Full Sail University opens Drone Innovation Center.

[The Droning Company]

Full Sail University Opens Drone Innovation Center

 

[AMann]

Full Sail is a private for profit school and is really expensive. To be honest, even our local Community Colleges have really good Drone and GIS programs that are much less expensive. Palomar College in San Marcos, CA has an online GIS and a in-person Drone certificate program that is very good. If anyone wants to learn about GIS mapping using drones and remote sensing satellites, LiDAR processing, and the like, Palomar‘s online GIS program is excellent. I am currently in their program and am finishing up my certificate soon. There are many others like Cal State LA, Cal State Northridge, and Cal Poly Pomona have full degree UAS programs for it. Oregon State, where I hope to transfer, has an online masters degree in it as well. They are less expensive than Full Sail and even than many Cal States for CA residents, and their online programs do not charge out of state tuition. Many other public non-profit schools and universities have great UAS and GIS programs as well.

 

[halifax]

Never, ever go to a for-profit school. Heck, I would extend that by saying never go to an online college, either, unless you already have a degree from an in-residence college or you have no other choice. Please read that last line again before you flame me. Taking certificate or supplemental courses that are not for college credit is a completely different story and what I am writing is not applicable to those realms.

I have taught at the undergrad/grad university level in New England for over 20 years and have worked in private enterprise even longer. I have hired dozens of science and tech workers and probably interviewed over 100 at the BA/BS and master's level. Every graduate of a for-profit or online school ended up washing out within a year (only 1 made it that long). IMHO, most people need to be physically present at the academy to truly reap the full benefit of higher ed. I pretty much won't hire anyone with an online degree unless they can show extraordinary evidence of their talent.

There are exceptions, of course.

Building off what AMann wisely wrote above, GIS is definitely a solid career choice and a good path for people who want to integrate flying into their work portfolio. Going the GIS route and adding drone courses would give you a helluva advantage in the practice of either discipline and give you job security, too. The best GIS ops have had strong quantitative training AND some form of artistic training or talent. Add geography coursework to that, too. Good mapmaking demands both data-manipulation and creative/artistic skills.