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What school is the best for a major in film/television?

By Tsdad (Tsdad) on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 09:50 pm: Edit

For film USC, is the best with NYU and UCLA right with USC. Also good for film are Texas, Florida State, and Northwestern Also consider Ithica, Emerson.San Diego State, Temple, SF State, UC SB and SC, and Rochester Institute of Techology. Berkeley and Toronto have great critical studies programs in film as does USC. There are also some art schools like the North Carolina School for the Arts in Winston-Salem that have outstanding film programs if you want to take that approach. Los Angeles CC has a good two-year program.


Check out http://filmmaker.com/reviews.html for reviews of film schools.

Lots of good colleges like Duke, Middlebury, Weslyan, Vassar (?), and Michigan, and I'm sure many others have good programs.

By Tsdad (Tsdad) on Monday, July 14, 2003 - 08:10 am: Edit

Also CSU-Northridge.

By Jfb (Jfb) on Saturday, July 26, 2003 - 06:00 am: Edit

Tsdad pretty much nailed it.

I just recently went through the whole process of college admission, and for years I'd been searching to find which film programs were best. Ultimately, I settled on shooting for USC, NYU, and Northwestern, as the schools all had solid academic programs, along with world-class film programs.

In general, the focus of the schools is slightly different:

USC - Geared to Hollywood; has fantastic technical divisions graduating the best-trained editors, sound designers, etc.

NYU - Strong independent edge; geared towards developing strong but salable artists, with well-rounded edge.

Northwestern - Small and experimental; known for combining strong liberal arts cirriculum with a broad communications program; degree earned is more general "Communications" degree, reflecting broader education.

The issue with UCLA is that you can't get into the film program upon initial application--you have to transfer in junior year of college, after having enrolled and studied for another major until then. Since the competition is so stiff, chances are likely you won't get into the film program, and will then have your dreams trampled upon.

Coming from San Francisco, and having been an active filmmaker for the last few years (I just produced a $40,000 feature film) it should also be noted that San Francisco State has a solid film program with graduates who have been uniformly solid at their craft.

In my case, I was initially accepted at USC and Northwestern and wait-listed at NYU. Because USC because didn't match with my creative and intellectual sensibilities, and because I hate LA, I chose Northwestern. But I was finally admitted to NYU off the wait-list, and I then jumped to there, which is where I'll be going in the fall for film. But which school you choose is all a matter of personal preference--NYU, USC, and Northwestern all impressed me greatly when I visited, and I can personally affirm that their film programs are top-notch and well worth your time.

By Jfb (Jfb) on Saturday, July 26, 2003 - 06:02 am: Edit

D'oh! How could I forget Boston University? BU similarly has a fantastic program that actually has a strong TV division, emphasizing training TV show producers. Equal emphasis is placed on TV and film; you actually choose which path to pursue, but both are equally strong. Boston is also a great college town.

By Tsdad (Tsdad) on Saturday, July 26, 2003 - 02:31 pm: Edit

Also look at the University of Central Florida. UCF grads made the Blair Witch Project.

My son applied to FSU Film, and had a very unpleasant experience with the on-site interview.

FSU has about 250 or so applicants for 15 positions in the undergraduate first year class. Thirty applicants are invited to the campus, at their own expense, to be interviewed over a weekend early in March. It was over spring break. The campus was empty and weather was rainy, which didn't do much to make the school seem inviting.

During the interview, my son was asked an appropriate question in an inappropriate way. The question involved his religion, the importance of which he had talked about in one of the admission essays. He eventually gave the answer that they he knew they were looking for, but not before they realized he was pretty angry with the questioner. He was put on the WL. In a month or so he was offered a slot, which he immediately turned down.

The program at FSU is one of the best in the country and has a lot to offer, but there aren't too many movies made in the area. The film school has some very nice facilities and is one of the many buildings tucked in underneath Doak Walker football stadium. My son thought the credentials of some of the faculty were not especially impressive. FSU, itself, is not ugly, but it's not particularly attractive and the overall intellectual atmosphere isn't especially strong.

By Tsdad (Tsdad) on Saturday, July 26, 2003 - 03:08 pm: Edit

Let me add some other stuff for the OP to think about. Some of the second level schools, like CSU-N and UCF, ask to see your artistic works, poems, films, paintings, stories, or photos as part of the admissions process. The top-level schools that we dealt with, USC and FSU, only asked you to list and discuss what you had done. They didn't want to see it.

BTW, we did visit CSU-N. They have a new building for film; the old one was destroyed in the Northridge earthquake. They told us that they have a good record in getting their students jobs. The person who gave us the tour said Northridge was regarded as a working class school and that the film graduates were known for working hard so they were sought after by the studios. My son didn't care for the admissions process, thought the facilities were a little sparse, and didn't find the campus very attractive.

The North Carolina School of the Arts, where my son went for two summers, told us that they didn't want to see any films you had made in high school as part of the admissions process. Their attitude was, we're a state school (part of the UNC system) and we shouldn't discriminate against applicants whose high schools are too poor to have any film classes or whose parents couldn't afford to buy them cameras. NCSA, as well as USC and USC, is looking for artistic potential. They don't expect you to be a fully formed artist at 17.

We also looked at UCLA. Besides being very, very hard for out-of-staters to get into, the film school, unlike USC, and FSU, as jfb points out, wouldn't let you in until your a third year student. So, you risk the possibility of spending two years there and not getting admitted. Now, I can think of worse things in the world then two years at UCLA (listening Thedad?), but why take the risk if you know you really, really want to do film. UCLA had the biggest "wow" factor of any school I have ever visited with the possible exception of Princeton on a fall afternoon and UNC at any time.

By Tsdad (Tsdad) on Saturday, July 26, 2003 - 03:18 pm: Edit

JFB:

My son started the application to Northwestern, but boy was it hard. Six essays. He was applying to seven or eight other colleges, and the NW application kind of wore him out. He never finished it. I don't think that he was excited by the weather in that part of the country.

We're from the east, and he has been to NYC several times. He doesn't care for it so he never considered applying to NYU.

By Soozievt (Soozievt) on Saturday, July 26, 2003 - 11:53 pm: Edit

JFB....my daughter has a real good friend at her theater camp (currently in Pippin with her) who got in ED and is going next fall to Tisch for film at NYU. Her name is Liz T. Maybe you shall meet!
Susan

By Jfb (Jfb) on Tuesday, August 05, 2003 - 05:01 am: Edit

Tsdad:

Yeah, the Northwestern application was aggrivating, painful, and a real deterrant. I know many, many people who similarly quit the Northwestern application. I'm positive they do this intentionally to weed out folks who don't really want to go there--after all, it seems like your son didn't really want to go there, so it probably worked.

But I was truly inches away from tossing Northwestern's application out the window, though I was very glad I had the choice in the end. Similarly, I applied to nine other colleges, but Northwestern was always a top choice. Ultimately, NU was a strong contender academically, and also in terms of its equipment, size, and what it had to offer as far as filmmaking opportunities went. They had an attractive and very different conclusion to their program since it yielded a broad communications degree, but judging by what you've posted in the past, I think your son and I are both a bit too committed to film to need to worry too much about the "narrowness" of the degree. In fact, for some, possibly like him and I, broad training in communication overall could even be detrimental, or at least out of line with our goals.

Ultimately, I didn't much like the weather either.

Soozievt:

Perhaps we shall! If she's interested, she can reach me at producer@american-yearbook.com

By Tsdad (Tsdad) on Tuesday, August 05, 2003 - 02:07 pm: Edit

I had some suggestions for my son, that he didn't follow, on what famous Chicagoans should be on the wall near the highway. I suggested the "Chicago 8." My son was sort of vague on who they were and in any case didn't buy it.