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Motto | If you're serious about your dream, we'll take your dream seriously |
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Type | Private for-profit university [1] |
Established | 1979 |
Accreditation | ACCSC |
Chair | James W. "Bill" Heavener, Co-chairman & CEO [2] [3] [4] |
President | Garry Jones |
Students | 26,737 [5] |
Undergraduates | 25,532 [6] |
Location | , , United States 28°35′41″N81°18′11″W / 28.59472°N 81.30306°W |
Mascot | Douglas DC-3 airplane |
Website | fullsail |
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Full Sail University is a private for-profit university in Winter Park, Florida. [7] It was formerly a recording studio in Ohio named Full Sail Productions [8] and Full Sail Center for the Recording Arts. [9] The school moved to Florida in 1980, began offering bachelor's degrees in 2005, [10] and began offering online degrees in 2007. [11] The following year, the school was granted university status by the Florida Department of Education. [12]
Full Sail is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges to award associate, bachelor's, and master's degrees in audio, design, computer animation and business administration. [13] [14]
Full Sail University was founded by Jon Phelps in Ohio, in 1979. [15] Its curriculum was centered on recording arts and offered courses in audio engineering. [16] It relocated to Orlando, Florida, in 1980 and added new courses to its core recording arts program. In 1989, Full Sail moved to its current location at Winter Park, Florida; [16] the following year, it was accredited to grant specialized associate degrees. [17]
Enrollment doubled between 1989 and 1991 at a time of increased interest in film and media studies. [18] The university had financial difficulties in 1992 and its growth slowed. [19] Between 1995 and 1999, it began offering associate degrees in computer animation, digital media, game design and development, and show production and touring; these were later expanded into full bachelor's degree programs. [17]
In 2005, the school offered its first bachelor's degree program, a Bachelor of Science degree in entertainment business. [20] In 2007, the first master's degree program—also in the entertainment industry—was offered. [21] Online degree programs began in 2007, the first of which was an online adaptation of the existing Entertainment Business Master of Science. [21]
The additions of the master's degree programs, among other factors, led to the school being recognized as a university by the state of Florida. [22] In 2008 it changed its name from Full Sail Real World Education to Full Sail University after attaining university status from the Florida Department of Education's Commission for Independent Education. [22]
The curriculum and degree programs were broadened between 2006 and 2011, [23] adding programs such as a Bachelor of Science in sports marketing and media, [24] and a Master of Science degree in game design. [25]
In 2012, WWE began filming episodes of its internet television show WWE NXT at Full Sail University. [26] [27] [28] In June 2015, the school began hosting the WWE Tough Enough series. [29] [30] [31] As part of the partnership between Full Sail and WWE, students have the opportunity to produce WWE NXT tapings, during which merchandise and tickets sales contribute to a scholarship fund for students enrolled at the university. [32] [33] As of January 2018, the partnership had resulted in $385,000 in scholarships. [34] [35] [36] In September 2019, WWE and Full Sail University announced the expansion of their partnership. In 2020, it was announced that WWE NXT would stop taping at Full Sail University. [37]
In 2015, the university announced a partnership with Wargaming and completed building a user experience lab for conducting research projects. [38] [39] [40]
Full Sail University's Dan Patrick School of Sportscasting was established in 2017, with a sportscasting degree program and instruction provided by sportscaster and radio personality Dan Patrick. [41] [42] [43]
The university moved to Winter Park in 1989. [44] 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. [45] An office building for teaching staff for the online degree program was leased in 2009. [46]
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. [47] In November 2010, in partnership with ESPN, the school opened a new laboratory for research and development in studio technologies. [48] Two months later, approximately 200 Full Sail Online employees moved into the Gateway Center in Downtown Orlando. [49] 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. [50] In July 2011, Full Sail acquired Lakeview Office Park in Orlando. [51]
In October 2018, Full Sail announced plans to construct an esports arena called "The Fortress". [52] The 11,200-square-foot venue opened in May 2019, serves as home of Full Sail University's esports team, Armada. [53] [54] [55]
In 2020, The Fortress was named a top-10 collegiate esports facility. [56] It was also named one of the "15 Most Elite Universities for Pursuing Esports Careers in North America" in 2020. [57] [58] The Virtual Production Studio opened on the main campus in March 2022. [59] [60]
Full Sail's academic degree programs are primarily focused on audio, film and media production, [61] video game design, [62] animation [63] and other studies related to the media and entertainment industries. [64] Full Sail began offering coursework in creating augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) projects in 2016, housed in the campus's Fabrication Lab. [65] [66] [67] [68]
Full Sail is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC). [13] [69] In 2007 and 2011, the college was subject to criticism regarding limited transferability of credits. [70] [71] [72]
According to the College Scorecard, as of July 2024, Full Sail has a 47% graduation rate. [73] Academic year prices for full-time, first-time undergrad students in the 2023–2024 period was $26,947. [74]
In 1989, 1990, and 1991, the Full Sail Center for the Recording Arts won Mix magazine's outstanding institutional achievement award for recording schools. [75]
In 2005, Rolling Stone called Full Sail "one of the five best music programs in the country". [76]
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, [77] and 2014. [78] Full Sail was recognized for its 21st-century best practices in distance learning by the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) in 2011, [79] and was the recipient of New Media Consortium Center for Excellence Award in 2011 and 2015. [80] [81]
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. [82] [83] [84] Full Sail also ranked in the top 50 in The Princeton Review's list of undergraduate programs for game design in 2021. [85] [86] TheWrap ranked Full Sail last place in their 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 lists of the "Top 50 Film Schools". [87] [88] [89] In 2018, College Magazine ranked Full Sail number five in their list of the top 10 colleges for video game design. [90] In January 2020, Animation Career Review ranked Full Sail University number 19 in their list of Top 50 Animation Schools in the US. [91]
Instructors at who have taught at Full Sail include Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Dave Arneson (game design), [137] and Oprah Winfrey's domestic partner, Stedman Graham. [138] [139] Other notable instructors include James Neihouse, cinematographer and lifetime member of the Academy, a 6,000-member group that votes on Oscar nominees. Oscar-winning sound engineer Bill W. Benton teaches in the Film Production MFA program, [140] and former wrestler Ed Ferrera teaches the creative writing program. [141] [142]