Syracuse is such an interesting school! Syracuse offers both a BA and a BFA and you choose one path or the other.
One thing is that kids do really seem to be confused about which school is the best for them. Newhouse is often considered the more commercial pathway.
Newhouse overall is the school with dramatically more funding. I understand 6 months ago students in the BFA pathway wrote a letter demanding changes and I read it and it was very well thought out and completely reasonable.
But both groups actually share a number of classes I think.
The other strange thing is when you apply you can apply to one or to both and you indicate a preference. And each school has a very different creative supplement!! My student applied to both with a preference to Newhouse and was accepted and was given $15,000 in aid.
We did not visit the campus but I understand from others at my student’s school that it is amazing!
Before you apply (rising juniors) make sure to know EACH program inside and put to know what will be the best fit for you. The Syracuse website could be a lot more clear if I am going to be completely honest. In a non-COVID environment this is an essential school to visit BEFORE you apply to fully appreciate the differences.
So to be more concise — it was basically two different creative portfolio applications! The film and also photographs and other work and multiple writing pieces. My student is also a visual artist so this was not a problem.
I did wonder, are the programs looking at only their supplement or do they also look at the other department supplement?
My D applied Film prod,VPA only, and waitlisted today. We visited Syracuse prior to submitting application and it was stressed they only wanted the 5 min video and nothing else. I see your daughter’s awesome accomplishments and was curious but I now see the difference. Again, the info you posted is great guidance and I wish it was here last year
DARN! Yes Syracuse is more confusing then it has to be. Yes she submitted a film but also a completely different creative supplement with I think up to 20 visuals for the other program.
I know we spent like a couple hours going back and forth to understand how to submit both. It was a little weird actually.
So the department that would have told you just a film would have been the BA at Newhouse right? They would not have told you that for the BFA. Which school/department did you and your student visit?! That is really horrible if you were given the wrong information on your tour! God the website is confusing enough as it is without more confusion on tours.
No, it wasn’t Newhouse it was VPA (BFA) that told us 5min film only. I think the website confirmed the same for VPA. I will need to look at that. I am sure she did it right because she was waitlisted.
I was confused because by what you posted because I saw so much art work but now realize it was Newhouse your daughter was accepted to. MY daughter also had other portfolio (photography, drawing, painting) work but was told follow instructions.
My son applied and was accepted to the VPA film program and only submitted a 5 minute video. When we did the tour they specifically told us they would stop watching after 5 minutes. Sadly, they did not offer merit or financial aid which makes it twice as much as his second choice, Ithaca. DePaul and RIT are also still in the running, but my son recently visited Ithaca and was very impressed. Not sure if Syracuse is worth the extra $140 k over 4 years. Anyone have thoughts on that?
Thank you for confirming the Syracuse film confirmation. I panicked for a moment because she did everything herself with these applications. Than I thought her film must of been awesome to be waitlisted and not follow instructions Congrats to your son. He has some awesome choices!
Great info, and congrats to your daughter! What is she leaning towards? I have a screenwriter accepted at Emerson, Drexel, DePaul, Columbia Chicago, Loyola Marymount, Chapman, and NYU. LMU, Chapman and NYU are the final contenders. Hard decision! Of the three he has the most merit at LMU, then Chapman, and $0 from NYU. Trying to decide if the prestige of NYU (both generally and in the film world) should trump LMU and Chapman’s more affordable cost but lesser known reputation. But like you said, Dodge is HIGHLY regarded in the film world, and my son appreciates the proximity to Hollywood for both of the CA schools. Big decisions this month!
My student accepted for NYU. We noticed she seemed to really gravitate toward universities with broader academic options than smaller colleges.
She visited Emerson and liked the surrounding area and the film resources but did not like the limited course offerings outside of her major.
She REALLY liked the quarter system and course offerings and flexibility of Northwestern.
Ultimately she was happy to accept NYU although she also received no merit. She had big merit offers Emerson Honors College Boston University Honors College which were hard to turn down. But she has a fully funded college 529 Plan so NYU was possible for us and she will have no debt.
After visiting, my son just accepted at DePaul. The program, facilities and resources are absolutely amazing! He released his spots at Syracuse VPA and SCAD which were his final top 3.
The location of DePaul is also fabulous! At first he thought he was not going to like it, living on the Lincoln Park campus and having the CDM school’s location in the Loop Campus. But he really loves the thought of living on a more college-like campus but still being in a city atmosphere daily. They have a required course for all incoming freshman “Discover or Explore Chicago” where the learn to navigate the city (trains, subways, etc) by choosing a course topic like “Italian restaurants of Chicago” or “Chicago Murals” or “architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright”, etc…
CineSpace was also really impressive. They were filming Chicago PD & Chicago Fire during our tour. Netflix, HBO, and some other film studios all contract the space and DePaul is the only school contracted to use it.
Hopefully, he will be happy with his choice. Again, we’ve seen a lot of schools/film programs and DePaul was really impressive, to my very happy surprise!
Loved DePaul, he accepted the offer of admission.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I can only tell you what I’ve learned from the initial tour so far, but it was really impressive; more so than some of the other “big name” film programs we looked at. The resources they offer are unparalleled.
Does anyone know approximately how many applicants for Film production at these schools. I am guessing the same kids applied to all the top programs. I think Syracuse,VPA takes approximately 40 but idk how many NYU, Emerson, etc. Does anyone have this info or point me to a website? Thank you
My husband have been wondering about this for a while.
The film programs accept a small number of students overall but then in many cases students specify a pathway like cinematography or editing.
Cinematography amd directing are where most of the kids want to be making it harder to get in for those pathways at some schools.
We noticed at my student’s film department at her arts boarding school out of ten seniors, six pretty serious about film, four were accepted NYU Tisch! That seems very high. And they send kids to that program every year.
I realized it must be a feeder school. I have wondered what other high schools are feeder schools for film to NYU. And where does USC pull its kids from? Not my student’s school since 2015.
I went through a similar process with my older daughter for Musical Theatre a few years ago. We toured a few top college programs(Carnegie Mellon) and those schools always gave the numbers (how many applied and how many accepted). She went to a summer and prep program but not boarding school. Some of these colleges, for example NYU have prep programs. So maybe they select a few kids from their own program.
I just can’t find the info for film production. My daughter who wants film path didn’t go to any prep programs because they were cancelled the past years due to covid. I tried calling Emerson to get the numbers but couldn’t get any info. She is waitlisted at 3 schools. She has some other acceptances but of course wants the waitlist schools. Also most of our tours this past year for film were outside because the campuses we’re closed. We are going to tour now for the accepted schools.
My DS is really struggling with his decision. It is between DePaul and Ithaca at this point. He got in to Syracuse which was his #1, but since it ended up being more than twice the price of the other two, Syracuse didn’t really make sense for him. He’s visited both DePaul and Ithaca and thinks he’d be happy at either. He saw DePaul first and thought was “it”. Then he went to Ithaca and was kind of blown away with what they had to offer. And he likes the more residential aspect of that campus. He likes the idea of being in a city, but thinks Ithaca would be a cool college town (he knows kids up there having a ball). I don’t know if I actually have a question, but if anyone has anything to share about either school I’d be interested.
NYU application specifically asks isle kids attended their summer film program or that of NYFA. You check one or both boxes. I think USC may also have a summer film program. But they don’t ask for more than checking a box and I don’t now how or if that really factors into it.
Congrats to your son. He has some awesome choices!