<p>My d has a very close friend who is looking at film schools. She's currently touring, and has gone to UCLA (her "dream" school), USC, NYU, Columbia. </p>
<p>She's a nice kid, with a 4.0 uw, top 5-10% of a small, public school, with SATs I'm the mid-500s after several prep classes (ACT is not much better - 27 composite).</p>
<p>She is not likely to get need-based aid, and her parents cannot pay even half of a UC out of state.</p>
<p>She's aiming high based on her gpa and rank, but does not seen to understand that her scores will likely be a barrier to admission. Her ECs are solid, but not exceptional.</p>
<p>Any suggestions for some more realistic options, or places she might get money? </p>
<p>How well does she write? As a result of these essays combined with your D’s GPA, they might offer some significant money. Does she have a film portfolio to show them?</p>
<p>You might also consider those schools for which standardized tests are not required or where they are not emphasized:</p>
<p>So, her parents can pay about $20k-25k per year? If so, she definitely needs some financial safeties.</p>
<p>What is her home state? There are some very good film schools in other states. At the annual Hollywood Campus Film Festival (which is the largest one), you will see many other schools that were winners.</p>
<p>Home state is AZ. Honestly, I’m not sure her parents can even do that much. D has been it if work for about a year, M was a SAHM who recently went to work. However, they have assets that prohibit much aid.</p>
<p>Op,
get a book called “lights camera application” on amazon for info on applying to film schools. (it was written by 2 cc members). Off the top of my head, which is not complete, here are a few schools:
Chapman U
Loyola Marymount U
Central Florida U
Florida State
Emerson
Boston U
Northwestern U
Miami U in Ohio
Wellslyan?
Vanderbilt?
Cal State Univ Northridge
UT Austin</p>
<p>With her stats, chapman will give $25K scholarship, which would bring COA from $60K down to $35K and kid might qualify for fin aid. USC gives 50% off tuition for NMF (approx. $22) which brings cost to around $35K also and might get fin aid.</p>
<p>I think the school safety list depends a lot on what precisely she wants to learn how to do at film school? Film studies? Produce? Direct? Write? Also I think Chapman, LMU, Boston, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, FSU, and UT Austin are not safeties in Film. All are very competitive. Northwestern is impossible with an ACT of 27. Many others will be reaches including Boston, Vanderbilt due to her test scores.</p>
<p>Others to consider might be American U, U of Miami, Syracuse, New Mexico, BYU, and Cal State Long Beach.</p>
<p>I’d suggest she start studying to retake her ACT and SAT Tests.</p>
<p>Well, I haven’t researched true safeties for film production. I’ve heard one poster on cc mention Hampshire College. Other safeties might include Cal State University Los Angeles, and los angeles city college (a community college).</p>
<p>For programs that require a portfolio/film/story for admission, (USC, Tisch, Chapman) the film may offset the lower ACT (but note that acceptance to USC SCA film prod is 3-4%). For many other film prod schools that do not require a portfolio, the ACT WILL matter very much.</p>
<p>My son went to a school one might consider a “safety” for production (Media Arts) at Ohio University. He has had a successful career almost from the moment he graduated. There were TONS of opportunities to make films in college, right from Freshman year. The last two movies he worked on: Maleficent and X-Men: Days of Future Past. There are a lot of “safeties” out there. Success will depend on her drive, talent, and learned skills (learned from actually MAKING films).</p>
<p>Agree with digmedia. Has she visited Barrett College at Arizona State? It’s the honors college and I believe they give full tuition scholarships and maybe even more for NMF. A friend’s son was very interested in their film production major and they have new dorms, special classes, etc. In-state tuition should be affordable even without a big scholarship. Basically, for film production majors–a student’s high GPA can help get scholarships (when paired with high test scores) for colleges looking to raise their overall scores/gpas for rankings. OTOH, for the most selective film schools, including the ones she has looked at, there are a lot of highly qualified applicants grades-wise and they tend to place emphasis on ECs, film honors and awards, and especially portfolio or film submissions, when req’d. For safety, this student needs some instate or equally affordable options. Even if she gets into some of these dream programs, it doesn’t sound like she can attend. This looks like a parent/child disaster waiting to happen.</p>