I agree with what knightly is saying about the importance of a degree.. I had a rather difficult time finding my current job too as I never finished college.
I will say though that it is probably in your best interest to get a business degree, or something more general than a film school degree. Film school really is only useful for making contacts and learning some basics. But there's no guarantee that you'll get employment, and most people learn best actually doing hands on work in this kind of field but the actual hands on access most film programs offer isn't what you'd think it should be (especially when you look at the cost involved).
Someone in a different forum said:
Ain't that the truth. In my year at Full Sail (what a waste of time) I worked one ONE 16mm film and ONE 35mm film.
I was very interested in Full Sail when I was finishing high school, but the cost was prohibitive for something that wouldn't offer me much of a real world chance of employment. I went to a very well respected trade school for Radio and TV Broadcasting. Several years later I was able to get an overnight position at a small town radio station, but I did this on my own, with help of contacts I made outside of the school -- their placement department really wasn't much help. I'd imagine it's similar at Full Sail.
The ONLY good thing I've ever really heard about Full Sail is that after you've completed your training, you can go back for training on newer technology when it's offered -- at no additional cost as far as I understand it..
When I was looking into Full Sail 12 years ago, and I'd be surprised if it's changed, they offered no on-site housing, so you'll have to cover the cost of apartment living/food/transportation while paying for school as well.
As for financial aid, I'd imagine you would fill out the fafsa application just like for any other school -- their financial aid office can give you all the details though.
I really can't stress this point enough though.. Your/your moms/goverment money would be MUCH better spent on a standard 4 year college degree. Business is always a good focus because it can be applied to ANY career path.
Most schools offer some film related courses, so if you're interested in film you could take a few film classes as electives, which generally will apply toward the humanities requirements for most degrees. A great course of study for a general degree that would mesh well with film would be a major in Business management, with a minor in History or Anthropology.
Film school has never, and will never offer you a guaranteed real world job.
It would certainly be a shame to wind up with student loan debts of $70,000 or more and then have to struggle to find a job to be able to pay them back. I know their promotional material makes it sound more cost effective to attend full sail than a standard university, but they didn't include the housing costs in their figure, which since you likely won't have time for a job means it'll have to be added to your student loan totals. That brings the figures closer together. The other glaring problem with their cost effectiveness logic is that you're more likely to be employable after completing a 4 year degree -- no matter WHAT the area of study was, than completing a 21 month "degree" program. Also there are ways of significantly reducing the cost of a four year degree.. Like completing all of your generals at a local community college and then transferring to a larger institution.
Look at it this way... Imagine that you can't get a film related job right out of school -- which honestly isn't a very unlikely outcome -- you need to work to live, so you need a job. It's tough to survive on the wage of a fast food worker, retail sales person, or the like.. So you'll probably want to try to find something more corporate/office based. As knightly has already said it's tough to even get an INTERVIEW without a four year degree, despite being qualified or not. So, lets say you get a line on a manger training type position with a starting pay in the low to middle $30,000 range. You feel qualified, because it's a restaurant management position, and you did some work at McDonalds in high school, so you think maybe you've got a good edge on other potential applicants.
Now, lets say you walk in with your 21 month "degree" and interview for the job. Having no real experience other than what you may have picked up on the job during high school, you MIGHT get lucky, but the odds are against you. If you walk in with a 4 year business degree, have a basic understanding of running a profitable business (learned in school) and the experience you gained on the job in high school, you're a LOT more likely to get the job.
Ok, but it's not the job you want, right? Well.. I can tell you this much. Most of us here do not work full time in the film industry. Most of the people on any online film related forum don't. For the majority of us, it is relegated to being a hobby, or a "maybe someday I'll get my break" situation.
I can only speak for myself when I say that I'm able to make a comfortable living and pursue the film interest on my time with hope that it can someday become more that just how I spend my spare time. I know that I would be making a much better living had I earned a 4 year degree, because I would be much more employable, and as such could have had a more professional career a bit earlier in life -- I was very lucky to find my current ($45k/yr) position doing web and software development, and the only reason I got it at all is because my boss, like me, didn't get the traditional college training and was able to see beyond the resume. More often than not that doesn't happen.
I already touched on the outcome of my trade school education, and I wholly feel that Full Sail would have been an even bigger waste of time and money than the Radio & TV Broadcasting school was.
I believe that all the technical training taught in film school can be learned more quickly working on a film production, reading some of the MANY books on the subject(s), etc.. thus leaving the only useful part of film school being the contacts made there, but in that case online forums such as this can and do offer the same kind of opportunities.
The bottom line... if you're going to go to school, get a real degree so you have a much better chance of getting a job, whether that's in the film industry as you'd obviously prefer -- or more likely in another industry (at least for a while). Otherwise, take a small fraction of the money you'd spend on film school, and use it to provide financing for a film and work on the set of that production as a PA. You'll learn more, make plenty of contacts, and save a lot of money -- and at the end be just as employable as you would with a "degree" from Full Sail.
Same someone as above in a different forum said:
I went to Full Sail, a private media school in Orlando for an Associate of Science degree in Film and Video Production, and honestly, it was 30 grand a year for stuff I feel I could have learned watching the special features on DVDs. (And 30 grand I could have put towards making a movie.)
I'm not sure when this guy attended, but I assume it was a few years ago..
Someone else in a different forum said:
I have had a few friends who went there and came out not realy knowing much about audio engineering etc. Sure you will learn more of the fundamentals...but it's forums like these where you can learn so much more.
When I was looking into Full Sail they offered a 4 year program for $10k/yr. The costs have certainly gone up significantly since then.