Hi! Im thinking about studying game development at full sail. I know this is a realy hard school to go to. I feel motivated for this. But I wont have time to start there for some months yet, so I have some time to prepare my self. What should I focus on for 6 months? I will defenatly learn some c++ on my own. I've newer used c++ before, but I've been using visual basic and php some. And I guess I should start reading maths and physics. Any other advices? Nanook

C++ and data structures

know your vectors and get your math up to at least pass the calc / linear algebra tests, you'll forget that stuff after those classes anyways, but vectors you will need to know for just about the rest of the course.

it's a good school.

Just my opinion / personal observation, but there seems to be very mixed feelings about Full Sail education. I went through some (around 10) phone interviews recently (yes, for a game programming job) where Full Sail was mentioned (since I lived just down the road from it), and I would say 8 out of 10 of the guys I talked to had generally negative opinions about people trying to get jobs with a Full Sail background (I intentionally asked their opinion as a side question). 2 of the 8 said that they don't even consider full sail grads.

My personal suggestion is to go to a real 4-year school and get a well-rounded education that will set you up in life to be a better worker and contributor to society, instead of a strong specialization in developing games.

My opinion is basically the same. (I'm a DigiPen graduate, but I also went to a regular four-year CS degree school).

I know people from Full Sail and DigiPen are plenty, plenty qualified to get excellent jobs in the industry (and most of them do). I also know people who, if hired, would probably be a massive burden on the unfortunate company who hired them. The quality of the education notwithstanding (that is another subject for discussion), a degree from either of these schools is still a gamble. Less so than other newer and less-established game development schools, but there are still places out there that have been bitten by underqualified graduates from places like Full Sail and DigiPen and aren't so keen on trying again.

I think if you have your head on straight and know your goals, then it isn't going to matter where you go to school, as you'll do what it takes to acquire the knowledge you need to land the job you're after. In that case, DigiPen/Full Sail aren't really giving you anything. However, if you go to a traditional university and go after a 4-year degree, you get exposure to other careers which may tempt you to change your life goals - you might discover deeper and more passionate interests than game development, and you'll have the opportunity to chase them down. This also comes into play later in life if you want to switch careers - I'm not sure if a degree from Full Sail would be an equivalent to a 4-year CS degree at most schools. (For example, if you want to get into law school, you need a bachelors degree. If you already have one, you're set - otherwise, you'll need to go to undergrad school for 4 years before you can even apply to law school.)

I agree with Christer here, good studios will test the candidate skills and give them a fair shot at the interview process if the studio believes they can do the job.

But I believe that there is a deeper problem, big companies have a resume screening process, and then the resumes for the best candidates are forwarded to the internal studios (In order to keep up with the volume of applicants). Based on what I heard this year at GDC some recruiters have had bad experiences with hires from Full Sail/Digipen (which could happen to any other school), so during the screening process they filter those candidates out, and the studios probably do not even get to see the resumes.

The other problem is the education perception, the education at game oriented schools is too narrow/focused, not enough exposure to different topics (i.e. Databases, Automata theory, Compiler Construction, Networking, Programming Languages), and there is the perception that a CS degree has more weight than a game degree because of this.

Getting a degree is very important though (being from Digipen, Full Sail, MIT, or Devry), and you will be getting out of your education what you put in. At the end if you are good and passionate you will find a job in a good studio regardless which school you went to.

A Trade School is no substitute for a full educational experience at a 4 year University. A Uni may not teach you the full gritty details of shader programming like Full Sail might, but they will teach you a more useful breadth of computer skills that will last you a lot longer than the latest graphics 'fad'. More importantly, they will teach you how to learn; with this development you can read papers on your own and cover whatever specific gamedev skills you want on your own time.

There's the reputation of being a trade school, regardless of whether they taught you anything good or not for the particular gamedev industry, you will get screwed over in the resume screenings.
Some accredited Universtities are starting to introduce GameDev as a Major now, as this becomes more common the trade schools will be further devalued.

Theres also the 'Everyone wants to be a RockStar!' phenomenon, commercials for gamedev tradeschools are becoming quite common on TV. After seeing a few of those I definetly wouldn't want to attend one, there is going to be far too much competition from all the kids who want to make games, regardless of their and your actual skill. It is all too likely that most of these students will find that their market is saturated, and that they lack a more genaralized computer degree to find jobs in other areas.