<p>I know this has been a topic of discussion before, but the threads are old. I posted this on the film thread, but would love some feedback here. My daughter decided tonight she thinks she is going to choose Chapman to study TV Production over USC, where she was admitted in BA Dramatic Arts. USC was sort of her dream school and she worked very hard to get in, so I'm kind of sad about it, but I know Chapman, while not as prestigious, has some advantages, at least for us. She got a scholarship at Chapman, but only a grant (which could be reduded in the future) at USC. I don't want money to be the only factor in her decision, but I know that is party of what is swaying her toward Chapman. She also got in to NYU for Film Production, but won't consider New York (and probably no money anyway). She is making some compromises to go to Chapman-- TV over Film (which might not be a bad thing) and having to probably give up acting- her other passion (no minor in Theatre offered). At USC, I'm sure she could have dabbled in more areas, and might have gotten an overall better education in a BA program. She seems like she is happy and at peace with her decision, but I still feel torn about it. She never dreamed she would get into USC, and now she has to to give up that dream. Would welcome your thoughts!</p>
<p>@mrssoffel, I’ve responded to your pm. DS is looking forward to graduation next month. Doing well at Chapman and looking forward to working full time after graduation. Best of luck to your daughter!</p>
<p>The schools couldn’t be more different - size, socially, location, academic options, etc, etc, etc, - while both private Chapman is very small, and USC is so much bigger in many ways - population, spirit, well known - etc. Has she factored all these in? Is she really happy with her decision? If money is the issue then it is - and both schools are expensive but it sounds like you have help at Chapman. If $ was the same, I assume it would be USC all the way…It is difficult to turn down a great school and something many kids have to do or decide to do. Hope you both have peace in the decision!</p>
<p>@CADREAMIN My D seems really happy with her decision, but I don’t know how it compares to how happy she would be if she had chosen USC. I think she was a little scared by the stories of how competitive USC is (whether true or not) and by the fears about safety, which I probably exacerbated. Adding her father’s emphasis on saving money and being more practical put Chapman out front. My only hope is that Chapman will provide her with as many opportunities to explore her passions as USC seems to provide. I know there is always the option of transferring, but she is the type to stick with a decision and make the most of it. </p>
<p>@mrssoffel - Really glad she is happy with her decision! We visited Chapman and it seems like a wonderful school, can’t beat the setting and neighboring community. As a parent, I am sure you will be happy to have her in such a lovely and safe location. My daughter will likely apply there in the fall, she is still sorting the big versus smaller thing as well. I have 2 at USC and we will be hoping for scholarships from wherever she goes like everyone else! She has been involved in theater stuff her whole life but also has a knack for the science/math so she may look into computer science with a liberal art double major or minor to add to that. CS is not a big time major at Chapman obviously so she has too look into that more. I like how Chapman does the housing, grouping them into majors to some extent, so they start making connections in their field right away. Best to you and your daughter - enjoy the shopping you have to do now - it’s fun!</p>
<p>I decided to move my previous post shown below that was buried under a Chapman U “Dance classes for non majors” thread. The post was specially directed toward the TV Production/Broadcast Journalism major at Chapman U’s Dodge College. It may be of some help to others making final decisions this week that come across this thread:</p>
<p>From your last reply I learned that your daughter will be a TV Production major if she decides to attend Dodge. My son is a TV Production/Broadcast Journalism major at Dodge.</p>
<p>My son since his sophomore year at Dodge College has been able to obtain all of the TV, Radio, Music Video internships that he has wanted. He is meeting and making lifetime connections with very many people in the industry now. Also thru the professors at Dodge College he is able to obtain as many contacts as he wants to people working in the industry and is able to work on any project at Dodge he desires. He is very happy there and his fellow students match his love for TV, film & music. The classes he has taken has given him every possibly to work on in aspect of the TV & Film industry. They also have an excellent student run radio station that is one of the top twenty in the country. Many students at Dodge have a show and this would be excellent training for your daughter:</p>
<p><a href=“http://chapmanradio.com/home”>http://chapmanradio.com/home</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://chapmanradio.com/schedule”>http://chapmanradio.com/schedule</a></p>
<p>As I said before both USC and Dodge College are great schools; you can’t go wrong either way. But of course it will come down what your child decides. I as a parent would not want to be blamed latter; it has to be the child’s decision which college to attend.</p>
<p>From what I have discovered over the past 3 years is that Dodge College has all the modern facilities commensurate with what is used in the TV & film industries with smaller student to teacher ratios and more hands on experience than USC. USC is known as the greatest Film School in the world and there is a lot of networking available thru the alumni when getting work after graduation from USC. One may be better trained for work as an undergraduate at Dodge College but USC has presently the greatest reputation. Dodge College admits approximately 210 total Freshman each year (only 70 in the Film Production and only 30 in the TV Production/Broadcast Journalism). USC’s program major of Cinematic Arts Critical Studies and they accept approximately 75 Freshman each year to this program; the entire USC School of Cinematic Arts school accepts a total of 200 Freshman per year. Although there is a very wide possibility of classes at USC to choose from the program it seems to me to be less directed than Dodge College and relies on the student to choose their classes at USC. The journalism classes one would take would be at the USC Annenberg School of Journalism. I personally had a problem when reading about the USC Cinematic Arts Critical Studies major because it seemed like you were being trained to be a film critics not have the tools to work in the industry; I may be wrong about USC Cinematic Arts Critical Studies but I would not like to chance my son’s ability to be very employable and be able work in a field he enjoys after receiving his undergraduate degree. USC Cinematic Arts Graduate School is a different story. I think if my son at some points decides to go to graduate USC would probably be given strong consideration</p>
<p>Note from the article link shown below:
Chapman University has an amazing film program," Sony Pictures Television president Steve Mosko told The Hollywood Reporter. “Dean Robert Bassett has done an amazing job attracting the top names in town to speak. Chapman is quickly becoming the place for industry kids to attend, both for the undergraduate and graduate programs. Additionally, we have had a number of interns from Chapman working here at SPT and they have been some of the best we’ve seen.”</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/risky-business/chapman-university-film-professors-365239?mobile_redirect=false”>http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/risky-business/chapman-university-film-professors-365239?mobile_redirect=false</a></p>
<p>Also check out these videos below if you have not seen them already regarding graduates of Chapman U working presently in the Film & TV industry:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKWOAnxBh0I#t=19”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKWOAnxBh0I#t=19</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/user/ChapmanUniversity”>http://www.youtube.com/user/ChapmanUniversity</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqS9Amu3I0k&list=PLnhaubN8vO48FSU5PpYsWbVZDxFtkDfeU”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqS9Amu3I0k&list=PLnhaubN8vO48FSU5PpYsWbVZDxFtkDfeU</a></p>
<p>I hope my post at least gives you some additional things to consider. All the best to your daughter with her decision.</p>
<p>suka, you have to PM me and tell me your son’s name. I bet our sons know each other! Mine is a current soph at Chapman, in TBJ also. He has a great internship lined up this summer at a major sports radio station. We could not be happier with Chapman. </p>
<p>OP, has your D talked to some current Dodge broadcasting students? If not, she should. And if you want to PM me again or even telephone me, LMK.</p>
<p>@LongRangePlan I would love to chat with you. I’m at work now, but will PM you later, and send my number. Thank you! </p>
<p>@LongRangePlan @sukahjoy @cadreamin @ocelite Thanks again to all of you for your input. We made the deposit today. The deed is done! I’m still a nervous wreck, but looking forward! </p>
<p>Congrats @mrssoffel! My son will be a Panther next year too. @CADREAMIN, he’s a CS major (minor in game programming) so we should be answer some questions when the time comes. The department is fairly new but has about 80 majors. My son met with the department head and really connected.</p>
<p>Great! Congrats @seattle_mom! I’m getting more excited by the day. </p>
<p>Thanks @seattle_mom and congrats to your son! Hope it’s a great year for him. I think we will make another trip down (we are norcal) to specifically talk to the CS department. She just needs to get the questions to ask figured out by comparing a few programs so she can get the most out of the trip. I don’t think she knows what is important to have or not have in a program yet. Appreciate your offer as we all move forward this year. Enjoy the summer before freshman year, it’s special!</p>
<p>post edit - and thanks for noticing my “cry for help” above :)</p>
<p>First of all, congratulations to your daughter, @mrssoffel !!
As a Chapman graduate, I can assure that although Chapman is a smaller school and seemingly less prestige that USC, it is a great school to be in. It’s small but that’s a big part of its advantage. Unfortunately I wasn’t a film school major so I can’t speak for it very specifically, but I do have a lot of friends in film school and they were given so much opportunity to learn, work, explore, and produce. Class size here at Chapman is small and it enables students to know the faculty very well and allows the students to reach out very easily. If your daughter does come to Chapman, I’m sure she will have a great time!! We have students from all over the world that will broaden her experience and our clubs on campus are fun too! Students are always encouraged to be creative and express themelves!</p>
<p>In terms of comparing the two schools, one of my friends from Chapman did transfer to USC in his sophomore year because of a bet between him and his god-father. The point is that, he told me experience he had at Chapman was no less than experience at USC except that it’s a lot bigger school and that your perspective/experience changes mostly because of that. Curriculum wise Chapman has great courses to offer and have great resources.</p>
<p>Whichever school your daughter decides to go, best of luck. If she does choose to come to Chapman, WELCOME! I love Chapman and I hope she will too :)</p>
<p>Thank you @joychu! She has decided on Chapman! 
Thanks for the insight and encouragement!</p>
<p>I’m most likely going to choose Chapman over USC too; however, for the business school. When comparing the two it’s quite difficult. Distilling my thoughts into a single excerpt, “Chapman is everything I had thought USC would be like [but was not].” That is in terms of career networking, student body, location, etc…</p>
<p>That is a good way to look at it! </p>
<p>Late to the party but hope I can shed some light as a parent from the other side:</p>
<p>@Sukahjoy said:
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<p>I can’t imagine why you would say the students are “better trained” at Chapman than at USC without having any real-life experience with that campus.</p>
<p>You’re a great “cheerleader” for Chapman, but you should be able to do that without adding erroneous and often inaccurate information for parents trying to decide between the two schools. It’s just not helpful - especially when it’s so wrong. I remember being a mom and asking - along with other parents - heartfelt questions on this forum and you often responded with a lengthy sometimes page long sales pitches which sometimes included negative comparisons to USC. Chapman is a strong enough institution to not need that. And honestly - for a while it tipped the scales in favor of USC because we wondered WHY Chapman would need that type of defending. </p>
<p>Still, we visited Chapman for Campus Preview and liked it a lot. They’re the underdog and work really hard on behalf of their students. For us, however, there were some issues with the way the staff responded to questions and logistics and the head of the school’s overemphasis on trying to woo the newly admitted students away from USC by explaining Chapman was trying hard to catch up to them (oddest sales pitch I’d ever heard). Still, my daughter like the Dodge school and the faculty we met. In the end however, she and several other students we met at Preview day ended up choosing USC. Honestly - there is just no comparison on facilities and network. At least not yet. But I do know Chapman tries hard to provide scholarship dollars which is knows will tip the scale for parents worried about funds. We are very tight on budget, but decided that would not be the determining factor.</p>
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<p>This really concerned me. My D has friends in Crit Studies and as a whole, they have an extremely high employment rate after graduation. They not only learn HOW to make a film but also WHY. The degree program allows time for them to all take classes in business, advertising, etc. while still getting a lot of production courses under their belts. Actually, SCA students in each department seem to be pretty trained “cross-culturally” so you’ll find a production student taking film analysis and media classes and Crit Studies students running in production classes and other departments. So it really doesn’t have anything to do with training film critics - unless you count studying films so they can critique their own work more effectively and make more effective decisions on what work to acquire when working as producers. </p>
<p>God bless @Shakespearefan, @LongRangePlan, and @Gladiatorbird for their objective advice when I needed it. It made us feel as if our student would have thrived at Chapman or USC because they understood - as parents -the pros and cons of both.</p>
<p>Both USC and Chapman are competing in a very small pool in terms of educational opportunities for students wanting to break into the industry. There isn’t enough room at ANY film school to take everyone who wants to go. But to try to compare any film school is just not going to be accurate. </p>
<p>We also looked at a number of film programs across the country and came to the conclusion the campuses and cultures are all very different and it just comes down to fit - where is the best place for a student to meet peers and thrive? In the end - for our child - USC had more resources. Since the final bill was going to be about the same it didn’t take a leap of faith to see it was a no-brainer. And so far, in her first year - she’s met more people in the industry and participated on more projects than we expected she’d get in four years. She also secured an amazing internship that is giving her hands on work in creative producing rather than saddle her with clerical work. Yes, USC is bigger and there is little hand-holding. Students are expected to use the resources to develop their own networks in preparation for the real world. So far no one has turned my kid down when she’s called for a meeting. Not even people outside the USC alumni network. So our experience has not matched your description of USC. </p>
<p>Still - I can say this as a college interviewer for a different university - it isn’t the film school that will make or break a student. It’s the student’s own internal motivation, skill and initiative that determines their success. </p>
<p>I hope that helps.</p>
<p>Congrats to all that chose Chapman. It’s a great school with a lot of passion behind it and they are moving up in the ranks fast. </p>
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<p>I am very glad to hear that the final bill was about the same and your aid packages were consistent from school-to-school. From your posts on the USC forum, one would think that your child received terrible aid from USC. Good information. Thank you.</p>
<p>I’m aware this is an old thread, but for those of you who may come across this dilemma again in the future, USC vs. Chapman. Let’s put things in a perspective view for the parents who will be seeking answers. At the present time, both USC and Chapman have excellent resources and facilities in their film school programs. The minor differences between USC and Chapman is the location of the schools. If your son or daughter would like to work part-time while attending school, Chapman has the better location because Disneyland and California Adventure is only 10 minutes away from Chapman. Many of the students are employed there. If your student plans to work part-time while attending USC, Universal Studio is 25 minutes from USC. For internship opportunities, both schools are about the same. Depending where your child’s internship will be located, if the internship is in LA, it is an hour drive from Chapman. If the internship is in OC, it is an hour drive from USC.</p>
<p>In terms of networking, it really doesn’t matter that much about the school because many parents who are alumni of their schools send their kids to different universities anyway. Kids from Chapman have parents who have attended USC, UC schools, and other universities. Kids these days have social media friends who are attending other universities from their former high schools, sport’s clubs, etc. If your son or daughter is working, most likely, he or she will have networking from there as well. Learned from my children’s experiences.</p>
<p>Keep in mind, the key to success is to stay focused and not to give up. DS was part of the largest graduating class in Chapman’s history this past spring, 1,519 seniors and 754 graduate degree candidates.</p>
<p>Good luck, everyone! Hope this helps.</p>
My son is looking into Chapman for Computer Science too. Any feedback from your experience so far? Thank you!