OH! and before I forget (although this should not influence your opinions because the experience is TRULY WHATEVER YOU MAKE OF IT), but:

I have a ton of friends that go to UCSB and I just talked to one who is a Film Major there. Anyway, he's a complete as*, and he thinks its awesome that he's majoring in the "easiest effing major" at UCSB. He did say that the majority of majors are all fratboys and the classes are fun and they joke around the whole time. Like I said though...this shouldn't reflect on the quality of their program. The classes may provide the opportunities, but the majority of douche bag students just don't take advantage of them.

hey fakeplastic,
thanks for letting me know your GPA. it seems to be hard to find that info on the web.
the new film building is in fact very interesting and does allow students better access to equipments and labs. however, the major is still film and media studies and at least 95% of the whole program will be theory and papers. because i'm a film major and i'm still at a CC i have attended a bunch of my girlfriend's classes at UCSB. They are all theory, and all the assignments are long research and long papers.

i also do not think it's the easiest major at UCSB. as i went to speak with the counselor Joe Paladino and other students other than my Girlfriend i found out that the film studies program is in fact harder than the english major when it comes to literature and critical thinking. that means the major is mostly based on writing gnarly theories and papers.

don't get me wrong. the school is amazing, and the classes are great with great professors. also, learning how to write theories and analyze old films well should be very important for a successful filmmaker.

but as a film pro major i have decided not to go to UCSB and go to a Cal state around the LA area,

does anyone know if CSUlb and CSUn will be accepting applications for spring 11?

let me know if i can help with anything else about UCSB.

thiago

wow oquendo thanks man, great review! That's exactly what I did was break off from my bs group and just walked into the editing lab to talk to actual students about the program. The main kid i was talking to told me that only about 8% of film and media studies kids actually take part in production (don't know where he pulled that stat out of), but it's lookin' like sb DEFINATELY offers huge opportunities. We just gotta keep in mind no one's gonna make our films for us!

I don't know much about ucsd but I'm willing to bet that sb is much more industry oriented, as when i was there i kept hearing people name drop l.a. and it's accessability. That's the one thing that's turned me off from berk besides it's even greater lack of production classes, is that i'm still in the bay area. bay area film scene is great, but it doesn't have any studios where I think the first point of entry is probably your best bet.

Basically reality has set in for me that, even when we do greaduate, it doesn't look like there are 100k jobs in film for twenty-nothings and that making films for a living could be a long way out, but nonetheless, sb looks like it's got GREAT stuff going for it.

Supposed to hear back from usc this week for critical studies, if not, it's sb and away!

not yet mehng, application hasn't been "acted upon", still stuck in committee review, i'll take that over getting denied though! Atleast sc's website has a little panel that shows you a checklist of all your supporting materials that were received, where as I don't know if mu ucla stuff ever made it lol

Hey! My advice to all of you looking for a place to stay near UCSB is to do what my sister did: book a hotel room for a couple of days and check out the area. You will certainly find something this way. There are some nice deals on http://ucsb.universityhotelnetwork.com/. Hope this helps! It did for my sister! Good luck