Post #7: Film School did Nothing
I’m 2 weeks out of graduating college. I can’t explain how ready I am to be done with school, I found that particularly the last few years have been so time and money exhaustive that I just can’t wait to grab my degree and run, but I don’t know where I’m running to.
Film school isn’t required to work in the industry, but it’s often promoted as a much easier way to transition into the workforce. Every film school I talked to during college applications emphasized how beneficial the program would be in getting me a job, and not just a low level film job but something I would be really interested in. It seemed like a necessity if I wanted to actually make it in the industry. And now, after 4 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on this education, there is no job in sight.
Looking back on my education experience, I have many complaints. For one, is the USC transfer policy. I originally attended New York University for film school, but after seeing an article about how a larger majority of USC film students get hired into the industry over NYU students, I started to inquire about transferring. I received a call from a faculty member in the USC film program, who impressed me how beneficial it would be for me to transfer. He hyped up how much pull USC has in the industry, how helpful they would be in landing me a job, how great and advanced the film classes are, and most importantly on how I would still be able to graduate by my expected graduation date (and not spend thousands of dollars on extra classes). Everything he said seemed to check all of my boxes, so I made the transfer. Just from being at orientation I saw that nothing this faculty member said was true. USC decided that even though I had completed two years of film school, I had to go back to the beginning and take the beginner classes again, not the advanced courses I was promised. And on top of that, they accepted none of my previous class credits and now required so many general education credits from me that it would extend my college time by a whole year. It was way too late for me to go back to NYU so I just had to accept that I would now have to take subpar courses, spend a ridiculous amount of money on classes unrelated to my major, and graduate after my expected date. I was so pissed.
I have found my time at USC film school to be completely uninspiring. Taking so many classes that have nothing to do with my major, and my major classes being so rudimentary, I do not feel like I’ve developed at all since my schooling in New York. As many times as I tried to convince USC to take more of my credits, not wanting to pay for an entire extra year in Los Angeles, no one in the institution could assist me. That resulted in me taking 24 credit semesters, just so I could graduate in little less than 3 extra months. It exhausted all my resources, and just left me feeling so jaded about higher education.
I thought that at least my hard work would pay off when I got a job at the end, but now that I’m actually at that point, there has been no help from USC. They say they’re helping by having the teachers or guest speakers talk with classes on how to get jobs, but that is nowhere close to beneficial. Every one of this just says how difficult it will be and how you need to get lucky and to find any job you can even if it’s not your film focus. What good does that do me? You can’t teach someone to get lucky.
This supposed “power” of the USC name is total bullshit from what I’ve seen. In my two years here I have applied for well over 300 internship positions, and have maybe gotten just an interview from two, neither that resulted in a job. And the people who I end up finding out got the job, all have connected parents. You think going to the “number one film school” with resumes proofed by the “best film professors” would at least give me a leg up against the connected kids. Maybe that’s disillusioned of me to say, maybe I’m not the best candidate, but then why aren’t I being given advice on how to be the best candidate. Because what I’ve been taught isn’t working.
I’m annoyed that my time and money has been wasted and there’s going to be nothing to show for it, just a piece of paper. I graduate in 2 weeks and I can’t wait to never deal with USC again.
