<p>I'm a senior studying Cinema at San Francisco State University and think I have a good shot of getting into a top ten film graduate school. </p>
<p>The problem, not surprisingly, is DEBT. I currently have only 7,500$ of debt to worry about, but going to a top school would likely take it up to around six-figures.</p>
<p>I feel that the experience of dedicating myself to my work for a few years would be invaluable. I don't know whether I will be able to truly reach my potential unless I am given that time to grow and develop as a writer/director, but I don't want to destroy my future by not being able to pay the bills.</p>
<p>I'm not looking to be some famous millionaire, or be the next Spielberg, I just want to make a good living doing what I love.</p>
<p>I’m presently drowning in MFA debt so I get it. Here’s what I’d ask myself if I were you:</p>
<ul>
<li>Do you presently have a filmmaking community you like/can work with (fellow writers, editors you trust, cinematographers, etc., etc.)?</li>
<li>Do you have projects in your head right now?</li>
<li>Do you think you could find a job in the industry (editing, PA work, DP work, etc. etc.) with your credentials, connections, or help from school career services within a few months of graduating?</li>
</ul>
<p>Because if you’re answering yes to most/all of these questions, I would wait. Grad schools (at least decent ones) seem to look more seriously at candidates who’ve taken the initiative to make work outside of the context of school. If you can make do with the connections you’ve made in school to put together some kick-ass project you have in your head during, say, the year after you graduate, polish it up, and THEN submit it to grad school, you might actually have the chance to dig yourself out of debt somewhat by working, hopefully make more friends in the industry in the meantime, and then be able to present yourself to top tier film programs as a mature candidate who made a kick ass film outside of school.</p>
<p>Now, if you can’t say yes to any of those questions? You probably could go to grad school if you feel like that’s the only place where you can make your work happen. It won’t mean anything to try to build a reel on your own if you don’t have an emotionally (or at least intellectually) invested crew or connections - a craigslist production is probably gonna look like a craigslist production.</p>
<p>All that said, it’s all who you know. If you think you’ll meet your Thelma Schoonmaker and Harvey Keitel at grad school, do it, man. You only live once. It sounds gross, but watching a friend who only has a highschool degree get nominated for an Academy Award basically because his upstairs neighbor needed an editor and heard he knew Final Cut has convinced me of this fact.</p>