@iconiclife Thanks. Emerson is very well respected. It is a shame that all of these schools have gotten so expensive. We are in-state here in Florida, but even a college like FSU is fairly expensive when you consider the total costs over 4 yrs. Next year, I have two in college simultaneously… one at USC and one at TBD (hopefully USC). It will certainly be a financial challenge… there is no question about that. But at least if my younger daughter is ultimately content attending wherever she ends up, it will be worth it. Good Luck…
Hi everyone. My daughter applied to sca for film production and just received an email request for a phone interview. Could anyone provide me with some insight as to types of questions that will be asked? Thanks!
@cj1223cj Hi! I had the interview last week with a professor. I’m sure the questions that are asked varies from person to person, but I was asked why I was interested in a film career, about the video I submitted in my portfolio, and what I thought was interesting/unique about me.
I had the opportunity to ask questions too, so I would recommend your daughter have some to ask. It is a faculty member of the university after all, and most likely they’re an established person in the industry! It’s the ideal time to ask anything about the school or career.
I wish your daughter the best of luck!
My daughter also applied to SCA for film production. She is a national merit finalist with SAT 1560, ACT 35, GPA 3.97 (unweighted) /4.87 (weighted). She has taken two years of film in high school and has been a actress since age of 9 and landed a role in a major film 3 years ago. We heard nothing from USC, No merit shcolarship, no interview, nothing so far. And of course she report USC as her first choice to NMSC. I really question how merit is the merit scholarship at this point 
@SATHater, SCA has to assure the students admitted to its majors have good stats, but their main objective is to admit students with promise and talent. So while having outstanding gpa like your D is amazing, it will not be the main aspect used by SCA for admissions. Frankly, the most control an applicant has to these majors is their creative portfolio and sample/submissions. The essays are really the key, as they should explain what the applicant hopes to bring to the field. Even then, I’m sure you are aware that SCA admits about 4% of applicants each year–and for some majors even less. So while an applicant can do everything right, there is a certain amount of building a class that will be out of one’s control. USC will not admit all males nor will they admit all females. They will try to achieve a balance in the sorts of film students want to pursue. At the end of the day, all an applicant can do is work on those essays and submissions and hope they are one of the 4 out of 100 who get good news. Have you heard about the odds of getting into Harvard? SCA is harder. So it’s not an indictment on any student who doesn’t get that good news–look at Steven Spielberg who applied to SCA 3 times–and was rejected over and over. Many film artists do great based on their talent and perseverance, and there are many great film programs out there. I hope your D gets admitted!
@madbean
Thank you, I hope so too! If not, there is always hope for Harvard among other schools she applied to 
@SATHater The merit scholarship IS 100% based on merit…they’re literally giving away hundreds of thousand of dollars to hundreds of students and that’s a lot of free money to be giving to students. They wouldn’t waste it on those who are unworthy! The Dean of Admissions, however, did vehemently state that GPA and SAT isn’t everything–USC will turn away many thousands of talented students with fantastic stats and ECs. But they are trying to look for specific people–people who they think will fit in well with the USC culture/environment. The people who USC thinks are the smartest will not be the same that for example Harvard or Stanford will think are the smartest. Don’t feel badly that your daughter did not get in, that either she was not qualified enough (it is clear that she is very hardworking and talented) or that USC sucks for not giving her the scholarship; though USC does give away a lot of scholarships, they can’t give one to everybody! Good luck to her and all the other schools she applied to!
@madbean
IDK, but I think comparing the 4% acceptance rate of SCA to 4% of Harvard acceptance might be comparing apple to orange because the N for the total number of applicants is different. The N for Harvard last year was 40K. I don’t know the N for SCA last year. But to say it’s harder to get into SCA is flawed because SCA N could be 10-50 times smaller than Harvard’s.
Steve Spielberg’s example just shows how it takes talent to spot talent.
Sorry, I am just curious. Are you a first-year prospective undergraduate student or you apply the master program.
@SATHater, I’m not a math wiz, but when talking about percentage it doesn’t matter the total number, as long as you consider the equivelantly smaller number of those selected. In other words, if 40,000 top academic kids apply to Harvard (and 2,000 are admitted–5%) vs. 4,000 top cinema/film artist kids apply to SCA (and 200 are admitted–5%), they are equally selective. But of course it’s not a random drawing, where they just dip their hands into a pile and select. 
The tricky part is just how motivated and achievement-oriented each pool is, how talented each applicant, and how subjective the holistic criteria may be. But I hope your D is selected to all her top choices and her only dilemma is which school to pick.
For those reviewing this thread in terms of considerations for future application cycles, I suggest that potential film school applicants also consider the BFA program in film production at the FSU College of Motion Picture Arts. My daughter was one of the 45 applicants invited to interview this year. She interviewed there over the weekend, and we also toured their facilities.
FSU MPA offers a conservatory approach to film training and only enrolls 20 freshmen and 10 transfers each year, so the training is very hands-on and intensive - with a very low faculty to student ratio. The writer/director, producer and cinematographer from this year’s Best Picture, Moonlight, all attended there together a few years ago.
While my daughter still hopes to be able to attend USC SCA in the fall, FSU MPA is emerging as a strong fall-back. Of course, she still needs to be among this year’s 20 to be admitted. With over 500 initial applicants, their 4% admit rate is on par with SCA’s. Anyhow, I urge applicants in future years to at least consider their film program as a strong alternative to SCA. We were very impressed with all that we learned about it.
@cj1223cj I had my interview a few weeks ago! @Wynn22 basically summed it up, but it was mostly questions about the supplements submitted. Two of them in particular - my personal statement and my video essay. I imagine it’ll be different for each interviewee depending on which parts of the applicant interested that professor the most! It was extremely casual so I wouldn’t worry about it too much. good luck!
Hey guys! I had my Skype interview yesterday afternoon and it went really well. He asked questions about my visual sample, what I want to do in the industry, and my other hobbies. Overall it was a very laid back interview and it went really well! I’ve been accepted to UT but still waiting on USC SCA, NYU Tisch, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Stanford. Fingers crossed!
Thanks so much for your insights. My daughter also felt her interview went well, although not as laid back as you experienced. Good luck to everyone! It’s going to be a long month …
In past years, it seemed like very few of the overall SCA application pool were interviewed… maybe less than one-third of all applicants. And in those years, many were also accepted or rejected without ever being offered an interview opportunity. Of course, many of those interviewed also ultimately did not gain admission… as a program that accepts only around 4% clearly then also has to reject the other 96%. But during this cycle, there does seem to be more applicants, at least on CC, suggesting that they have had interviews. My daughter has yet to be contacted. I guess that time will tell if there is any significance to that.
But good luck to all SCA applicants and especially in managing the wait until at least March 24th, when the first Golden Envelopes should be arriving by mail in SoCal. Most will hear on March 25th or 26th, either by mail or via an application portal update.
I’m so worried that I didn’t get asked to interview, but I’m not sure that worry is justified if so few people do get asked…do we have more stats on that?
@filmstudent2 It seems very hard to tell.
Overall, even those colleges among The Hollywood Reporters ranking of the top-25 film schools do not seem to operate with any sort of uniformity. Colleges like Stanford and Yale do not require creative portfolios or submissions, but will at least review them if submitted. Whether that means a review by faculty within that specific program is unclear. And any interviews there are only alumni interviews with no real bearing on a film-centric admission. UTexas does not seem to arrange for any interviews and will not even review a creative submission if submitted. In fact, their film faculty does not review applications at all. Only UTexas Admission does so. They state such on the RTF webpage. FSU, like USC, requires a double admission… first from the university overall and next via the College of Motion Picture Arts. Unlike USC, FSU announces the first admission earlier. To get in to MPA though, you have many required submissions. And we can attest first-hand that they review them all in detail and also research you online - to see if you posted other items. If you make the first cut… this year, 45 out of 500+ … FSU MPA then requires an in-person interview in Tallahassee at the College unless you live overseas (then via Skype), and then they finally only take 20 out of the 45 being interviewed (some years there have been as many as 48). I would at least imagine those final 20 truly feel like they have earned their spot in the program.
As for USC SCA, I would prefer some manner of uniformity (where all applicants are reviewed in the same manner), but such is not the case. Most are not interviewed. Apparently, even most who get in are not interviewed. In past years’ threads, there has been speculation that requested interviews are likely only for those applicants sort of on the bubble or when certain clarifications may be needed. I.E. - if they know they want you or know that they do not want to accept you, an interview is deemed unwarranted. But again, that is just speculation. No one knows anything for sure - other than those within the hierarchy at SCA themselves. It may simply be up to the whim of individual SCA professors to either request an interview or not.
@WWWard When the professor interviewed me he made it sound as if it was his whim. He explained it as multiple professors receive our materials and they all review individually. He suggested that one student could have multiple interviews because multiple professors could want to and not know the others had wanted to as well. Still, that could mean anyway that you’re a bubble student if you get an interview.
Thanks for the clarification, @CathJR
Every individual applicant I guess could choose to self-analyze. For example, if you have already been admitted to a top/competitive film program, you could project a better than average chance of admission to USC, NYU, UCLA, etc. But then again, judging creativity is purely subjective. I have heard of people getting into Stanford, MIT and Yale, as an applicant for a more traditional major, and then also getting rejected by colleges like UVa and USC. From the outside looking in, that may make little sense, unless UVa and USC were practicing some form of yield protection. I.E. - they chose to reject a stellar candidate because they know that they are bound elsewhere. But, if you cannot even accurately predict among non-creative majors, it is clearly even harder to speculate when the most subjective decision-making process is underway… for majors involving perceived talent/creativity… music, art, acting, film, etc.
Luckily, we will all know soon enough… April 1st is looming and getting closer every day.
@WWWard, a couple of interesting points.
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Do you know what the matriculating numbers are for FSU out of the 20 they admit? Or do they maybe admit more and about 20 wind up attending?
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I have never seen any evidence that USC practices any form of yield protection. For the most part, they really want to admit high stat and motivated students as their aim has been to continue their rise in SAT/GPA and overall high achievers. Just by the fact that they award so much merit money for high achievers, plus guarantee 1/2 tuition to NMF would show their intention to NOT disadvantage high stat kids.
However… it is hard for many to make sense when USC rejects high stat kids, ones who are admitted to ivies and higher ranked colleges. Even though most of these students would not have selected USC anyway! They can feel stung by a rejection from a university that–according to USNWR–is inferior to the top ten school they got into. It’s natural to react negatively to rejection. Who doesn’t feel bad to get a “no”? But trying to explain the rejection by accusing a school of rejecting top achievers is… well, in this case, not supported by the evidence. It does make one feel better, but the reality is none of us can see the applications of these high stat rejectees. Is it possible they were a little nonchalant about their USC essays? Perhaps. Could they have betrayed their level of (dis) interest in USC? Possibly. Did they mistakenly leave out some required supplement, not paying as close attention to a school that was their “back up” school? Who knows. I do know that there are many ways USC can tell they’ve received a recycled essay (some kids forget to substitute “USC” for “Harvard” in their Why USC essay. True story.)
So while I am very skeptical that USC out-of-hand rejects tiptop students to protect their yield, I would believe they reject students who carelessly let it be known they look down upon USC and don’t really want to attend.