My son was accepted to the University of Texas at Austin, Emerson, Syracuse, Boston University, and Penn State for film. He seems a bit confused in terms of making a decision. Perhaps some of you can help shed some light on the differences in these programs. Your input is greatly appreciated. Please note that this would be for the undergraduate program. A concerned Dad. Thanks again.

He'll get a good education at just about any of those schools, so I would focus on where he'd like to be geographically. Austin and Boston are both great cities, personally I'm not a fan of Syracuse or the area around Penn State. He should go to school in whichever city he feels happiest in.

Josh-Appreciate your input and I get the impression that his feelings about Syracuse and Penn State are similiar to yours. In terms of the film programs, are any of the other schools(UT Austin, Boston U. or Emerson) an overwheming stand out?

Emerson and UT are generally known for having great film programs. I've heard especially good things about Emerson.

Emerson is a very focused school, if he goes there he will eat, drink, and breathe film for his entire college career. BU and UT are not quite as focused and your son won't get the same opportunities that Emerson students do.

If he's sure that he wants to go into film, then Emerson deserves another look. If not, then maybe a larger, less focused school like BU or UT would be better.

Josh-My son pointed out that there are quite a few senior staff members at Emerson(including the Chairman of the Department) who are UT graduates. I would appreciate your take on this, since I believe you are a student at Emerson. Not that rankings have a great deal of meaning, but why is it that Emerson does not appear on the top ten list? I know that they have a very strong program. Again your input is greatly appreciated.

I wonder what top 10 list this is? The general feeling I've gotten from a few years of film school research is that Emerson is top-5 for undergraduate.

Is there some literature out there that compares the various undergraduate film
programs? Perhaps the list my son is referring too is based upon graduate programs.

Probably. I haven't heard much about Emerson's graduate program, and the list of good schools for grad is much larger than undergrad.