LongRangePlan

Geez, just heard on the radio and then found online...two USC engineering grad students shot to death this morning, just off campus. Attempted car jacking of the BMW the young woman was driving. Both driver and passenger killed.

OCELITE

Quote:
"Chapman does not belong in the same conversation with UCLA - CSULA maybe but not UCLA."

LOL. You'll be amazed at how many people who have applied to UCLA have also applied to Chapman. Frankly, DS at Chapman only heard of people who have applied to USC, UCLA, and other UC's, Cal Poly, and some other private schools, but haven't heard of anyone applying to CSULA yet. Not only that, the caliber of the Chapman's student body today is much greater than over a decade ago. In fact, I know of a store owner where I shop a lot, has a son who will be going to Chapman in the fall, who also applied to Stanford and Caltech, but they prefer Chapman because of better aid, and also like the OC location better, all in all, better fit for son.

As I had said to the OP earlier, s/he must visit the schools in person to see. We can only share what we know about the schools, obviously different people have different experiences and different stories to tell just as I have shared about what I've learned from my UCLA relatives and relatives from other UC schools as well, the rest is up to the OP and his/her family to decide.

OP, since you've been awarded scholarships at Chapman, but no scholarship from UCLA, if you still can't make up your mind after your visits, keep in mind that you would loose your scholarship benefits at Chapman if you decide UCLA didn't workout for you and later want to transfer to Chapman. Since you didn't get a scholarship to UCLA anyway, you don't have anything to loose, if you transfer there later, you still pay the same amount. Something to think about.

sukahjoy

Dodge College @Chapman University has the top most modern facilities, smaller student to teacher ratios and more hands on experience than USC or UCLA. USC is known as the greatest Film School in the world. But one is better trained for work in the Industry at Dodge College @Chapman University. Dodge College admits 241 total Freshman each year (only 39 in the TV Production/Broadcast Journalism major). USC’s program that is less specific when it comes to the major of Cinematic Arts Critical Studies and they accept 75 Freshman each year to this program; the entire USC School of Cinematic Arts school accepts a total of 200 Freshman per year. Although there is a very wide possibility of classes at USC to choose from the program is less directed than Dodge College and relies on the student to choose their classes (@USC).

USC, UCLA and Chapman/Dodge are very similar. Not in how they run their program, but how they’re seen in the industry. Chapman is 3rd, but really catching up, and they’ve amazing facilities. You won't do film at UCLA until you’re a junior, at USC, you start during your sophomore year, at Chapman, as a freshman. Dodge College student films have out competed USC films in recent film festivals.

Los Angeles Times Re: Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University wants to overtake USC and NYU:

Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University wants to overtake USC and NYU - Los Angeles Times

sukahjoy

Other comments I found on the internet:

02-15-2011, 10:54 PM
TOCproductions
Basic Member
I've been going through exactly the same process!

I don’t know if it is possible for you to tour the campuses of these schools, but if you can I HIGHLY recommend it.

I myself was pretty dead set on USC initially. I knew of their prestige and rep in the industry. However I also made sure to tour Chapman, because I had heard good things.

After the campus tours... my opinion and preference has shifted 100%. Chapman basically reached out and hugged me. Everyone was friendly, small student population, gorgeous campus. And the film school was AWESOME. I had a private tour (guess it was a slow day) from a Freshman in the program. He showed me completely through the studios, sound stages, foley room, motion capture studio, editing bays, audio mixing studios, 500 seat preview theater with 3D HD projectors.... the whole 9 yards, everything top of the line. Students can access facilities 24/7. Seriously. Got an idea at 2 in the morning? Keycard into the building and start working. Additionally, alumni have access to equipment, resources, and stage space AFTER they have graduated!! Fill out a schedule form, and you are in! No rental charges, nada. That is seriously cool.

USC.... is definitely a prestigious university. Massive campus, very educated students, but TONS TONS TONS of people. Medium city sized. As for the film school... my impression was that there was SO much money invested into equipment... that they are almost scared to let students near it. From the mouth of my 'tour guide' who actually mainly talked about admission; "Ya, we have awesome facilities! I wish i could show you, but they are behind a lot of locked doors which I don't have keys to." I felt that was very representative of the school. You have to take large numbers of GE classes before you really launch into the film program. Not so at Chapman; you take classes for your film major from freshman year on out, constantly.

Chapman may not have quite the rep that USC does, but they are RAPIDLY coming up in the industry. They have plans laid out for millions of dollars in expansion culminating in a 'film village' with backlot and even more sound stages, and are very aggressive in expansion programs; part of the benefit of all the tuition they charge, I guess. Speaking of tuition... they are several thousand dollars a year cheaper than USC. Not much, but every bit helps.

I've been pouring myself into this research for the last few months, but visiting made all the difference. If you have any questions about campuses or anything just let me know....
Best of luck!

sukahjoy

Christopher C. Odom is a Director, Writer, Author in Nashville, TN, USA

UCLA is best known for their writers who dominate the summer movie screenwriting credits, USC is better known for their powerhouse directors, AFI often has incredible cinematographers, NYU is heralded for its East Coast filmmaker style, and Columbia is an all around great school with exceptional film theory for all programs. Any school you go to at the Big five will be an incredible experience for each program. You’ll also have big name professionals and heads of big companies teach courses or speak as guests because of the school’s notoriety. You cannot lose.
The downside to USC is that they run it like a studio. Only five people get to direct a thesis project if you are a graduate directing student. Every directing student comes in to be one of those five and then twenty or thirty people in the end do not get a thesis project, but get to help crew on the five people who did get to make one’s film. The upside to USC, is again, that they run it like a studio. USC is often unparalleled in its networking capacity and markets its students aggressively to the industry.
UCLA is most known for its screenwriters. USC might be capable of out-networking UCLA, but its writers cannot out-write UCLA writers. An average UCLA Graduate Screenwriting student will leave with eight feature length screenplays. UCLA screenwriters write a feature-length script in a 10-week quarter, which most resembles a real life 8-week writing assignment. USC screenwriters will write one feature-length screenplay over a period of one year. You do the math.
The Peter Stark Producing Program at USC is great for producing movie executives, but the UCLA Producing Program is great for teaching producers everything there is to know to go out there and just start doing it.
Similar to USC’s “only five will direct a thesis project”, AFI is even more hardcore. Not only are there are a limited number of thesis projects, not every filmmaker is always invited to come back to school for a second year. It is harder to get into any of these film schools than it’s to get into Harvard Law School, simply because Harvard takes a higher percentage of its applicants than the big film schools do, so for me AFI and USC really wasn’t worth getting cut or snubbed over after you had to already defeat the odds of winning the lottery to even get accepted. Having to win the lottery a second time just wasn’t desirable.

warblersrule

I'm sure plenty of Harvard applicants also apply to Rutgers and Ohio State. That doesn't mean they're as selective. Everyone needs safeties and matches.

When comparing UCLA and Chapman, it is immediately apparent that UCLA has a noticeable edge in selectivity. (I won't compare any others - unverified anecdotes aside, I doubt Chapman pulls more than one student, if that many, from Stanford or Caltech each year. I'm skeptical it fares well against USC either.)

UCLA
25% admitted
97% in top 10%

SAT CR
560-690
700-800: 22%
600-700: 43%

SAT M
610-740
700-800: 44%
600-700: 35%

SAT W
590-710
700-800: 30%
600-700: 44%

Chapman
45% admitted
49% in top 10%

SAT CR
550-650
700-800: 9%
600-700: 44%

SAT M
560-660
700-800: 11%
600-700: 49%

SAT W
570-660
700-800: 14%
600-700: 47%

I'm trying and failing to figure out the relevance of this for the OP interested in biology and music. Could you help me out?

jujummm

warblersrule, yes, thank you for pointing that out. I'm getting a lot of information on film programs and about USC, however...

1) I am not at all interested in film or television majors/studies.
2) I did not get into USC.

I recently re-visited Chapman and realized just how small it is! It is of course a modern, beautiful campus, but I feel like I would get tired of the smallness after a while. I sat in on a class, which as advertised, was quite small. I don't know if I like it or not since I have nothing to compare it to, because I've never been in a large class or a lecture hall. Tomorrow I am going to UCLA, so I'll finally have impressions for both colleges fresh in my mind.

Also, I'm reconsidering my decision to study biology, because I am afraid it would be too difficult academically, and I've realized that what I am actually interested in (natural medicine, nutrition...) doesn't really correspond to a biology major which concentrates on biochem, physics, and just molecular bio in general.

Conclusion: still don't know what to do but going to wait until after my UCLA visit to make further assessments.

beyphy

most of the "university X looks like it's going to overtake university Y" statements rest on the erroneous premise that university Y will remain unchnged whereas universitu X will continually increase in quality. There's no doubt that USC knows about chapman's film school and will likely update it's facilities accordingly.

sukahjoy

Chapman OVER NYU and USC

sukahjoy

I suggest checking out the course catalogues of the different schools & decide which classes interest you the most. Chapman for example:

Chapman University Catalog 2011-2012 - Crean School of Health and Life Sciences

jujummm

Those are graduate programs. For now, I'm just worrying about undergrad programs since I can always transfer when it comes to graduate school.

The thread is irrelevant to my issues.

drax12

Give me a break ... as if someone who's applying to Stanford or Cal Tech would consider Chapman. To apply to either of them, one has to think he/she has a chance -> super-high stats. Super-high-stats students as a fallback would never consider Chapman, a fact of life. We'll allow your one student anecdotal reference, but you'd be hard pressed to cite another. I wouldn't think this other person would exist.

Warblersrule:

The SAT's you cite for UCLA are also understated. UCLA purposely understates scores so as not to deter underrepresented students in applying to the U. The collection of scores include redundant postings among SAT and ACT (not best between the two, not a CDS component), and possibly among SAT's themselves, in addition to the U not superscoring. Just a clarification when someone posts UCLA"s median scores.

sukahjoy

If money is no object I would go to UCLA because of their great Med Schools and possible tie in with Nutrition. If money is an object how much more is UCLA going to cost you a year instead of going to Chapman? UCLA is going to be very tough because many of the students there all they did was study in High School and received A’s in most of their honors and AP classes. Chapman’s graduation rate is very high and most finish school in 4 years which is very unusual at a UC. If there is a big saving for you going to Chapman you could use the money you save for when you go to grad school.

jujummm

Well, thank you all for your opinions!!! I've finally made my choice...

shakespearefan

And you're going to leave us all hanging...