Transfering to Tisch for Screenwriting

College Majors Visual Arts and Film Majors
1

<p>Hello world! I am asking to be judged, guided and verbally assaulted here! Don't let me down...</p>

<p>I love philosophy. I really, really love philosophy. But let me just say I love certain types of philosophy a widdle bit more than others. And this preference is not in analytic philosophy's favor which my school definitely leans towards. For this reason, as well as many, many, many others, I wish to transfer.</p>

<p>Philosophy's new vehicle, I now realize, is the movie. The totality of a thought can't be captured in a proposition called p. It is something that needs to be set free by people engaging in a (Lacanian!) narrative. If in order to do that I need to embrace the simulacrum, so be it! </p>

<p>This is a relatively abrupt decision (from having no career aspirations to lofty ones in a matter of months), but that doesn't mean it wasn't well thought out. My whimsy runs deep.</p>

<p>NYU's place here now is obvious. Dramatic Writing at Tisch will train me to dramatically write dramatically better. CAS is also supposed to sport a great Phil department in their arsenal. NYU's huge student body also allows it to support a wider range of classes than just the obligatory ones. Going to Tisch enables you to major in CAS as well, but the exchange is not reciprocal.</p>

<p>A few things are weighing against me for Tisch:</p>

<p>-As an un-enlightened senior, I choose to not go to CAS.
-I have no solid/official extracurriculars showing a screenwriting passion and can see no way of getting them at my current school.
-No classwork/training in screen (or play) writing.
-No way to tell if my portfolio is any good as I am afraid to share that I am transfering to ANYONE. </p>

<p>I guess because I am posting on this site, my statz are obligatory.</p>

<p>Right now I am going to a school in New Hampshire with a name that starts with D and ends in "artmouth". </p>

<ul>
<li>3.8ish College GPA</li>
<li>4.0+ High School GPA (4.2 or something), Valedictorian</li>
<li>2100-2200 SATs</li>
<li>36-24-36 BWH</li>
<li>APs to knock out most intros</li>
<li>Thanks to the wonky quarter system, my GPA represents only 3 classes (Kierkegaard, Costume Design, Writing class on "Othering")</li>
<li>Helped on costumes for school play</li>
<li>Currently taking Epistemology, Postmodernism and the Philosophy of Neuroscience</li>
<li>Work as a teaching assistant at the art workshops</li>
</ul>

<p>This stuff doesn't scream "playwright"! It murmurs "pretentious"... Do I have a chance at Tisch? Independent of my screenwriting aspirations, I really want to transfer. If I don't get into Tisch, I can't be considered for CAS. I am also applying to CUNY Hunter so I have a more wallet-friendly alternative. My mystery school is giving me essentially a free ride and that will be DIFFICULT to give up - but dreams are dreams are dreams are dreams!</p>

2

<p>I don’t get much of what you are saying but I guess the prettiest college hoodie plus side way logo sweatpants that is still bearable because of its beautiful font and that prettiest green which also matches entire college town nor lovely Hopkins ctr. nor Hanover in general (the mountains! the river! the air! the…the… highways for just to get milk from the nearby gas station! ) plus chance to meet Bill Bryson (if he returns) or Bella/ Edward Cullen (if they got bored and want to test college life after all) and the famous dead alum who wrote world’s best picture books or live alum who is the world’s best circus top-hat does not make you happy, come to NYU and be miserable, work at trader joe on 14th to make ends meet and party every weekend to leave puke and trash around 10th-12th street dorms like everyone else.
I shop there every Tuesday morning around 8: 30, and please bring that pad thai mix back, why oh why did they take down from the shelf !<br>
PS. Hunter’s color is not hunter green but the ugliest purple, mind you. If you like green, I’d stay at D.</p>

3

<p>OK, wait a sec. You are about to walk away from a full ride at Dartmouth to enroll in a dramatic writing or screenwriting program without ever having written a screenplay or a script of any kind, and having no idea if you actually like dramatic writing or are any good at it? Take a deep breath and sit down. </p>

<p>There are several screenwriters on cc who have posted at length about the benefits of studying other subjects as an undergrad, prior to training in their field. They recommend classics and English lit majors, among others.</p>

<p>I know less about dramatic writing programs, but top flight screenwriting programs are extremely difficult to get into (We’re talking way less than 10%) and some don’t accept transfers. At USC, for example, undergrad screenwriting is a four year program. If you transfer in, it’s still a four year program. And whereas at some colleges you simply apply for admission and then select the major of your choice, at Tisch or a place like UCLA, your major is going to have to accept you too, which without writing background and only a theoretical passion for the field, is going to be tough. </p>

<p>Doesn’t Dartmouth have some sort of creative writing program that would allow you to check out whether your new intended career is a match? Does the drama department perform student written one acts? Have you ever taken drama classes? Are there classes that would give you some background in film history and theory, and in dramatic literature? Could you get a summer internship at a production company where you could immerse yourself in scripts and script analysis and get more of a feeling for the practical side of the business? If you were to pursue some of these options, it would give you a couple of years to develop writing skills and come up with an actual portfolio of writing, scripts, whatever, so you could apply to a competitive MA or MFA program. Seriously, a solid record at Dartmouth along with the writing credentials you could develop there will give you a much better shot at the kind of writing program and/or career that interests you post-grad.</p>

4

<p>Thank you wiseman, that’s what I would have said if I knew any better and how to write.</p>

5

<p>Just looked at the Dartmouth website. It appears that you can take writing for the stage in the English Department through the Creative Writing program and that there are screenwriting classes both in the English Dept. and in Film and Media Studies. There are also all sorts of film theory, film, and documentary classes, with visiting filmmakers who interact with students. Please consider enrolling in a few of these courses and seeing how you like them before taking a precipitous leap.</p>

6

<p>Dartmouth huh? Just 15 minutes down the road from me</p>