# Best "safety" school? Help a newbie.



## Mo1997 (Aug 16, 2013)

I'm only going into my junior year this fall, but am constantly researching film schools as filmmaking is my passion. I'd really like to go to a great academic school, whether that means a small liberal arts college or a big school like UCLA. I worry about getting into schools like NYU, USC, and UCLA, though... and then there are schools like LMU that I know I could get into, but their academics are not stellar and they're PRICEY! So I wonder, is a school like CSUN or SFSU better than LMU?... I'm from Massachusetts, and do not plan on going to a cc and transferring. I just gotta get away, you know? So enough blabbering - I'll get to my Q. Here's my list of schools to apply to:

Emerson
BU
NYU
Syracuse
SUNY Purchase
Ithaca
UT Austin
LMU
Chapman
USC
UCLA
SFSU/CSUN

A couple questions. Firstly, I'm trying to make this list shorter... For New York, I've got NYU of course, and wanted to add one more NY college. (Syracuse, Ithaca, and I guess SUNY Purchase would be the best I think). SO, I'd like to eliminate two of those three. Is Syracuse the best of the three? 

Secondly, for a safety school, any thoughts on CSUN vs. SFSU? I know they do not necessarily offer the "stellar" academics I want, but they'd be solid safeties and have decent programs, I believe. But I guess if it comes to going to one of these for acceptance/financial reasons, I wonder which has better opportunities? 

Any NY or CSUN/SFSU advice is appreciated. Any other thoughts or college recommendations are awesome, too. Sorry if I blabbered and wasn't clear with the actual Qs, I tend to do that...


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