Vanderbilt vs. Northeastern (Honors) vs. WKU (Honors) vs. LMU vs. Chapman for Theatre/Film?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Vanderbilt University
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Hello! I hope you have all had great days today!

I am a senior and have been accepted into all of the above institutions (the first three I could easily change my major in as they are liberal arts-ish programs, LMU for Film Prod, and Chapman for Screenwriting). My interests lie primarily in theatre and film (specifically, Playwriting/Lyric-and-Libretto Writing/Stage Directing and Screenwriting/Prod Design, respectively). I have the opportunity to attend any of these institutions without incurring any debt (Hip Hip Hurray!). Further on the financial metric, I could attend WKU without any familial help with a scholarship over cost-of-attendance and I already have 82 credits earned there, but I kind of want to branch out and leave Kentucky, and I can attempt to transfer some of the credits. Ah, this is a stressful subject for me- it’s my first instinct to look at money first but my parents are desperately trying to get me to not care.

I am currently open to grad school but not set on it (anything goes!). I would like to be able to explore a variety of subject and skill areas in college (whether through classes, clubs, community groups does not really matter). I would consider myself quirky, fun, politically somewhere in-between a liberal and libertarian, and alternatively an adventurous introvert (hiking, exploring town, eating weird food, rolling down hills) and a wild, social, daredevil type (parties, concerts, road trips, drugs/alcohol (on occassion, I promise!)). Other things that are very important to me are being able to study abroad for at least one semester (preferably in London, France, Italy, India, or Africa), a fun and exciting environment, good food, and the ability to make friends!

Whew, that was long-winded. Can anyone give me any advice here?

Best wishes, Kat.

P.S., if anyone wants to know for chancing (or I guess if it’s relevant for advice),

ACT: 35 (33 when I got accepted to all but Vandy)
SAT: 1510
(No super-scoring on these)
Weighted GPA: 4.3
Unweighted GPA: 3.84
Stuff I put on my app: President of Drama and Film Club, Secretary of GSA, writing a stage musical, wrote poetry, conducting research in astro-geology (presented at 5 conferences including NCUR and AGU), have traveled to about 10 foreign countries

I also wrote a Common App essay I’m pretty proud of (I parodied the cliche voluntourism-in-Central-America essay by writing a sarcastic fiction in the style of South Park). That concept is probably more representative of my personality than any stats I could give you!

I attend the Gatton Academy of Math and Science.

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Congratulations on your acceptances and scholarships! My advice (as a mom) is, since $ is not a concern and you want to branch out, go for it. The fact that you are thinking about $ even though your parents are telling you not to tells me that you probably have a pretty good financial sensibility, which chances are, came from your parents, so it really sounds OK to let that go for this decision. College is the PERFECT time in life to branch out and get out of your hometown if you want to and are financially able.

I can only speak to Chapman and LMU as those were on my daughter’s lists. Have you visited them both? Chapman was a clean, bright, preppy vibe, very nice and expensive film school facilities. I think their film majors are BFA, which will not have the flexibility in studies that you are looking for (same for my daughter, which made her lean towards BA programs instead). I’ve heard that Chapman is rich and again, a prep school vibe. We loved it after our visit, however. The students we ran across were super friendly and enthusiastic, unlike at UCLA or USC (probably a size thing, though).
LMU campus is also beautiful, clean, nice. Very friendly students. More of a small school vibe, and I would say less prep-school than Chapman. We got more of a feel of individualism here, from both students and faculty, I don’t know how to explain it but we did. The culture seemed a bit more down to earth than Chapman, but that’s just an intangible feeling we got. It is a Jesuit university and the wholistic education-and-service philosophy is present, but in a low key culture kind of way, not an overbearing or pressure kind of way. It spoke to both my daughter and I (again, this is not necessarily spiritual, but more campus feel and culture) and she loved it and she committed to LMU. Their film school has a good reputation, but I don’t know if it is a BFA or BA. Our tour guide was a screenwriting major but enjoyed exploring other class areas, and had had two internships already by the time he was a second semester sophomore. I think the theater dept does a study abroad in German, but that’s all we know about a semester abroad there.

Good luck to you!

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IMHO, Chapman. It is the hot film school in So Ca. Right behind USC. They have invested lots of money into the film school, and hired great faculty from the LA community. Lots of happy kids go there. If you want to work in LA post graduation, I think it is the call…Vandy is dandy, but not so much for this line of work.

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If you’re looking for overall quality, Vanderbilt in a heartbeat