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Today I went to Full Sail for their ‘Behind the Scenes Tour’. Basically, it’s an open house to all visitors, students and family. They hold this event once a month and talk about not only the program prospective students are interested in, but also all of their programs and events.

I just have to say; this school is amazing! Everything they own is state-of-the-art. The students, teachers, and staff are all very down-to-earth people with a passion for this industry. This school has everything any undergraduate to even graduate could want and then some. The film department just got me a little to over excited when we visited all the rooms with equipment after equipment. I felt like running over to the cameras and playing with them! And, oh my gawd, their sound editing systems were HUGE! Bigger then what I’ve seen in a recording studio, it was crazy! They also showed us the many graduates and their accomplishments through out the years, and I have to say mostly everything you see out there has at least one Full Sail graduate on board. I love it!

Of course, where there is happiness, sadness is always at toe. Finally we get to the end of the tour, where we are able to meet with admission and financial aid representatives and faculty. Their film department in the span of 21 months comes out to be a whomping $69,175.00 dollars! That’s $23,025.00 dollars every 7 months. My mother, who accompanied me on this event, jaw dropped when we were told this. I mean, I knew it was expensive but not THIS expensive. Do you know how many loans I would/will need to take out for this? I’d be in debt before I could even start my life. A year and nine months till I’d graduate and then six to seven months later, I’d have to start paying my dues.

And even after all of this has been said and done, I am still interested in going to this school! Woe is me. =(

Sadly, I did not get the job as Westgate. The man called me back and told me that at that time they really needed someone with expert skills in Flash and action-scripting. I’m not going to lie, I SUCK in Flash, but I do know the program, since I had to make a mock company website using Flash and made a menu made purely with action-script, but I guess it wasn’t good enough for them. My hopes of finding a well off job in web design are sinking fast and I feel that I should just stick to freelancing and find a part-time job doing something else. In the end, I need money, no matter how I get it. (OK so it DOES matter how I get, if you get my drift…ha ha)

So, for the rest of this week, I will be trying to find as many grants, loans, and scholarships I can find and fill out an application for them. God only knows I will need them.

For the past three days, I have been working on updating my portfolio. I got a call back from an Orlando consultant, about a timeshare company, CFI & Westgate Resorts, who were looking to hire a graphic designer. He said that he saw my resume on Monster.com and felt that I qualified for the job. All I needed to do now was send an updated version of both my resume and portfolio to him and he would do the rest. So, for these past days I have been updating like crazy, although in actuality I’ve really been working my butt off all day today. On Thursday, when he called, I told him I would have everything to him that day. Sadly the power in my house went out and my mother and I couldn’t get it back on till the next day. By the time it came back on, two days were wasted away and all I could look forward to were Saturday and Sunday. Ready to get down to work on Saturday, errands came up that I needed to drive my mother around for, and so half the day was gone. So really, I’ve been working on updating everything for a day and half now. Not really that bad, considering all I had to add and delete to the site.

I really do hope, I get the job. It sounds great, from what the man told me and what I read on Monster.com. The pay is great, for starting out. ($20 an hour for the first 4 months) Its a 9 to 5 job and that’s what has me in a jumble right now. Since I do also want to continue with my education, if I get this job (which I pray to God I do) then that means that I would definitely try out for Valencia, since Full Sail is basically a 9 to 5 “job” also and that obviously won’t do.

I have finally made up my mind, thanks to myself and others. I will be going to Valencia! Since I really do need a job, this is the wisest choice I can make. As of now, I will be applying for the spring, since some of the classes I want to take are not available for fall. (which kind of already started) Whew, I can’t wait!

Not only have I been looking for a job, but also a school to go to. Now that I’ve graduated from Winter Park Tech, I’m ready to pursue my real career goal. I’m very interested in the film industry right now and am striving to do all I can in order to come out on top in this field.

My GPA (Grade Point Average) in high school was extremely low and I feel that if I were to apply for a four year university (NYU), then they wouldn’t really choose me to become a student there. So my thoughts and decision is to raise y GPA by taking a couple of classes in a community college. Here in Orlando there is a CC called Valencia, that has a couple of branches around Central Florida and is known to be a top school. There is also another extremely well known school here in Orlando called Full Sail. Both schools have a lot to offer, but at the moment I’m leaning more toward Full Sail. Full Sail is basically a cram school and the longest you can be there is two years. The best part, you can earn a bachelors degree in just these two years!

Their film department is a bachelors degree program. So I’m really interested in that.

At first, I was really interested in Valencia because a lot of my friends go there and said it was great school and environment. Also, like I said above, I need to raise my GPA. I’m really hoping that Full Sail can offer this (which it should) but then again the tech school I went to didn’t…so you never know unless you ask.

I’m going to be going to both schools for an open house and see how they are for myself. I hope my experience while there will be worth wile and that the best school shines brightly, so that my decision can be easier.