@jrmutley Thanks and best of luck to your son. I hope he gets the interview!
It seems that they offered different times to each applicant selected for an interview. In our case, she was offered a choice between… Friday, February 24th- 8:45am or 2:15pm, Saturday, February 25th- 8:45am or 2:15pm or Friday, March 3rd- 8:45am or 2:15pm. They do it first come first served, and as they have limited slots for each time… they likely do not offer everyone every option.
Interesting!! Is your daughter BFA production, as my son is seeking, or animation?
Nothing yet. He does have a backup plan. We would just like to know either way. Plus, we have until tomorrow to place the deposit on his housing contract (ten days from when it was submitted). I didn’t want to do that until we knew if he had an interview or not.
@bcnbound Any news on your end yet?
Nothing here. Not even a rejection! Hoping they finalize contacting people today @jrmutley
They said by end of this week so you guys should hopefully find out today! Crossing fingers for you!
Bad news. No interview here. At this point, he plans to try again next year. Good luck to everyone who got the interview. Feel free to update this if you end up getting accepted.
I’m so sorry! Yes, give it a go again, my son’s teacher knows someone that was declined and got in the next year when she applied again. Could be our plan as well if he doesn’t get in after the interview. Best of luck!!
Congrats to all that received an interview–even that is impressive. I’m stressed just reading this thread and my daughter is still in high school. I too know someone who was declined, enrolled at FSU, volunteered as much as possible on films as a Freshman and got one of those 10 “transfer” spots the next year. Hey, Barry Jenkins was a junior transfer into the film school. So don’t lose hope @jrmutley. 
If you were referring to me… yes - my daughter is a BFA applicant for film production. She will be interviewing at FSU MPA this Saturday.
Here is more info that I have learned to help other current and future applicants…
The interview process usually includes six candidates at a given time - either the multi-hour morning session or multi-hour afternoon session. The applicants all come in and sit in a room together with some current FSU MPA BFA students. They will chat a bit and ask the applicants some “get to know you” questions like where you’re from and where you have applied to, etc. MPA faculty will then come in and introduce themselves. They’ll leave and then a single candidate will go interview for 30 minutes with the faculty panel. When they’re done, that candidate will come back and join the group again while another candidate will go have an individual interview and so on. While they’re interviewing, the other five candidates will hang out together with the current BFA students. They will answer any questions that the applicants may have about the college or just filmmaking in general. They may show some films from FSU and may even take groups to the post-production area and provide sneak peaks of current thesis films being worked on, etc. Once everyone has done their individual 30 min interview, all applicants will be called in and for a group interview / exercise. MPA faculty is apparently trying to see how applicants collaborate with one another. Once that’s done, they will take the applicants on a tour of the film school and its facilities.
Thank you @WWWard for your insight on the interview process. Best of luck to your daughter this Saturday and keep us posted! I would love to know what the guys in her group wear to the interview if you don’t mind checking back in after Saturday. My son isn’t much of a coat/tie guy, but curious how many will be that dressed up. Thanks in advance.
You’re welcome. And thank you.
The suggestion we received from a current BFA student there is to dress either business casual or business… but I will let you know what we see there in-person afterwards.
@WWWard is correct. We know a current BFA student who graduates this year. I’ll also add that the applicants are even being evaluated as they “socialize” with the current students during the entire process. So, it is important to ask questions, seem genuinely interested, etc… They aren’t necessarily looking for the best directors in the room. They are looking for people who can work as a team and collaborate.
My daughter is a junior in the film program at FSU - reach out if you have any questions!
You’re welcome.
So I guess the primary advice to my daughter will be to be engaged… ask questions, socialize well and exhibit strong collaborative and team-building skills. Of course that may be easier said than done prior to the actual 30 min interview with the MPA faculty panel lol… as her nerves & stress level will likely be super-heightened. But here’s hoping…
At least she already has an admission to UTexas as a strong back-up for film & the decision from USC SCA pending
WWWard–did Texas require an interview for the RFT school? Texas is so hard to get into from OOS so congrats–your daughter must have amazing scores on top of writing/portfolio. Just curious if the admission to the film program is as structured as FSU
No. While we too of course have also heard that UT has a great film program (Ranked #11 by The Hollywood Reporter), their approach to admissions for the R-T-F program was very strange. No interview + no creative supplements or portfolio were requested or even reviewed if submitted. My daughter submitted them anyhow… but they claim that they do not see them if submitted.
Film faculty is also not involved in admission decisions at all and does not even review applicants. It is 100% up to UT admission only.
So… UTexas may be a top film program, but their approach to selecting students is 180 degrees different from programs like FSU and USC. At those other top film schools, you have to be admitted twice… once by the overall university and again by the film school. And their list of supplements required was extensive. Of course, USC SCA & FSU MPA are also BFA programs and offer more of a conservatory approach to teaching.
I guess more power to UT if they are still able to teach well and turn out successful film grads, but if so - it has nothing to do with who they let in initially. Which seems unfortunate… and a little unfair.
That being said… yes - it is much harder to get in to UTexas apparently as OOS. My daughter’s stats were impressive IMO. I also think that her creative supplements and portfolio were impressive… but that factor apparently (and ironically) had zero to do with her admission to UT.
@WWWard --Wow, interesting. I was curious as there is very little info on the RTF part of the website. I do know many of the state universities are very skewed in terms of supporting in-state residents so you can assume all of those people who get as an OOS student are superior. UF is sorta that way and believe it or not has a film program tucked away in the English dept. We have friends that just worked on a UF thesis film.
Yes… we also found it strange, as UTexas did not seem very adept at self-promoting its RTF program online. But Austin is also a great town generally and especially as an emerging film hub.
My daughter briefly considered UF, but she was not at all impressed with their iffy approach to film… as only an English major concentration.
In FL, the top 3 seem to be FSU, UMiami and UCF… especially in terms of the programs’ reputations and money dedicated via the schools. And FSU seems to be in first place by a fairly wide margin when it comes to a concentration in Film Production. My daughter though did apply to UM as well. I now doubt though that she would even consider UM over UTexas. But her heart is still mainly centered on FSU and USC right now with UTexas in a close third position. After Saturday… and her in person visit to FSU MPA… I will be curious how she ranks them each then. We will try to go to Austin soon as well. She already saw USC SCA. Her sister is currently there at USC, but not an SCA major. USC SCA is utterly beyond comparison in terms of facilities and the diversity of programs and resources dedicated to all of it. FSU is clearly aiming that way and trying to catch up rapidly… buts its program is only around 20 yrs old I believe. Still… they are making great strides. FSU’s main strength seems to be the small # admitted, the low teacher to student ratio, its unique mentoring program, etc. FSU clearly may be the better fit for some.
Hopefully my daughter will get to choose among all three, but I seriously doubt it. Both FSU and USC are just way too hard to gain admission into.