Full Sail University

Full Sail University offers campus and online degree programs that are designed for the world of entertainment, media, arts, and technology. Our programs include associate, bachelor`s and master`s degrees, as well as single courses and course stacks offered through Full Sail DC3, our online, digital-centric short-form education experience. Full Sail's approach is centered on real-world industry experience and creative problem solving.

Campus

The university moved to Winter Park in 1989. Full Sail University's approximately 200-acre (81-hectare) campus is located 8.6 miles (13.8 kilometers) northeast of downtown Orlando. The campus has soundstages, a film backlot, and 110 studios. An office building for teaching staff for the online degree program was leased in 2009.

Full Sail University Backlot

In 2010 a new game studio was named "Blackmoor" (after a campaign in Dungeons & Dragons) in honor of Dave Arneson, who taught game design at the school from 1999 to 2008. In November 2010, in partnership with ESPN, the school opened a new laboratory for research and development in studio technologies. Two months later, approximately 200 Full Sail Online employees moved into the Gateway Center in Downtown Orlando. Also in 2011, the university announced plans to construct an 86,000-square-foot (8,000 m2) educational building to house 475 faculty and staff, additional film and television soundstages and classrooms; it was scheduled for completion in early 2012. In July 2011, Full Sail acquired Lakeview Office Park in Orlando.

Academics

Full Sail's academic degree programs are primarily focused on audio, film and media production, video game design, animation and other studies related to the media and entertainment industries. Full Sail began offering coursework in creating augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) projects in 2016, housed in the campus's Fabrication Lab. AR coursework is also supported by the Smart Lab, opened in May 2019, which provides AR, home network and touchscreen technology for testing applications.

Full Sail custom-built a learning management system (LMS) for their online courses; the LMS is Macintosh-based, and utilizes content created by an in-house curriculum development team in conjunction with campus-based instructors. In 2018, Full Sail partnered with Doghead Simulations to provide Rumii, a VR classroom app, to their undergraduates taking online classes.

Student outcomes

According to the College Scorecard,  Full Sail has a 39 percent graduation rate. Median salary after attending ranges from $22,000 (BS in audio-visual communications technology) to $55,000 (BS in computer programming). Two years after entering repayment, the status of former students was 30% not making progress, 26% forbearance, 12% defaulted, 11% making progress, 9% deferment, 8% delinquent, 2% paid in full, 1% discharged.

Awards and rankings

In 1989, 1990, and 1991, the Full Sail Center for the Recording Arts won Mix magazine's outstanding institutional achievement award for recording schools.

In 2005, Rolling Stone called Full Sail "one of the five best music programs in the country".

The college was named FAPSC School/College of the Year (an award for which only career colleges in Florida were eligible) by the Florida Association of Postsecondary Schools and Colleges (FAPSC) in 2008, 2011, and 2014. Full Sail was recognized for its 21st-century best practices in distance learning by the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) in 2011, and was the recipient of New Media Consortium Center for Excellence Award in 2011 and 2015.

Full Sail was included in The Princeton Review's 2010 list of the nation's Top Fifty Undergraduate Video Game Design Programs, and has continued to be ranked in the top 50 undergraduate list through 2021. Additionally, Full Sail's Game Design Master's degree has been ranked in The Princeton Review's Top 25 Graduate Program for Video Game Design since 2014. Full Sail also ranked in the top 50 in The Princeton Review's list of undergraduate programs for game design in 2021.The Wrap ranked Full Sail in their 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 lists of the "Top 50 Film Schools". In 2018, College Magazine ranked Full Sail number five in their list of the top 10 colleges for video game design. In Tune Monthly included Full Sail in their 2017 and 2018 lists of the "best music schools". In January 2020, Animation Career Review ranked Full Sail University number 19 in their list of Top 50 Animation Schools in the US. In 2021, MovieMaker magazine ranked Full Sail University as one of the Best Film Schools in the US & Canada for outstanding film production training. A senior lab instructor at Full Sail, Carl Verna, was also recognized as one of Variety's top 50 instructors in 2021.