D23 discovered she wanted to pursue film after attending a media production summer program at Boston University, right before senior year. Prior to that she was interested in Art and Design (her HS electives we’re all in Design). As a result, a lot of her college list included small LACs that had strong art programs (that she visited before the summer program) but had a film major. She now understands the difference between film production programs and film “studies”
Well she was accepted so a few programs and BU is the obvious choice for a film production program. She knows the school from the summer and she loved the area. But she is worried about the size of the school.
Vassar is one of the few LACs that offers a film program that focuses on production but it sounded like she wouldn’t start working on productio skills until she is an upperclassman. But the alumni are impressive.
And to complicate things, she was accepted to Smith and she likes the idea of a women’s college but they have a Film and Media Studies major and it seems likely she would need to go to grad school to get the same skills she could get from
BU and Vassar.
And of course, in my mind, I know there is always the possibility she may change her mind about her major and go back to her interest in Design.
Any thoughts on the film programs at these schools- particularly Boston U. and Vassar?
Well, Vassar isn’t as tiny as LAC’s get, but with 600-ish students per entering class, anonymity isn’t going to be a prominent feature of the experience. Same with Smith, although there’s at least the rest of the consortium there. She might enjoy BU more. I’d expect the film program to be pretty close-knit, but at the same time she will never run out of people on campus that she doesn’t know!
Does she have an opinion about which school has the best non-film options for her, if she does change her mind?
Film production represents one of BU’s strongest programs. At Vassar, film would place lower down, behind other majors that are notably strong there, such as those in English literature, social sciences, theatre and studio art. Your daughter may want to consider how she feels about this aspect in deciding between these schools. Nonetheless, if Vassar’s film program appears sufficient, then its relative position at Vassar may be inconsequential.