Hello everyone,

If you could rate film schools, which categories would you want to be able to rate film schools with?

- Campus
- Film Equipment
- Professors
- Internship/Work Opportunities
- Alumni Connections
- ???

Thanks for your input.

-Location
-cost (Tuition vs total cost)

Cost is a good one. Location is sort of tied with "Campus".

Actually by location I mean the area outside of the campus-- the town its located in. Would you want to live there? Especially since most grad students live off campus. When I went to USC, the campus was great, but I wouldn't have rented a place locally.

Curriculum?

I know lots of people criticize certain colleges 1)for not letting the students pick up a film camera until their junior year,
2) for teaching too much film theory and not offering enough personal experience
3) for not making them diverse enough
4) etc

I think all of those topics fall underneath the "curriculum" debate

Are you thinking of adding a film school rating section?

Thinking about it, yes.

A big part of my decision last year was based on not being limited in my focus. As a writer with interest in directing, it was important that USC allowed cross pollination, and unsettling that other schools didn't.

I think industry relations matter, too.

And for lack of a better word, intimacy. Are you treated like a number by the faculty, or do they take the time to know you? You'd be surprised.

So...

- Campus/Location
- Film Equipment
- Professors/Curriculum
- Internship/Work Opportunities
- Alumni Connections
- Tuition Cost

There shouldn't bee TOO many categories to rate on. And I do think that a rating for campus would include what you were worried about in regards to location...because you'd have to take the location into account when rating the campus.

That's a good list, Chris. Length of program may also be an issue. For example, FSU MFA is 2 years vs. 4 years at UCLA, etc.

Also, phrasing the last one as "tuition cost" is probably inaccurate, as programs also have different costs associated with how much they give you to make films or if you have to finance them yourself completely. So maybe call it: Cost (tuition/budgets, etc.)...

AJ

I think the more categories the better. All of the rankings seem to care only about the ones that you've got listed...so I say, show some more insight and differentiate this site's rankings from the myriad others....

I like what Jayimess said regarding insight into each program. More than ranking, I am interested in the perceived strengths and perceived of the programs....and not just USC, Chapman and NYU but also schools such as Calarts and the Art Center. What kinds of students do they seem to like, how they train, the competition factor, if cinematography is strong, if the teachers are working professionals.....

sorry for the typo....
perceived weaknesses

Well perceived weakness isn't really a category to give a rating on - but that is certainly something people could talk about in their comments when they rate a film.

How about "Student to Professor Ratio"? Would that be something worth rating?


- Campus/Location
- Film Equipment
- Professors/Curriculum
- Internship/Work Opportunities
- Alumni Connections
- Tuition Cost
- Student to Professor Ratio

Anything else you want to add/replace? Please as many people get in on this as possible.

Approach.

As in narrative, experimental, industry, indie, doc, etc.

Are you forced to conform to this approach, or are you allowed to explore, even encouraged to do so?



General Environment

What's the attitude like there? AMong faculty and students?

How exactly would this system work? Would there be general votes for the ratings? Or would it work like the reviews for films on the site. If so, how would you prevent people from just dragging down a particular school's rating? Would there be a screen so only users who go to the school could do reviews?

So many questions!

Again "approach" is a pretty vague category to put a rating on but one can talk about it in a review.

My idea would be to have it exactly as the film ratings yes.

As far as screening... there will probably be a "complain about review" link option if it is seen as completely unfair, or just one a word review. Maybe I'll add a minimum amount of characters required in a review that is posted...

It would also be good if the Mods used their discretion, and knowledge of users, to see if someone is actually from the school - though, I suppose there needs to be ratings from individuals who don't go to the school, because otherwise the reviews would be skewed to high.

Such complexities...

Again, i think "Length of Program" is extremely important.

Again the "length of the program" will certainly be included in the stats of the school but it is not something that one would want to put a 1-5 star rating on.