FSU Film School - 2016

Well, that was an exhausting 32 hour stretch, driving to and from Tallahassee back to Tampa. On the way up, I purposely stopped in Gainesville to show my daughter it and UF. She was not very impressed with either… and that was sort of my point. She did not apply to UF, but I wanted to use it as a point of reference.

She ended up liking Tallahassee and FSU much more, as expected. To me, it certainly has a better feel/vibe and overall comfort level as a college setting vs the 6 other colleges we have seen here in Florida… UTampa, USF, UCF, UF, New College (NCF) and UMiami. Granted, this is all fairly subjective, but I and my daughter at least preferred FSU/Tallahassee from an aesthetic and atmosphere point of view. Now, in terms of academic programs, that is clearly not the case, as many of those colleges are better suited for pure academic disciplines than FSU. Film though is decidedly in FSU’s favor… at least here in-state.

As for the College of Motion Picture Arts at FSU itself, our tour and time there went well. It is housed within a building that is actually attached to the stadium. So that seems strange at first. It is fairly small but well-equipped, especially given the small # of students actually being trained within their conservatory approach setting. Everything was nice and seemed new/updated. The staff and current students also seem nice, knowledgeable and approachable. It seems like a close-knit film family there. It is still hard to understand why there exists the need for interviewees to be there for over a 5 hour stretch of time… but it all seemed to go well. Their admissions coordinator, who is very nice & knowledgeable, also took the parents on a tour of the facilities. My daughter felt that it all went well too… which is the main relief.
There was her 30 minute individual interview with two faculty members and a group session that was observed by the same faculty… to see how candidates socialize, interact and collaborate… and a tour at the end. The odd thing was the waiting around in a group with three current students while each individual interview takes place.

They confirmed the #s that I have heard before… a little over 500 applied, around 350 actually got in to FSU and thus were considered for the BFA, and this cycle 45 were invited to interview. But now only 20 of those will be ultimately enrolled from the freshmen applicant pool. 10 more spots go to transfers. I assume then that this means they will offer admission to only 20 of the 45 initially, with an ordered wait list thereafter. And as students commit or decline, more interviewees may get their chance to then themselves commit or decline.

Either way, it will now be an interesting month to come. My daughter still has 12 pending decisions… 12 and 1/2 if you count FSU MPA.

Thank you @WWWard!

You’re welcome. Glad to help.

@WWWard --thanks for sharing your daughter’s experience. Fingers crossed she’s one of the 20 and she gets to decide between that and USC. I know it will be a nerve wracking wait.

@cruzanlady you’re welcome.

Yes… the waiting game (torture) is always the worst part. In my daughter’s case, she applied to most of her colleges back in early August. So her wait has been on-going now for over 6 mos so far.

We hear that USC mails out the packets on March 23rd, with portal updates online likely beginning the 25th. FSU says that the final decisions will be made by April 1st, but I likely suspect that the decisions initially - to the first 20 - will being announced sooner… maybe in mid-March. As hard as it is to become one of the 20… from an initial application pool of over 500… the truth is that not all 20 will likely even commit to FSU MPA if admitted. Some will have financial concerns or then have to compare such an offer to others. My daughter would likely only turn down an FSU MPA admission if she was also admitted to USC SCA.

But even some who get into USC SCA (which admits less than 4%) ultimately go elsewhere - due to cost considerations, etc. Its yield rate is among the highest for all the schools at USC, but is still only like 80%.

But that would be a great choice for my daughter or any applicant to get to make… if it comes down to those two options. It seems like some applicants at FSU yesterday already were admitted to other great schools like Emerson, Chapman, Loyal Marymount, UTexas, etc. And by April 1st, NYU & UCLA will also be announcing their decisions too. The reality is that there are a host of great college options out there for those interested in film production. Even if no more good news comes our way, I am confident that my daughter would be content at UTexas…

@WWWard … just sent you a rather long message telling you about the program… my son graduated December 2015.

@StantonMom I’m not sure if you are talking about FSU, but if you are I’d love to hear about your son’s experience as well. My son is interviewing FSU in less than two weeks. Thank you!

@StantonMom --ditto, except I don’t have a child interviewing just yet. Hope to in another year…but would love to hear your thoughts.

I have some small insights into the program. In a prior post, I mentioned that we know a current FSU film student. He graduates this spring and is actually quite critical of the program for a couple of reasons. This person is an aquaintance that we met by chance who was a great resource during the application process. He actually reviewed my son’s submission and thought he had a great shot at an interview.

(*FYI - I’m using the pronoun “he/his” generically. I don’t want to “out” our aquatintance in any way.)

First, when the arrangement with Digital Domain ceased, that caused a lot of headaches for the class of 2017. They became known as the “guinea pig” class. If you don’t know who/what Digital Domain is, Google them and FSU.

The students from the animation major in West Palm (related to the Digital Domain arrangement) were absorbed into the production major in Tallahassee. It wasn’t a smooth transition. I’m not going to pretend that I know or understand all of the details. Just that the affected students pretty much felt screwed by the administration and still have hard feelings about how that played out.

Secondly, in the student’s opinion, the Dean has an odd fascination in VR tech (he’s actually the former Dean now because he recently took a job at a production company in Atlanta; he is still listed as a faculty member). As such, he has spent a great deal of the school’s budget on that emerging technology. If that interests your applicants, great. However, the student we know believes that VR is definitely NOT going to make an impact in narrative film and is not why he attended FSU in the first place.

The student has flat out told me that if he could do it all over again, and could attend elsewhere, he would. At the same time, he has also conceded that at the end of the day he knows that he will have a BFA-Film Production degree from a program that is well known, respected, and has a great network of working professionals behind it. He also sees improvement in the program’s treatment of those classes behind the “guinea pig” class. So, by the time that these interviewees become film students, all of those kinks should hopefully be worked out. He also seems pretty psyched and proud of Barry Jenkins big win last night.

Just for reference FSU’s former dean that left was Frank Patterson, who left to assume the role of President of Pinewood Studios Atlanta, the largest U.S. based movie studio/sound stage/post-production facility outside of Hollywood. He assumed that role Jan. 1st, 2017.I know several FSU film grads who moved to Atlanta that saw the move as a beneficial one for FSU grads sticking around the SE. Pinewood ATL is where Ant Man, Spiderman: Homecoming, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Captain American: Civil War all filmed last year.

My post was already getting too long. But, yes. That is correct and has to be seen as a major plus for FSU. Patterson’s role at Pinewood is definitely a feather in the cap and hopefully opens up a few doors for FSU grads. I was just relaying what one current student has told me.

Is anyone interviewing at FSU MPA this week, March 3rd or 4th, or only on the 10th or 11th? If what they suggest already occurred, then up to 24 have already interviewed. So it should only take up to 4 more sessions (2 per day) to complete the other 21-24 (they suggested a total of 45 interviews this year). I am just trying to speculate the earliest that their decisions could be announced. Seems like mid-March at the earliest. Also… they said that those accepted will get a call… others/alternates will only receive an email initially.

@WWWard the session choices my son was given were Feb 24th, March 10th and March 24th so decisions should be sometime after the 24th.

@loribale Ugh… lol. OK… Thanks. So, I guess FSU MPA will be like everyone else, with final decisions looming during the last week of March. It is going to be a very stressful month.

Yes, it will be a long month!! : )

Getting in on this a bit late, but my son is a deferred admission. We were told If he got an interview he would be notified either right before the university decision or right after. Portfolio is strong with good history of film related awards, good ACT, borderline gpa. I know an acquaintance received an email saying he did not make it into the interview round. Does anyone know if they would have notified him if they already weren’t interested in interviewing based on portfolio? Maybe they just let FSU send the rejection notice on March 16th? Would hope if they already know it’s a no that they wouldn’t wait until the 16th.

@FHSTN As I understand it, only 45 applicants were invited, via email, this cycle to interview for the FSU MPA BFAs. Those emails were sent out by Gloria at FSU MPA the week of Feb 7th.

If he was a deferred FSU admit, and not already admitted to FSU, then he would not even have been considered for MPA this cycle.

He could try again to transfer into the program as a sophomore… reapplying to MPA while a freshman at FSU, if he eventually gets in. But you first have to be admitted to FSU generally to even be considered for MPA.

Good Luck to him…

My son is OOS and was rejected at UT-Austin… He has a strong portfolio with many film awards in the past year and a half. His productions are done as well as what you see on tv. His ACT is good and ok gpa from a school with high academic record. His school ranks but has decided it has been to the disadvantage of its students because even students in the bottom half are super good students. When my son found out he was rejected, he said, “honestly, why would I want to go to a film school that never even looked at my portfolio.” To be honest, the facilities looked nice, but of the seven schools we visited, it was the least welcoming and the most unkept. So I suspect they have a high number of students admitted with super high class ranks but that probably have done nothing real impressive as far as film is concerned. Just an interesting approach for such a well regarded university program.

@FHSTN We also did not understand or grasp UTexas’ approach to admitting applicants into the RTF program. Their program faculty apparently plays zero role in the decision-making process and portfolios are not reviewed even if submitted.

But Austin is a excellent city, and UTexas is also well-respected overall. I cannot speak to their RTF program other than their strong ranking & positive industry feedback. IMO, they do not even do a very good job of self-promoting it or explaining its strengths or merits online. We have not visited UTexas yet and will likely only do so if my daughter is ultimately rejected by both USC SCA and FSU MPA (her top choices - especially as both are BFA programs).

My daughter was OOS as well in terms of UTexas (FL), but her rank & academic stats are all very competitive. Her main strengths I believe though is her ECs and essays / writing samples. Clearly, UTexas admissions though seems to be purely #s driven… (with in-state auto-admits simply determined by rank) which is a shame for the creative majors. But at this point, it remains a strong back-up contender for my daughter… unless she somehow gets into one of the super elite schools that she also applied to. A couple of them may be hard to turn down, if admitted.

Well, I guess that there is no one new and being interviewed at FSU MPA this month following this CC thread.

Good luck to anyone interviewing the 23rd or 24th. I assume that those have to be the last sessions… as they really need to turn-around decisions quickly thereafter.

USC SCA is mailing out their decisions on the 23rd and updating their admission portal on the 26th, so it seems that applicants to FSU MPA will learn their fate at USC SCA (those applying to both) first. I had initially thought that it would be the other way around.