Taking my junior son to visit colleges in California. We’re from the Chicago area. Here’s our list:
CCA (California College of the Arts)
CalArts (California Institute of the Arts)
San Francisco State
Chapman
LMU
Oxy
U of the Pacific
Pitzer
Redlands
University of San Francisco
Santa Clara
UC Santa Cruz
Looking for information about chances of admission, how these schools are for OOS students, general college experience (he wants liberal arts with conservatory-level or at least high-level film production major), campus vibe, curriculum (straight-up art school vs general liberal arts), etc.
Flying into SF and driving down to LA area. Hope to do these in a week (!). Looking for “must sees” that offer BOTH LIBERAL ARTS AND GOOD FILM PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT.
SF State has an outstanding film department. Note that the cost of attendance for out-of-state student will be nearly $35,000 per year (OOS tuition, fees, room, board, books, supplies, travel costs) and you will NOT get any financial aid apart from some loans.
My son’s friend attends LMU and is a film major-loves it and has already had internships at studios. Not sure what their merit based FA requirements are but you can email AO.
I would take Pitzer off your list, your son’s gpa is well below the average acceptance rate and it has a 14% acceptance rate. All my students that have been accepted there had a 3.8 gpa or higher. Same with Santa Clara, they only had 4% of students enrolled with your son’s gpa and in my experience that may mean the people with a hook like athletes. If you go to the website collegedata.com and insert the college’s name and then click on the admission tab you can get the numbers of where your son compares to the overall admitted class.
My nephew went to Chapman. For film production it will be a reach for your son because that major usually requires a higher gpa and test scores that the average admission profile. The Dodge School is very competitive. (By the way be sure to eat at Bruxie’s across from the campus, I love their waffle sandwiches).
Make sure your son has a portfolio of any film work he has done and submit it as part of the slide show on the common app, it will make his application stronger since his gpa is on the low side for film production for some of his schools.
@ksenior my S19 is looking for similar criteria. If you want true film production w/liberal arts curriculum, here are my thoughts:
CCA (California College of the Arts) - solid film prod, not sure about LA curriculum. More art school than LAC.
CalArts (California Institute of the Arts) - very good film prod, very selective and expensive.
San Francisco State - Don’t know much about SFSU FIlm
Chapman - very good film prod, top-notch facilities, notable faculty
LMU - same as Chapman, known for film internships and Hollywood ties
Oxy - top-ranked LAC, not a known film/media program but MAC has a production track, lookup sr comps festival
UC Santa Cruz - I’ve heard this is the only UC that actually give OOS aid, good film prod
These schools DO NOT have true film production, so you may want to save time and remove them from your list:
U of the Pacific
Pitzer
Redlands
University of San Francisco
Santa Clara
Additionally, you may want to look at:
CSUN (if you’re willing to pay OOS)
USC (maybe you intentionally excluded it?)