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Full Sail University American Intercontinental University, Film, Music, Television, Multimedia Schools, Colleges, University Ripoffs Internet, Internet
Each year, hundreds of millions of dollars in Federal and State loans and grants are stolen by hundreds of seemingly established and credentialed private and publicly funded colleges, universities, and schools offering degrees and education in film and television production, sound recording, and video game graphics and animation. Implied and false expectations are promised to students, and slick advertising and false statistics of industry placement of students go virtually unchecked or authenticated. The private colleges universities and school seem to be biggest culprits of this ongoing and unchecked fraudulent scam.
Students spending anywhere from a low of $11,000 to a high of $75,000 for a certificate or degree are being taught by faculty who have NO experience in the real world, professors with tenure who in addition to having NO real world experience or fear of losing their jobs are teaching student courses from the user manuals provided by the software manufacturers or online courses available from the software companies or third party parties such as Lynda.com.
How do I know this? Because I have personal knowledge and experience at two universities as a visiting professor and Artist In Residence over a six year period where I personally witnessed these misleading, unethical, un-noticed and unchecked practices. Who am I you ask? I am an award winning television and film producer, director, writer, and studio owner who has produced hundreds of television shows I guarantee everyone on this site has watched at some point in there life.
It's time that the Federal and State governments STOP extending colleges, universities, and schools an unencumbered license to steal both personal as well as taxpayer's money used to fund these institutions, leaving students with big student loans, misleading expectations, no assistance in job placement, and an education that is not relevant in today's job market.
It's easy to identify the major players who are the biggest ripoffs. Just go to their websites and try to find a list of their faculty members by name. Chances are the list of faculty teaching the courses and their credentials do not exist. And if they do exist pay close attention to the wording such as "spent 20 years in the film industry", which could translate into they own their own camcorder and has made home movies, or "has written numerous screenplays for a major studio ", or "currently in development". These phrases can go on and on. At least the state funded colleges and universities list their faculty, which still contain vague credits and accomplishment in the real-world, but almost always contain their academic credentials from other institutions..... who cares?
At the core of the problem is also the government and state accredidation system that has been established which governs who can teach at these schools, colleges and universities. Fact is, if you want to become a medical doctor you are taught by doctors, a lawyer, you are taugh by lawyers, engineers or scientists, the same. Yet film, television, and related fields are taught by academics with academic credentials..... no real-world experience. Are their exceptions to this rule? Of course there are many universities that offer extremely good and relevant up-to-date curriculum taught by experienced instructors, faculty, and professors who have extensive real-world expience, but they are few and far between.
I will post other writings on this website about this subject and will name names, but for now let me leave you with this thought. Under current academic accredidation guidelines set by Federal and State laws, James Cameron could not teach film as a tenured professor at any public or private college or university in the U.S. These laws will probably never change. Why? Because the academic institutions, faculty, and tenured professors would be exposed.
3 Updates & Rebuttals
hoapres
San Jose,California,
USA
For profit schools are a big ripoff
#4Consumer Comment
Sat, December 17, 2011
Eaton's basically accurate. The crackdown on student loan aid regarding for profit schools is a big joke. The for profit trade school industry was able to gut down to almost nothing all the proposed tightening up suggestions for disbursement of student loans.
With regards to web development and design, Web developers are a dime a dozen and the vast majority of the skills can be picked up in self study or at the local community college. HTML and CSS is hardly worth thousands of dollars. The other front end stuff being Javascript does require some study along with real world experience. The back end stuff being PHP and MySQL can be picked up with some work.
If you really want to get into web design then you would be better off getting a full blown CS degree from a TOP 10 school such as UC Berkeley, MIT, Stanford, etc. The trick is that getting into a top 10 school might be a tad difficult but the IT job market is so difficult right now that employers can pick the "creme de la creme"
Another thing not told by these for profit IT schools is that the vast majority of IT jobs don't pay very well. A typical web designer is not going to be making $100K a year right out of school. Very few people right out of ANY school start off at a $100K year. If that were not bad enough then IT is heavily H1B infested with companies bringing in low cost foreign labor.
Another problem with web design is that the software development tools are so much better than in the late 1990s and you don't have to be a genius to get to the point such that almost everybody can get a simple website. And if you don't then you can easily hire the job out to a web company for a small monthly fee.
FullSailReview
United States of AmericaRe: Eaton's comment
#4Consumer Comment
Thu, December 15, 2011
I love how someone that hasn't gone to the school is commenting in a factual sense. That friend of yours is probably around $75,000 in debt. $75,000 for sound engineering? Are you kidding me? Even $30,000 is ridiculous.
And yes, there are a few decent programs there. However, regarding your comment on the laws tightening...
Those laws were built to be tight but for-profit schools didn't like how much it was going to affect their bottom line. They pumped millions of dollars into government official's campaigns and pockets and got the laws loosened considerably.
The quality you learn there is no where near worth the money you have to spend. They claim a 3-6% default on student loans. This seems completely bogus and the fact is, they haven't been audited on any of this. But you better believe it is coming.
The school is a waste in so many respects it is ridiculous - and this is coming from someone with experience in my industry (web design/development) and the quality they teach you is a joke. Everything they taught or came up with lesson plans for was designed to let anyone get great grades but not requiring them to learn anything, nor give any time to hone skills "taught".
You can read my entire review at http://fullsailreview.com
Eaton923
Fargo,North Dakota,
United States of America
Is this a conspiracy theory?
#4Consumer Comment
Thu, September 08, 2011
My best friend went to Full Sail and works in sound engineering now. She did spend a lot of money there but was taught skills that led her to the profession she is in today. Maybe the department you were in wasn't top quality but I really don't see the ripoff here. It reads more like paranoia than a complaint. Also, the federal government has tightened the laws on for-profit universities recently, so the "exposed" comment doesn't hold any water. If you have that much concern about the school, you can file a complaint with the accreditation board.