<p>I was wondering if anyone knew where to find rankings of undergraduate film-making programs, or had advice on researching which schools might be appropriate for a particular student. We are hoping to find programs in colleges or universities that also have stimulating academic courses available outside of filmmaking, but realize that not all excellent filmmaking programs will meet this criterion. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>USoCal & NYU come to mind off hand. Both are very urban but different types of schools & both have excellent courses in other departments/schools.</p>
<p>Chapman University in Orange County CA. Not a very urban locale, but their film school is highly regarded, and they are just now completing a working film studio (Chapman Studios).</p>
<p>There are no current rankings of film schools. USC, NYU, UCLA are generally regarded as the best. UCLA cannot be entered as a first year student unlike USC and NYU. In my mind this is a major drawback. Other top film schools at colleges are Northwestern, Florida State, Ithaca, Emerson, and Texas.</p>
<p>I know Wesleyan has a pretty popular Film Studies program that includes production (but is careful to define itself as an academic program). Wesleyan is a pretty arty, stimulating place, and a number of decently famous directors are alumni of the film program (Joss Whedon, Daisy Mayer, Miguel Arteta).</p>
<p>FWIW, one of my many cousins wanted this when she was looking at colleges 5 years ago. She wound up choosing Northwestern over Harvard (obviously, that was her non-film-school option) and NYU/Tisch . . . and wound up thinking she had made a mistake. I'm not certain, though, what mistake exactly she thought she had made. She didn't remain as a film major, and although she stayed at Northwestern and did a ton of stuff there she didn't have a very high regard for it. But I don't know whether she wished she had gone to a different film program or she wished she had gone to a school she would have liked more after she decided she didn't want to be a filmmaker.</p>
<p>We asked this same question a couple of years ago when my son was doing his search. He wanted to avoid LA and NY, so ended up focusing on Northwestern, Syracuse (actually have two separate programs), Ohio University and Notre Dame. You wouldn't normally think of Notre Dame in this category, but they have a brand new performing arts building where their Film, TV and Theatre program is located. With all of the other opportunities ND presented, he ended up there.</p>
<p>good replies above. And esp. important to investigate whether the program is intellectual (such as Bard, Brown, some others), production-technical (Emerson & some others), or a combo. Some programs have divergent either/or, both/and theoretical + practical streams. Those are my favorites. I have found that the only way to determine which schools have this more comprehensive curriculum is by doing the research, school by school -- reading the descriptions of those programs. A separate issue is the entrance bar. It's pretty unrealistic for a college to assume that it is going to be acquiring hundreds of already-portfolio'ed young freshman filmmakers (unless they're all from Arts high schools), but so many colleges require film portfolios. Other colleges require only essays about film or other creative portfolios.</p>
<p>Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles has a school of film and television. There was an article about the film program in the New York Times several months ago. S's friend is enrolled and loves it.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.lmu.edu/Page14955.aspx%5B/url%5D">http://www.lmu.edu/Page14955.aspx</a></p>
<p>I've posted before. My DS graduated from Northwestern's Film program and liked the combination of liberal arts and film courses. He also worked on many student films and student plays. Many theatre students worked on his film projects. He participated in the LA internship for a quarter and found that beneficial plus he found two NYC summer internships on his own. This DS has several friends at NYU Tisch where the students eat, live, and breathe film more than at NW; my kid felt that might be too intense for him although he spent many overnites in the film lab at NW. I know there are many NW Film grads in LA and they are called the "Northwestern Mafia" but I am not really sure of the actual contacts. I have another DS who is at Wesleyan and might consider the Film major there.</p>
<p>Thanks so much. This is all very helpful. Does anyone have thoughts about film schools to which you must be accepted in addition to being accepted to the university (as with USC and NYU) versus schools where, once you arrive, you can declare film as a major as with, I think, Wesleyan and Brown? Also, what happens at places like UCLA where students don't know if they're going to be accepted into the program for their first two years? Does this make for a cut-throat freshman and sophmore year? How do students possibly learn as much as students in good four year film programs in only their junior and senior years?</p>
<p>Just a warning (which may or may not be underlying your inquiries), regarding film programs per se which begin freshman year. I used to think (& many students think) that it would be logical to get admitted to the U in general studies, then transfer in to the film program later. (Not speaking of UCLA here, as there's starts in frosh yr) Apparently that is even more difficult to do if the film program is quite competitive & highly rated. "No one" (or very few) leave those programs once admitted as a first-year. So one is then still presented with the same admission requirements of presenting a portfolio of work, with an even lower admit rate for the few spots that may become open later.
That said, I encourage you to persist with the research. Not only have I found a number of dual-approach film programs in content (production + concept/criticism), I have found a number that do NOT require a portfolio for admission, and some of these are in metro locations.<br>
Three aspects to filmmaking that we've heard others bring up -- including a student friend of ours in SoCal headed for film and theatre: (a) environment is an advantage if the undergrad student is focused on a college-to-career path. (Thus, LA, NY, possibly Chicago) might be considered, along with the program itself; (b) the on-site or near-campus facilities are quite important to some students, & those should be investigated & visited; (c) student production costs are in some cases assumed by the college (such as FSU, I think).</p>
<p>GC at our school mentioned Columbia College in Chicago as having an excellent film program.
Long Beach State U (CA), of Spielberg fame, is excellent. He poured money into their film program.<br>
San Diego State U also is mentioned sometimes.</p>
<p>new poster, long-time lurker here.</p>
<p>I second the sugggestion of Columbia in Chicago. We have a few young friends who have chosen the school, all with good reports. The most recent is interested in film, and he and his parents were quite impressed with the program. He's just starting his freshman year, so nothing of consequence to report, but it seems to me to be worth a look.</p>
<p>I know many "old" timers who graduated from NYU decades ago and who are and have been very successful in the industry. Recently I have heard that Notre Dame also provides an excellent program.</p>
<p>I second the motion in favor of the NYU (Tisch) film program. There have been many successful graduates who have gone on to work as industry professionals. I think that it's important for a program to ask for a portfolio for admission, because that indicates that it's not only an intense program, but it is also one that encourages those applicants who are seriously considering attending (as compared to applicants who are either casually or marginally interested or who think that the program might be something "cool" to do).</p>
<p>Gourman says:</p>
<p>UCLA
USC
NYU
Northwestern
Syracuse
Berkeley
Michigan
UT-Austin
Florida State</p>