I got accepted to Chapman Dodge Film Program, and am currently waitlisted at LMU Film School. If I get accepted into LMU, which school would you recommend from the 2 and why?
As background, I am passionate in film, but I would also like to supplement this with a dual degree in marketing/ business to help me communicate between industries. As for film in specific, I am very interested in documentary filmmaking as well as a very experimental environment.
I was also provided with a merit scholarship, and grants by Chapman. Not certain if I will get any grants from LMU due to being waitlisted.
Here is my website to get a feel for my interests.
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Check Chapman’s Yelp reviews. My daughter and many she knows are unhappy there and she transferred (but she’s not a film major). Many others didn’t like it either and transferred.
However, Chapman’s film dept. is the ONLY reason I would suggest someone go there, as it’s got a good reputation and there seems to be good networking. I suggest you find a Dodge student or Dodge alum and email the person. Ask for both good and bad feedback. From the outside, seems great but you need insider info. You can even look on Quora and see if there are alums you can message. Write to as many as you can. We wrote to two alums and it wasn’t enough, they only had positive feedback.
As for campus life, there is none, many go home on weekends and party during the week. There is nothing to do in Orange, even with its downtown. Guys cannot get into parties while girls can, but the top frats only talk to the top sororities. The dining hall has the same food and it’s not that good. We were disappointed with incompetent administration who didn’t seem to care about students. It’s a private school but feels like a public CA college as far as caring about students.
Congrats, Chapman Dodge is very hard to get in, and an excellent program! I’m guessing that the chance of any aid from LMU is slim if you are waitlisted.
My D goes to LMU and loves it (she’s a Theater major and screenwriting major, so a little exposure to the film school). She has friends with friends at Chapman and they are all happy. I don’t know how one film school stacks up to the other; both are well known so I would say follow the money!
I’m sorry that the previous poster had a bad experience and transferred. I wouldn’t let that dissuade you, but maybe do more digging into the social scene to see if it is a fit. You can also check the retention rates. A quick google showed me that Chapman’s freshman retention rate is 91% well above national average of 68%.
@TS0104: Theater and film majors spend a lot of time together on projects so yes, they are departments with students who have close ties. Be in one of those departments or a top frat/sorority and it’ll be fun. The dorms mandate closed doors and do not have mandatory dorm events so the students cannot necessarily rely on making friends through the dorms. No one hangs out onMain St., their downtown. Orange is 45 minutes from Los Angeles, so it’s good to have a car, although so many are from SoCal so it’s likely someone has a car. My daughter lived in the dorm, had no car, was not one of those majors, so she didn’t have a good experience at Chapman, despite having a good high school experience. She’s at a large public university now and enjoys it much more, it’s run with more care than Chapman offered.
Re the Chapman freshman retention rate, it’s a college of 6000 undergrads, a small school, so there are no weed-out classes as per other colleges, they can’t afford to lose that many. UC Berkeley, for example, has 50% freshman dropout rate because there are more students.