I don’t know if I need to create a new thread but still in the process of comparing Emerson and Ithaca. During our visit to Ithaca, teachers and students advise to have an internship each summer if possible. We think we heard something different when visiting Emerson like: wait until your junior year or even ELA before trying to find an internship. Did we make a mistake and Emerson’s advice was to not look for an internship during the school year only? In our opinion, as soon as a student start to work in the industry, the better it is. It helps to built the resume and to know what the student wants to work on later on.
Has your student connected with other Purchase film kids? My son was accepted and is really, really on the fence. We are planning on going to accepted student’s day on 04/14 but were seriously considering skipping it in lieu of heading up to RIT. We are scheduled for Ithaca on the 15th.
You should always be building a portfolio.
Some companies will only hire juniors for internships. Some consider all years.
You’re also trying to figure out what you like and don’t like. The earlier the better.
S21 had an unpaid internship after freshman year. They were flexible. It was good experience. He also had a summer job to earn money.
He’s also done internships and worked on projects during the school year.
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No, My daughter hasn’t connected with other Purchase kids. I can’t seem to find any groups like we found for DePaul and Hofstra.
We are going to to the admitted students day on the 14th as well, so I am hoping that helps her with her decision. It’s seems to be #2 on her list ( she waiting to hear from Boston U) but she was also admitted to DePaul, which has the benefit of not being located in our backyard.
Ithaca looks to be out due to location- she wants in or near a city. I really liked Ithaca when we visited
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I forgot to ask- has your son gotten a chance to visit the campus at all? If so, what did you think?
My daughter loved the film facilities but wishes the campus was nicer
We went for the interview to campus. We had visited one other time during COVID restrictions so the campus activity was pretty low. It was the first visit so it sat at the top of his list for a while but then he saw CCC and DePaul and Syracuse and loved the energy there more. I honestly don’t know what he’ll do at this point.
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Finally, D committed to Emerson College yesterday. The journey is over.
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Congrats! We visited on Saturday and D loved it. We are waiting to receive a decision on reconsideration of her merit award. We also met with financial aid and there are some grounds we might receive some now. If we don’t hear back before then, we are visiting Ithaca next weekend. No plans to fly across country to visit Chapman since we are very familiar with the school and area.
Let me know what she choose in the end. If my D had a choice between Emerson and Chapman, I think it would have been very very difficult to make a decision. Personaly, I think Emerson is a better fit for her but Chapman was high on her list.
She received good news this morning. Emerson gave her more merit and so now the cost is below Chapman but quite a bit above Ithaca. If we can get some financial aid, she will be going to Emerson.
I think Emerson is the best fit for my D too. We moved from the west coast to the east coast before she started high school, and she actually ran into two friends from elementary and her performing arts middle school at the event who will be attending Emerson, as well as a high school friend who has already committed. I think these are her people and I just don’t think Chapman students are.
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Congratulations. My S is down to Fordham and Emerson. We are visiting both next week. Any insight you can share after your visit that swayed your daughter?
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What swayed my D from Ithaca to Emerson after her visit are:
- Location (Ithaca is cute but really small). Boston is very nice.
- The program: we felt that, as good as Ithaca’s one was, it still looked focus on commercials, sport news, journalism and less focus on creative feature films or TV shows. We loved the teachers tho.
- The facilities : D found the sound stages small. Yes, Emerson seems to not have enough sound stages for the size of the school but I think there is one bigger, or what they call The Tufte Television Studios that we didn’t visit. But still, Ithaca’s facilities were good.
- The ranking : someone told me it’s hard to say no to Emerson to choose an institution with less prestige.
- The Oscars !!! Well I have to say that knowing that it was two students from Emerson who collected the awards for Best picture, screenplay and director for a movie we liked, was something!
Now, D knew Emerson pretty well. Two siblings graduated from it. We used to go to see my oldest daughter dancing there. And D23 had a summer program online with Kevin Bright after 9th grade. In a certain way, she always pictured herself at Emerson. She just didn’t know if it would be possible because of the price tag. Then, when looking at other institutions, she felt in love with Chapman and Ithaca. Rejected by Chapman, she was really interested in Ithaca because she could be on campus and would live something different from her brother and sister. She wanted to have her own experience instead of following her siblings’ steps. But in the end, Emerson wins.
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We finally visited Ithaca this weekend. We left with a good overall impression: the film facilities and resources were top notch and we had nice conversations with the professors, students and staff. We actually realized her accepted major, Cinema and Photography, was the wrong fit, so we changed it to Television & Digital Media, because she wants less artsy and more Hollywood. She liked the town of Ithaca and campus overall but the dorms and dining halls were beyond depressing.
We still have four colleges remaining: Ithaca, Emerson, Chapman and UNCSA. Ithaca ($37k) is the most affordable, followed by UNCSA ($42k), Emerson ($55k) and Chapman ($57k++). (We visited UCONN last week too, and while we liked the campus and it was the least costly ($32k), the film facilities couldn’t compare to the others so we removed it from the list.)
We are working with Emerson and Chapman to see if we qualify for some financial aid. If we can get Emerson down to $45k, that is where she wants to go. If not, she feels good about Ithaca. We are also attending admitted student events in NYC this upcoming weekend for Emerson and Chapman, so hopefully showing more demonstrated interest will have an effect on the bottom line.
We were initially excited about her acceptance to UNCSA, but with North Carolina recently moving more to the right politically, I am not inclined to send D to a state where it may be hard to receive the reproductive health care she may need during her college years.
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Yes, I understand regarding some states. We were not inclined to apply to FSU for the same reason. Boston is a great city with a lot to do even if its size is far from NYC. I really hope Emerson will move the needle toward what you’re asking for. Il realized that a lot of students who accepted Emerson offer are from MA or New England. I don’t know if they will live off campus but I was suprised.
Lets hope for the best and let us know.
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Our D was accepted to FSU after being deferred but declined because of what’s going on.
My daughter has a lot of friends from Southern Cal where she grew up attending Emerson, either as an incoming freshman like her or already enrolled. They actually said during the admitted student day that California is second to Massachusetts in terms of where students come from. That’s part of the appeal for her. Crossing our fingers we will get an answer this week.
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Wondering if you made it to the admitted students event this past Friday? Maybe it was due to the great weather but my daughter really liked it. She got a chance to meet a lot of the students and faculty and was impressed with what she saw.
It moved up to tie with BU. I think she will ultimately choose BU because of location but the conservatory program and how passionate the Purchase students are making the decision very hard for her.
I can relate. Our D applied to only a handful of the highly ranked programs because she didn’t want to move out to CA yet and she refused to go to school in the south.
Fingers crossed that Emerson pulls through for you. D didn’t apply to Emerson because they didn’t have a music minor and she didn’t want to give up that up but she has friends who are are starting in the Fall. Hoping there is some collaboration between both school’s film students like I saw between DePaul and Columbia College in Chicago.
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Hi- we didn’t go. We went back to UT Austin earlier in the week and my guy decided that he had seen enough to make his decision. So we are Texas bound!
It was a hard decision and I’m sure that Purchase would have been a great fit for the program- hard to top- but ultimately, he wanted more of a traditional campus experience. Funny thing, at his Purchase interview, the professor asked him if he wouldn’t be happier with a BA/ BS program given his varied academic interests. She was right.
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That is exactly why D23 is leaning towards BU. More of a traditional college experience and opportunities to spend time on other interests.
Out of curiosity…. How many people had kids on this thread that were accepted to Chapman? How many accepted, and how many opted for another school?
We are 13 days away from decision day, and my kid is still no closer to making a decision.
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