I am 16 years old and I am a junior in high school. I am extremely interested in filmmaking and i am just now contemplating where to go to college. I want to major in film so i would want a college with a good film program. Do i have a chance at USC NYU COLUMBIA or UCLA with my 4.0 GPA and my SAT scores of 1120. Please if you can give me advice or insight into my applying. Where should I apply? What do colleges like to see?

Ryan

Ryan Feldman

I think if you get into any of the aforementioned schools you've done well for yourself. Any one of them will give you an excellent liberal arts education and all have excellent film programs. I think you're wise to avoid the trade schools but elaboration on the subject might get me in trouble around these parts.
I cannot speak to what admissions committees look for with the exception of UCLA. I went to UC San Diego and all UC schools apply the same formula to decide whom to grant admission to (Except maybe Berkeley). It's as simple as this (Circa 1996 when I was admitted).

(GPA * 1,000) + SAT 1 score + SAT 2 scores + some random number depending on minority status (Not sure if they do that anymore after prop. 209 or whatever prop number it was...)

They decide how many people to admit before hand and take the people with the highest numbers. For 100 or so borderline people they glimpse at the essay. Out of state students have to meet significantly higher minimum requirements but you won't have to worry about that.
Keep in mind they give you an extra GPA point for honors and AP classes so you may have over a 4.0 GPA. My guess is you're a shoe in as long as you show a respectable score on the SAT 2's.

I'm sure the other schools focus more on personality than numbers. You may want to look into which schools guarantee you access to their film programs and which require you to apply into them (I know USC is like this).

Regardless of where you go remember to make the best of it. A diploma of any kind means nothing in Hollywood. You have to prove yourself in person.

-Good luck!

NotaMono has pretty much covered the school aspect, and , like he said, a degree guarantees nothing. Lots of people with degrees out of work, and many that never went to film school working steadily. There are tons of great film schools. North Carolina School of the Arts, Florida State University, and the University of Austin all have great programs. I am in the film program at my community college, the chair of the department is an NYU grad, and an emmy winning producer. She told me, that NYU, or UCLA dosent necesarilly have anything over hundreds of other film programs, other than "prestige". Translation, they can charge more.

The most important thing to do, before you EVER go to film school, is start shooting. Shoot anything. Cameras are cheap, editing software is easy to come by. Nothing beats experience. See, many say they want to be "film makers". They speak of film school, and shooting that first 16mm, or 35mm film. They get into film school (having never even picked up a camera before) and make their first short, with a several thousand dollar budget, and when its finished, its horrible. They hate it. Nothing came out as they had envisioned, and it was essentially a waste of time and money. They are discouraged, and are often heard saying things like, "I think Im more of a producer, than a director" The old joke, is that this is where we get producers from. If you want to produce, so be it, but if your intrestead in being a writter/ director/ director of photography pick up a camera now. Get the jump. Learn how to tell a story visually with video, and it will all apply to film.
R. M. McWhorter

And you shall know us by the trail of dead.

Having worked with many people from a wide variety of film schools I feel confident in saying that the NYU's(Tisch) and USC's(Film school) of the world have a little more than just prestige over many of the other film schools. Their grads might not be any more creative than anywhere else but they are better prepared (As in: Less clueless) for the most part.
Of course, my experiences are more with MFA people than undergrads but the same principle should apply.
I do believe, regardless of where you go, there are things to be learned at film school that you won't learn otherwise. I would recommend it.

[This message was edited by NotaMono on November 26, 2002 at 07:33 PM.]

NotaMono, Critical Studies is part of the USC film school -- and a large part at that. The critical studies degree is the exact same degree as the production degree.

As I say my experiences are with the grad students. I was under the impression that they had seperate MFA and MA programs. My mistake.

P.S. For those that are confused, I've altered the original message to cover my ignorance.

[This message was edited by NotaMono on November 26, 2002 at 07:34 PM.]