CSU MFA Screenwriting Programs (1 Viewer)

[trucherrygirl]

Has anyone applied and been accepted to any MFA/MA Screenwriting programs in the CSU system? I've just applied to Cal State Fullerton and am also applying to Cal State LA (Dramatic Writing MFA) and Cal State Northridge (MA Screenwriting).

Just wondering if people are in these programs and what they think of them! Thanks!

 

[trucherrygirl]

So no one's applied to any of the CSU Dramatic Writing/Screenwriting programs? I feel so alone over here!

I'm just not sure on the timeline of when to hear back from these schools. I applied to CSU Fullerton on January 11th and CSU LA and CSU Northridge in mid-February. Haven't heard anything from them except when they sent me my log-in information.

No other CSU MFA applicants out there?

 

[cahoots]

CSUF's MFA = Jule Selbo wrote a book- she sells it for use in her class. She hired Chad Gervich. He wrote a book. He sits on his laptop during class when he's supposed to be "teaching".

Gervich refuses to give written notes. He says he's a tv writer, but look at his IMDB. He says he writes on Chelsea Lately- he's not in the credits.

There are some nice professors there, but it's 90% NOT screenwriting. Feel bad for the other teachers who have to work there.

Year one has been TV History, Film History, Media Literacy, "Structure", "Sitcom" w/ Gervich who has tirades at the class, telling them they suck etc.

Gervich gave 2 women there C+'s then emailed them after to harass them, one claims. He gave a guy in the class a better grade who pitched a sitcom about Coach Hymen and a 14 year old girl who goes to City University of North Torrance-- (see the acronym)? Wonderful environment for female students, huh?

Selbo has one girl on "academic probation". This girl asked questions, stood up for herself in class. This girl says Selbo told this girl to be a development girl because she was never gonna be a writer.

Next year? "Genre Studies" (Selbo is writing a book on genre). Assignments have been things like book reports, etc..

They won't help you make any of your short films there. No production.

Gervich tried to sell $400 TV Summit seminars to his students and sold their information to some company so they keep getting sales texts.

Selbo keeps trying to get them to sign up for a summer program at Cal State Monterey Bay for 2 weeks for 2 credits. Not sure what you can do with 2 credits.

Ed Fink runs the RTVF Dept. Three women have reported harassment to Fink, who has done nothing but brush it under the rug when they've followed up.

Fink won't even refer them to the OC Film Commission even though they wanted to make short films on location in OC. The commission is on the CSUF office.

Look at student achievement in the RTVF dept there- goose egg and you wonder why. Google "csuf rtvf annual report 2012" and see where the money really goes. 35K to "speakers", some are Selbo's friends who have books to sell, as told by one teacher. In this report, it says Selbo went to Europe 3 times. #taxpayerdollar

Mainly all busy work and no screenwriting. One teacher asked Selbo to look at her syllabus and Selbo didn't look at it- repeated curriculum, movies already assigned.

Selbo has stated publically that she has favorites.

Hope this helps.

 

[Porty]

I contacted CSUN regarding the MA Screenwriting program for 2012, and was told they would have all decisions made by the 2nd week of April - so potentially not much longer for applicants to wait.

 

[cahoots]

Good- fingers crossed. Think you'll be much happier there.

CSUF just fired one of their professors, administration still useless, and one professor swore to never come back- the program is that disturbingly unorganized and unsupportive.

They don't even know what's happening Fall 2012 as it appears- poorly mis-managed and they really don't care, with a few exceptions, but- ya know.

Others dropped out ...

 

[trucherrygirl]

I didn't realize all of those issues with CSUF's MFA program, though they did change their deadline (originally it said January 16th on the website) and I checked last week and it said April 1st. I had my application in already, but still... SO CONFUSED!

Haven't heard from any schools yet except CSUN cuz they asked me a question about something and I was also told decisions would go out mid-April. I'm strongly considering CSUN (it's my 2nd choice at this point) if I don't get into Chapman. Not sure about CSU LA, although my friend's friend went there and seems to like the program.

So I think CSUN might be a good option for me if Chapman doesn't work out, but I'm still waiting to see.

 

[cahoots]

Ha yeah- CSUF changed their deadline --no one's applying? Their professors will likely not be on par- since according to a source- they haven't even set their Fall 2012 semester when other schools already did that in January and got decent instructors in the adjunct category at least.

CSUF retention rate is plummeting- so poorly run. No one cares. They simply don't- you ever have a question- you will never find the answer. There is no flexibility- you can't choose classes and no one will talk about any sort of electives or independent study.

Have friends who go to Chapman- it's great over there- should've gone there. Chapman paperwork is confusing- sometimes they forget to notify you that you get in (happened to me and a friend)- so you have to check in on them periodically if you really want to go there.

 

[John Paul]

Login/Join

This is my first post, but I've been lurking around for a couple months now since I sent my first application back in February.

I applied to both CSUF and CSUN. (Along with Pepperdine. Would've liked to have applied to UCLA, but I was a bit late getting started.)

Wow, CSUF sounding worse by the day. It's been at the bottom of my list solely based on location, but it's sounding iffier and iffier. I'm really hoping on CSUN based on price, and the Valley's much cheaper to live in than Malibu. (At least it seems that based on my cursory research). Also, I hear good enough things.

It's the second week of April now, and I had heard mid-April. Will they (CSUN) be sending out email notifications or mailing acceptances out, I wonder. I'm on the East Coast now, so I figure it'd be a bit longer before I hear either way.

 

[cahoots]

JP, save yourself.

If moved to go to CSUF all the way from the East Coast, I'd jump off a bridge.

BTW- look at how many people jump off the parking deck at CSUF - now I know why. what a headache.

************You have zero/NO choice in classes at CSUF- stuck w/ the same people

 

[John Paul]

Cahoots,

Yeah my hope is on the other schools I applied to. My main mission is getting out West, though. Are you graduating from CSUF, or are you transferring?

 

[cahoots]

They're never going to get to claim me as alumni Have a great trip out here, J, wherever you go. Keep us posted!

 

[cahoots]

Someone got this official statement from Ed Fink today:

YEP- NO ELECTIVES, ie. their webpage about "Electives" that was up is FALSE ADVERTISING

They just changed their whole web page- it used to say students could take electives, upon professor approval as written by Fink below- not anymore and 2 classes "unique" to your cohort? Busy work?

It said this up until recently, after students took 2 semesters--

Now their new set-up:
30 people in a writing class******************
"Combining 2 Co-horts"

http://communications.fullerto...-course-rotation.pdf

"This study plan rotation for offering MFA courses by semester is subject to change based on availability of faculty, budget, curricular modifications, and other variables."

Availability... other variables....
you might get the classes you need to graduate in 2 years?

CSUF's MFA didn't even think to write its own student handbook.

A program "3 years in the making" , a program "sensitive to diversity"- um yep.

Fink admission of changing website after enrollment:

Date: Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 6:43 PM
Subject: Re: After the fact change of web page?
To: "Fink, Edward" <efink@exchange.fullerton.edu>
Cc: "Beisner, John" <jbeisner@exchange.fullerton.edu>, "Powers, Katherine" <kpowers@exchange.fullerton.edu>, "Huizinga, Dorota" <dhuizinga@exchange.fullerton.edu>, "Briggs, William" <wbriggs@exchange.fullerton.edu>, "Matz, Irene" <imatz@exchange.fullerton.edu>, "Engels, Robert" <rengels@exchange.fullerton.edu>, "Posner, Ari" <aposner@exchange.fullerton.edu>, "Selbo, Jule" <jselbo@exchange.fullerton.edu>


[You would publish on a university a public webpage as fact things that a chancellor hadn't approved yet?

You're saying the program wasn't approved by a chancellor when we started and after Fall 2011 then?]

On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 6:40 PM, Fink, Edward <efink@exchange.fullerton.edu> wrote:

Thank you for your message, XXXXX. As I wrote in my previous response, I have, indeed, made some changes to the website to improve clarity about our MFA in Screenwriting program. You are correct that the previous page had a sentence with language about consulting with faculty to take other electives. That sentence was an artifact from an earlier version of our degree proposal that outlined some elective classes. Our degree proposal went through many revisions until it was finally approved at the chancellor's level. That final approval was for the 14-course study plan outlined at the website. That one sentence on the earlier version of the website did not get updated to reflect that and, therefore, was inconsistent with the approved study plan. For this reason, I removed that sentence to avoid future confusion.

to "Fink, Edward" <efink@exchange.fullerton.edu>
cc "Beisner, John" <jbeisner@exchange.fullerton.edu>,
"Powers, Katherine" <kpowers@exchange.fullerton.edu>,
"Huizinga, Dorota" <dhuizinga@exchange.fullerton.edu>,
"Briggs, William" <wbriggs@exchange.fullerton.edu>,
"Matz, Irene" <imatz@exchange.fullerton.edu>,
"Engels, Robert" <rengels@exchange.fullerton.edu>,
"Posner, Ari" <aposner@exchange.fullerton.edu>,
"Selbo, Jule" <jselbo@exchange.fullerton.edu>
date Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 6:14 PM
subject Re: Independent Studies- Procedures?
mailed-by gmail.com


Thank you for your message of April 11, 2012 (above). Allow me to address your questions individually.

Q. How does a graduate student set up independent studies with a sponsoring professor?

A. A graduate student does not “set up independent studies with a sponsoring professor.” The MFA in
Screenwriting study plan consists of 14 courses of three units each, yielding a total of 42 units. Those 14
courses are listed on the MFA in Screenwriting website, http://communications.fullerton.edu/rtvf-mfa.html.

None of those courses is an independent study course; therefore, graduate students in this program do not set up independent studies individually with instructors.

Q. What amounts to independent studies within RTVF's MFA in Screenwriting?

A. There are no independent studies as part of the MFA in Screenwriting curriculum.

Q. Please produce this information for me in a MFA Screenwriting Graduate Student Handbook if possible.

A. The Office of Graduate Studies publishes a thorough “Graduate Student Guide,” or handbook for graduate
students. It is available via that office's website; the direct link is:
http://www.fullerton.edu/gradu...ook_Online_Final.pdf. Because all the relevant
information for graduate students is available there, we do not duplicate that with a separate handbook for
the MFA in Screenwriting. Instead, we post the specific information for the MFA in Screenwriting at that
program's website: http://communications.fullerton.edu/rtvf-mfa.html.

Q. My boyfriend is registering for his Fall 2012 courses at a CSU. All of my friends in graduate programs elsewhere know what they are taking for Fall 2012. I am in the dark. No one, including yourself knows and it is
April 2012- almost the end of this Spring 2012 semester.

A. While I do not know the exact date that the Fall 2012 Schedule of Classes went live, that schedule is available online. You may link to it in several ways, one of which is to link to “Classes” from the “Additional
Quick Links” menu of the university's home page: http://www.fullerton.edu. There you can find the RTVF graduate courses for Fall 2012, including courses for both your current cohort and the new cohort that begins
in the fall. We are combining both cohorts in two of the classes, RTVF 480 and RTVF 553T, to comply with budget reductions. Each cohort will also take two additional classes unique to that cohort. The MFA in Screenwriting committee is reviewing applications for the new cohort. When they have completed that review and the new cohort has been notified, members of that MFA committee will notify both cohorts of
their classes. That has not been done yet because the new cohort is just now being selected and because
registration for Fall 2012 does not begin until July 9, 2012, according to the “Registration Guide Fall Semester
2012,” http://www.fullerton.edu/admis.../guides/fall2012.pdf.

In sum, the handbook published by the Office of Graduate Studies and the MFA in Screenwriting website are two of the main sources of information for the degree. We have no department-specific policy for
transferring courses into our MFA, or for setting up independent studies, because we did not anticipate transferring courses into this new degree program, nor does the degree program include any independent studies. Your request to transfer courses was the first such request we received, and that is why we involved
the Office of Graduate Studies.

 

[John Paul]

Got my acceptance in the mail for CSUN today, so that immediately rules out CSUF. I hope Pepperdine makes up their minds soon because CSUN only is only giving me ten days to make a decision. So I've got some thinking to do...

 

[Porty]

Congratulations John Paul

 

[cahoots]

! Go John Paul!

10 days isn't long. Can you accept then decline later? That happens.

 

[John Paul]

I guess, if I get in at Pepperdine, I could go ahead and pay the registration fee at csun and eat it if I decided on Pepperdine instead. Definitely moving either way. It all depends on if I get scholarship money or at an assistantship at one or the other. I'm excited, but definitely anxious about the whole situation.

 

[trucherrygirl]

Congrats, John Paul!

I also got an acceptance letter from CSUN today! This is the first school I've heard from... FINALLY! I'm still waiting on Chapman, but if CSUN is only giving me 10 days (like John Paul's situation), then I don't know what to do. I was thinking of calling Chapman's admissions office next week. I think I'd be happy at CSUN or Chapman, but I don't want to lose my spot at CSUN because I haven't heard from Chapman. One of those sticky situations.

John Paul - If Pepperdine is your first choice, maybe you should call their admissions office? Just a thought.

 

[Porty]

Congratulations also trucherrygirl

 

[John Paul]

Congrats! I'd call Pepperdine, but it's only been about two weeks since I completed by application. It's not necessarily my first choice anyway... It all sorta depends on what my expenses will be and what work is available.

If you can't get a read on Chapman, you may just have to go ahead and pay the registration fee just in case. Not exactly sure how much that's gonna be though...

 

[trucherrygirl]

@Porty and John Paul: Thank you both!

Yeah... I don't know what to do yet. I've called Chapman twice now and no one has answered the phone. I'm gonna try calling again tomorrow. Not sure how much they can tell me about my application, though. Sometimes they can't give that kind of information over the phone.

CSUN is really tempting me and it is my second choice school. But doesn't it look bad to accept an offer, then decline it later? Even though Chapman has been my first choice, CSUN is much cheaper and I might be able to get certain things out of the program I would not get at Chapman. But... I don't know. *shrugs*