<p>Disclaimer: I apologize for the length in advance haha</p>
<p>I've lived in LA my whole life (junior currently, female if anyone's wondering), and while sure, it's great for film, I would probably shoot myself if I went to college here. The only schools with undergraduate film departments here worth considering, for myself at least, are UCLA (where my father works and as much of a home as it is to me I'd get sick of it), USC (the rival. Not gonna happen. haha) and LMU (about ten minutes walking distance from my house in the middle of suburbia -- also sick of it).</p>
<p>So my absolute dream would be New York.</p>
<p>NYU and Columbia are the two undergrad schools I'm looking at to major in film. Obviously Columbia is my first choice (better and truer 'college' experience from my perspective, actually just better overall haha) though in terms of admission I'm much more likely to get into NYU (and by likely I mean almost certain).</p>
<p>So my question is:</p>
<p>Should I just keep on keepin' on for NYU or work my ass off to get into Columbia? What my REAL goal is Columbia Film School, because from what I have heard I like their program better for reasons I won't blabber on about cause I have issues with writing a lot of unnessary information haha.</p>
<p>Obviously everyone should strive to do their best, but my situation is purely about the worth of it. Getting into NYU wouldn't take much of an effort for me (not to sound overly confident or cocky or anything), but Columbia would take a boosting of my SAT scores and leadership EC's, internships etc.</p>
<p>That's all completely possible and I'm well capable of it -- but it would cost thousands of dollars. I took the SAT for the first time today so I don't know what I have, but it certainly isn't a 2300 and classes or tutors to raise it to that would be at least a thousand. And then summer film programs are also a couple thousand. And still I'm barely confident that I'd get into Columbia. It would be such a slim chance.</p>
<p>Fortunately I'd be able to financially afford all that, and obviously wouldn't be paying for it JUST to put it on my applications (except for SAT cause seriously what good does that do once you've gotten into college. Bragging rights? haha). But I've been kind of shiftless when it comes to DOING anything about making my own films. I've been working on a screenplay for like three years now but neglected it for a long time and the computer it was on crashed the other day. Go me. I also go to one of the worst schools in the state (API score of 1 out of 10 -- but hey! we're third in the country for basketball) because my parents are strong public school people so there's only one film class which I'm FINALLY taking this year cause of the lack of cohesive scheduling on part of the school -- and I'm not learning anything or doing anything in it. And I've been reluctant to ask my parents to buy me adequate equipment, even though we could afford it. And I don't know anybody to BE in my films cause all my friends are ******bags and would mess around hahah. But (enter clich</p>