Full Sail University
About
Full Sail University is a private for-profit university in Winter Park, Florida. It was formerly a recording studio in Dayton, Ohio named Full Sail Productions and Full Sail Center for the Recording Arts. The school moved to Florida in 1980, began offering bachelor's degrees in 2005, and began offering online degrees in 2007. The following year, the school was granted university status by the Florida Department of Education.
Graduation rate & outcomes
Completion, retention, and the equity gap between Pell and non-Pell students.
Pell equity
Non-Pell students graduate at a 18.0-point higher rate than Pell recipients.
Program outcomes
Federal Program Performance Data: how each program's graduate earnings and debt measure up under Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment.
Of 78 Title IV programs, 31 pass the federal Gainful Employment test and 15 fail. 32 have graduate earnings too small to publish, so they carry no pass/fail verdict.
Pass / fail distribution
- Passing31 · 39.7%
- No Data32 · 41.0%
- Failing15 · 19.2%
Severity spectrum
Tiers band programs by how far graduate earnings sit above or below the benchmark, from Critical (below −15%) through Safe (above +25%). No data means earnings were privacy-suppressed.
Earnings premium gap
Graduate earnings versus the federal benchmark, worst gaps first.
Near the line (±5%)
Programs within five points of the pass line, one cohort year from flipping.
Debt vs earnings
Median completer debt against median graduate earnings, highest burden first.
Accreditation status & history
Who accredits the institution, current standing, and any past actions.
Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges
Programmatic accreditations · 1
Action history · 3
- Jun 2025Renewal of AccreditationAccrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges
- Aug 2024Renewal of AccreditationCommission on English Language Program Accreditation · English Language
- Apr 2019Renewal of AccreditationAccrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges
Tuition & cost
What families actually pay, broken down by family income.
Net price by family income
Negative values mean aid exceeds the published cost of attendance for that income band.
Federal aid volume & trends
Pell grants and federal Direct Loan volume disbursed to students, and how they've trended.
In AY 2024–25, 21,136 students received $140.0M in Pell grants, alongside $230.9M in federal Direct Loans.
Pell recipients · 5-year trend
Loan volume by type · AY 2024–25
Loan awards count each loan type a student holds, not unique borrowers; one student may carry several (e.g. subsidized and unsubsidized), so the per-type figures are the reliable detail.
Student loan default rate
The share of student borrowers who default on federal loans within three years, against the national benchmark.
Of 8,360 borrowers who entered repayment, 257 (3.0%) defaulted within three years — above the 2.3% national rate.
Default rate vs national, by cohort
* Cohorts 2020 and later read near 0% because the federal COVID-19 payment pause (CARES Act) suspended defaults nationwide. These years reflect a national policy, not institutional performance; the 2019 cohort is the last measured under normal repayment.
Academic programs at Full Sail
Top program areas ranked by completions.
Top program families by completions
Enrollment trends & demographics
Fall headcount, 12-month unduplicated enrollment, and student body composition.
Gender split
Race / ethnicity composition
Athletics & Title IX gender equity
How athletic participation, aid, and spending are split between men and women.
Men vs women · spending splits
Campus safety & crime statistics
Reported on-campus crimes over the last three years, including violence and hate crimes.
3-year trend
Criminal offenses by type
By location
- Non-campus1
VAWA offenses
Hate crimes by bias
No hate crimes reported.
Arrests vs disciplinary referrals
Residence-hall fires
Student-faculty ratio
Student-to-faculty ratio and instructional staff counts.
Full Sail vs Peer comparison
The peer institutions Full Sail selected for federal comparison reporting.
A larger shape on any axis means this institution outperforms its peers on that dimension. For acceptance rate and net price, lower raw values are inverted so "more selective" and "more affordable" appear larger.
| Carnegie | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SubjectFull Sail University | 44% | — | 27,169 | $31,759 | Masters Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs |
Academy of Art University | 34% | — | 5,498 | $39,778 | Masters Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs |
American InterContinental University System | 6% | — | 11,277 | $14,449 | Masters Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs |
American Public University System | 47% | — | 50,715 | $9,104 | Masters Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs |
Columbia Southern University | 26% | — | 17,763 | $14,975 | Masters Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs |
Post University | 24% | 96.5% | 16,178 | $19,196 | Masters Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs |
School of Visual Arts | 76% | 92.6% | 3,812 | $58,628 | Masters Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs |
South University-Savannah | 17% | — | 716 | $24,116 | Masters Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs |
Strayer University-North Carolina | 33% | — | 3,037 | — | Masters Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs |
Strayer University-Virginia | 19% | — | 1,998 | — | Masters Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs |
University of Phoenix-California | 23% | — | 34 | — | Masters Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs |
| Peer group median | 26% | 94.6% | 5,498 | $21,656 |
Reports & documents (1)
Dashboards, factbooks, data dictionaries, and other reference material published by the IR office.
Frequently asked questions about Full Sail University
Quick answers to the questions most often asked about Full Sail.
What is the graduation rate at Full Sail University?
How many students attend Full Sail University?
What is the average net price at Full Sail University?
Where is Full Sail University located?
Have a question this page can’t answer?
Ask Clema anything about Full Sail University and its peers — plain language in, cited answers out, in minutes instead of days.
Free for teams up to 3 · No credit card