I am currently a Junior in high school, and want to become involved in film as a future career (hopefully a director). I am getting very stressed however, and very worried that I won't be up to the "good" film school standards.
Here's my situation. (It will be long)
My GPA is currently a 3.125, and will go down before next year for sure. However, senior year I will be able to bring it back up to. let's say, a 3.2 (still low, but I don't want to get my hopes up too much). I will take the ACT next month, and according to a PLAN test (pretty much a practice ACT), I'm estimated to score a composite score of 24-28. I took this test sophomore year, and a head's up-I consider myself really bad at math.
Now for some more background info:
I was born and raised in Mexico City.
I am currently the Editor in Chief/ journalist/ photographer at my high school newspaper (which I will not be able to continue senior year). I have taken sadly only one AP class(English), and will most likely not take any more AP classes, though I also took 2-4 Honors classes Freshman and Sophomore year.
I am an extremely good writer, and my photography work is pretty damn good
I will re-emphasize that I am a great writer.
I will take the English AP test later this year also.
My community work isn't so great
I am fluent in both English and Spanish, and took 2 years of French.
I will take a year long Media Technology class during my senior year, which won't be amazing, but will help me get my feet wet with at least some media producing/ editing/ etc.
Here are some of my thoughts on going to college (and where I need the most help):
I could go for a 4-year study and get a BA in something like mass communications, media, English, etc. (as many famous directors have done) instead of getting straight into film. The problem with that path, is that I will have had very little experience in film production/ theory when trying to get into a film grad school.
I really want to go to a film school for both a BA and for Grad School (I really want to get a Master's Degree), but I'm not sure if my "credentials" are too crappy. What advice do you guys have for me? What path would be a good idea for me? What schools might I be able to get into? Is there any hope of me getting into one of the top five?
If you know of any schools with a good film program that is easier to attend than the top ones, could you please let me know? (it wouldn't matter if it deals with film in general, but I'd like to at least know of some decent schools for an an undergrad. degree).
All of your help will be greatly appreciated. All advice is welcome.
Peace,
Diego Castellanos

I'd say apply for the schools that you think might be harder to get into and also apply for some that you are sure you'll get into (some good second-best choices). That's what I did. I have one safe school, so at least I can go somewhere, and then the ones that I really want to go to.

If you don't apply for those that you think might be a stretch, you won't get in for sure, but if you do apply, maybe you'll be successful. Also, if you don't try, you may wonder if it could have happened, had you applied. There's no harm in applying, so, go for it! Do your best on the applications and maybe have a teacher or someone review the materials before you submit them.

Good luck!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: SD Grad,

Doing film for both undergrad and grad school doesn't really work/happen, at least if both are for production. Grad schools want to see a bit of diversity, and there really is no point in doing the same thing twice. If you are set on getting a master's degree, you should look at getting a BA that's conducive to expanding your artistic/communicative abilities, and then go for film in grad school.

well that's kind of what I figured. I want to get a masters in production, so I should get a BA in something else (like english or something like general film studies). and you bet I will apply to the big ones.

what are some good "second-best" film schools (or programs) that I could apply to as safe schools?

and thanks for such quick responses

There is a wealth of information on this very subject in the forums. Check it out with the search function, and you'll find more threads than you can shake a stick at.