I thought I would just chime in on this, I haven't really put my thoughts together but ... here we go.
I started in my local theatre programs, and went on to a local state school's film program to start, but after 2 years realized that the theory of the first year that I loved, made way to hands on that I had already done, and was forced to do again. And it wasn't taking me where I needed to go.
From there I went home and worked full time for a couple years saving up, and then went to Full Sail, the eternally divisive school of the net, that a few others here have attended. I didn't go for film, but rather the computer animation program, and to be honest got a good result.
I wanted to do well, and have a good career at the end, so I put in the time and effort, and graduated 2nd in my class. I say that even though it was a relatively small graduating class.
I did well, and there are those that I know of that also did well coming out of the program, but wow the # of people that either fell behind and dropped out due to lack of understanding of what the jobs actually entailed or just lack of skill was impressive.
Out of my graduating class, I would feel confident in saying possibly 25% or so have landed what I would call jobs in the industry. A larger percent is back at the school as lab instructors, or such, or doing freelance gigs and tangentially related fields, but ... yeah.
It was the epitome of the "you get out, what you put in" kind of environment, if you goofed off and just did the bare minimum, well ... yeah you might scrape by. If you did the extra effort and applied yourself to refine your skills, or ask the questions that needed asking for your understanding, then you did much better.
That is relatively cliche, but it is for a reason.
Just random stream of consciousness thoughts on the subject sorry for rambling.
