USC 2023 Spring MFA Film and TV Production

[divya512]

Hey, anyone know when interview requests get sent out for spring applications?

 

[Chris W]

Hey, anyone know when interview requests get sent out for spring applications?

I don't remember as our database dates are calibrated to fall admission. Check out the past USC spring threads though:

Search results for query: Usc spring

Also, our acceptance stats link below has all the acceptance info for the program as well as a link to all the USC MFA applications in our system.

• Not enough Applications have been added to our Database to calculate Acceptance Data. Log your own application to help improve our statistics.
• Log Your Application
• 
  Become a Supporting Member to see the lowest reported GPA, SAT, GRE, and other test data.
  
  

 

[Chris W]

Hey, anyone know when interview requests get sent out for spring applications?

Oh almost forgot.... You can sort the applications in our system by interview notification date using the filters.

 

[teyyana]

Hey, anyone know when interview requests get sent out for spring applications?

Hi, did you apply for spring 2023?

I just received an email from a professor asking about my time availability for an interview. Maybe because I'm international that's why he needs to match my preferred available time

 

[divya512]

Hi, did you apply for spring 2023?

I just received an email from a professor asking about my time availability for an interview. Maybe because I'm international that's why he needs to match my preferred available time

Hey, yes I did! Oh, that's amazing, good luck! I'm international too so hoping to hear something soon

 

[teyyana]

Hey, yes I did! Oh, that's amazing, good luck! I'm international too so hoping to hear something soon

At first I was quite skeptical seeing the email as it was sent by the prof himself, from his personal email address, and he asked for Sunday. I thought this kind of information would be notified formally. I also wonder if the interviewer would be this one prof only since it'd be next Sunday. I thought there would be 2-3 professors/faculty members.

I hope there will be another faculty member contacting you soon. Let me know if you get the news!

 

[divya512]

At first I was quite skeptical seeing the email as it was sent by the prof himself, from his personal email address, and he asked for Sunday. I thought this kind of information would be notified formally. I also wonder if the interviewer would be this one prof only since it'd be next Sunday. I thought there would be 2-3 professors/faculty members.

I hope there will be another faculty member contacting you soon. Let me know if you get the news!

Oh that's interesting! Let me know how it goes and how many professors there are in the interview

 

[Bhats]

I got an interview for this Sunday too! I'm international as well. Yes, I definitely agree that even I thought this would be notified formally, I almost scrolled past the email because I didn't recognize the name!
Which professors are interviewing you folks, and how are y'all preparing? Good luck!

 

[Bhats]

I was also curious if USC interviews all its applicants, or shortlisted ones?

 

[Chris W]

I was also curious if USC interviews all its applicants, or shortlisted ones?

Our acceptance stats for USC has that info.

USC School of Cinematic Arts Acceptance Rate (All Programs/All Years)

27.7%

Admitted

230 out of 830

16.9%

Waitlisted

140 out of 830

55.4%

Not Admitted

460 out of 830

Click here for our full Admission Statistics for this program including interview and acceptance notification dates, accepted GPAs, waitlist acceptance rate, demographics of accepted applicants, $ amount of scholarship awarded, and more...

Also so does our article on USC:

How to get Into USC SCA: Advice from an Admissions Committee Member

Considered by many to be the best film school in the world, it’s no wonder why the USC School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) is so sought after by prospective undergraduate and graduate students alike. However, the film school’s prestige can often make the application process particularly stressful and...

• Svaja Paka
• Mar 5, 2020
• 5.00 star(s) 6 ratings
• Comments: 6
• Reviews: 4
• Category: Admissions Dept. Interviews

Short answer is no they don't interview everyone.

 

[teyyana]

I got an interview for this Sunday too! I'm international as well. Yes, I definitely agree that even I thought this would be notified formally, I almost scrolled past the email because I didn't recognize the name!
Which professors are interviewing you folks, and how are y'all preparing? Good luck!

Idk if mentioning the name would be appropriate. In my personal statement, I mention my ultimate career goal is to create a filmmaking educative platform similar to Sundance Collab for preparing the regeneration of filmmakers in my country. I did some research about the prof and turns out he's one of, if not the only, artistic director of Sundance Institute I guess that's the reason the admission team plotted my application to be reviewed by him hahaha

In his email, he mentioned 2 topics that he would like to discuss, my favorite filmmaker + the reason and how I handle stress. Tbh idk what to prepare other than trying to not be nervous (and sleepy, it'd be late Sunday night here). Good luck to you too!

 

[Bhats]

Just got done with my interview! It went well, I think..
How was yours? Also, approximately how long was it? Mine was 40 mins. Only hitch was that the lights went out in between, because I hadn't realized that the room I was sitting in had motion sensitive lights. I feel so stupid about that now, but the interviewer was really sweet about it, I just hope that that it didn't cut our time short. Trying not to dwell

 

[teyyana]

Just got done with my interview! It went well, I think..
How was yours? Also, approximately how long was it? Mine was 40 mins. Only hitch was that the lights went out in between, because I hadn't realized that the room I was sitting in had motion sensitive lights. I feel so stupid about that now, but the interviewer was really sweet about it, I just hope that that it didn't cut our time short. Trying not to dwell

Mine was a bit less than 40 mins. I think we interviewed with the same prof. What questions did he ask? The questions that were asked were mostly not related to filmmaking and were super random, so I couldn't guess if he was satisfied with my answers. I saw him talking to someone several times so I wasn't comfortable giving long answers as I didn't want to interrupt them and have my answers missed.

I also had a hitch, when he asked about my favorite filmmakers. My internet connection was suddenly lagged (ugh) so he had to skip to the next question when I came back online but I managed to answer a bit. I mentioned that my fav director was Damien Chazelle but the filmmaker that inspired me to shift my career to filmmaking is Cary Fukunaga. I joked a bit that I wasn't comfortable mentioning his name, especially after the recent allegation, and surprisingly he didn't know who CF was. I told him that he was the director of the latest James Bond movie and he was famous for his work in True Detective season 1, and he didn't know about any of them either. He asked me the last movie I watched that left an impression on me, I answered with Decision to Leave. I talked a bit that the rave about the film at Cannes and the director winning best directing made me watch the film and he said he didn't follow news about Cannes either, which felt... weeeeeird because those were the only thing we discussed that were film-related. I hope I didn't sound like an alien when talking about them because that makes me feel bad, you know, not being able to connect with him

The questions that were asked to me, in case people need this:
- Talk about your current job. What are the best and worst parts of your job?
- What are your parents' jobs? How is the dynamic in your family? Who has the most power in your family: your dad or your mom?
- What advice your parents gave to you that is memorable to this day?
- What is your favorite food? Do you cook?
- If you can swap lives with someone else, who and why?
- How do you handle stress?
- Who are your favorite filmmakers and why?
- What music are you listening to? What books are you reading? What movie/tv show are you currently watching?
- What is the last movie you watched that leave an impression on you?
I asked him about the things I did good in my application and he delightfully explained. I prepared a pitch and he didn't ask about it hehe. He said normally the notification would be sent out 4-6 weeks after the interview.

 

[Bhats]

Hey, any idea when we hear back about the decision?

 

[Chris W]

Hey, any idea when we hear back about the decision?

You can sort the applications by decision date. It's mixed in with the fall applications though.

 

[BalaBenBa]

Does anyone know if the acceptance letters have been sent already? It seems that this is a possible time period for us to get some admission messages. But I logged into my yousc account and there's nothing in the "Decision Status".

 

[teyyana]

Does anyone know if the acceptance letters have been sent already? It seems that this is a possible time period for us to get some admission messages. But I logged into my yousc account and there's nothing in the "Decision Status".

The professor who interviewed me said that we would hear in 4-6 weeks,. I interviewed on September 25, so the earliest possibility will be at the end of the month

 

[BalaBenBa]

The professor who interviewed me said that we would hear in 4-6 weeks,. I interviewed on September 25, so the earliest possibility will be at the end of the month

Thank u for this information!! Cuz I checked the previous application details on this site and found that most of the acceptance letters came around October 14th to 18th so I'm a little bit nervous now

 

[BalaBenBa]

I feel like I'm refreshing yousc 100 times a second...

 

[LEDAJ]

I feel like I'm refreshing yousc 100 times a second...

I'm not brave enough to do that lol. Can't believe now nobody on this website at least get waitlisted?? It's so weird...