After doing some research, I confirmed my suspicion that Berkeley Digital Film Institute is a "for-profit" school. I strongly urge anyone who is considering going here to read up on the distinctions between non-profit and for-profit schools. Here is a place to start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For-profit_school

It is always important to understand what you are getting into and there have been many news stories of people in various fields spending a lot of money at for-profit institutions who did not realize what they had signed up for.

By definition, this school is a business. It was founded in 2007, so any track record it has is very very premature.

Consider very carefully what you want to do in the industry. Perhaps you can learn some of these skills through work or on the job or through apprenticeships. Perhaps you can get a BA and study film at a public or private non-profit institution. You do not need any special degree or certificate to work in the industry. Maybe you just need to take a 10 week course in Avid. Or maybe you will want that BA degree down the line. Think very carefully before you take out loans or shell out money to go anywhere, but especially before you sign up for a for-profit institution.

The measure of a program should be what it achieves for its students when they transition into the "real world" of national and international filmmaking.

Although The Berkeley Digital Film Institute is a relatively new program, the results achieved by current and recent former students of Berkeley Digital Film Institute are somewhat exceptional; we feel they speak for themselves.

Within the past 12 months, recent graduates have achieved the following results:

Film Festivals:

11 student films were accepted into eight major film festivals including;

The San Francisco International Film Festival
The Palm Springs Short Film Festival
The New York Television Festival
The LA Short Film Festival
The Heart of England Film Festival
The Sonoma Film Festival
The Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival
The Clonmel Irish International Film Festival (Won, Student Category)

National Television:

Jodi Martinson and her colleagues have won a National Emmy award for their PBS/Frontline documentary on Ghana.

Students from the program worked as employees on the NBC show "Trauma".

MTV Music Videos:

Former students have Directed and acted as Director of Photography on 2 music videos for Sean "Dirty Money" Combs, 2 videos for .50 Cent, 2 videos for Justin Bieber, and 6 videos for rapper Chris Brown, and have directed and shot more than 20 other major acts.

The video for Bieber, "Never Let You Go", has taken 110 million (and counting) hits on YouTube, making it the 20th most-watched video in the history of the YouTube channel.

Feature Films:

Students in this program worked for a year on "IronMan 2" at Industrial Light and Magic and are currently taking meetings with the producers of the film "Oceans Eleven".

To ascribe the evils of the ripoffs of some for-profit schools to every for-profit school is not fair.

The student body at Berkeley Digital is only 32 individuals; all of the successes above came from a very small group of excellent students.

People should really check out what a school is really doing for its students before they "confirm their suspicions..."

I was not suspicious of the people personally attending the school, just suspicious that the school was a for-profit school. Which it is. And people considering the school should know that.

Look at the track record.

Look at the track record.

Look at the track record.

The 2000+ non-profit classes and film programs at degree-granting "non-profit" schools and universities are not generating that kind of track record, so whether or not a school is for-profit or non-profit is completely irrelevant.

The vast majority of "non=profit" schools do not have the equipment or the seasoned faculty to teach what it takes to make it in the real world of national and international filmmaking.

That is a matter of record, and hanging around sets hoping to learn the craft denies the real fact that people on sets are working; they are not teachers; and the information gathered on a set is random, chaotic, and not in any sequence.

Yes, you could connect the dots, over a period of 5 to 10 years, as P.A., but what school is supposed to do is fast track that information down to potentially less than 2 years, so school is designed to save time, and begin the career faster, with a better understanding of the big picture.

Hey, I AM THINKING ABOUT GOING TO BERKELEY BT I LIVE IN JAMAICA so i dont know anywhere near Berkeley..

I would like to KNOW THE DIFFERENT PLACES THAT STUDENTS CAN RESIDE NEAR THE SCHOOL... do any of you know good housing locations or residence halls.. or whatever?
affordable,safe places.. any suggestions?

I want to know about fees structure of Berkeley Digital Film Institute.My child want to join this institute.Give me all required admission details of this institute?