I’m starting this thread for those who intend to apply to Emerson College, Ithaca College and Chapman university for the fall 2023 in programs related to film. This is where we can share our tips, info, experience as future candidates.
My D will apply EA to Emerson College for their Media Arts Production program ; Ithaca College for their Cinema and photography program ; and to Chapman in their Creative Producing program and the Film Production program, both BFAs.
She’s an IB student preparing a bilingual diploma (French / American). SAT: 1360 and she doesn’t intend to pass them again. Some community service, some sport (soccer and basketball), some ECs like Theater and film plus pre-college program : one after 9th grade in Emerson, writing for film and TV, two with Socapa in film production after 10th and 11th grade.
She will apply to BU, USC and NYU as well but it will be a long shot and those do not have Early Action application so it will be a regular decision app.
This will be a long journey but it will go fast, especially with the EA process. Our biggest concern is the tuitions: our daughter being accepted but not being able to go.
If you have any idea of program’s combinations you would like to share it would be great: for example, do you have a minor in mind? We met someone, when visiting Ithaca, who was accepted with a major in writing for film and TV and a minor in theater. Our daughter is thinking of a minor in business, but, frankly, not sure at all!
Good luck everybody and I hope to read some good news here over this school year.
Will she apply to other schools?
If so, DePaul, UNCSA, SCAD and FSU might be good options. S21’s friend is at LMU.
As far as minors or double majors it might depend on whether she’s a BFA or BA with BFA being more involved. Marketing or Advertising would work. Some type of CS for non Programmer types is useful. Creative Writing?
Emerson was probably in S21’s top 3 but didn’t quite get enough merit. Came down to DePaul, SCAD Atlanta and FSU. He chose FSU even though he didn’t get into their film school. Digital Media and probably another major. Three internships already and works on FSU films. Loves it there.
Related but not the same. Our daughter got accepted to Emerson but just missed out like on their 10 merits for theater design and we couldn’t send her due to cost and she went to her number 2 school on great merit.
Also don’t rule out Pace in NY. They have good placement. But yea, Emerson would be great. If she went there for their summer program (my daughter did as well and they helped with her portfolio), they will already have a clue about her. Good luck.
My D isn’t going to be a film major, but I wanted to add that we toured Chapman yesterday, and the campus is beautiful! Everyone there was very nice too.
She had a large list and then cut it down to 7. DePaul was a good option for us but she didn’t like Chicago. She also took of the list LMU, Syracuse and some others. She doesn’t want to go too far from the family. She has a brother in LA, a sister in LA who plans to come to NY, we are in Boston. So she choose south Cali, and north east coast. Emerson would be our best option if she has a good scholarship and if she’s able to live off campus ( we would ask for exemption, we live 20 minutes from Boston). But it makes a lot of “if”. Otherwise, if it is too expensive, the back up will be one or two years in a CC and then transfer. But this is not her first choice.
Chapman will be highly competitive (6-7% accept rate for film prod) but gives decent merit and likely same or less than Emerson and completely different location and feel because a true college campus vs city. If you are competitive for Chapman you are also competitive for USC/NYU but they do not give merit except to a very few so the cost difference between one of these and Chapman is considerable. Other film schools with very good merit and less competitive is Pratt and SCAD. LMU also has a well ranked film program but its a BA vs a BFA. My suggestion is really familiarize yourself with each application because they are all very different. Chapman requires a film and gives you a prompt to create to.
Thank you grace27. In fact, we visited Pratt in person and D took it off the list, same for LMU but we visited online. We know that Chapman, USC, UCLA and NYU are very competitive and she will have probably less chances to be accepted. For Chapman, she intends to apply to their creative producing program since she wants to be a producer and not a director. They accept more students there than in their Film Production. So we’ll see. I think because she applies to a small number of schools, she has time to work on her essays and target each of them. I think that if she has a major and minors in mind, if she knows what she wants, it’s easier to target each program in each school. So yes, she’s working hard in exploring each program from each school. That’s aslo why her list went down from 12 or 13 schools to 7.
So Emerson has been more competitive and stingy with merit aid. My S21 was accepted for drama and had a 1420 sat and 4.2 weighted GPA and I had to fight for any merit aid (I think he got a small 7K grant in the end?). It was a very expensive choice. Did she look into UNCSA?
My S21 had identical stats and I think he received a $10k scholarship for film/cinematography.
I would consider adding a few more schools to the application process. You’re fighting against cost and super selectivity. For FSU film the acceptance rate is less than 5%. I’m sure some of these other schools are similar or worse. You can target programs but it’s still a numbers game.
S21 also applied to Drexel and Penn State. He liked both programs. PSU’s film program is in the Bellasario Communications school. We also looked at Temple and Point Park in Pittsburgh. He did a summer film camp at Syracuse in high school. He applied but no merit so cost was too much. Visited Ithaca and decided not to apply. Cool college town but not big enough for him.
Is attending CC for a year or two and trying to transfer better than attending a lower ranked school from the beginning? My thought is no but YMMV.
We went through the typical college process with S20. He’s at Georgia Tech for engineering. Then we did a 180 with S21 for film schools. It’s a completely different world. It’s hard to get over the “prestige” factor. I eventually warmed up to schools like SCAD and DePaul because they’re all-in on film and have so many opportunities which is what kids need to break into the film industry. It’s all about getting on sets and building a portfolio, not where you go to school.
Exactly, cost was a big issue with all of these fields where return on investment is low. My S is drama so the acceptance rate for many schools is about 4-5% and emerson, NYU, were very expensive. UNCSA is the most competitive (I think a little less for film) but half the price even out of state but you have to want a conservatory environment.
S21 visited and applied to UNCSA. Didn’t even get an interview. If you’re all-in on a BFA it’s a great place and affordable.
Thank you chmcnm and helpingthekid73. I actually discussed that subject with D yesterday: applying to more, and she disagrees, because her back up is to go to a Community College ant transfer after 1 or 2 years if her 1st path doesn’t work. She doesn’t want to go everywhere in the US, she’s too specific in her destinations. She doesn’t want to be in a situation where she goes to a University / college in a state where she would feel lost and not happy, even if it is with a good scholarship, and be so miserable that she would want to quit and transfer asap. It happened to my oldest D. Emerson was her top choice and she applied to 2 or 3 colleges for acting. She was rejected except for 1 of them in NY, the New School. She was so miserable there that she abandoned after 2 weeks, took a gap year, found a job in an ice cream shop, took acting classes with adults, worked for a Theater. And she applied to BU, Concordia Canada and Emerson the following year and was accepted to Emerson, off the waitlist with a good scholarship. Incredible! So she went there and now she’s in LA. She made her debuts in a feature film from a young director (meaning beginner). Now the film will compete in festivals. it’s not a lot, she is still struggling as an actrice but works for a production company and likes it a lot. Once again, it’s a young company but they live from their income, that’s enough.
Our CC in Boston is well regarded by Emerson and it’s easy to stay in contact with the person in charge of transfers. My son did that and spent 2 years communicating with Lisa Y who helped him choose his gen ed classes so he would transfer easaly. And it worked, he was accepted in their screenwriting program. In the meantime, when taking class in the CC, he also took classes at BU for production 1 and passed a professional certificate in screenwriting from Emerson. That helped him deciding which program to apply to and probably helped with the acceptence and merit scholarship. Now he’s in LA and works more in the editing area than in screenwriting but it’s a start in his mind. And he has 10k student debts. My D has less than 20K.
Unfortunatly, I think we will have less financial aid now because my D is the last one to go to college in our family, so she will be considered as an only child. Well, as you can see, in this family, they don’t apply to many schools. My oldest applied to 3, my second applied as a transfer to 3, all in the Boston area, was accepted to 2, BU and Emerson, than, my 3rd went to a CC than applied as a transfer to one and was accepted. This one applying to 7, it’ s a record !!!
Sounds like you have a good plan for Emerson. Just one more thing to consider is I know at Chapman it is incredibly difficult if not impossible to transfer into film program because you start on set from day one in your classes. If she really wants to get into production I’d also look at SCAD as a safety building the biggest sound stage/backlot area in the country 22,000sq ft to open next year and pouring $ into film program and like others said UNSCA (both are reasonably priced too). Chapman gives very good merit compared to Emerson.
It sounds like your D has a plan so kudos.
The only thing I would say is that eventually she’ll have to travel away from home. What if she goes to a school far away from home and loves it, meets her tribe and works on films day one? If she hates it she can always come home for plan B. That’s always an option.
Good luck.
Hi! I’m a HSSR also applying to some of the same schools as a film production major. I’m just curious as to what your daughter thought about Ithaca as I’m thinking about adding it to my list. Thank you!
Hi! My daughter really liked Ithaca because of the teachers’ s availability and the students’s enthusiasm. We had a first online visit, where we found the students enthusiastic about their program, knowledgeable…etc. Then, we visited in person but they were not offering a visit for their film program so we choose campus visit and drama program. During the campus visit, we asked for the film program and they told us that we were welcome to visit on our own, independently. When we entered the school of commuication / film, there was a teacher in the hallways and he decided to give us a private tour of the facilities. So, even if the campus is a little bit isolated, Ithaca not being a huge city with a lot to do, we liked it. However, we found a nice restaurant on the main street.
My daughter wants to major in cinematography and production, but did not apply to any of the “big” schools for this… nothing in California, and nothing in NYC.
She applied to: American University, BU, Columbia College in Chicago, DePaul, Drexel, Emerson, Indiana, Quinnipiac, Syracuse, Temple, Boulder, UT Austin (which she will NEVER get into!), Ithaca, U of Arizona, and UC Denver…
Any feedback on these schools/programs would be appreciated…
Hello user_473560,
For me Emerson, Ithaca, DePaul, BU, Syracuse are still part of the big schools, the ones that keep coming back in the best film schools’ list in the US. I don’t know the others.
Emerson is a great hands on program with nice facilities, good connections in the industry: so many Emersonians in LA after graduation! I heard good things about Chicago College and DePaul, same thing with Ithaca, Syracuse. So, great programs but in different locations : some in the City (Emerson, DePaul, Columbia, BU), others are in the countryside, real campus…etc ; some are only colleges, others are part of a bigger institution with all the opportunities that it can bring like taking different classes in different schools. For example, Emerson is small, meaning that if you want to have several different minors, or take classes in a big variety of subjects, it is not as possible as in a University. Furthermore, some programs are BA, BFA others are BS. So, once you’ll have all the decisions, you’ll really have to know what you want and which program is the best fit for your D. Three more weeks !
Thanks!! This is helpful!!