4 year university for aspiring screenwriter (transferring, international student)

International Students
1

Hi, guys.
I’ve been America for 7 months, and I’m currently attending community college at Dallas, TX. My first semester just ended(I got 4.0, and my high school GPA was 3.8) and second will begin soon, about a month later.

Being a screenwriter in Hollywood has been my lifetime dream since I was 9. I know it’s very competitive, and as an international student; especially a non English native speaker, it seems to be 10 times harder, but I made my mind to just go for it.
I was majoring in Film in my country and I loved it, but I don’t want to define my study narrow at this time, you know. Learning wide and round but not exactly staying away from the subject, “writing”, so now I’m thinking about selecting English/Creative Writing major. And I’m not gonna apply to universities in CA for now(I want to save them for my Master Screenplay degree: USC, UCLA, Chapman).

So, What I’m looking for is a 4 year university where I can prepare my knowledge and creative skills(like a portfolio), and less expensive than schools in CA.

Here’s my list:

  1. U Iowa: I just really like this school, though I've never been Iowa or met who graduated from here. It's affordable, and the environment around the school is awesome to write.
  2. UT Austin: it's good because I don't need TOFLE score to apply here: I just have to earn A.A. degree in Texas, as far as I know. And UT is a great university, high-ranked, has a good writing program.
  3. Oberlin: I hardly know about this school, but heard it's known for the best undergraduate writing degree.
  4. Knox, U Michigan: same as Oberlin, I recently heard about them.

I just want to hear some advises or recommendations of another universities. Please help me! I’ve googled a lot, but it just makes me confused…

2

Actually, the college for writing that you are probably thinking of is likely Kenyon. :slight_smile:
Can you afford to be full pay though? Because international transfers don’t get financial aid .

Get a Fiske Guide and start reading :slight_smile:

3

What’s your budget?

I am confused because you said that you wanted to attend a cheaper university, and then you started listing some very expensive universities. UT Austin’s annual cost of attendance for international students is pegged at $58,000 next year. U Michigan’s at $66,000. Oberlin’s at $75,000.

For comparison, UCLA’s cost of attendance is $62,000 and USC’s $72,000. Same ballpark.

U of Iowa seems to be the cheapest university on your list so far at $42,000.

Here’s a few other public universities on the cheaper end:

South Dakota State University ($24,000). Missouri State University ($26,000). The University of New Orleans ($29,000). University of North Dakota and North Dakota State Universities ($35,000). NDSU may also offer [half-tuition scholarships](https://www.ndsu.edu/international/scholarships) to international students.

Since you posted in the international student forum, I assumed that you’d be paying out-of-state tuition at all public universities.

Collegeboard has a pretty good college search engine that lets you narrow down schools by tuition, major, location, selectivity, etc: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-search