<p>Ladies and Gentlemen,
voil</p>
<p>You forgot the new Media Arts & Practice major ;)</p>
<p>Thank you!!! It’s just that I’ve never actually heard of anyone majoring in that! 
But I’ll add it as soon as there is someone here applying.</p>
<p>Just a little more info on applying for SCA majors for incoming freshmen. In the past, you were able to list a first and second choice major. If you select both majors in SCA–for example Production as your first choice, and Writing for Film & Television as your second choice–you must complete and submit the supplements for both those majors. Each portfolio/supplement will be reviewed independently by the admissions staff/professors in each major and a decision will be made. At that point, the list of those admissible from each major at SCA will go to the main USC admissions office (meaning, in theory, that one applicant may be on the admitted student list to both SCA majors she/he applied to). They then do a review of those students on the basis of other criteria, primarily academic. If there are no red flags on GPA or test scores (and no one has ever publicly stated what would make a candidate inadmissible on that), the candidate is admitted to their FIRST CHOICE MAJOR. That means they will likely never know that they were also admitted (or not) to their second choice SCA major. So if you 1) get admitted to your first choice major, and 2) suddenly have a change of heart, you will have to directly contact your second choice major and see if they will tell you if and how you can make a switch.</p>
<p>It’s confusing, but… not impossible. Carry on!</p>
<p>Thanks for the info, madbean.</p>
<p>My fellow students, I would like to thank you for both your interest in SCA, and for answering so many questions that each of us have. I’ve been making movies for 6 years but I find that i I want to do critical studies because it is a course that studies the impact of cinema on modern culture. I myself find that my life has been affected by film and television in a very drastic way.</p>
<p>Congrats for narrowing it down DreamingFIlms. My daughter came to the same conclusion. She practically eats and sleeps with a camera. But in choosing she wanted the flexibility of Critical Studies which shocked us when she applied. We thought for sure she’d do Film Production as a BFA. After orientation she came back confident she had enough room to get the production courses she wanted while still able to spend time analyzing film and its impact, take some business and pre-law courses. Just be warned - a lot of papers will be written in CS. But she’s thrilled with the options presented. Good luck on your journey.</p>
<p>Hey guys how are your 5 minute production samples going along? (for those applying to film production). I’m starting production on mine tomorrow and have been working on this script for 4-5 now. If anyone’s finished it’d be awesome to see your films!</p>
<p>DreamingFIlms,
it’s great to see someone with CS as a first choice. So many people complain that the students in the CS division are just those who didn’t get into production or writing, or look down on it because it isn’t BFA and accepts more people. I even saw this mentioned about a week ago here, on one of the USC threads, and I find it quite bothering.
I myself will apply to CS as my second choice major, but not because I don’t want to do it as much, but because Writing is a structured, intensive 4-year program, that I think would be more difficult to do in grad school, whereas I think CS is more feasible as an MA.
Anyway, I hope this isn’t really an issue and people only talk about it because they have nothing better to discuss. Have you heard anything about this, though?</p>
<p>@australianfilm I’m not applying to production, so I can’t help you with that, but my drafts for the WSTV supplement are more or less done. It features two screenplays, so if you want to, I could give you a glimpse into those.</p>
<p>Besides, where else are you all applying?</p>
<p>Yes LayraSparks I’d love to see some screenplays! Actually I’m half tempted to go for Screenwriting because I consider myself 50/50 Writer/Director. In the past 2 years I’ve read Robert Mckee’s “Story” twice, Blake Snyder’s “Save the Cat”, over 15 feature film screenplays and written about 10 short film scripts myself.</p>
<p>I’m also applying to another bunch of film programs (NYU, Chapman, Emerson, the usual bunch). But my stats are good enough for Ivy league (2380 SAT, 3.9 GPA) so I’m applying to Yale, Brown and Columbia too because they have semi-decent film programs. To be honest, any college in the United States would be way better than any in Australia, so I’m not too fussed though obviously USC is my dream school.</p>
<p>@australianfilm
OK, I’ll PM you!
I have a copy of ‘Save the Cat’, haven’t heard of ‘Story’ yet, but I’ll check it out. I’ve also written quite a few scripts, short films & feature films, though never professionally.</p>
<p>Also, congrats on your stats! Even if SCA doesn’t accept you, USC sure will. I agree with you on US colleges, I’m from Hungary and I’d just about go to any college in the States than stay here. I’ll also be applying to Ivies, but won’t go further than UPenn & Dartmouth. I can’t afford NYU, but I’ll apply to NYUAD. I’ll also give Emerson a shot, although I’m a bit worried because about 60% of graduates are apparently unemployed. Other than those, I’ll be applying to Occidental, Syracuse & Regent’s College London, but obviously USC is my first choice by far.</p>
<p>@LayraSparks
As an avid reader, I would also enjoy to read your work please! </p>
<p>And as to your question about Critical Studies:
I chose this route because I want to study previous film as an inspiration for future work. Also, I want to double major in some sort of Narrative Studies field or Literary field. Maybe even Business…
It saddens me deeply that Critical Studies is considered a second tier major. I remember upon visiting USC, I was the only prospective student interested in Critical Studies. Say what they may, I choose Critical Studies because I’m not certain of which path I will take. </p>
<p>-DF</p>
<p>@DreamingFIlms I sent you a PM!</p>
<p>For the 2013-14 season, I plan to apply to the BA of Screen and Television writing as my second choice (Narrative Studies as my first - I think it’s more safe…). I just started the supplement today, and I think it’ll be the most fun part of app season!</p>
<p>Just a quick question: for the Creative Portfolio List, they literally mean list all your creative projects, right? Do you think it’ll matter that a vast majority of the projects I’ve done have been novels? I’ve done a couple screen projects, but no full-length screenplays yet. </p>
<p>Good luck to everyone! :)</p>
<p>Hi cgreenie! I think you mean the BFA in Writing, SCA doesn’t have a BA Writing program. And yes, the supp is really fun! I’m almost done and I’ve actually enjoyed doing it a lot.
In the Portfolio List, you can mention just about anything, it doesn’t even need to be film related. So, if you’ve done novels, it’s perfectly fine. You should definitely mention it, it’s not a problem at all, more of an advantage if you ask me. SCA doesn’t really look for experience, it looks for talent.
Also, if you’d rather do Screenwriting, then you could apply to it first choice. I don’t think you should apply to NS as your first choice just because it’s “safer”. It’s reviewed separately, and if you get into both, you’ll (probably) have to do Narrative Studies, because it was your first option. So if you don’t get into SCA, you would still have that to fall back on. Though if you prefer Narrative Studies, disregard what I’ve said. I had actually also planned to apply to that for a while, though now I’ve chosen to stay within the limits of SCA when it comes to my major.</p>
<p>Good luck to you too! :)</p>
<p>LayraSparks,</p>
<p>Thanks for the support! Yes, I was typing too fast and forgot the “F” in BFA. 
</p>
<p>Also, thanks for answering that question. It felt nice to at least type all of the list out. The next part’s the hard/fun part - writing something good enough for a shot at a spot.</p>
<p>As for whether or not I’ll put Narrative Students or Screenwriting first, I’ll still have to think about it, because I do really want to do NS, but getting into any program at SCA would be incredible. Have you heard if a lot of people who are in SCA double major? I was thinking if I didn’t get into SCA but got admitted, I’d apply for a minor in screenwriting.</p>
<p>cgreenie,
In SCA, a lot of people who are in Critical Studies double major. Writing and Production students can’t do that, because Production will become a BFA, Writing is already a BFA, and BFA doesn’t really allow you to double major. Or in fact declare a minor, most of the time. I don’t know about other majors, though.
I looked at the course requirements for NS, and there were a couple of screenwriting classes. So I don’t know whether it would be worth it to do a Screenwriting minor if you’re in NS, maybe Cinematic Arts would be better? I really don’t know, do what you think is best The reason I said apply to WSTV first is, as you also mentioned, that getting into SCA is a pretty amazing thing in itself, and depending on what you do in the future, may be worth more. That is, if you want to go into the film industry.
Anyway, let us know hoe you get on :)</p>
<p>*know Sorry.</p>
<p>Anybody else working on their Screenwriting portfolio? I’m writing a 90 - 120 page screenplay and after that hopefully I can work on some short stories and 15 page scripts. Should that be enough?</p>