Looking for a "Perfect Fit"

proudterrier
Sun, 31 May 2015 18:20:27 +0000

You need to consider Boston University. It fits ALL of your criteria, except for the “large school” one; however none of the schools on your list seem to fit that criteria. Most schools that have filmmaking programs aren’t small, anyway. But at BU, I can tell you that the College of Communications functions like it’s own college-within-a-college, so you can get a smaller school feel out of a massive university. There are no more than 2,000 students in COM at a time; my graduating class was 450 and only about 100 other kids in my major (journalism), which made classes sizes of about 15-25. Film/TV will have similar stats (and in fact, film production classes are hard-capped so there aren’t too many students in them). Many consider BU film/TV a “safety” school for NYU Tisch/USC film school kids (in part b/c it’s slightly easier to get into, and also because BU is more likely to offer merit aid than NYU), and you might want to look at it as such, as well. NYU and USC (the two best film programs in the country) are really competitive, and NYU doesn’t offer much money (do you need fin-aid), so BU is a wise fall back. (Emerson too)

More importantly, it really does fit all your other criteria, where NYU and USC do not. BU is completely secular, not a party school, has nominal Greek life (no houses allowed on campus), it’s super liberal, academically rigorous, has plenty of alternative people (especially in the film/TV program, but also in particularly CFA–College of Fine Arts). Plus, it’s study abroad can’t be beat, and it has a fantastic Los Angeles program (much like Emerson), which can be a boon to a filmmaking student not attending school in LA. BU has a reputed “mafia” in the entertainment industry, particularly of women at execute levels at studios, so you’d get as many networking connections as you would from other places. Emerson also has an industry “mafia,” btw. It’s well known out here (I live in LA now).

But, honestly, if you can get in, money isn’t an object and the Greek life/partying aspect of your list isn’t a dealbreaker (the kids I know at USC are extroverts who love football & parties), go to USC (for filmmaking).