Taking the right decision

[Rainn]

Hello everyone
Sorry if my englihs is not perfect but I'm italian and all my english comes from videogames eheh.
I'm writing you because I need some help, support and suggestions.
I wrote in this board some years ago (2007 I believe) asking about universities.
I will try to be short because I don't want to bore you too much eheh, I like games, I allways dreamed about becoming a game developer, I like math so my goal (years ago, when I was young) was to become a game programmer.
I had a lot of personal problems, lost a lot of years (I'm 27 now, yea I'm old lol), had very bad experiences with italian universities so I decided to look somewhere else for my education.
While doing my researches I started to study some programming, I did a couple of C++ courses, I also did a 3d Maya course and I'm actually following an online course about game programming.
Years and years ago I discovered this website and I used all the informations here to find out the right university (outside Italy). Where to go? Where to study?
I decided to join Full Sail, I went there in Florida to visit the university but AGAIN I had to deal with a lot of personal problems and I lost more years of my life.
Now, I'm 27, I handled almost all my problems and I'm back again to the starting point, where to go? Where to study?
I'm still interested in Full Sail university but I don't know if it's the right place to go. Many years have passed, many things have changed so I was looking around again for new informations about Full Sail and I found a lot of BAD reviews about this school.
I want to study, I want to join a university because I'm not capable of sel-study, thanks god I have money to invest and I want to invest these money for a university and for my personal education (but I don't want to waste them) and, last but not least, I want to leave Italy (at least for a while) so my plan is still to study outside my country.
Now, do you have any suggestions? How really is the Full Sail situation right now? Will I be able to get a good education? Is it a good investment? (I don't really care if it is a bit expensive, I care about the ducation quality)
As I told you before, I lost a lot of years of my life, I'm starting to feel old and Full Sail seems a good solution because of its short degree program (of course I'm referring to Game Development course) and also because I can join it every month.

Life sometimes if pretty hard eheh and some support it really really helpful. I don't know what to do and this board is the only place I can think to ask for help. Do you have some words to share? Advices, informations or whatever?

I had the opportunity to talk with an American guy who graduated there in march and he was quite content about the school, he gave me a nice help and support and also a lot of informations. So it would be nice to have the opportunity to talk with students that are actually studing there eheh.

Thank you very much.

[yaustar]

Where are you based now?

[Rainn]

What do you mean? Where do I live?
I'm still in Italy eheh so I don't really care about location.
I will be appy to travel almost everywhere in the world to find a good place to study

[tsloper]

Originally Posted by Rainn

find out the right university (outside Italy). Where to go? Where to study?
... this board is the only place I can think to ask for help. Do you have some words to share? Advices, informations or whatever?

Articles 25, 34, 40, & 44:
http://sloperama.com/advice.html

[Rainn]

Originally Posted by tsloper

Articles 25, 34, 40, & 44:
http://sloperama.com/advice.html

Hello and thank you
I already had the opportunity to read that website many times, it was helpfull but actually it does not answer my questions in the way i want.
I know that I want to study game programming, I don't care about location (again, I'm ready to travel almost everywhere) and I don't really care about money because, as I told you before, I have some money to invest.
What concerns me is the quality of a school, if it is really a good place to study and learn or not.
Life & unwelcome problems stolen me a lot of years and I don't want to spend additional years in a not-worthing not-usefull university.

I don't know if you get my point eheh English is not my main language and maybe I'm not good in explaining myself.

[tsloper]

So you're saying a decision grid does not help you. What parts of the decision grid are not working for you?

[Rainn]

I will try to explain it better
First of all I will quote myself:

Originally Posted by Rainn

I already had the opportunity to read that website many times, it was helpfull
.

I used that website, I did a sort of personal grid and it was helpful.
ON PAPER, Full Sail seems to be the best choice for me, for several reasons.
So, why I'm still looking for help and advices?
Because there are things and doubts that I can't solve by myself and these doubts are related to the real value of the school.
Why are there so many bad reviews about Full Sail?
What is the real and actual situazion of this university?
I'm not so young (27) with some basic programming experience, is Full Sail a good choice? (2years course and the possibility to start every month is also something valuable for me) Will I be able to get a good education? Is it a good investment?

There are LOADS of different places to study and its impossibile for me to analize and also discover every possibile alternative.
Hope you could understand me better, my posts are clear for me but maybe I'm just using the wrong words to explain myself eheh.

[tsloper]

Originally Posted by Rainn

0. there are things and doubts that I can't solve by myself and these doubts are related to the real value of the school.
1. Why are there so many bad reviews about Full Sail?
2. What is the real and actual situazion of this university?
3. is Full Sail a good choice?
4. Will I be able to get a good education?
5. Is it a good investment?

0. OK, there are unknowns in your decision grid. That does not mean that decision grids are useless for your decision quandary.
1. Because those people had bad experiences, for many different reasons. Maybe they were fooling themselves, looking for a short and easy path into the industry that they thought would be all just fun and games. It doesn't matter why -- what matters is that there are. Count up all the bad ones you've read, count up all the good ones you've read, let them cancel each other out, and use the resulting number in your decision grid.
2. Nobody can tell you that in an unbiased way.
3. That depends on YOU. How does this school stack up compared to your other schools, in YOUR decision grid?
4. That depends on YOU.
5. Worth is subjective. Read FAQ 66: http://www.sloperama.com/advice/route66.htm

You are trying to make an important decision. Only YOU can make this decision. The decision grid is a tool that has been very helpful for me in making decisions. Even when it doesn't work, I can use another decision grid to solve the problem.

It sounds like your only decision right now is "go? or no go?" -- You may not be asking the right questions to help you arrive at the best answer. Personally, I think you ought to be asking "this school? or this other school?"

[Rainn]

Thank you, you look pretty used and prepared to these kind of questions eheh, how many people did you helped?
I'm reviewing my grid to make it more complete and helpfull and, at the end, I came out with the same result: Full Sail seems to be the best choice for me, for more than one reason.
Actually, the only thing that concerns me, as i told you before, are the student reviews about the quality of the school.
Half are good and half are bad, the weird part is that all these reviews are totally opposite.
Positive reviews describe this school as an amazin school and negative reviews describe the school as the worst school in the world.
I wanted to contact some of the students, to directly talk to them about their good or bad experience but there is no way.

Maybe I'm just asking too much eheh, I have to make an important decision and I would like to have answers to all my questions but maybe the only way to answer some of those questions is to make the decision and see what will happen.

[yaustar]

Have you looked at how much the course would cost for overseas students at Full Sail?

What are the Computer Science courses like in Italy?