# How many applicants apply to each film school?



## Chris W (Feb 28, 2021)

This got me thinking:



q64 said:


> Doing the math, approximately 2700 apply to SCA’s production major.



How many applicants apply to each program? For BA and MFA.

I bet you we could crowd source some good answers here. Let's try and figure it out.

So how many apply to each film program per year?

So far we have:


AFI ?
NYU Tisch undergrad?
NYU MFA grad film?
NYU MFA screenwriting?
USC undergrad - estimated ~3,180 SCA production major 
USC MFA ?``


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## q64 (Feb 28, 2021)

Found this post from 13 years ago!:






						transfer acceptance for USC film production ?
					

Hi there. Does any transfer got accepted to USC's film and television production program?



					www.filmschool.org
				




“The USC School of Cinematic Arts received 12,000 applications this year, and they accepted 500 students divided into the different majors the school offers. Production and Writing for Screen and Television are the most competitive majors for undergraduates.”

Also, I have to add that the number I suggested for production (~2700) is for freshman only. There are also tons of students who apply as transfer. What is not clear about 12,000 figure posted by airborne911 is whether it is for transfer applicants only, or freshman + transfer.


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## Chris W (Feb 28, 2021)

q64 said:


> 12,000


12,000 seems more like it for undergrad? 2,000 seemed low.


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## Chris W (Feb 28, 2021)

I've tried to get a number out of the school before with little success unfortunately.


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## q64 (Feb 28, 2021)

Chris W said:


> 12,000 seems more like it for undergrad? 2,000 seemed low.



Just checked the oldest CDS for USC, which is 2011-2012 (https://oir.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/CDS_2011-2012-public1.pdf). According to page 13, 9700 applied as transfer.

So airborne911’s figure seems to include both freshman and transfer (unless there was an exponential spike in application to film majors in 2007-2008). 

My understanding is that SCA adds another 50 to production in junior year. So let’s do some math.

59,712 students applied to USC as class of 2024 as freshman. And approximately 4.5% of those applicants (~2700) applied to SCA production major as freshman.

According to CDS for 2019-2020 (https://oir.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/CDS_2019-2020_FINAL.pdf), 9,602 students applied to USC as transfers. 

Now, let’s _assume_ 5% of those applicants applied to SCA production as transfer since, well, SCA is popular and many hope to transfer in.

0.05 * 9602 = 480.


Freshman applicants + transfer applicants = 2700 + 480 = 3180

If I use yield rate of 60% for production major for freshman, the number is 2,612

Or... if I use USC’s university-wide yield rate for class of 2024 (36%), the number is 4,353.

In total, at the lowest, approximately 2,600 students apply to production major as undergrads (freshman + transfer). At the highest, 4,350 apply to production major. However, I would stick with 3,180 number since I read somewhere that 50% of the admitted students enroll at SCA in general.


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## q64 (Mar 1, 2021)

Additional information:

The calculation is flawed though. That 480 number would give admit rate of at least 10% for transfers. Unless we know the yield rate for transfer at SCA, we cannot calculate more accurate numbers. Yield rate for USC transfer applicants is 14%, which would give 357 students admitted to SCA. And if we consider 4% admit rate for production, we get 8,900 applicants to SCA production, which makes no sense. 50% yield rate for transfer applicant to SCA production gives 100 transfers admitted, hence 2,500 transfer applicants to SCA production. Unless we are to believe 1 in 4 transfer applicant is for SCA production, this makes no sense either.

So given the available data, 3,180 is the best number we have


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