Take tons of pictures and if you get a current student to tour you around ask millions of questions! What film facilities do they have on campus? What equipment? What is the regular day in the program? What companies do they have tight internship ties with? How much cooperation do they do with other art departments? Would be great if you could post it all here. If it feels too extreme, you can always PM me. I'll buy you lunch once we are both in Columbia
Hey, I went to NYC not too long ago (first time) and visited NYU and Columbia. I don't have a lot of pictures but I'll post some impressions. Anyone with more experience with the schools, feel free to chime in/correct me. A little background, I was born on the East Coast but have lived in the Midwest all my life. I've been to mostly private, small-medium sized schools my entire life and I think that is somewhat why I've gravitated toward Columbia and the East Coast in general.
I loved Columbia's campus. It's beautiful, quaint, and seems slightly off from the general NYC hustle and bustle. It reminded me a lot of the places I had gone to school. I only went into the building with the film department and other fine arts concentrations. Film mainly takes place on 1.5-2 floors and a bunch of different classrooms and computer labs. Honestly, if you've been to college, you pretty much know the setup. I was given a tour by a 2nd year Producing major and was very impressed with her ability to answer all my questions. I don't have too much else to add. It was mostly what I expected, which was good. The students seem to mostly come from working backgrounds like me and have a lot of support from other students and working staff (one of their professors had a major film release the next day and still managed to teach and mentor). There didn't seem to be a ton of collaboration between different fine arts concentrations, but a lot within the film department (classmates seem pretty close as the spend a good amount of time together and even do a first year acting class with each other!), which I attribute to the busy class schedules. I can't remember whether or not they had a studio, but I know there wasn't an audio facility.
NYU struck me as...maybe not radically different than Columbia, but maybe flashier in its approach. One thing to note, I did not have a graduate tour; there was a mix up (plus, NYU was slightly less flexible when it came to graduate tours) and I was given a tour with an undergrad, who did a fantastic job answering the questions relevant to her experience). The campus is closer to Times Square and therefore right in the middle of the busyness I've come to associate with NYC. Not necessarily as scenic unless urban landscapes are your thing. However, the film department seemed new on the inside with about 4 floors, if I remember correctly, that served both undergrad and grad, that are lined with movie posters of films staff and students either worked on or had prominent roles in, which was pretty cool. They had one or two stations where students could access equipment and a few studios with students collaborating on their films. The equipment seems pretty up to date and according to the tour guide, NYU seems pretty interested in getting it into your hands as soon as you walk in their doors.
Both schools really impressed me, especially with how well adjusted and diverse their student bodies seem. Honestly, I wasn't too obsessed with how easy it will be to get a job in the industry, so my questions centered more around my place in the student experience. Once again, this is my impression, but Columbia strikes me as the kind of place where it would be really helpful to have a good plan going in on the types of things you want to create because their curriculum seems geared toward a more meticulous honing of your voice and becoming a well rounded filmmaker, especially in the current landscape of independent filmmaking. NYU impressed me more than I thought it would, probably because I think it would be slightly outside of my comfort zone, but it seems students at NYU both grad and undergrad do a lot more production as a means to acquaint students with muscle memory of filmmaking. The tour guide mentioned a course in which a group of students rotate roles for a semester in making something like 20 films or something.
I hope this helps and I also hope this doesn't detract from either school, as that was nowhere close to my intention. Like I said, I really like Columbia a lot, but seeing NYU in person has made me rethink my application pool and what I think I can benefit most from.
