<p>Hey, I'm an international student trying to apply to a screenwriting program in an university that can offer scholarships.
The educational system in my country is a bit different so i've been having a few problems trying to figure out what colleges i should apply too.
I'd like to be in a screenwriting program for undergraduates. I'm not quite sure what schools actually offer this, and not just a MFA.
This is the list of schools I've thought so far :
- University of Southern California
- Sarah Lawrence College
- Loyola Marymount University
- Bard College
- Kenyon College
- College of the Atlantic
- Bennington College</p>
<p>If anyone can comment on any of these schools or their screenwriting program, or give me some information about others that have what i'm looking for , i would really appreciate it. Thank you</p>
<p>Screenwriting is actually something you can do from your home country - there is really nothing special you can learn about it by coming to the US. Scholarships for internationals to US schools are hard to find, few schools offer them, and I’m not sure any offer scholarships for screenwriting - though you might find some offers for writing in general.</p>
<p>Yes, some people make fun of it, particularly Charlie Kaufman in “Adaptation”, but this guy knows screenwriting. When you’ve got the talent of Charlie Kaufman, only then are you allowed to diverge from the principles this book lays out.</p>
<p>Thank you, my home country doesn’t offer any studies in screenwriting, i am in a cinematographic arts school at the moment , but they don’t focus much on writing. That’s why i wanted to go study to the US, because where i live writing is not a job. And it can’t ever be one. What i really wanted to do was write tv shows, and we don’t have them here. Also , i do know the basics for screenwriting, because i learned them all in school, but not in english. My goal is to be able to write in english as well as i do in portuguese, and i can’t do that here. Do you think i can get a merit scholarship without it being especially for screenwriters ?</p>
<p>JoBenny : yeah i’ve thought about emerson too, but i can’t imagine myself there, i don’t know if it’s the fact that it’s in a big city or what. but i just can’t imagine that like a place i could call home.</p>
<p>Surely someplace produces television shows in Portuguese. Lisbon? Brazil? I’d think it far easier to write about things in your own culture and language than to come to a place where you’d have to master both to really be successful.</p>
<p>For that matter, if there isn’t a film or television industry in your area, why not? And why not invent one? Screenwriting is best learned by doing, and by getting yourself a camera, a like minded set of people, and a vision, tell your own story , create your own film, and then try and enter it in local and international or even online competitions. If you create something that is at all good, you’ll attract a lot more attention for your work than attending school would.</p>
<p>I understand your point and thank you for your perspective . But this is not a choice between going to college or not, this is a choice between which college to choose. I’ve heard that opinion a lot, and you may even be right, but i have to do what i think it’s best for my career and in this case i think going abroad and learning from a new culture will make me a better storyteller, as well as give me oportunities that i can’t find where i am now. But thank you for trying to help</p>
<p>There’s also no reason you can’t do both. Why not do a production with your friends before you start college? You’ll probably learn a lot by trying it on your own and it’ll add greatly to your classroom experience, when you finally do get to college.</p>
<p>Because that’s what i’ve been doing for two years now. I’ve wrote three scripts and directed them too. I’m now working on another one , and also plan on doing a music video.</p>
<p>Erica, I think you will eventually have to decide which is more important to you, an American-style education or more practical experience in making films? The average American undergraduate college isn’t going to offer a major in just screenplay writing. And, the kind of a school that would offer it, like New York Film School, would likely not have a lot of scholarship money available. </p>
<p>As MrMom62 posted above, you can learn the basics of script writing in one course. But, the best preparation for screenplay writing is the same as for any other writer: become as fulsomely available to the best thinking and widest variety of experience around you. American undergraduate colleges call that a liberal education, as opposed to, a narrow technical one. They would offer an interdisciplinary course of study that would include the study of film history (most likely as part of the culture of a particular country), a lot of reading and writing - but, not necessarily of screenplays. And, they would call it, Film Studies, or Media Studies, or some combination of the two (beware of so-called, Communications majors, as they tend to mean different things at different universities.)</p>
<p>That would be the gold standard, IMHO, and the sort of thing offered by schools that have the money you are looking for, in terms of scholarships for international students.</p>
<p>You should also be aware that some of the larger universities like, USC, UCLA and NYU may have separate tracks that emphasize one aspect over the other, like film production over flim criticism and vice versa; you may want to explore those differences further.</p>