Originally posted by Cody Brown:
OK. I couldn't help but chime in.
First. Congradulations, you have been accepted to America's three top film schools. I would be curious to see your stats.
I am a freshman at Chapman in the film production program.
My class was the first to claim Knott's studio. It truly is an incredible facility.
When I was applying to colleges, Chapman was not my top school, it was around my 4th.
I applied to Columbia, NYU, and almost USC (I refused to go through with their ridiculous application). I visited all of them and I new, without any questionable doubt that NYU was the school for me. A lot of my love for NYU had to do with my irrevocable love for NYC, but in so many ways I just knew that it was a school absolutely perfect for me - it matched my mentality.
I was rejected.
I was more infuriated than crushed when I got the letter. It made sense in some ways, my SAT scores where average and my grades where just OK. My reel was the only thing that I really had going for me. (some resume stuff as well - I'd gotten press in LA Weekly, and a music video of mine premeired on PBS.)
I considered not going to college. I had an internship offer on the table from a really wonderful music video company in Hollywood and that seemed like the better option.
Chapman accepted me and it was honestly more like a smile and a shrug. However, I eventually decided that it would be silly to put off college when I knew that I would eventually go.
So after a summer working at an office in NYC, I flew to Southern California and entered the Chapman world.
It was exciting the first couple of weeks, just as college should be for any one new to it. The building amazed me(and still does), most of my film classes where very interesting, and I was meeting some very talented people.
However, everything that I was initially hesitant about, irks I had felt when I visited, seemed to be comming remarkably true. The town that surrounds Chapman is outlandishly stale. For someone who likes big cities, it's miserable. The non-film classes where typically unchallening. Most critically, the main campus at Chapman has an atmopshere more attuned for a hollister advertisement than a liberal arts university. To someone who saw that aspect of college critical to their more creative success, this was really frustrating. There are all to many instances in my classes where I feel like I, and maybe a few other students, are having a conversation with our proffessor about the subject, and other students are just kind of spectators drifting off, and checking their facebook.
The film side really has some interesting things going for it. There was this really unique and wonderful class I took first semester called Art of Story. Every week a different proffesor from the school would give a lecture on how a certain aspect of art tells a story. There where lectures on classical music, poetry, panting, ect. Some were bad, some where outstanding, many interesting. A lot of the other film courses are fairly straightforward but I know that their program is evolving. Hopefully they will really pu together some unique and provacative courses.
Anyway, those are just a few thoughts on the program. I could say a lot more but I really have to get back to my NYU transfer application. It's due in a couple days.
The only advice that I can really give you is to go on your instincts. If you fell in love with USC on your first visit there is a great chance that this love will live on whether you go there or not. If you go somewhere else you might kick yourself at every flaw you see in the program - this could lead to a really miserable mindset.
Good luck with your choices, in the end where you go is sort of irrelevent, talent will shine through anywhere.
-cody
www.codyb.com
