Should I transfer from the midwest to LA?

Transfer Students
1

<p>Here's my situation, and I'd love to get some feedback on it. I'm currently a freshman that is enrolled at a selective, but not prestigious or well known, LAC in Illinois. I had been accepted to some very good schools (Wesleyan, Kenyon, Tulane, Occidental, etc.), but I ended up going to the small school in Illinois because of scholarships. For a while I was having a good time. I joined a fraternity, made some pretty good grades (3.41), etc. Before this past week I was a double major in History and Theatre. However ever since I came to this school, I have felt disconnected with the theatre department. My peers disrespected me and chalked me up as a frat boy, my professors were inadequate and pretentious, and I had to work in the shop, which was a living nightmare for me as I was constantly harassed by the workers there for being incompetent. So essentially the department at the school killed my love for theatre. I switched to English Writing and History last week, but I still have to work at the shop for the rest of the semester, and deal with a bunch of people I despise. </p>

<p>Since I have been at college I have been extremely disappointed with the education I have received. The intellectual experience I was hoping for has not come. I feel like I have learned more about drugs and alcohol than anything related to what I study. I really want to be a filmmaker and actor, and I honestly think at this point my relations with the theatre department are too screwed up to mend. I'm also not sure if I really want to continue to major in History and English. So here are my options.</p>

<p>A - Transfer to one of the schools I got into (Wesleyan was my dream school), but I would have to take out more loans, go into more debt, which would be hard, especially since I want to get into film. </p>

<p>B - Transfer to a less selective school in LA (Chapman, LMU, etc.) and study film</p>

<p>C - Stay at my current college, study English and History, and then go to grad school for film</p>

<p>D - Try and get back into theatre</p>

<p>I'm honestly not sure how I feel about transferring. I really love my brothers in the fraternity, but I haven't been this unhappy in a long time. Any advice?</p>

2

<p>The other possibility would be to take a year off and figure out what I want to do, but I have a funny feeling my parents wouldn’t go for that</p>

3

<p>No offense, but LA has more than enough unemployed theater and film majors running around. Believe me, I know.</p>

4

<p>No offense, but that didn’t really answer my question dude…</p>

5

<p>It really sounds like you want to go Wesleyan. Do you know how much you would be paying? I hear they’re actually decent with aid if you get in. Honestly, if I felt really disconnected like you did at school, I would most certainly transfer out ASAP. If you’re not happy with the department and attitudes of the school, you wont be happy —> bad grades. Have you looked into USC? You should consider that school since it’s more art-intellectual-based, and it has a great greek system from what I hear. I applied to USC because I want to be closer to home and all the jobs I seem to want is in LA, so I figured going to USC (which has the programs i’m looking for) will be best. Hope I helped.</p>

6

<p>I would love to go to USC, but I missed the transfer application deadline! Otherwise it would be at or near the top of my list. And Wesleyan was asking for 60k when I first applied. Maybe they would be willing to knock some of that money off. Thanks for the response.</p>

7

<p>Oh, I see. Does location really matter for you? If you’re willing to stay in the midwest region, I would so look into University of Michigan since like…everything they have is great, including theatre and the humanities. Plus, it’s the big ten and the greek like is most likely vibrant.</p>

8

<p>If I did decide to transfer, I would like to go to LA. The thing about the greek system at schools is that I’m already an active member of a fraternity, and once you join it’s very hard to become deactivated, and join another fraternity. What I could do is join another chapter of my fraternity (Sigma Pi) at a different school, but that would be strange.</p>

9

<p>Whats wrong with Chapman? I heard they have a good theater department.</p>

10

<p>Chapman is actually the school I would most likely transfer to. I just can’t decide on whether or not I should transfer.</p>

11

<p>If you’re unhappy at your current school and feel disconnected, I believe that could seriously hinder your academic performance. And it could just hinder you… in general. </p>

<p>Have you ever been to LA? You should probably try visiting the schools/see the place before transferring to such a far place.</p>

<p>I think being unhappy at a school is a good enough reason to leave. Otherwise you’re going to be stuck in a place that makes you feel disconnected for another 3ish years. And that could only hurt you, more than help you.</p>

<p>My friends who are at/went to Chapman really liked it and they actually now want to move to Orange, CA.</p>

12

<p>I visited LA when I was applying to colleges, and at the time I applied to Occidental, Claremont McKenna, and LMU; however those schools were too expensive to consider going there once I was admitted.</p>

13

<p>Wouldn’t Chapman cost about the same as Occidental/Claremont McKenna? Or are they offering you FA?</p>

<p>I think if you’re passionate about film, you should go to a school that has film/theater.
Studying history/writing is fine, but may not give you enough of a portfolio/background to be a competitive applicant for grad school in film. So Chapman may be a good choice, though I would research how many Chapman film grads make it to the top graduate programs (USC, UCLA, NYU, Northwestern, etc.)</p>

14

<p>-_- I’m so confuzzled. Why are you taking History and now English if want to study film? You say you attend a small, unknown LAC in Illinois, which you don’t even mention in name of, and then claim you could get into less selective schools like LMU or Chapman for film, but then complain about the cost?!?! I’m calling bluff on that claim. Do you even have a reel yet? Do you already know how to proficiently use AVID or FCP? What about write or edit a script? Sorry, but English, History, and Theatre have little to do with film. In fact, most Theatre students overact in the film world and the English students tend to overwrite.</p>

15

<p>iridetheshortbus, you do realize I’m talking about undergrad, right? A reel is something that graduate schools would want to see. I only had to submit a short film, along with some writing samples. And yes, I’m going to complain about the cost when it’s over 50k a year to go to those schools.</p>

16

<p>That still doesn’t explain why you are at a LAC for English and History if want to do film. I’ve noticed that some people do seem to parrot or follow others not so great advice here on CC.</p>

17

<p>I did it because of money. This LAC gave me a huge scholarship, and the film schools in LA were just too expensive. I figured I could get money for grad school, but after doing research, I learned that that isn’t true.</p>

18

<p>I think I’m screwed. Almost all of the colleges I was looking at are done accepting transfer applications already.</p>

19

<p>Any ideas as to what I should do?</p>

20

<p>I go to a community college that is pretty respected for its film program (Los Angeles City College). There seems to be a pretty big crowd of aspiring film makers and actors at this school. Don’t know if you want to go from a liberal arts college to a city college but LA community colleges like LA City College and Santa Monica College seems to be a breeding ground for future actors/directors/etc. Many people go on to transfer to local film schools such as USC, UCLA, Chapman etc.</p>