Cost of school

[sophiedog]

So Columbia just sent out an email to admitted students, with updated tuition info, etc.
Here's the list...

Tuition: $42,752
Health Insurance/Services: $3,000
University Facilities Fee: $700
Arts Resource Fee: $120
Student Activity Fee: $30
International Student Fee: $50 (per semester)
Transcript Fee: $95 (one-time charge)
Course or lab fees: Vary depending on registration and courses
Late registration fee: $50, if within late registration period
Late registration fee: $100, if after late registration period
Late Payment fee: $150, plus a percentage of the remaining balance

Room & Board (estimated): $14,850 (9 months)
Commuting: $1,000
Personal Expenses: $3,375
Books: $2,000
Loan Origination Fees: $185

Plus film costs.
Does anyone else think this is a little insane? How are you going to pay for it, especially international students?
For me being Canadian tuition alone would be over $50,000 and I can't get any financial aid!

 

[KayS]

Wouldn't it be great if that was an April Fool's joke?

 

[tabbycat]

I was going to say financial aid. LOL. If I happen to get in anywhere and go, that's what I'm going to do - loans, loans, loans. Which is why I'm starting to rethink going. But then I just decided to wait until I get admission decisions until I figure it out.
Some schools offer scholarships and such to first years. Schools like AFI do not and expect you to pay for it all yourself the first year, but might offer you some relief the second year. I'm not sure how Columbia works though.

 

[sophiedog]

I wish it were an April Fool's joke lol. Yeah unfortunately no fin. aid for me, only eligible for grants but talking to COlumbia students and Eric, seems like those are being saved for second year students. Craziness!

 

[Suzako]

sophiedog, are you not eligible for financial aid because you're an international student? Because we haven't gotten our fin aid packets yet.

But yeah . . . even so financial aid is mainly loans. And Columbia seems pretty clear that most of its scholarships are saved for second year students.

Keep in mind that the costs of room/board/personal expenses can vary a lot person to person. But yeah .. . school cost money ...

 

[sophiedog]

Yeah no financial aid for international students sadly..even me just being across the border

 

[Suzako]

 

[Jayimess]

I'm not sure what you mean by no Financial Aid for international students, because in my experience with USC, UCLA, and AFI, "Financial Aid" means loans. I have received scholarships and assistantships, yes, but everything else has been loans. No Pell or SEOG grants for MFAs, doesn't even seem we can get Perkins loans.

Just good ole Stafford and Plus.

If I never make another movie again, film school has been an experience I would pay for again in a heartbeat.

You're making movies and watching them all day long.

But...yeah, Columbia is the priciest...

Good luck, y'all.

 

[sophiedog]

Financial aid generally means loans I think, but international students at Columbia aren't eligible for them. Some people can get loans from their home province but it depends on your province. Just worked it out for Cdn $ (based on right now, 1 USD=0.79 Cdn, it may be at par later but hard to say, so anyway based on the figures they sent today plus living, cost of first year films (as stated by a Columbia student), first year alone would cost approx $95,000. For first year alone!! Film school would be an awesome experience but in a recession maybe more to think about..

 

[HandzOn]

Hey folks,

Got the same email. The cost def seems astronomical especially in a recession. Even for a US student, taking out a bunch of loans right now seems like a stupid move. Where are the full scholarships? Anyone????

 

[jthamilton]

A few of the smaller film schools will sometimes/often award full scholarships to their admitted students. (These schools are also very competitive.) I wonder if more people will consider these schools in future rounds of applications.

 

[Suzako]

It would be a lot of money in loans even if it was not a recession. School is a lot of money. I'm not trying to persuade you to do one thing or another and I certainly don't know anyone's personal finances, but in general, MFA programs usually do not heavily finance their students. Neither do law schools.

Taking out student loans at any point (recession or not) is a big decision. You don't Have to go to grad school. For me, it comes down to that I believe I can use the knowledge and connections to parley myself into a place where I will be able to pay back the loans. But that's just me. The economy may be messed up for a long time, but I feel like now is a good time to go to school and get more credentials.

eta: okay, so there are mfa programs that fund their students. But its different than say the sciences, where stipends are assumed.

 

[jthamilton]

Many creative writing MFA programs fund their students, plus stipends. Not sure about the other arts. I wish film school was that way!

 

[Jayimess]

this was one of the largest applicant pools for higher education in history. Especially grad school, nobody wants to be in this economy.

I am grateful to be insulated from the recession for right now, by my big debt bubble, though of course paying back the debt is terrifying!

A big part of why we're not funded, at least, this is my hypothesis for SC, is because they don't pay a bunch of TAs, which is how most (and CS students here at SC) grad programs seem to fund their students. It's indentured servitude of sorts... If I was taught screenwriting by a grad student with an established writer as the figure head, I'd leave.

 

[jthamilton]

Hey Jayimess, could you talk about what kind of jobs you and your fellow screenwriting classmates will look for or what is the most common route for earning a living after graduation? Is everyone hoping to sell a script for a large amount of money? Or become staff writers on a show? Teach? Get an unrelated job while working on screenplays in off hours? What do most people end up doing?
I think I could feel better about taking on the debt if I had a fairly concrete plan in mind for earning income in the time right after school.

 

[tabbycat]

Originally posted by jthamilton:
I think I could feel better about taking on the debt if I had a fairly concrete plan in mind for earning income in the time right after school.

that's how I feel. I don't want to default on my loans and have crappy credit my whole life because I can't find a job after graduating. Though my limited research suggests that there are different ways of paying back loans... a certain amount every month, a percentage of your paycheck, gradually increasing over time, etc. And you usually don't have to start paying back until 6 months after graduating, as far as I know.

 

[96Mph]

UCLA's Professional Program is looking a whole lot more appealing right now.

 

[notroberttowne]

Originally posted by 96Mph:
UCLA's Professional Program is looking a whole lot more appealing right now.

You're not just saying that because we still haven't heard if we're accepted for the MFA program, right?

 

[Jayimess]

I don't know anyone who graduated in 2008 who's teaching, though recent grads serve as both the BFA and MFA advisors.

Several from 2007 or 2008 are already staffed on television shows, I want to say five maybe six that I've heard of? Breaking Bad, My Own Worst Enemy (when it got dropped, that alum was fine because NBCUni held the deal, not MOWE)are the ones that come straight to mind, there are people at CAA and UTA, two people are developing pilots. Of the ones on shows, they're either writer's assistants or writers' PAs. I know the alum on Breaking Bad just wrote a webisode that got made.

A few people are working as assistants to writers and producers.

Several went back to their homelands and are doing what they do there, producing shorts and theatre.

I know a couple are struggling to get by, outside of the biz.

Everyone is working in some form, it seems. I'm not that good at tracking folks, I guess, I really had to rack my brain for that info. When you're in thesis mode, you can't help but lose track of peeps.

My incoming class, that's graduating in May (I'm staying an extra year, as are six others), I haven't heard too much about, though one signed with CAA just a couple weeks ago. She'll be there on Friday, she's also an alum of this site. I know another student's worked or is working at the Hollywood Reporter.

A lot of folks hope to convert their current internships to paying gigs...

A couple of us three year planners were bantering with a two year planner today during the fire alarm and we all know it's not going to be instant.

It's not going to be instant. THIS IS NOT AN MBA THAT GUARANTEES YOU SIX FIGURES IN EXCHANGE FOR FRAMING YOUR DIPLOMA.

It can take years to get there, and often not even then.

I plan to work at what ever job I can get in the industry and make movies on the side. That's the cool thing about LA...you can be a chef and it's still the industry. The biz runs this city.

I know I'll make the money to survive and pay the loans, and I know that it might take awhile before I "make it." But I sincerely believe it would take longer to "make it," if it ever happened, had I not gone to film school.

With the exception of the youngest applicants, it's given that we have all toiled away at other careers before giving into our dream, so we know how to support ourselves while finding time to be hobbyist writers and filmmakers.

At the very least, film school will help you be very, very good at your hobby.



OH! And everyone should get some Avid skills. You can support yourself quite well editing, and it helps if you're a writer, too! All of my friends who moved out here to just jump in to the biz work in post, and they are doing pretty well...7-900 a week, I know the one guy started at 7 and three months later got bumped to 9.


I don't know how much that rambling up there helps. I've really been focused on writing over business this year, which will probably bite me in the butt eventually, but so be it. I didn't have hardly any experience when I got here, so I was behind some folks. I got in with the first act of the first feature I ever attempted and never finished....whereas plenty of my classmates had been writing scripts for years.

Either way, I'm still in school mode, and thus not the best person to ask. Sorry I'm not more helpful...

 

[96Mph]

Originally posted by notroberttowne:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by 96Mph:
UCLA's Professional Program is looking a whole lot more appealing right now.

You're not just saying that because we still haven't heard if we're accepted for the MFA program, right? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Nah, I say that coming from a purely financial standpoint. I'm still patiently waiting on the thumbs up/down from admissions. Of course "patiently" meaning I'm clicking to email account every 5 mins, but not actually driving myself crazy trying to figure out what they are doing up there.