With my fly-away date just three and a half weeks around the corner, I've been tying up a lot of loose ends, like finishing projects and organizing things at home. I've also been doing some long-range planning for the next couple of years, since the coming year is going to find me crouched behind a bunker of books in a library, firing away dissertation drafts. So I thought I'd fill everyone in on what my plans are for the next few years in grad school, and how I arrived at that plan.
My goal since high school has been to earn my English degree and move on to film school for an MA. I wanted (and still want) to combine experience in writing with experience in film production to prepare me for my career. I had chosen Regent University's Film program, which is a Christian university with a strong and well-stablished directing program. The MA is open-enrollment, meaning that there's no cap on how many students can be admitted, and that I have a fairly good chance of getting in. Moving on to Regent after finishing CSU has been my plan for about three years now.
When I discovered, though, that Oxford had a Film Studies masters last year, and knowing how intense and valuable a graduate program would be there, I seriously considered it.
The programs are completely different: Oxford's degree is in Film Aesthetics, which is more about studying famous films and directors and writing about them, and it's one year. At Regent, I would be taking classes as well as making my owns films and working on other students' films, and it's two years. At one, more critical and academic, at the other, more hands-on and career focused. I never intended to do it instead of Regent (if I even got in, that is) rather, I would go to Regent afterwards. They are complementary to each other and there are things I can gain from one program that I couldn't gain from the other.
I asked God that if it was not His will for me to go to Oxford, that that door would be closed outside of my control - ie, that I just wouldn't get in. I knew it was a long shot anyway, and I was happy to go with my orginal plan. (But I still really wanted to go!) I also prayed that He would change my heart so that I would not be dissappointed if I didn't get into the program, bracing myself for that long shot.
This is why I cried, literally cried for joy, when I found out I had gotten accepted. But by the grace of God go I, is all I can say. Nothing is possible without Him.
The plan now is to go to Regent next year, and I'm working on the application now so I can sew up those plans and apply for scholarships/assistantships for next year. Regent has a tuition remission program, which means that if I work full time for the university, they will pay my tuition, leaving me with only the responsibility of living expenses. Sweet! It would be wonderful to teach freshman English as an adjuct or something while I'm there, if that opportunity were to present itself. Working full time, though, I'm wondering if it will take me longer to finish. I dunno... Will I ever finish school?! You know I love it though.
Right now I'm focusing on my prep film reading for the immediate future. At Oxford the year is divided into three terms: during the first two I will attend a class once a week and a film screening/lecture once a week. Each week I'll be given a mixture of critical and theoretical readings and must be ready to discuss them at the next class. I'll be in classes and lectures with the same group of film students throughout the year. We study a new film each week, and the films we'll be doing this term are In a Lonely Place, Letter from an Unknown Woman, Late Spring, Stella Dallas, Rear Window [my favorite Hitchcock!], Vertigo, The Birds, and Marnie. For the last four we''ll be focusing in on a single director, in this case Hitchcock. And I am alright with that.
The second term will be laid out similarly to this, but the third term is when I will write my dissertation. More on that later. During the first two terms I'll be doing preliminrary reading and research to prepare for it. Then, after it's turned in, I'll have to do exams in late June. I'm simultaneously terrified and excited about this. Mostly terrified. No, mostly excited.
