Safeties for Film Major?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Our son is a rising h.s. junior with an intense passion for filmmaking and screenwriting. His unweighted GPA is 3.8, and I expect he will do well on the SAT. He did well in film festivals with the film he made last summer, and he's in post production on one digital short now and pre-production on another, so I think his passion will be evident. He does have 2 years of school left, though, and I realize there could be bumps in the road. He is also homeschooled (he'll be doing some dual-credit courses this year at the cc and a distance AP course), and that is a wild card that could help him or hurt him. </p>

<p>I've read up a lot on the top film schools and know that they are all very selective. What I am wondering is what schools our son should pursue as safeties, since the best schools are all long shots.</p>

2

<p>My cousin is going to SCAD which is a very well regarded school, but not very hard to get into. They give decent aid (cousin didnt do that well in HS, better toward the end) and got $2K/yr for no reason. It is pretty expensive though.</p>

<p>BU also has a good film school from what i've heard. Pretty much anything in PA, Mass, CA.</p>

3

<p>The following come to mind as good second level film programs. Temple, SF State, University of Central Florida, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. San Diego State also has a good program. The school is not hard to get into but the program is. Also look at UC Sanata Barabara and Santa Cruz.</p>

4

<p>My D is a great admirer of Aaron Sorkin.</p>

<p>He went to Syracuse U.</p>

5

<p>Also email Digimedia. He son goes to Ohio University. They have a growing film program, and his son is getting a huge number of opportunities.</p>

6

<p>I've talked with Digmedia before. His son is in the Honors Tutorial College at Ohio. Best I could tell, they accept 2 undergrad film students per year! The rest of their film program is for graduate students only. If you are reading this Digmedia, let me know if that's true.</p>

7

<p>Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles has an excellent program. The School of Film and Television offers BAs in Animation, Film Production, Recording Arts, Screenwriting, and Television Production.</p>

8

<p>the undergrad film program at ohio u is absurdly hard to get into. They only take something like 10 kids/YR</p>

9

<p>I just bought my D this Film School Book the other day(she is only a soph in hs but interested in the field)called "the Insiders guide to Film school: Film School Confidential" by Karin Kelly and Tom Edgar</p>

<p>I do not know which are tops,middle and safeties but...
Here are the Film schools mentioned:</p>

<p>American Film Institute,Art Institute of Chicago,Bard,Calif.Inst.of the Atrs,Chapman Univ,City College of NY,Columbia College,Florida State Univ,Howard Univ,NYU,Nortwestern Univ,Ohio Univ,san francisco Art Inst,San franciscoState Univ,Savannaugh College of Art and Design,Southern Illinois U @Carbondale,Syracuse U,Temple U,UCLA,U of Miami,U of new orleans,USC,Uof Texas at Austin,U of Utah,U of wqiscosin at Milwaukee</p>

10

<p>Film School Confidential was written nearly 10 years ago and deals with MFA programs.</p>

11

<p>There sure seems to be a big gap, academically speaking, between the top-tier film schools and the second-tier ones. I was just looking at the Common Data Set for UNC-Greensboro and found that their mid-50% SAT scores are 940-1140. I don't think we'll want to pay out-of-state tuition for him to go there! I'll keep researching the other schools that were mentioned.</p>

12

<p>the undergrad film program at ohio u is absurdly hard to get into. They only take something like 10 kids/YR</p>

<p>Really? Weird. My cousin got into their film program, but not into Penn State or Florida State's...</p>

13

<p>Chapman is worth looking into.</p>