Small Film Schools?

Its my senior year of highschool and ive decided that film schools the route to go for me ( i think my parents would disown me if i didn't get some sort of higher education too.) . However, i still have no idea what schools i want to apply to. My grades are pretty decent ( 90 average, 2010 sat score ) but im not sure i wanna go to a big school like NYU or USC (if i got in of course) , there expensive and i was hoping to get more personal feedback on work that maybe would not be avalible in schools with such large class size? I guess my question is are there any small schools that have really great film programs but arent like just for filmmakers. Please add in any other film school knowledge you'd like to share. ( PLEASE lol im so confused)
 
Its my senior year of highschool and ive decided that film schools the route to go for me ( i think my parents would disown me if i didn't get some sort of higher education too.) . However, i still have no idea what schools i want to apply to. My grades are pretty decent ( 90 average, 2010 sat score ) but im not sure i wanna go to a big school like NYU or USC (if i got in of course) , there expensive and i was hoping to get more personal feedback on work that maybe would not be avalible in schools with such large class size? I guess my question is are there any small schools that have really great film programs but arent like just for filmmakers. Please add in any other film school knowledge you'd like to share. ( PLEASE lol im so confused)

Your grades can get you into a lot of academic universities that also have film programs and are much cheaper than the one I'm about to talk to. I go to San Francisco's Academy of Art, an art school that's both overpriced ($8,000/semester) and very large (16,000 students). The film program is one of it's smaller programs but it's a great program. It's not hard to get into so a lot of your classmates at first will be rich kids who didn't get the best grades. The majority think film school is easy and that's why they joined. These folks start to disappear after the first and second semesters because the school moves at a very fast rate from day one. As far as personal feedback goes, the size of the school doesn't really hurt it. We got 16,000 undergrad and grad students yet most classes have less than 20 students each. The professors will talk to you one on one about your projects and give you very honest feedback. A lot of students leave because of the frankness of some professors who will criticize every little detail about your work and have you start over. And that's all you do, work. You do very very little reading. You get projects with short deadlines and are expected to learn while you do it. The professors are there to tell you what worked and didn't work and then you use that knowledge on the next project.

So you're pretty much paying for access to professors who can judge your projects and access to equipment to learn from and use for your school and non-school projects.

Professors: They are only there to tell you what needs to improved. You have to be able to learn quickly because right after you complete a project and have your one-on-one with your professor, you start another one and are expected to not make the same mistakes you made on your first. Most of the professors have decent experience, some have directed/produced studio feature films with stars in it, some have just worked on production and post production crews for unknown indie projects.

Equipment: You get access to some cool equipment, everything from a super 8 to Red One, dollys, tripods, lights, sound recorders, shotgun mics, boom poles, final cut pro, pro tools hd, adr rooms, etc.

So that's my summary of my overpriced private films school. Hope it helped.

EDIT: Don't forget to account for living expenses. If you choose San Francisco, it's one of the most awesome cities in the world but can get pricey, depending on your budget. I live near the beach (about 1 mile away) and in a very very touristy and active area and the rent is about $1,600 for a 530 sq ft studio apartment. Food (groceries and eating out) costs about $300 - $400 a month for me. I don't have a car because I walk just about everywhere I go, as do thousands of people in San Francisco and the university has free shuttles that are always traveling around the city and will take you anywhere you need to go. If you live away from the beach in the residential parts of San Fran, you can probably get the same size studio for $1,100 or so. You can also live in an university dorm/apartment for as low as $1,000 a month to up to $2,500 a month, depending on what you want.
 
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Since you're in New York, Fordham University and Syracuse University have good film departments. And I'm pretty sure they're smaller schools than NYU and USC. There's a few in MA as well.

Where I am (California), Chapman is known as a good alternative to USC. Its full featured with good profs.

There's a lot more I can name but yeah.
 
The University of New Orleans has a good film program. The school is not arts focused so many don't know about all that they have to offer. They recently acquired a digital 4k projector for the private theater. They have a huge sound stage that is used by major studios, fully equipped grip trucks, private editing suites, smaller class sizes, and reasonable tuition.

http://ftca.uno.edu/

They have a net price calculator so that you can get an idea of how much your matriculation will cost.

http://www.admissions.uno.edu/NetPriceCalc_2010/npcalc.htm

Best of luck.
 
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