Hey guys, I'm looking in to film programs and I'm having a lot of trouble picking my favorites. These are at the top of my list right now (not necessarily in order), so let me know if you guys have any input.

Chapman
City College of New York
LMU
SUNY Purchase
CSULB
Pratt
SFSU

I'd love any sort of opinion on any of these, as I'm really having a hard time choosing where to apply.

To help you help me, here's what I'm looking for in a school (doesn't have to meet ALL requirements):

Ability to double major
Creative Freedom
Connections
LA or NY location (feel free to debate which of these locations are better on this thread, as I've also been thinking about that)
Debate Team
Creative-Intellectual atmosphere
Study Abroad Program


Please help me. Ugh.

add SDSU and Brooklyn College to that list.

Anyone know ANYTHING about ANY of these? Opinions? Thoughts? Suggestions? Experience? Second-hand experience?

This is just from personal experience, but I absolutely love Chapman!

Ability to double major -- Yes, but not within film program. You can minor in Film Studies, Broadcast Journalism, Television, Advertising, and Public Relations.
Creative Freedom -- Absolutely. You might have "assignments" but the story is your own in most cases.
Connections -- Close enough to L.A. to get lots of interesting people/guest speakers in, great staff/faculty advisors with connections.
LA -- The weather is great, productions filmed throughout O.C./L.A.
Debate Team -- I Googled this. We have a "Speech team"
Creative-Intellectual atmosphere -- Yes. It's all about your stories and enhancing them.
Study Abroad Program -- Yes! You can also do internships abroad.

If you have more questions you might want to hit up the Chapman University group on Facebook.

Hey spitefire, I appreciate your response. Chapman has been my top choice for a long time. I think the only thing I don't like about it is the fact that I wouldn't be able to double major. But I'd give that up for all the other advantages. I don't really know how competitive I'd be for admissions. I have a 3.3 GPA, and a 2110 SAT. So well under in grades, and well over on test score, so we'll see I guess. I'm actually about to go out right now to shoot the rest of my supplemental video. Wish me luck.

Anyone else know anything about any of these?

wait... let me clarify.

By "not within film program" (re: double majoring) do you mean that students majoring in film production are unable to double major? Or just that students majoring in film production may not major in something else within Dodge College? For example, would I be able to double major in Film Production and Journalism?

Bump?

Any New Yorkers care to comment on the reputation of those New York schools?

Go to any school in L.A then while your going to school, get PA jobs on film sets. Not to dog film schools, but you will learn so much more actually working on a film set. Use the film school as a resource to help you with using equipment for free, and to learn the systems. We go to film school to get our dream job, well start working in the biz, as soon as you can. School is awesome, but don't let it decide where your dream ends up. Just go for your dream, and to me when you think of Films, all that comes to mind is Hollywood As in L.A not New York Wood. Much luck keep your head up.

Hey, so I can answer some of our questions. You CAN double major at Chapman. It's actually very easy if you work your schedule right--what the OP means is that you can't double major within film like double major in Screenwriting and Film Production, for example.
There's a lot of great study abroad opportunities, both film related and not. Just off the top of my head, theres a Cannes Festival study abroad course and a trip to Africa to film a documentary over the summer. You can go pretty much anywhere though if your sole interest is to travel.
As someone who was on the speech team in high school, let me just say, because I checked it out--yes, there's a debate team here, but it's not very developed. That said, I think NYU and USC will be the only good film schools you'll find that have a good speech team as well.
Creative freedom? Duh.
As far as connections go, Chapman has is relatively new so you're not going to make as many connections as say USC, but I would argue among your list, Chapman has the best network. Purchase may have "the Purchase mafia" but that's really more related to their theatre program.

From your list, I applied to Purchase and Chapman. I'm at Chapman. Purchase ended up being my least favorite of all the film schools I applied to. For personal reasons--grungy campus, it just didn't have the college atmosphere I was looking for, and also it's very narrowly focused. You can't double major there. (It's a conservatory.)

City College of NY I don't think their film program is very well developed or reknown.
LMU's application had a religiously linked essay, so I wasn't interested.
CSULB--same as CCNY.
Pratt: seemed too artsy fartsy for me, and it's in PA, yes?
SFSU: Don't really know too much about the program.

Academically, you're fine. Your SAT is awesome, way higher than you need to get into any of those. Your GPA's about average, maybe a tad low, but not a big deal. Focus on your supplements. My advice: if a film school doesn't require a supplement, how good can it be? Let me if you have any questions or anything--I had a very arduous application process, and I did a LOT of research, and I want to help other applicants make the right choice. I know I'm happy with my decision.

Brooklyn College has a great undergraduate film program, and it's cheap and you're right in the heart of New York City.

I am now a Directing fellow at the AFI Conservatory in Los Angeles, and can honestly say that the undergraduate film production program at Brooklyn College was a choice to get me to where I needed to be.

The classes are tough, especially the film production courses. And during the winter reccess period, you can take Annette Danto (one of my favorite professor's there) class where she takes her students to India to film a documentary.

Again, for the price and learning experience, I would highly recommend Brooklyn College. Plus, you would be able to double major in say Film Production and History (or any other major you want).

Talk soon.

Thanks Bandar.

What are your thoughts on City College? CCNY is a little more tempting to me than Brooklyn College, largely because of the housing they offer. I'm looking for as much of the "college" feel as possible, and I understand Brooklyn doesn't have any on-campus housing. What are your thoughts on that?