Columbia College - Chicago

The masters in cinema art & science at Columbia College Chicago is held with a false carrot about the project you'll work on, the equipment available and the independence within the university.

I had a full ride and free tuition and would not suggest it to anyone as I don't feel it was valuable even being free. The politics are toxic, there is no independent thought. Graduate students are not given independence and they are teaching based on the sceme of an industry from 25 years ago.STAY AWAY! There is a reason their enrollment has been declining for over a decade.

MFA Graduate Film Dept. - Writing/Directing
The MFA is currently a 3 year degree with an additional year or two to complete a short film for your thesis. They seem to be revising the program to a two year degree but unfortunately my class and the students after me are caught in an out dated curriculum paying far more than the program is worth.

I thought that the only way to progress further as a filmmaker was to go back to graduate school and leverage the school's education with the equipment to make more movies. While I have accomplished some good things in this program and garnered awards for one of my films, I am choosing to leave because I can not in good conscious continue to support a system that hinders the creativity of its students and demeans them for wanting to excel above and beyond the very limited curriculum. Wenhwa Tsoa, the Director of the Graduate department actually told me that Columbia was not a "rental facility" when I requested to check out a camera I needed to record a workshop of a project I spent two years developing at Columbia.

I warn all future students that you can find much better programs online. The first year at Columbia was ok but it was a very step down hill from there. They entice you to stay with small scholarships the second year in the hope that you're too far invested into the program to leave before paying another full tuition for the 3rd year. There are a few phenomenal teachers like Karen Loop, Joe Steiff, Dan Rybicky, and Julian Grant. However, the bulk of the other teachers will openly admit they are more interested in utilizing the school's resources to make their own pet projects on the side. A problem that directly undercuts the resources that the graduate students are able to get access to.

The program plays favorites with the fellowship students they choose from the beginning. In my class, two fellowship students were on academic probation after the first semester and should have been asked to leave after the first year for repeated tardiness and absences. However, the graduate council made a special exception for these students to keep their scholarship money, stay in the program, and get special access to equipment or more grant money to fund their films.

The Graduate Director Wenhwa Tsoa is blatantly unprofessional. She sent a Kickstarter email to all the graduate students via a school email list requesting funding for a short film she directed through AFI's female director's program. Not only was this advertising another film program but she actually asked for money from students she has the power to hire, fire, grant equipment to, and grant fellowship funding for. It's hard enough for students to pay her salary via tuition let alone to pay for their own films which Columbia staff attempt curtail with endless limitations on equipment and resources. Wenhwa and other staff were allowed to use the Red camera on personal projects while that camera was denied to graduate students just the semester before. Graduate students had to share their 3rd year directing class with undergraduates that were given access to the Red camera while they were not. Wenhwa has continually saved herself the cost of childcare by bringing her preschool aged daughter to professional Columbia meetings. Several students were extremely distracted by her child when she brought her to a lecture by an experienced Hollywood Director. Although Wenhwa asked the children to remain quiet several times, she never removed them from the lecture because she wanted to enjoy it herself. It was extremely disrespectful to the professional who was attempting to lecture and the students who wanted to focus on the information.This is the kind of unprofessional disregard, the film department staff has for its hard working tuition paying graduate students. Do not make the mistake of attending this school. There are other options.

I made the mistake of pursuing my MA in Arts, Entertainment and Media Management at Columbia College. I was already working in the arts industry at the time and realized that this degree was not going to do anything for me, so I left the program. I still work in the arts industry and when I look back, the only class at Columbia that helped me with my job in the arts was the accounting class. If you are serious about working in the arts, entertainment or media industry, do not go here, get a business degree somewhere else. Many of the professors were out of touch with current ideologies. The curriculum was basic and not challenging. Most students did not bother studying. The professors and administrations take days to get back to you if you have questions. I do not believe this degree will make a difference on anyone's resume.

I completed my first year of grad school in the Arts, Entertainment and Media Management program only to realize what a pile of crap the program is. I am now going to DePaul. Don't get roped into thinking this school is good by any means. They spend more money on acquiring new buildings downtown than they do on paying quality professors and expanding the current curriculum and resources. The teachers I had were terrible, most with little or no prior teaching experience. The students that go here are not interested in sharing ideas, working together and having meaningful, thoughtful conversations- they usually only want to hear themselves talk in class. If you are thinking of going into music business of any kind for god's sake just get an MBA and do an internship that pertains to your career! Don't waste your money at this terrible school.

I would not advise anyone to go to the Columbia College Interdisciplinary Arts and Media or Book and Paper Department. My peers and I were treated most of the time like garbage told one thing in our interview, and advertising and then told a different thing when attending school. There were actually many good teachers there who had to work under a rigid system. Few students actually got what they needed. Poor communication, or no communication between departments and the students. Teachers were fired for in appropriate conduct, theory was taught at an undegraduate level, no access to equipment or studios, rude unhelpful critiques, poor advising, an utter disregard for the students career goals. Every year they told me it would get better, it only got worse, this was just more manipulation. Now the enrollment rate or this department is at an all time low.