Hi all,
Would love to get the thoughts of users on here and current/former students of both schools!
I'm an international student going to the US on a J-1 visa with a large sponsored scholarship for one year only and have been admitted to two schools but I'm having a hard time in seeing what my next steps should actually be.
I've been admitted for fall 2024 to the MFA Screenwriting at UCLA and for the spring 2025 admission for USC in MFA Film Production. My pros and cons for these courses are as follows:
UCLA Pros
Pros for USC
Cons for USC
1. I don't generally like the rest of the campus outside of SCA, and it's in a really sketchy area of downtown
2. Expensive! I'd also have to find money to fund my films (I know there's a funding cap but it's still quite a lot)
3. Not guaranteed to make a thesis or 'capstone' project at all
4. Very large cohort of 120 students, so whilst that is great for connecting with people I'm worried I would get lost among the crowd.
5. Extremely competitive students and I don't come from money at all so I'm worried how I would cope in keeping up.
6. Not very likely I'd get grad student housing as a married couple because of the spring admission
7. Spring admission - I'm concerned I'll miss out on big events like the start of the academic year and missing out on graduating in the summer with everyone
8. I don't currently have an admission letter and won't receive one until October.
Overall, I'm really stressed about what to do here, as its a very complex situation. The scholarship that I've got which is enabling me to study in the US also comes with A LOT of caveats and hoops I have to jump through - like getting a medical form completed and special medical tests, and I'm not sure if I can complete those for UCLA in time to get my visa for the fall, but I'm confident I could definitely get them done by the spring for USC. Only thing is, is that these tests are expensive and can only be done 6 months before admission so I would have to do one or the other, doing the tests now wouldn't work for USC, for example.
Now, factor in money and finances into the decision.
To add to this stress, for this scholarship, I have to renew my visa every year. This means I have to prove I can afford tuition and living costs every year. Now this is an issue, because my scholarship is putting up the estimated living costs that I need to find from $3450 per month for 9 months, to $6900 per month for 9 months... on top of tuition during the second and third years. This applies yearly and is the same for USC and UCLA. For the first year, I have obtained a $60,000 scholarship for both schools (and an additional $27,000 for UCLA - I'm not sure if I'll be awarded a scholarship for USC but it is likely to be very small). So for the first year at either school I'd have to find approximately $77,050 for my visa - for UCLA, I would definitely have this covered between the $87,000 scholarships. For USC, I would still need to find an additional $17,000 but I'd most likely have this in savings. So UCLA would likely put me in a better financial position, but my wife and I are so worried I'll be bored easily and won't get a lot of fulfillment out of it.
But for the second years (and third year at USC), I'd have to find $108,000 for each school. There is no chance of additional funding from my initial scholarship provider, and at present I don't have any renewable scholarships for the second year at either school. Obviously for USC I'd also have to fund a third year.
Now, last week I was lucky to be able to visit both campuses on a trip to LA and I spoke with students at both. For UCLA, the general consensus was to 'follow the money' but that the course was Not Great. At USC, the general consensus was that the school is ok at best, but definitely better than UCLA and definitely better for making contacts. The USC students also said that if I can only afford to go for one year, come anyway and go to USC (but don't expect them to care or offer any support). In the likelihood that I could only afford to attend for one year, almost everyone has said to go to USC and just drop out after a year but obviously I don't want to do that and I would want to make it work so I can graduate - there's more likelihood that I'd be able to afford two years at UCLA but I'm not 100% sure on that just now. Overall, I've heard good and bad things about both schools (but overwhelmingly bad things about the UCLA program).
At this point, I'm at a loss for what to do. I'm ineligible to obtain any loans in the US or my home country, and am applying to other scholarships but this is a heck of a lot of money I now have to find. After speaking with many friends in LA, they do not believe that the near $7000 figure is accurate or fair for me to have to prove I can find to renew my visa, but the rules are the rules and I can't change them. Although there is no way I'd spend that much per month to live off of, I still have to prove that I somehow have this cash. It's really upsetting that this has happened, and so late in the game, and I'd never have applied for this until much later if I knew that was going to happen, but hey ho - it is what it is!
So, people of filmschool.org, after reading the above - what on earth would you do?! Happy to answer any questions or provide more info where needed!
Would love to get the thoughts of users on here and current/former students of both schools!
I'm an international student going to the US on a J-1 visa with a large sponsored scholarship for one year only and have been admitted to two schools but I'm having a hard time in seeing what my next steps should actually be.
I've been admitted for fall 2024 to the MFA Screenwriting at UCLA and for the spring 2025 admission for USC in MFA Film Production. My pros and cons for these courses are as follows:
UCLA Pros
- Received a large amount of money for a one-year fellowship!
- Beautiful campus with a real American college campus vibe
- Safer location
- Smaller class sizes
- Only a two year course, so cheaper in the long run
- Potential to obtain grad student housing as a married couple
- Potentially less rigorous - i.e. no late nights on set and probably more time to get involved in campus life and societies, which is something I would love to do.
- Only a writing course with no hands-on film production opportunities. As a writer-director, I'm not sure how I feel about committing to writing only, especially as I've worked in my country's film industry for almost five years already.
- No encouragement for collaboration with other students
- Only focused on refining writing talent, not on expanding networks, finding agents, or finding work. Professors have said there's plenty of time to do this after graduation... but I can't do that because I have to adhere to the two year residency rule after graduation.
- I was told by a current student in the admitted students zoom to live in my car in the parking lot because there's no housing (and no, it wasn't a joke!)
- Another current student said that class gets really heated because people apparently can't take criticism.
- Only have funding for one year from my scholarship and UCLA and very unlikely I'd get any scholarship for my second year from UCLA.
- I've read and heard worrying things about the course online
- Not a lot of well-connected alumni - the alumni who came to the admitted students zoom aren't working in the industry at all
- May not be able to use the scripts I'd write back in my home country as we have a massively different style of writing
- Although I like the campus, I don't like the film school.
- In the admitted students zoom, they mentioned that the screenwriting students are often dragged onto the directing students films as 'script supervisors'. I professionally work as a script supervisor in my country on film and TV productions, and this is a big red flag to me because it proved that UCLA have NO IDEA what script supervisors do which shows a real lack of connection with the industry in my eyes as so many people hear 'script' and assume it's to do with writing.
- I still don't understand the quarter system
Pros for USC
- SCA is a beautiful film school
- Fantastic facilities
- Encouraged to do more than just writing and directing, and would have the opportunity to learn how to edit, record sound, and use the camera
- Opportunity to make at least one film in the first year and work on other films too
- Extremely well-connected school and strong alumni network. I've had multiple people tell me that if I want a network and connections, this is the place to go to.
- An opportunity to TA after second year and potentially get a small renewable scholarship (but likely not more than $10,000 per year)
Cons for USC
1. I don't generally like the rest of the campus outside of SCA, and it's in a really sketchy area of downtown
2. Expensive! I'd also have to find money to fund my films (I know there's a funding cap but it's still quite a lot)
3. Not guaranteed to make a thesis or 'capstone' project at all
4. Very large cohort of 120 students, so whilst that is great for connecting with people I'm worried I would get lost among the crowd.
5. Extremely competitive students and I don't come from money at all so I'm worried how I would cope in keeping up.
6. Not very likely I'd get grad student housing as a married couple because of the spring admission
7. Spring admission - I'm concerned I'll miss out on big events like the start of the academic year and missing out on graduating in the summer with everyone
8. I don't currently have an admission letter and won't receive one until October.
Overall, I'm really stressed about what to do here, as its a very complex situation. The scholarship that I've got which is enabling me to study in the US also comes with A LOT of caveats and hoops I have to jump through - like getting a medical form completed and special medical tests, and I'm not sure if I can complete those for UCLA in time to get my visa for the fall, but I'm confident I could definitely get them done by the spring for USC. Only thing is, is that these tests are expensive and can only be done 6 months before admission so I would have to do one or the other, doing the tests now wouldn't work for USC, for example.
Now, factor in money and finances into the decision.
To add to this stress, for this scholarship, I have to renew my visa every year. This means I have to prove I can afford tuition and living costs every year. Now this is an issue, because my scholarship is putting up the estimated living costs that I need to find from $3450 per month for 9 months, to $6900 per month for 9 months... on top of tuition during the second and third years. This applies yearly and is the same for USC and UCLA. For the first year, I have obtained a $60,000 scholarship for both schools (and an additional $27,000 for UCLA - I'm not sure if I'll be awarded a scholarship for USC but it is likely to be very small). So for the first year at either school I'd have to find approximately $77,050 for my visa - for UCLA, I would definitely have this covered between the $87,000 scholarships. For USC, I would still need to find an additional $17,000 but I'd most likely have this in savings. So UCLA would likely put me in a better financial position, but my wife and I are so worried I'll be bored easily and won't get a lot of fulfillment out of it.
But for the second years (and third year at USC), I'd have to find $108,000 for each school. There is no chance of additional funding from my initial scholarship provider, and at present I don't have any renewable scholarships for the second year at either school. Obviously for USC I'd also have to fund a third year.
Now, last week I was lucky to be able to visit both campuses on a trip to LA and I spoke with students at both. For UCLA, the general consensus was to 'follow the money' but that the course was Not Great. At USC, the general consensus was that the school is ok at best, but definitely better than UCLA and definitely better for making contacts. The USC students also said that if I can only afford to go for one year, come anyway and go to USC (but don't expect them to care or offer any support). In the likelihood that I could only afford to attend for one year, almost everyone has said to go to USC and just drop out after a year but obviously I don't want to do that and I would want to make it work so I can graduate - there's more likelihood that I'd be able to afford two years at UCLA but I'm not 100% sure on that just now. Overall, I've heard good and bad things about both schools (but overwhelmingly bad things about the UCLA program).
At this point, I'm at a loss for what to do. I'm ineligible to obtain any loans in the US or my home country, and am applying to other scholarships but this is a heck of a lot of money I now have to find. After speaking with many friends in LA, they do not believe that the near $7000 figure is accurate or fair for me to have to prove I can find to renew my visa, but the rules are the rules and I can't change them. Although there is no way I'd spend that much per month to live off of, I still have to prove that I somehow have this cash. It's really upsetting that this has happened, and so late in the game, and I'd never have applied for this until much later if I knew that was going to happen, but hey ho - it is what it is!
So, people of filmschool.org, after reading the above - what on earth would you do?! Happy to answer any questions or provide more info where needed!
