USC School of Cinematic Arts

When I was 17 years old, I applied to a majority of the top film programs in the US for screenwriting. I got into USC, NYU, and Chapman (where I actually turned down a significant scholarship). To me, there was no other choice but to go with the number one option, as it had been sold as so to me so many times.

Unfortunately, USC is no longer what it once was. The professors there are barely working writers. If they are working, it's for something they wrote 15 years ago that was really good, or it's on the worst Network television show you can imagine. Like a reboot of Desperate Housewives set in space starring Jensen Ackles in drag (although that sounds much better than some of the slop these people are working on and selling their souls over).

Instead of exploring this medium through creativity and art, you are hammered into a mold and told to accept it. Writing is not for that. It's for a job. The end goal is a job. Okay, fine. I realized that's not what I want to write for so maybe this program wasn't for me. Except, you know, they should probably fulfill the "we're going to get you a job" aspect of it, right?

The part of the screenwriting curriculum that is touted around as what defines it as superior from other programs in the country is something called "First Pitch." It's when they rent out a ballroom at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons and essentially have you do speed dating with a bunch of executives, agencies, and management companies. It is the pay off for years of hardwork. USC WST will get you a job.

Just kidding! First Pitch is an absolute joke. Especially for BFAs. Nobody there cares about what you've spent the past four years putting your blood, sweat, and tears into. Nobody actually wants to be there because they have more important things to do. This is Hollywood, baby. Also, not for nothing, everyone is drunk. Literally everyone. And they don't even let the students order a drink. So you're just out there pitching your life's work to a bunch of dull-eyed assistants that were forced to go. It's genuinely soul-crushing, and the perfect amalgamation of my time there. Marketing my trauma as a reason I'm hirable and then having no one hire me anyway.

Afterwards, we were supposed to take all of those emails and the generals that the program gets us set up with and have our shot in the world that USC perfectly set us up for. Just kidding! No one takes you seriously there either. In fact, one of my friends who went into a meeting to talk about her writing got asked if she babysat.

I've heard better things about the MFA there, so take this from an undergrad grain of salt, but if I were to do my entire college experience over again, I would go somewhere I really loved and spend literally no money on it, then apply to a film school for grad school. My time at USC was mostly a waste where I met the most obnoxious Hollywood people that would stab you in the back if they found out it would get them a ten minute meeting with the CAA mail room. There were a few good eggs that I stick close with to this day, but I don't know what's in the BFA water there for the screenwriting program. Most are miserable, there were some really severe and dangerous mental health crises, and barely any of them have jobs in the industry. The ones that do either got them from their parents or are like the most snake-ass people you will ever meet.

Some people don't mind doing that whole song and dance, but it did make me not want anything to do with film and TV for several years. I ended up working with animals (where I weirdly made more industry connections than any of my time at school), and I got an assistant job through that.

Take with that what you will!

If you're a storyteller who believes that the most important aspect of filmmaking is the story, then USC is not the right school for you.

I deeply regret choosing this school over others. The place is full of video-makers who just obsess over YouTube videos and mega-budget films. They could be interested in other kinds of films, but they don't want to make those kinds, and even if they did, they wouldn’t know how. About 90% of the students don’t care about writing. I was shocked to find that many have never even read books like Story or Save the Cat. I’m not saying these books are absolutely necessary to become a better filmmaker, but as a filmmaker, it's crazy to have never even attempted to read them.

Do you think cinematography really matters?

Audiences don’t care about lighting, glossy flares, color tones, or fancy VFX. Yes, great films need great cinematographers, but the one thing that truly matters in filmmaking is writing a good script, a genuine, unique, well-structured script.

At USC, almost no one seems to understand the importance of writing. If you attend, most of what you'll be doing is miscellaneous tasks that they call "producing." But producing isn’t something you need to learn in school, and honestly, you’ll eventually get someone else to produce your film anyway. The problem is, there’s a high chance that you’ll end up with a producer who doesn’t know what they’re doing, because most students here have only worked as PAs or 2nd ADs on random productions.

Even at the master’s level, most people in the school are irresponsible. They don’t know how to work or communicate effectively. Sure, some are talented, but not many.

To be honest, I think most film schools are a scam but USC is the worst.

There’s no sense of community, and you won’t have enough time to focus on writing and storytelling. In screenwriting classes, students stay silent, and the professors don’t actually teach you how to write. If you’re a tech person, and totally fine with repeating every trivial exercise you did before (e.g how to set ISO), then maybe USC is for you. But if you're looking to expand your creative insight and hone your storytelling, don’t even think about USC. And as for "networking"? Please, stop believing that hype!!!!!

+Most of the faculties are also just eager to get a job in Hollywood. I requested resume counseling but none of the prof replied. They are the one who told me I can get a counseling whenever I can.

Here's some things I wish I'd known before signing up for this program. To be clear, these specifically apply to the MFA Writing for Screen and Television program.

1. The school does not care about you.
I cannot emphasize this enough. They do not care if you're having a personal crisis, if your loved one died, if you're having trouble making rent, if you don't have food to eat today. They do not work with you to figure out disability accommodations, to help with emergency food or housing or even escaping domestic violence. They DEFINITELY don't help with anything financial - a student was slapped with an unexpected bill in the thousands because of an error on THEIR end, and when she asked them to talk to the billing office to give her some extra time to pay/give her an opportunity to work off the bill as a student worker/literally any kind of assistance that would help her work towards resolving the issue, they sent her "thoughts and prayers," and then ghosted her. Similarly: a classmate asked for assistance finding an on-campus job and was told to his face that "USC only admits the 1%. If you're having trouble paying for school, maybe you should consider transferring to a community college."

2. The quality of your education depends almost entirely on the professor you get, and the school refuses to tell you much - if anything - about who is teaching which course.
This last semester, we were all forced to sign up for required classes without knowing who was teaching us. Some of the classes didn't even have professors yet - they were scrambling to hire adjuncts even after the previous semester had ended. As a result, some of us ended up with last-minute hires who 1. only taught for 1/3 of the class time, and by "taught," I mean he didn't teach. He just told everyone their work was amazing and dismissed the class, 2. required scripts to fit an exact formula down to the page number, exact emotional beats that he wanted, etc. and if you didn't follow instructions, your work was considered subpar even if it was brilliant, or 3. assigned WAY too much work, such as watching 3 seasons of a TV show, reading 2 chapters of a textbook, and completing a 10 page story map, all in one week.

Don't get me wrong, there are some incredible professors at USC - the few that I've had have almost made it all feel worth it. But the problem is, you have to know these professors are incredible and sign up for their classes, which is a combination of asking all your seniors about each and every professor you could possibly want or need to take a class with, and sheer dumb luck. And, considering that we were recently forced to sign up for classes without any professor's names attached to them, knowing who was good and who wasn't amounted to absolutely nothing in the end.

3. As previous reviewers have said, the school is conservative and not interested in changing.
Yes, there are diverse students - my year alone has a not insignificant number of LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and international students. But when the school continues to only employ full-time old white men (the professors of color are largely adjuncts who only teach 1 or 2 classes a semester), you end up with problems such as: mispronouncing characters of color's names in scripts, students who write scripts set in cultures outside of the white American norm receiving little to no feedback on their work, and horrific treatment of LGBTQ+ students and scripts. One student was misgendered by a professor for an entire semester, with a negative personal and academic impact on the student and zero recourse for the professor. Another had a professor tell them to their face that the AIDS crisis was actually the origin of gay activism in the US and therefore a positive thing (both incredibly untrue and harmful, in case there was any doubt).

One professor was so blatantly and terribly sexist that the entire class of students petitioned for him to be removed from teaching a required course. The department finally caved to demands - only to instead assign this professor to teach an undergrad required course instead.

Just to be 100% clear: no one tells you that you can't write POC or LGBTQ+ stories. Classmates are largely supportive and many professors are, too. But the fact that there are even a few who don't - and the fact that these faculty members are tenured and teach required courses that POC and LGBTQ+ students cannot avoid taking with them - makes USC's claims at diversity and inclusion a poor mockery of real people's lives and experiences.

4. The fancy equipment they advertise? You don't get to use it.
...Unless you take specific production courses, which are largely reserved for production students (i.e. if you're in screenwriting or animation, you don't get to even exist in the same room as a school camera). The few seats that don't go to production students have to be fought for through complicated waitlists and first-come-first-serve emails and attendance in the class, even though you're still not registered, so you're showing up for three hours a week and doing homework for no credit.

Also: USC retains all copyright for works produced in these classes. Also also: USC provides NO funding for works produced in these classes. Which means, if you somehow fight your way into a production class and finally, finally get your hands on a camera... you still have to fundraise for your film, shoot it on your own time outside of class, and you don't even get to keep the copyright after it's done.

5. The quality of your classmates' work will vary.
I mean this in the kindest sense possible. Some of my classmates regularly blow my mind with their skill and ability. Others... do not. A select few - and I mean very few - seem to have been chosen just because they reminded someone on the faculty of themselves. And yes, by that I do mean straight, white, male, and vaguely racist/homophobic.

In this program, you're participating in classes structured like workshops, which means you statistically get more feedback from classmates than from your professors. If one of those classmates refuses to understand or engage with your material because you aren't writing within their narrow mindset of what the world should be, then you miss out on 1/8 of the feedback you should be getting. Which may not sound like a lot, but it adds up over the weeks, and when it comes to writing a first draft, every little bit counts.

It's incredibly sad. I was so excited to be accepted to USC. But my experiences there - both having things happen to me and watching things happen to my classmates - have left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. Save your money and go to UCLA or Chapman where you'll have a much better experience for much less student debt.

I'm writing this review because there wasn't a lot of clear info when I was applying so I hope that this can offer some clarification beyond the fluff of USC marketing (like "the #1 film school in the world" bullshit).

The first year at USC is the worst one and is truly a mess. The film program accepts students based on their perspectives, meaning there is a wide range of skill level when it comes to film. Some people have had done a degree program before or have worked, while others do not know anything. This is not inherently a bad thing but what is dishonest about SCA is that they are not clear about the fact that the first year does not actually serve either groups of people. There is too little teaching that would give beginners a good foundation, but at the same time more experienced people are bored by how basic everything is. The approach of the first year is to have useless lectures during class, assigning students to trios, and having them figure out filmmaking themselves while learning how to "collaborate". What I have seen of even this attempt to teach people to collaborate is that they value students who don't make a fuss, meaning students will put on their best face to teachers so that they can have opportunities to direct higher level productions. They do not offer helpful support for students who struggle with things such as conflict resolution, mental health issues, cultural differences, or disability. I don't consider this good teaching or learning. Also, effective learning is seriously impaired by teachers who largely lack the basic skill of organizing classes and lecturing, in addition to not actually being that good at helping people with their films. If they were skilled enough to be successful most of them would not be teaching there.

After the first year, things get dramatically better because there is more choice in how people can work, who they work with, as well as what they take. This is when people start taking basic intermediate classes (directing, producing, etc.) which would have been far more useful to have learned in the first year before we had to make films. The faculty is improved from the first year but I have found that great professors are still hard to come by. There are certainly some here and there, though. The advanced production classes (esp 546/narrative and 547/doc) are well-regarded and I've generally heard good things about them. In general the coursework becomes more helpful since you can focus on one thing at a time and begin to consider how these will help you in your career. However, even then, I have found classes and instructions to be just okay.

USC is actually best for people who are already quite good at filmmaking and know what they are doing. In addition, this school is more helpful for people who want to be blockbuster directors and make films in a more standard way. However, artists who try to break the mold or make experimental work will not be as well supported, especially by the faculty who often don't understand that type of filmmaking. Stories told by POC exist in plenty but because most of the faculty is white those stories also do not get the best support that they should. When it comes to tracks, directing, cinematography, and PD are the weaker tracks here. Writing, producing, and post-production (editing and sound) are strong. The editing and sound facilities are definitely good and the faculty will train you from the beginning.

I can't say if USC is worth it or not really. I'd have to graduate to see if it is but I think it can be depending on what your goals are, what you want to do, and whether you can afford it. I have learned a lot from doing things in classes but I do wish that the education was structured better. The film program can certainly help you get a job (esp if you do a post-production track), gain familiarity with equipment, and learn technical skills but it won't help you become a better artist. However, I do think that coming to USC will open doors career wise because it is well-connected but so far it has come at the cost of dealing with all of the bullshit of the school. By the time people graduate the anger of going through the first year is gone but many are left with mixed feelings. You should know what to expect before you say yes.

Overall, this school is what 'quantity over quality' means.

The network they brag about is absolutely not as they market. The filmmakers who come mostly make low-rated films that happen to need a boost of marketing. Occasionally they are good, don't get me wrong, but it's just gonna be once every semester so I wouldn't call that good network.

I would give it 0 star but this website won't let me.

Oh and the SCA building is a horrific building, an insult to any architect in the world. At least $75 million endowment from alumni and organizations are distributed to the construction of this awful building instead of I don't know, scholarship? Emergency fund? Lower tuition?

If you don’t get a scholarship to attend USC I would advise against going. It’s too much money to throw away for a school with so many problems. The first year is remedial film. If you’ve ever taken film before, it’s useless. 6 units are devoted to critical studies, which at the time of writing is 12k. Do yourself a favor and save for a house.

The so called network only helps a certain few. The fact that you’re in college helps more, so I would choose a cheaper school.

If you get a scholarship then by all means go.