xerophyte

Even though I've already sent in my deposit to Northwestern several days ago, I still feel slightly conflicted right now, since I had to turn down some very nice schools. As a person who wants to do premed and film, did I make the right choice? I ended up choosing Northwestern because my dad is currently working in Waukegan, which is a bit above Northwestern, and I realized that having family close by may be important in case I need someone to turn to, and I also liked Northwestern's campus the best and Evanston is a pretty cool place. As someone who aspires to be a screenwriter, but is taking the premed route as a pragmatic backup, I also felt that Northwestern fit my tastes, because it seemed fairly flexible, though I could have done film and premed at almost any of those other schools. While Northwestern's film program is not as prominent as that of Columbia, NYU, USC, or UCLA, I also felt that Northwestern still offered many nice internship opportunities and has some nice connections. What's been keeping me apprehensive the past couple of days is the fact that I may have made the wrong decision, though I still think I'll be happy at Northwestern. After talking to some friends that have gone on to college and other fellow students, I've been told that as a really oddball and quirky kind of person, Northwestern may not be the place that suits me the best. I've been told by some that WashU at St. Louis would have been the better choice, but I neglected to visit the school, so I unfortunately have no idea. Anyhow, in your opinion, did I make the right decision?

BK22889

nu probably has the best balance between the two academically. its amazing to me that no one's jumped on you for questioning nu's film program, which is very good, but no, not as good as nyu or usc. it is probably on par however with the rest that you mentioned, and our pre-med is probably better than nyu ucla and usc, but not as good as hopkins. academically, i think you'll find a very nice balance of strengths in your two interests, probably a better balance than you would have found at any of these other places.

Sam Lee

IMHO, WashU would be the odd choice given your aspiration. WashU is nowhere near NU in film; it isn't known for having quirky students either; that would be UChicago which doesn't have good film program however. I think the people who think WashU is a better choice is probably focusing more on premed than your real dream. I don't think you made a wrong choice, given what you wrote and what your other choices were. If it were Weslesyan, maybe that would have been a better choice.

FYI, NU film may not be as prominent as USC/NYU but it's still rated as one of the top 12 by Hollywood Reporter. The 12 best film schools

Sam Lee

Check out this program: Certificate in Creative Writing for the Media - About the Program, School of Communication, Northwestern University

unalove

It sounds like you made the best decision for you, and I think if you look around at what opportunities are available to you at Northwestern/ the city of Chicago, you'll be very impressed.

Sam-- Chicago doesn't have a film program (in terms of making film) but a group of film amateurs in Fire Escape Films make a lot of great movies on their own. We do have a snazzy Cinema and Media studies major, though, with a lot of big names in it.

xerophyte

Thanks guys for dispelling my worries. By the way @Sam Lee, yeah, I'm really interested in that program and have had my sights on it for a while. The problem and challenge is that it's capped at 12 people. I've been slowly working on a longer story for a while and have lots of short stories, so I'm going to refine some stuff over the coming months to see if I can eventually make the cut. I'm currently thinking for now of including the prologue of my story once I manage to perfect it and working on a sample script once I learn more about cinema in NU to get my 10 pages of material.

karlawang

here's something that can make you feel better:

until yesterday, i still didn't make up my mind between NYU and NU, but i sent in my deposit to the latter regardless

here's some comment made by a kid who's also in my situation (and yours on facebook:

Annie Strauman: I got into Tisch, but I would NEVER EVER go there. I've had many friends graduate as film and acting majors and it's like a factory - you get no personal attention. They just put you on a conveyor belt and turn you into a film maker.

NU is a personal program that has produced some great filmmakers. I love Chicago more than I can ever say, there are tons of opportunities to do extracircular work in my major and out of it. The alumni are extremely loyal and have a great network. I don't know - there are a thousand little details. I've felt like NU was like God made my perfect school and then let a million beautiful people in.

here's another comment made by a current rtvf student:

Hello,

So this is very strange, but I just thought I'd check out the 2012 Group (I'm class of '11) and, of course, clicked on the RTVF discussion thread, finding your inquiry.

Here are my thoughts:

As you say, NU has a "perfect mix of theory and practice". You can be as involved in production as you want, or you can basically only take the required intro course. There are incredible equipment/facilities at your disposal should you decide that you want to focus on production. There are also very interesting theoretical, analytical, and historical courses on cinema that can stand alone or compliment your production interests.

On top of this, NU has very few graduate students, so all of the priority goes to UNDERGRADS!! The film sets are all extracurricular activities, and there are so many films made each quarter that if you want to, you can basically become a Crew Head by your second or third quarter of freshman year.

The RTVF community here is outstanding, with people who are very smart and focused on academics outside of film as well. Lots of people double major, and its very easy to do (I'm doubling in Political Science) because you only have to fulfill the Comm. distro requirements, not Weinberg's. It's also a very tight knit community, which, if you want it to, can function as your social base. If not, plenty of people (like me) have friends in and out of the major and get along just fine.

NU also has a huge amount of alumni connections in the industry, as I'm sure you've heard. Unless you want to go into teaching film, graduate school in filmmaking is not going to be the greatest investment. You'll get a great liberal arts undergraduate education here (rather than basically being in a film conservatory at Tisch).

Anyway, this is my random good deed for the day. if you have any questions, let me know.

-Andrew Glor
RTVF 2011



hope this can help

Majman

I visited USC, and I didn't really like it so much. The dorm I visited (Pardee) reeked of pot, and the students were far too preppy and had the "I'm better than you" mentality.

I know it doesn't really matter now since its May 2, but NU is an amazing place.