<p>So I'm set on film school right? LMU looks great! Princeton Review says 27,000 a year...ok parents said 25,000 is the goal. I go to LMU website how much is yearly tuition??? 33,000!!!! 33,000?!?!?!?!!</p>
<p>Film schools are SO limited! I wanna know where I should look at now considering the high probability that LMU is too expensive. Should I just focus on English and concentrate in Film Studies?? What are good colleges with a reputable film program??? Iowa maybe??? </p>
<p>Please help</p>
<p>That’ll be the price for pretty much all private colleges, but remember that they’ll probably give you a whole bunch of grants to cover that. So I wouldn’t completely rule that out. Your state schools will be cheaper, but might end up actually costing more after financial aid.</p>
<p>I’ve heard University of Southern California has an amazing film program. I would strongly suggest you check that one out. The only drawback is that it is in Los Angeles…but that is just me.</p>
<p>USC, UCLA, NYU, and FSU will be impossible for me to get into which is part of this conundrum.</p>
<p>^^^^^^^^Why???</p>
<p>My unweighted GPA is only 3.5 and my SAT is only 1190</p>
<p>The GPA isn’t horrible…but yeah the SAT is really, really low. Have you ever thought about retaking it to raise your score?</p>
<p>When you cited SAT’s above, is that CR + Math, or CR + Math + Writing?</p>
<p>If you’re referring to just the 2 tests, 1190 and 3.5 GPA UW are NOT dealbreakers. They’re just kinda,flat. But acceptable, if you look up the schoolwide average SAT scores in some of those schools. </p>
<p>As long as your stats get you past the front door of general college admission, they green light and send over your supplementary arts materials to the actual department for deep consideration on the portfolio or artistic supplement submissions.</p>
<p>THere’s some back-and-forth between those two reviews, but by then, it’s the portfolios they are weighing, not whether someone else got 3.7 to your 3.5. </p>
<p>Sure, higher grades are always better but, for majors in the arts, they won’t make up for if they don’t see anything much in your artistic potential. </p>
<p>If you want to make films, you have to become much more stubborn and unrealistic than this post. :D</p>
<p>If the whole thing seems too impossible right now, you could step back and consider making a college list with some schools (reach) to pursue filmmaking and other schools with the more general academic approach (English and film studies, but some EC clubs and courses where you get to make films). It’s a two-pronged approach, but it’s another form of making up a list of “safeties” to do that. Film schools are so competitive that I think there should be some non-film schools on everyone’s list, too, no matter how talented, because those majors are competitive. </p>
<p>Have you looked at Ithaca College in upstate NY; I recall it a bit more affordable. It’s a very creative place. As well, there’s SUNY at Purchase – the arts magnet campus for State Univ of New York, for a good price (instate or OOS), but uber-competitive at the portfolio level, same as the other film schools you’ve listed.
A little gentler in competition, but still a very creative place, is SUNY at New Paltz.
Those would be affordable at OOS prices, with New Paltz easier to get into than Purchase if youwant to study the arts.
Emerson in Boston has some merit grant money, although I got the impression somehow that they were seeking candidates with higher academics; could be wrong, just my sense of it from their written materials.</p>
<p>Here’s another one, brand new: look up Ball State University in the middle of Indiana. David Letterman (alum) just gave a huge amount of money to his alma mater so they’d build a media arts center, shiny new, with a hands-on approach.</p>
<p>Onscreen, the Media Studies center for Ball State building facility and production equipment looked beautiful. Perhaps, as a State University, it would be accessible financially for your family. Don’t worry about the name; Letterman’s made it his trademark.</p>
<p>You mentioned Iowa; if you mean Ames, Iowa, they are nationally famous for their graduate creative writing program, some say #1 for it. So check around more on the undergraduate level to see how they approach their English major. </p>
<p>See also what’s at North Carolina School for the Arts.</p>
<p>Remember that there are some filmmakers who never went to film school, too, but came at it from other directions. For example, documentary filmmaker Ken Burnes graduated from Hampshire College, and he simply did films all the time as campus projects in a very open kind of school that didn’t hem him in. When he started out, there was hardly anything called a film department, anywhere; he just kind of did it. Maybe he was a history major, not sure. He specializes in documentary films, and you’ve seen them perhaps on PBS. Must be around 60 by now, so yes, there is more training out there than in those days. I’m just mentioning it because it’s possible to come to filmmaking later, and from a different base, than just going to film school startng at age l8.</p>
<p>Thanks I will look at those schools.</p>
<p>The aim is a school though that doens’t have portfolio review. And btw its a 1900 SAT, 1190 old SAT with 670 reading.</p>
<p>Does anyone know anything abotu Iowa I heard they are good but I don’t know anymore with regards to this flood…</p>
<p>There are lots of kids studying film production with SAT’s in the l800’s…you are fine. Yours reads like this: 670 CR, 520 Math, 710 Writing to me. </p>
<p>And a 3.5 UNweighted is some kind of B, right?</p>
<p>You. Are. Fine. </p>
<p>BTW, the math figures to be least important of the 3 scores to an artistic film review faculty, compared to the CR and Writing scores. In Math, you’re above 500 (average for the nation, right?) which shows you can pass the General Education requirements in Math when you take them. Colleges also have remedial math programs, so at worst, that’s there if you need it. Not getting ripped by Hollywood producers, well for that you need a good calculator and excellent agents/lawyers anyways, so ..</p>
<p>You could also try an October retake if the Math score bugs you a lot, but it’ll only come up if you study hard for it, I’m thinking. People in the arts see people alll the time who are math-weak. It’s great to be math-strong, no doubt about it, but math-weak won’t kill you; writing weak or reading weak could be more problematic, for a film production major, but not math. Meh.</p>
<p>thats actually pretty good. its just too bad you’re math score is so low. but hey, i got into columbia with a low math score (and high cr and writing scores) so i guess you could have a good shot at the schools you’re interested in as well.
what state do you live in?</p>
<p>OP, 1900 isn’t bad at all. You are in better shape than you think…</p>
<p>If you guys say so. But isn’t USC still out of my reach? UCLA and Cal definitely are. So i’m really in a standstill if I don’t get into USC/film school. I might have to do something like film studies concentration at Michigan State but I don’t know how successful i’ll end up career wise. Iowa would be good I just don’t know about that with all the flood damage.</p>
<p>And yes 520 math 670 reading 710 writing. </p>
<p>Didn’t Stephen King start out writing novels than moved into filmmaking? something like that</p>
<p>What happens if you explore the princeton review website (or whichever one it is that lists"best colleges by major" ? That’s what I’m reaching for here.</p>
<p>And cross-reference that with their costs of attendance. </p>
<p>And notice the median SAT scores for each school..comparing yours to the median, which will perhaps reassure you about your scores. Don’t compare yourself to the school valedictorian and the royal court at your h.s…that’s a zero sum game.</p>
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<p>You’re sounding like Woody Allen here. 
I think Iowa will be dry by the time you matriculate. I’ll bow out here so other voices can be heard. </p>
<p>Stay positive!!</p>
<p>What happens is that I get a lot of bogus schools that have film as like a concentration of the English department (which isn’t necessarily bad but I’d really have to go to graduate school then which is a lot more money) or mainly just that it isn’t very good. I definitely want to take some screenwriting courses.</p>
<p>I found Boston Univeristy though but that is so so so expensive.</p>
<p>Ah, here’s an idea. Try a post over at the Wesleyan College (in Connecticut) forum, because they have a great Film Studies major, but may be too off-the-charts expensive.</p>
<p>But they might tell you where ELSE did they apply, if they had interest in film studies, for an easier pricetag…ask what were their financial safeties for a film studies major, in other words. Everyone has a “list” they remember well. </p>
<p>Also, you might need to have your parents fully explore the CC FInancial Aid forum, because they need to know how to calculate possible financial aid. Their “budget” of $27K…where did that come from, could they get loans, and so forth. In the end, your choices have to be what they will support financially, but at the beginning many parents don’t know much about financial aid, which is handled with a lot of creativity over there at the FInAid CC forum. In particular, middle class families have it hard and need to explore with great passion what can be possible, since they can’t cut a check but might be above the need-based income levels. It’s important for them to run the numbers, though, and sometimes people stretch a bit or take loans for this. </p>
<p>An amazing thread to look for there is about Good Schools with Merit-based Aid (my title isn’t exact) by Curmudgeon. That’s a great thread.</p>
<p>Now I will keep my promise and let other voices be heard.</p>
<p>I think I found my school! </p>
<p>UNC Wilmington…located near the second largest studio outside of Hollywood. Looks like a very good program</p>
<p>Let me tell you something. Try for USC, it has the best film program in America, and one of the best in the whole world. You had a higher SAT than me, and we’re almost even at the GPA and I still got in to their college of letters and science. Their regular school, not film or anything. I’m way into film like ridiculous and I highly advise SC. Their portfolio doesn’t even require any movies, just essays and answers to stuff. They just want to see if you have a story to tell. Try applying dude. Chapman has an amazing film program too and it’s definitely not as competitive as SC or ucla or anything. I’m surprised no one has mentioned it.</p>
<p>Just adding, as a Florida Student, that FSU is not AT ALL out of your league. Apply if you’re interested.</p>