Guess which one of the schools has a failing “F” grade for the Debt to Earnings ratio. Follow through to this page for the US government’s Excel document showing the school list and earnings report for each vocation as related to the school’s program. I’m specifically talking about Full Sail in Orlando, FL.
Game Development Tuition at Full Sail - $74,500 Total
Median reported earnings for a new graduate - $24,234
You do the math. I hope they completely remove this school’s ability to keep giving out financial aid. The country wants to know why we have a student loan crisis? For profit schools like this that sell a dream to students that is mostly a lie, based on partial truths.
In addition to what @JamesArndt1 said, if you’re considering going to any university and they’re boasting about their placement rates, it’s worth investigating deeper to see how relevant those numbers are.
I don’t recall if it was Full Sail or one of their competitors, but I read recently how a game development school claimed to have a graduate placement rate somewhere in the 60-70% range, but it turned out that those were almost entirely students in their graphic design and film courses, and barely any were from their game design/development program.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Don’t go to school for game design / development. Learn how to program, whether it’s through a university or your own learning. Seek a career in web or application development, and learn the fundamentals of game design on the side. You’ll never go hungry, and your career development will benefit your hobbyist abilities, and vice versa!
I would like to add to this: I have several co-workers and friends that are or were former Full Sail instructors and staff. I have first hand knowledge that placement rates can be very subjective intentionally. For example: Obtaining a job at GameStop or a mom and pop video game store making $8.00 per hour is considered a “industry job” for the gaming industry. Working in a movie theatre as an aisle attendant is an “industry job” for the film program. It’s kind of hilarious when you stop to think about it.
Doesn’t surprise me at all. I would imagine it will be the same across most game dev degrees. I doubt it it’s just a full sail issue.
Especially considering:
Game dev is a lower wage industry
There are far more graduates then positions (We did a rough count locally, in the average year there will be more game dev graduates in Melbourne then there are people employed in the entire industry across Australia. That’s a sobering number.)
Game dev doesn’t have a huge economic multiplier effect, so their is little incentive for governments to fund the industry.
For contrast in chemical engineering I ended up 12K in debt with a starting salary of 60K. And that salary has gone up dramatically as I’ve got experience. By the time I noticed I had debt it was pratically all gone.
Most of the students I graduated with had similar experiences.