Decided not to go to film school after getting accepted into dream program

[rhinoman]

Over the last year leading up to this spring, all I did was research film MFA programs, work on applications, and finally applied to around 7. I got accepted into 5, and eventually got off the waitlist with good funding into one of my dream programs.

The problem was, over the course of this process, I started to get cold feet for a lot of reasons - personal life problems played a big factor, I had graduated film undergrad the year before and was more burnt out from film school than I think I realized, etc. By the time I got off the waitlist for my dream school and got enough funding, I only had a couple days before the April 15th deadline and was kind of checked out of the process, already planning out the rest of my next year without grad school and focusing on how I could improve my personal life situation back home.

I think if I hadn't been waitlisted, the personal issues in my life wouldn't have been present around that time and I would've committed. Now I'm feeling genuinely quite depressed about not going. I can apply again this cycle, but I'm worried I blew my chance and kinda self-rejected myself from film school. I'm very low income so there's very few schools that I could apply to that would give me enough funding for me to be able to attend, and that was one of them. Has anyone ever been in a similar situation? Any advice? For context, I'm 23, graduated film school in America in Spring of 25.

 

[Chris W]

Now I'm feeling genuinely quite depressed about not going. I can apply again this cycle, but I'm worried I blew my chance and kinda self-rejected myself from film school. I'm very low income so there's very few schools that I could apply to that would give me enough funding for me to be able to attend, and that was one of them.

Try not to feel depressed about not going. You're still very young and you'll go when the time is right. Apply again to some other programs (see our fully funded article as well) and build from this experience. If you want, get more "real world" experience and try again.

Which undergrad film program did you go to? Are you working in film in some way now after?

 

[mgm0286]

Which program did you get off the waitlist for? Was it UT? I went to undergrad in Texas and spent a decent amount of time in Austin. I'm happy to talk if you want to dm me.

 

[rhinoman]

Which program did you get off the waitlist for? Was it UT? I went to undergrad in Texas and spent a decent amount of time in Austin. I'm happy to talk if you want to dm me.

I sent you a dm!

 

[jmayer005]

Over the last year leading up to this spring, all I did was research film MFA programs, work on applications, and finally applied to around 7. I got accepted into 5, and eventually got off the waitlist with good funding into one of my dream programs.

The problem was, over the course of this process, I started to get cold feet for a lot of reasons - personal life problems played a big factor, I had graduated film undergrad the year before and was more burnt out from film school than I think I realized, etc. By the time I got off the waitlist for my dream school and got enough funding, I only had a couple days before the April 15th deadline and was kind of checked out of the process, already planning out the rest of my next year without grad school and focusing on how I could improve my personal life situation back home.

I think if I hadn't been waitlisted, the personal issues in my life wouldn't have been present around that time and I would've committed. Now I'm feeling genuinely quite depressed about not going. I can apply again this cycle, but I'm worried I blew my chance and kinda self-rejected myself from film school. I'm very low income so there's very few schools that I could apply to that would give me enough funding for me to be able to attend, and that was one of them. Has anyone ever been in a similar situation? Any advice? For context, I'm 23, graduated film school in America in Spring of 25.

The best advice I can give you is to be kind to yourself -- You still have time. Taking another year to consider a film MFA can give you more to time to develop your artistic voice, create more, and be even more ready to make the most of the MFA experience if you do choose to go next year.

For me personally, I'm 26 turning 27 soon and I hadn't really considered getting an MFA in film in my first few years after undergrad for a variety of reasons. Even though so much of my life is writing screenplays and creating stories, I think for a while I felt like an impsoter because I didn't even go to film school for undergrad. It's only been the last few months that I've seen how beneficial it could be for me and I'm preparing to apply to the next cycle in the winter.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!