<p>Yeah it's great to have choices...but it can also generally stink. I never expected to get into Yale and only applied because my Dad suggested it. I reused old essays and waited with Brown as my top choice. Now that I'm in both with $10,000 per year better aid at Yale (I've contacted Brown's financial aid office to look into matching it) I'm pretty torn. I feel like I would love it at Brown (perhaps have a bit too much fun?) but I feel like I owe it to myself and my family to go to Yale. I'm not sure how to pass up their Film Studies program and all the benefits that come along with a Yale education. I know I should "go with my gut" and "whichever place fits" but, truly, half my heart is stuck at each place. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>P.S.
Frankly, I was surprised by Brown's fin. aid. I was offered signifigantly more money at every single college including Northwestern and Columbia.</p>
<p>I'll just tell you point-blank: Yale's film program is terrible. 90% of work is shot digitally, and they only have a limited about of post-production facilities (when I visited they didn't even have a flat-back, only one AVID machine with four-year old software). </p>
<p>If you're interested in being either a cinema studies prof or a filmmaker, I would strongly recommend either northwestern or columbia. Brown's is even worse...</p>
<p>I think I've "talked" with you before, but many of my film friends at Yale switched out of their major because of how poor the program is (they all moved into the theater studies program which they love). If this major switch interests you, then I would encourage you to go to Yale as all many of my friends with in UG Drama love it. However, if you're not interested in diving into film production or being a film scholar, Yale is not the place. </p>
<p>If you are have eliminated Columbia and NU, and are only looking at Brown vs. Yale, then you should defintley go to Yale. Brown doesn't have film studies, no classes on film production (some video production, some screenwriting). </p>
<p>Think about the alumi coming out of Yale in film...not many filmmakers...not many scholars.</p>
<p>That's real food for thought, thanks. (I think) I want a strong overall liberal arts education and it seems like the classes in comparative literature, anthropology, psychology, and american studies in Yale's film studies program offer this in a package oriented towards film. I am also COMPLETLEY open to a diferent major as long as I can incorporate film as an important part of my studies. Film is not only my passion, it's why I got into these schools (my local reps from Brown and Yale SAID so). I'm as interested, if not more, in the theory, art, and literature of film as I am by the process of making it.</p>
<p>PS...for better or for worse I think digital is the future.</p>
<p>My oldest is a senior at Brown, majoring in MCM (Modern Culture and Media) the Brown version of film studies. The program is heavily theoretical... semiotics, coding, narrativity etc. I suggest going onto the Brown web site and going on BOCA-- the online course catalogue. There you can see exactly what the courses are. While the Brown program isn't filmmaking oriented, like programs at USC, or NYU, the graduates are very well connected in Hollywood, and they seem to do well.
My youngest will be going to Yale, but she is into math.</p>
<p>Yale also has a really intriguing internship program called Yale in Hollywood that offers many internship opportunities for Yalies interested in the film business.</p>
<p>wouldn't like to be in your situation...yale and brown are my favorite ivies, although yale is my first choice and brown my second.
I wish you a great time no matter where you go !</p>
<p>I feel like I fit with the independent study/open curriculum...I know I'll "get along with the people anywhere" but on the overnight to Brown I reeeeally connected with the people there. Basically, Brown seems like a lot of fun and I feel like I'll love it there....then again I feel like I'll enjoy Yale too (I'm a pretty open person)</p>
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I feel like I fit with the independent study/open curriculum
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Yale's curriculum, despite a few area requirements, is relatively flexible in my mind...</p>
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I know I'll "get along with the people anywhere" but on the overnight to Brown I reeeeally connected with the people there. Basically, Brown seems like a lot of fun and I feel like I'll love it there