Film Studies - Yale or UCLA?

Pre-College Topics Summer Programs
1

<p>Hello.</p>

<p>I am a Brazilian undergraduate student and aspiring filmmaker. I was recently admitted to the summer programs of both Yale and UCLA (not “admitted” in UCLA’s case, which has a non-competitive enrollment process) and I’m in doubt of which one should be the better for me. Here are the basic specs of each one:</p>

<p>YALE SUMMER SESSION

  • Name: Intensive Filmmaking Workshop
  • Duration: 106 hours / 6 weeks
  • Credits: 2 credits (full-time for Yale)
  • Base cost (university expenses): $10,107
  • Admission process: competitive (enrollment limited to 16)
  • Hands-on experience: YES
  • Academic Ranking of World Universities: 11th</p>

<p>UCLA SUMMER SESSION

  • Name: Film Studies (5 different individual courses)
  • Duration: 170 hours / 6 weeks
  • Credits: 20 credits (full-time for UCLA is 8 credits)
  • Base cost (university expenses): $9,894
  • Admission process: “first come, first served” (variable number of students per class)
  • Hands-on experience: YES
  • Academic Ranking of World Universities: 12th</p>

<p>I’m heavily inclined to UCLA, but I got a little scared of how easy was to apply to it. I know it’s just a summer session course, but Yale was much more demanding. Yale offers less course hours, credits and it’s in a “workshop” model. UCLA is more… well, “college-life experience”. </p>

<p>My main preoccupation is basically with the university’s academic quality. It’s quite embarrassing to admit, but I’m clueless about how summer courses are in each university, so I would like an opinion, preferably, from someone who has studied in one of them (summer student or undergraduate).</p>

<p>Thank you. :)</p>

2

<p>There are a lot of different components to consider.

  1. When looking at film programs, “Film Production” is the making of films, while “Film Studies” is the watching, critiquing, and writing about films. So recheck your “names of courses” to be sure that the UCLA program is not only film studies.
  2. Generally, UCLA film production is more highly regarded than Yale film production.
  3. Many “summer programs” are done through private companies that rent out space at UCLA and Yale. Thus, I’m not sure if your UCLA summer session is “real” UCLA summer session or another program (say, US Performing Arts) that is being run thru UCLA. Yale’s summer program does have the title that you listed, and it’s competitive because there is not enough film production classes for the regular Yale students to take, so they try to take it in the summer. Not sure why UCLA was easy, which is why I think it’s another program that is being run out of UCLA. Lastly, UCLA may have been easier because it may be truly a film studies class, and most people want to take film production, not film studies, classes.</p>

<p>The academic quality of an institution does not directly correlate with the quality of the film production major. Yale does not even offer a film production major, but has good academic quality. Best film production majors are at USC, NYU, Chapman U, Emerson, Loyola Marymount University, plus others I don’t know as well such as Florida State University, Univ of Texas at Austin, Boston U, Northwestern U, and many others. UCLA is often left off that list because you can’t enter the major until you are a Jr.</p>

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<p>Forgot to add the side comment, that even though Yale does not offer a film production major, the film production class is for the film studies majors to get some hands on production time.</p>