<p>Ok, so let me start off by saying that I just graduated high school this year. I will be attending Middle-sex community college in Lowell, MA for my first year this fall. My GPA was very low (a bit below 2.0). I slacked off my high school years and I feel horrible about it. I skipped classes like no tomorrow. I want to completely change my life around from now on. My passion is screenwriting, and I want to pursue my dream. </p>
<p>My current goal is to do WHATEVER it takes to boost my GPA in the 3.0 range by the end of my 2 years. I WILL make it clear though that If you guys suggest that I just transfer to a public state university before applying to NYU I will consider this idea also. I want to be able to create an amazing portfolio, and increase my academic scores so that I can apply to schools like NYU, SUNY Purchase, USC, Emerson etc. I want to get into a top school for screenwriting. This whole college experience is stressing me out as I know NOTHING about any of this. I need the help of this community to guide me in the right direction. My questions are:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>What can I do to fix my GPA? Is there a chance of me being able to go from a 1.5 GPA to a 3.5 GPA by the end of the 2 years? What classes should I take? (College website here: Welcome</a> to Middlesex Community College)</p></li>
<li><p>I want to do an un-paid internship because I heard schools appreciate this, preferably in Boston. How do I go about doing this? Where do I look for internships and what sort of jobs should I be looking for as I've never heard of a screenwriting internship?</p></li>
<li><p>I want to get my degree in Criminal Justice first, just so I can have something to fall back on in case the screenwriting thing doesn't work out (my uncle can get me a job). But i'd much rather follow my dream afterwards. What classes should I take at Middlesex CC?(visit the website for courses of study) because I cannot find any screenwriting classes available at my school?</p></li>
<li><p>The main school i'm focusing on is NYU Tish for Dramatic writing. I was born in New York and I have family there, so it is most convenient. What are the things that I should do to prepare to transfer after I complete my 2 years at community college? Who should I talk to to help guide me through everything, and what kind of projects should I start in order to achieve my goal?</p></li>
<li><p>What extra-curricular activities should I get involved in? Who should I get involved with at my specific college?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I am prepared to work the hardest i've ever worked. I'm not necessarily un-intelligent, but I do suffer from severe laziness (lol). The passion that burns within me for screenwriting I think fuels me more than enough to do absolutely anything I need to do to get into a top school, disregarding my horrible years (mostly junior and senior year) in high school. I'll study my ass off, stay after school, what have you. I just need accurate information thrown at me as to how I go about starting this process of turning my life around and developing the materials I need to present a good impression on universities the likes of NYU Tisch.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>You don’t need a degree to be a screenwriter. If school doesn’t work out, you can still pursue your dreams.</p></li>
<li><p>If you want to get into a school like Tisch, the most important thing is to have a great portfolio. Be prepared to spend a lot of time writing and revising your material. You need to send them the best stuff you can write.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I understand this, but I feel like a school like this will give me the proper tools I need to become at the craft of screenwriting. And of course the communications that you gain are vital because networking is half the game in my opinion. And that’s the thing, I need advice and information on what classes I should take and what extra-curricular activities to do. I feel like my community college really lacks anything to do with film production.</p>
<p>Make an appointment by email (<a href=“mailto:academicadvising@middlesex.mass.edu”>academicadvising@middlesex.mass.edu</a>) and drive over and talk with an academic counselor. He or she will be able to show you how to achieve your goals. They will show you the courses in English and Creative Writing and the three classes in Communications that would interest you (Comm 105 Film Studies, Comm 106 Film and Video, and Comm 110 Screenwriting).</p>
<p>Ask your advisor if MCC offers a class in ‘College Foundation’ or something similar. You missed a lot in HS and you need to retrain yourself on how to be an A student. Ask if MCC has something to help you build new habits.</p>
<p>Also, don’t forget that your high school GPA no longer matters. Finish at MCC and the 4-year schools you apply to will not see your HS GPA. The only thing that matters for you now is your performance at MCC. Your slate is wiped clean. Get all A’s at MCC and your GPA at transfer will be 4.0.</p>
<p>I tried to keep my mouth shut but it twitches!!!
Wheaty dear, you are one sweet loco dad.
It is painful to see these kids often can’t tell where to get answers from giant school web site that is round about musical chair of links after links.
let’s hope OP got a car, gas money and the school got summer office hours and actual human taking care of businesses, be able to get appointment to the adviser one on one long enuff to go over everything, the adviser actually cares about OP’s needs and well informed about the area of the study s/he is interested in.
sorry if sounds patronizing (that’s my speciality) but for kids who did not work at HS, community colleges are more often than not HS redux of 13th 14th grades.
how did you meet graduation standard if you didn’t, er, go?
It is easy to say work hard and get 4.0 GPA. have you look back and figured out what was that bothering you? do you got fixing plan on that, if you did?
Don’t get me wrong, I do hear success stories of becoming new person and done so well at community college after messing up at HS. because HS was just wrong time and place for them.
I just saw this movie called “Terri”
<a href=“http://terri-movie.com/[/url]”>http://terri-movie.com/</a>
is it playing near you, or can you find script somewhere on the internet?
not everyone can make films like this. If one is -well taken care of helicopted straight to elite college paid by parents- writer, it takes lots of imagination and faking to write something this weird and sad.
one good thing about kids who had it bad, is they already got stories to tell if only remember it well. not only words spoken but sounds, smell, feel, light or shadow, colors.
If you survive remedial classes and be able to take advanced writing course, instructors there should be advance minded enough to tell that you are not BS-ing but pouring your heart out.
then you got your screen writing.</p>
<p>How are you going to pay $50,000 per year for NYU?</p>
<p>You need to think about transfer schools that will be affordable within your budget or that are known for good need-based aid for transfer students. NYU is notorious for horrible financial aid.</p>
<p>Ah ok so communications and some creative writing classes. Can I take all those while still taking criminal justice? And can someone answer the internship question? </p>
<p>Also, I will be talking to an adviser I already set up an appointment, but that won’t be anytime soon. For now, I want to speak my mind here. The money isn’t really an issue right now and i’ve found the source of the problems that I had in high school and I believe things are much different now.</p>
<p>@ Bears
Am I too optimistic? Yeah, probably. And yes, many of the college websites are confusing. I haven’t been to UC Berkeley’s in a few months but it was/is really tough. Bounce forward, bounce back, jeez I got dizzy.</p>
<p>@ Imagineationiskey,
I would not recommend internships for you right now. You need to be undistracted while you focus on your first 3 classes in the Fall semester. (Psst, limit yourself to three and really kill them all… get 3 A’s). No internships, no thoughts about ANY 4-year schools, no jobs, no nothing… just kill it in 3 classes. Complete focus.</p>
<p>You’ll have plenty of time for all the other plans so there is no need to waste attention on that stuff now. NYU ain’t going anywhere.</p>
<p>You will have semesters of balanced classes to fulfill a general education. You might get to take ONE writing or communications class per semester. The other classes will be math, geography, history, etc. You will need the GE classes to transfer later.</p>
<p>So fall semester might be something like:
1.) An English class
2.) Intro to Statistics
3.) A History class</p>
<p>Ah, I see what you mean. Wow that sucks, there are so many classes that have to do with film/writing that I want to take before my 2 years are up. About 6 to be exact…will I be able to complete them all or will my GE classes prevent that from happening? I need those classes to get some sort of education on writing and have an educated perspective on work that I plan to complete and add to my portfolio for a future school.</p>
<p>no no destiny, I’m the most ‘nosy’ one.
thank you anyway.
oh oh
“Terri” will be coming your way!
if you like these fuzzy films please support them.
now I see that distribution is pretty limited. not every kids would be able to see it unless it is going to be on netflix or something soon. I often forget how easy we have it here, only restricted by what little we could afford.
even its director Aza Jacobs said in some interview that’s why he left NYC, to not get distracted. if he stayed he’d be out doing/seeing something else instead of stay home and working.</p>
<p>You seem very knowledgeable. Thank you for your advice. I believe that i’m very creative. I have already come up with unique and interesting ideas that i’ve never thought my mind was capable of doing. The thing I lack is the skills to implement it into a script.</p>
<p>First, I want to reiterate what an earlier poster said: Your hs gpa no longer counts. You are starting fresh. Your cc grades will not be averaged with your hs gpa. If you get a 3.75 your first year of cc, that will be your college gpa. Therefore, it is a very good idea to get yourself connected to the academic support office at your cc, to use whatever tutoring, study skills support, coaching is available from the get-go to begin to turn yourself around academically.</p>
<p>Second, it would probably be a good idea to take a look at the applications of some of the screenwriting programs that interest you. Do they want a portfolio or do they expect you to respond to prompts and write scenes that they require or both? Then look at the transfer requirements of the universities that house the film programs that interest you. A wide range of colleges have excellent film programs. But you’re going to need a different kind of a GPA for say UCLA or Columbia than for U. of North Carolina School for the Arts or Chapman. (And lots of film students would kill to be at UNC Arts or Chapman! These are top notch film programs. I am not trying to slam these as universities, either, but different colleges take different ranges of GPA’s in transfer students.) Get a feel for the kinds of courses you need to take in order to transfer to a variety of colleges. You might want to look on the website of every college that interests you to see their transfer requirements. </p>
<p>Third, not all of the programs you’re thinking about allow screenwriting transfers. At USC, for example, screenwriting is a four year program. People do transfer in, but they still have four years of classes to take after they enter. Do check and make sure that you are preparing yourself for colleges to which a screenwriting transfer is possible.</p>
<p>Forth, if you want to do an internship, unpaid summer internships abound in L.A. and, as I understand it, New York, with production companies that use interns to read and assess screenplays in addition to doing a lot of office tasks. I don’t know about Boston, but you could certainly look on craigslist and mandy.com to see what you can find. Your cc might also have an internship office that includes communications or entertainment field placements.</p>
<p>Fifth, many of the colleges you mention have summer programs for college students, and you might well be able to take screenwriting classes there both to get more of a feel for it and to build a portfolio of material. In town, you might want to check and see what BU and Emerson offer over the summer.</p>
<p>Thanks this was very helpful. I think I’ll take this first year to focus on just applying to college and getting my priorities straight and next summer I plan to take a summer program. Does that sound reasonable?</p>
<p>Anyone who knows anything about the film industry will tell you that a film school degree is not completely necessary to break into film/TV. It’s all about talent, networking, location, and luck. You can take all the screenwriting classes in the world and still not have the talent to write a summer box-office hit. Or you can have all the talent in the world, a degree from NYU, and still struggle to work your way up in Hollywood. It’s not very likely that you’ll just graduate and automatically be able to start writing for movies and TV. Breaking into screenwriting is a long process that takes years and years- sometimes a lifetime- to be able to do. </p>
<p>You can learn a lot just by reading professional screenplays online and reading the many, many books that are out there. If you’re worried about making connections, it’s not necessary to pay big bucks to network at school. Networking is all about luck. You never know when you’ll meet someone who can help you out, so it’s usually about having the right conversation with the right person. </p>
<p>My advice is to go to a way cheaper undergraduate school. If criminal justice is truly another passion of yours, then go for that. Just because someone can get you a job doesn’t mean that’s what you should do, you should actually like that career first! Otherwise if you still want to work in film/TV you could always take production courses so that you could at least work at local news and TV stations. Whatever you end up doing, you can always write on the side. </p>
<p>I’m all about following your dreams. I would never tell you not to. But I think you should do it in a smart way that’s not going to leave you with a miserable amount of debt in a few years. Even a salary in the criminal justice field might not be able to pay off that much debt. Screenwriting is an art that, at the end of the day, can’t be taught. They can teach you format and give advice, but it’s going to be all about your talent and how much you’re really dedicated to this. I especially wouldn’t go to a school like NYU, or even one like BU, if you think you’re going to end up in criminal justice anyway. And if you’re going to want to take a shot at Hollywood you might be working on a production or writer’s assistant salary for awhile, which is definitely not going to be able to pay those loans off either.</p>
<p>I know how easy it is to fall in love with all of these schools, but there are cheaper options that can be just as good. Check out local schools. There are state schools that have very good film/TV programs that are not very expensive at all. At the rate of NYU or Boston University you might even be able to go out of state without spending as much money.</p>