<p>My kid's classmate, also rising senior, wants to go to Full Sail Univ for game design. FSU came to our kids' tiny HS (we are in PA) and apparently made a heck of a sales pitch. Kid & mom already visited the campus and seem impressed so she was telling me about it. So I looked it up out of curiosity and I got a bunch of red flags - mainly it is very expensive and appears to over hype their courses.
One of the attractions is that FSU won't make him take core classes - he already struggles in HS with them. But he went to a game design camp recently ( elsewhere) and he is really interested in it.
They are family friends and I am concerned that it will be a decision they regret later. If he goes there it will be via loans.
I don't want to directly criticize the school, but gently suggest other alternatives that might expand their optiobs.
Any ideas on where this kid, who is not a natural student but is excited to learn to create games, can look at going instead?</p>
<p>The best game design programs are in fairly expensive schools and require average to high stats. What are this kids stats? Reco RIT, WPI, RPI, Drexel, DePaul, USC, Univ of Utah. DePaul is probably the easiest to get into of this bunch.</p>
<p>Full Sail does not have a good reputation in this industry.</p>
<p>I think the stats are not good. He will retake his SAT but the mom is only expecting slight improvement. Thanks for those school suggestions. I’ll look them up.</p>
<p>Better to study CS with some game-relevant electives, since a CS degree will be more widely applicable in the job market. The game industry may be less attractive to work in than it sounds to many high school students.</p>
<p>There are lots of schools with decent CS departments, not all of which are highly selective or expensive. Starting at community college and transferring to a four year school can also be an option.</p>
<p>His parents should give him a price limit and a loan limit (federal direct loans only at most; they may choose a lesser limit if they think he is likely to have trouble repaying federal direct loans to the limit). Parental loans and parental-cosigned student loans are generally a bad idea.</p>
<p>Full Sail University does not have regional accreditation. Average indebtedness of graduates is extremely high in comparison to other schools.</p>
<p>Okay FSU is one of those schools that it depends on the student. For instance I have high marks and more inclined to go to a University with core classes. Um the student you describe seems like the type that might benefit from going to community college and then transferring to another school. FSU is for profit which means their goal is to make money rather than meet student’s needs. It should be noted as well that no matter if the school is private or public that there should be some core courses even if its just an english and quantitate reasoning course your student will still have to take a math class or something especially going into a computer field. </p>
<p>My boyfriend was in the same situation. He was a C student at best in high school. He decided to go to community college and is now transferring this fall to UCF as a junior, majoring in Digital Media on the Game Design track. His college gpa was still under a 3.0 (around a 2.5 I think?) but he had no problem getting in. Starting at a community college would not only be cheaper but give the kid a chance to make sure this is what he wants to pursue as it sounds like he may have made the decision after a fun few weeks at one summer camp. There is a lot more to it than the cool stuff he probably learned at camp.</p>
<p>Have them look at Becker College in Worcester. Their program usually makes the top 10 list in Gamepro/Princeton Review’s annual list but academics are much more lightweight. </p>
<p>I can see how community college would be a good idea; I hope the mom is already considering it.</p>
<p>@Sudsie, thanks! I googled the latest top 10 list with Becker College on it & forwarded it with an innocuous note. Hopefully that will give the kid some ideas. </p>
<p>I visited Becker with my son. Their classrooms are in old homes in a cruddy neighborhood. It doesn’t feel like a college. There must be an outstanding faculty leading that program because I have no clue how they rank highly (although I think they slipped this year in the rankings in a big way.) One really needs to visit it before deciding.</p>
<p>We visited too. Neighborhood is not especially cruddy (D2 lived in the neighborhood for a year doing a gap year program.). And many of the old houses are charming. The game design folks are very good. But what Becker does is specialize in niche majors including game design. It’s quite small and the core academic offerings are limited (for example highest level math is basic calculus). It’s the product of a merger of 2 junior colleges and still offers 2 year as well as 4 year degrees. But for a kid who loves game design and isn’t particularly into academics, could be a good fit. </p>
<p><a href=“Full Sail University - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Sail_University</a></p>
<p>“For profit university with high student debt and low graduation rate.” My son once wanted to go into game design. He’s been taking various programming and graphics courses since sixth grade. He had a chance to tour a game design company last year. His takeaway is that designers are paid minimally and they work long hours. </p>
<p>Game design is a tough field to get into especially given the turmoil going on in the industry at the moment. My son switched from wanting to major in Game Design to a CS (Games) degree so he could be a game programmer. He got into the USC program by the skin of his teeth (a Spring admit). It’s the #1 program and he should come out with multiple offers.</p>