Chance a german actor for LACs

paying3tuitions
Sun, 23 Nov 2008 21:51:08 +0000

In addition to USC, look up Chapman U/Dodge College for film and theater programs. In terms of finding age-mates outside of your own program of study, Chapman has law and business schools, and other graduate programs including some MFA’s in the arts programs. There are also MFA students your age, and I heard that at Chapman (perhaps at USC, too) there might be some cross-enrolment in a few of the same classes, but that’s just a detail to check.

I have no idea about your work in Germany, but Chapman also has a small-but-mighty Holocaust Studies center, with courses, a minor, and other events/speakers/ functions. You might email them to see if they could be a possible employment location to help with everyday finances (translating work and such). One of Chapman/Dodge College’s new majors is “Acting in Film” where it’s not impossible that having a different age niche could be an advantage. Lots to explore. USC will also have graduate programs, and that’s good for you socially too.

People are warning you about the immature American college freshmen, so they’re suggesting you might better enjoy a medium university than a small liberal arts college where all freshman hover around age l8 and the seniors might be 21, then graduate, so no grad students your age.

You might look at Brandeis University (outside of Boston) which has a theater department (not much in film) and could take interest in your background and language abilities from Germany. They have significant departments in German, Holocaust Studies, Jewish History so might be very interested to have a student from Germany attend. You can see their undergraduate and graduate theater programs described on their website.

Much luck to you.

Regarding age, well, I recall the comedian Jerry Seinfeld who was questioned about marrying a woman nearly 20 years younger. He said, “Fortunately, I’m very immature.” (just kidding, I’m sure you’re very mature). The point is: if you are in a city or a medium or large university, you have a better chance of meeting age-mates, but that may not be the main issue for you. From here, it’s common wisdom to advise older students to go to places where there are more social choices than a rural, residential Liberal Arts College of people ages l8-22. It’s your choice, but that’s why the advice is coming to you, I think.

This is a very unusual recommendation, but take a peek at Ball State University in Indiana. I believe they have a new TV and Communications building, heavily funded by the American TV host David Letterman. It is his alma mater, and perhaps they would embrace an unusual applicant such as yourself. The building certainly looks shiny in the website! IT is not famous academically, but this unusual funding for the department and the nationally known David Letterman make that particular department stand out with potential.

Finally, a very unusual approach would be to look at LAC’s where you see proximity to cities, and a good theater offering. Some that come to mind are: Sarah Lawrence, Muhlenberg, Goucher College. As a real safety, you might look at the State University of New York, which might be affordable for you, for example: SUNY at New Paltz, or if you can somehow audition for them, SUNY at Purchase, NY. Those are not LAC’s but perhaps the pricetag is better.

Northeastern U in Chicago is sophisticated but I have no idea on their financing of international students.
Oberlin and Amherst will fund international students nicely, and have very thoughtful academic college theater departments, but are extremely competitive academically for admission standards in general. Of the two, Amherst is part of a larger school community of 5 institutions, including the University of Massachusetts of 25,000 students. In the UMass are numerous h graduate departments so you can find others your age for housing and social life, even if not in your classes. The issue with Amherst College is it is so very small in population, that although it has good funding for international students, it has few spots in total. Oberlin has a larger population than Amherst (2800 undergrads, not 800) but is very much isolated without other schools around it, so the entire community at Oberlin is undergraduate, unlike Amherst’s surroundings which include University of Massachusetts, a state university with graduate departments and your age-mates.

Try posting over on the forums for Acting and Film majors (two separate subforums) and see if anyone has more ideas for you. To find them, click top-left of this page under “Discussion” and keep scrolling down until you see those subforums under specialty majors.