very bad experience with an instructor in
which everything in her life was an emergency worthy of disrupting the class.
From illness to cat issues to houseguests it seemed like a never-ending litany
of excuses. Stuff happens and I sympathize but students very rarely get away
with that kind of behavior. She even cancelled a live class with zero notice
and no email until the next day. The other smaller issue I with an instructor
was the timeframe in which grades were returned to us. Each class is four
weeks. Week one he was very quick with grades. After that I didn’t seem to get
any until the final week of class and after. There was no option for giving
that class feedback, either, which is odd.
Classmates: You
can’t control the people around you. I understand that. In the beginning of my
program there were tons of people who just didn’t care and it was obvious. Some
were crass and even rude with feedback but those people were few and far
between. The only huge annoyance I had was watching classmates that
continuously disregarded instructions despite instructor and peer feedback. I
don’t mean there was a difference in opinion over design choices. I’m talking
assignments that say, “Create in black in white” and they’d submit a color
project. These people seemed to keep getting pushed through to the next class
for quite some time. I finally stopped seeing them recently. After so long I
think you end up weeding yourself out.
Overall: The
tuition covers the cost of the program, a MacBook Pro, the Adobe Suite, a few
other Mac programs, a subscription to Lynda, and now a Sony a6000 camera. You
get out what you put into it, honestly. Some classes are self-taught through
Lynda and others have active instructors. I suppose I’d rate it a 7/10 so far.
I hope to update per class in the future.
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