Congratulations to your daughter! When did she get her Ringling acceptance? My daughter hasn’t heard anything yet.
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She got her Ringling acceptance on Jan 30th. They’ve said that they got the highest number of applications ever this year. Good luck to your daughter!
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To those who’ve asked if we have visited: We have visited both SCAD campuses (Savannah & Atlanta). We have visited Ringling too, but it was just after the hurricane swept through last October, so we weren’t able to go inside the film facilities. And the counselor never responded to our request to talk to a student or two from the film department. We went to an open house at Belmont last October and met with the director of the Motion Pictures Dept. We’ll be going back for Be Belmont Day on March 20th. We have plans to visit Lynn and maybe VCUarts over the next few weeks. We are still trying to decide whether to visit UNCW. I said she was admitted to film at all of these places, but in actuality UNCW makes you wait to apply to the film major until after you take an intro to film class at the beginning of your sophomore year (sometimes allowed at the beginning of your freshman year). So that makes us nervous.
Yes, it looks like you need to take the class and do well. So it’s similar to direct admit vs. not.
UNCW is not VCU - ie it’s not urban…it’s nice though. Does she have a preference for area, etc?
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If she’s a good student she should do well at UNC-W. It’s not a super selective school. It does have that film industry proximity though. I don’t know anything much about the specific program there. I think UNC School of the Arts is the more selective film program in the state and/or UNC-Chapel Hill. I would try to visit if you can and talk to someone in the department. UNC-W would give her more of a traditional college experience. I’m sure she can find plenty of straight guys to date there and Christian orgs too. A car would be a welcome asset at UNC-W, but I’m sure she would make friends with cars. It’s about 15 minutes from Wrightsville Beach and about 15 minutes from the downtown historic district. I think it’s worth a visit. Wilmington is a fun city even if you don’t like the school so it won’t be a wasted visit.
My daughter has a good friend at SCAD. It’s very intense and very focused. The friend is in animation. SCAD also has a unusual quarter system. When they are on they are very on and working super hard but when they are off they have huge breaks. First quarter started in mid Sept and ended at Thanksgiving and then they were off for winter break for a month and a half. Did not go back after Thanksgiving until January.
We also looked at VCU and really liked it. Richmond is a vibrant city and a bit gritty in places but that didn’t bother us. The cost to attend there was just too much vs an in-state public (we are in NC) or private school so my D22 ultimately did not apply but we both came away liking Richmond a lot.
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Thank you for sharing these experiences with us! We haven’t received financial info from VCUArts yet, but we are hopeful since the website says out-of-state students with a GPA of 3.3+ will get at least a $12,000 per year scholarship to offset out-of-state tuition. That would put the cost just about on par with our other affordable options. My daughter has always said that she wants to live near a beach, so maybe we’ll try to squeeze in a trip to UNCW too. Unfortunately their Film Dept tour day (March 24th) conflicts with the Lynn Admitted Students Experience day. So we need to make a decision quickly.
She likes beach towns. But she is also excited about Belmont being in a big city (Nashville). So she may like Richmond? We’ve never been there before. Hopefully we can work out a visit for next week.
Boca and Wilmington 
Atlanta (in the semesters when you’re there) and VCU - then are a no go. Belmont ?? Well we’ve got Nashville Shores nearby - does that count??
Richmond - no beach - but a cool city. Not horribly far though from a beach. Can be a day trip if someone has a car.
Honestly, if she really wants to do film, I’d go where she’ll get the best hands on experience in my opinion.
As for the quarter system mentioned earlier, my daughter’s BF goes to U Denver - he’s also off Thanksgiving until January and then is in school until June - so I know it was mentioned earlier, but I don’t think it’s uncommon for schools on that system.
It’s great you are able to go everywhere.
When you go to Belmont, take the 10 minute drive south to Edley’s BBQ.
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I think that’s a fairly common schedule for a school on quarters. That’s how my school was when I went on quarters, off from Thanksgiving to first week of Jan.
One daughter on semesters had finals in every early Dec and was off about a month, until Jan 6-10. Other daughter often went almost to Christmas and then off most of Jan. Ah, scheduling… Both hoped to not go to school on their birthdays, one Dec 14 (usually was done by then), the other Jan 25 (usually had to return right about that day)
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Ah, I guess so. It was just inconvenient for my D22 because her schedule didn’t align with her SCAD friend, but match up pretty well with the rest of her friends.
LOL. If beaches are a factor then Ringling wins hands down. Siesta Key beach is hard to beat.
Ringling does have a creative writing major where you can concentrate on script writing.
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The Sarasota beach near Ringling was literally the prettiest beach we have ever seen! The sand was as smooth and white as powdered sugar! Unfortunately, Ringling’s financial offer came in at $20,000+ more per year than all of her other offers.
Save the $20K and take a nice family vacation - or take me on vacation
Seriously - finances are a huge reason and easy reason to eliminate a school.
You can only go to one - so it’s ok to chop!!
Best of luck.
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Last night I found this ranking of the top 10 SE film schools that seems to align pretty well with my research over the past few months: https://www.collegefactual.com/majors/visual-and-performing-arts/film-video-and-photographic-arts/film-video-production/rankings/top-ranked/bachelors-degrees/southeast/
We visited UNCW yesterday & were very impressed by the film program. My daughter liked the general campus tour as well. It seems like UNCW gives film students a thorough foundation in theory as well as hands-on production. The new film production facilities are very nice, and they cap the classes at 15-20 students. Even though there is no direct admit, the film dept chair said she has never seen a student who is serious about film get rejected from the major. (You do have to make a B- or higher in an Introduction to Film Studies class in order to apply to the major.) The potential downside seems to be the lack of geographic diversity since UNCW cannot take more than 18% of students from out of state. Both of our tour guides said they had never met a student from TN before. They said their out-of-state students tend to come from NJ and MD.
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If it’s the right fit and price I say do what!!
Just know few at the school will be from TN Most but not all state schools lack geographic diversity.
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Glad you got to visit. I think you could do a lot worse than UNC-W for film. Seems like the film industry in NC is picking back up, too, and that might be a plus for you if she stays and works in the area after school. NC is a lot closer to TN than CA is.
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Just saw this article that a big new film studio is being built in NC, east of Raleigh, not too far from Wilmington, so that might be a plus for UNC-W. Ascent Studios Breaks Ground in North Carolina - Variety
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The VCUA program seemed very strong when we toured the department. They no longer require a double major, and the summer intensives mean that most majors graduate after their junior year. Lynn only offers one full-ride scholarship per year, and last weekend we found out that my daughter did not get it. When we visited Lynn, we learned that their film program started after news channels donated their equipment to the school following the Obama/McCain Presidential debate. They do things differently at Lynn, with block schedules, etc. They have lots of south Florida wildlife, and my daughter was freaked out to see a snake slither across the entry to the admissions office.
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So it’s VCU you’re off to?
Edit - just saw your other post - UNCW.
Choices are hard to have - but if she’s going to win an Emmy or Academy, she’s got it in her and probably all the schools will set her up well!!
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