What colleges have you attended?
I had planned on going to college right after high school. I had selected a private Pennsylvania school (though I didn’t know about the private vs. public thing at the time) because they had a major in Cinematography, and at the time I wanted to be a film director. Never mind that that major is not necessarily a gateway to directing, especially in a small school in the middle of PA, and even more so, as I would come to discover, attending a school no one has heard of outside the 50-mile radius of a campus is also not a plus.
(As I write this, I am trying to remember the name of the school, and if I do by the end, I’ll post it.)
The main reason I didn’t go, though, was money. No one told me about financial aid and scholarships, and when I looked at the cost I realized there was no way to attend.
So I had a series of bad jobs that led to being the janitor of the local museum, which not only gave me some wider experience (like lighting art exhibits), but also helped me realize that someone with my intellect and abilities needed to expand my horizons.
(And I’m not being egotistical with that statement; it’s a statement of fact that I was wasting my potential pushing a broom and removing trash.)
And so I embarked on a 45 year involvement with academia, by attending four schools and being employed by three additional schools. To answer the prompt: here are the four schools I attended.
(Side note: my brain has still not coughed up the name of that school I was going to attend. I keep trying not to think about it so it hits me by surprise, but so far, I remain untouched by that recollection.)
I started with York College of Pennsylvania; it was local to me and I could commute. I even stayed part-time as a janitor for awhile, and I think I have to talk about that in another blog post. I found the Speech Communication major interesting because it had film as a part of it. As it turned out, there was no film production, but I did college FM radio (with a part-time job in a local AM station) and of course fell in love with theatre, so dedicated my time to that.
When I realized that the major had insufficient training in theatre, I sought to transfer. (Later, as a professor, when students expressed a desire to transfer from my program, I could never really argue with them to stay because of my experience.) I stayed in PA and transferred to Temple University where, in two years, I received all the training and experience I needed to continue.
My plan was to get an MFA in Directing with the career goal of being an artistic director of a regional theatre. The Ohio State University accepted me and I moved to Columbus. Things soured (I think I mentioned that in another blog post) and so I switched to the MA program to get out of Dodge a year early.
It took me while to be properly motivated to continue, but I kept up with theatre, directing in the community theatre and working at a summer arts camp. (I also worked as a Christmas seasonal employee at Toys ‘R’ Us, but that’s another story, though not lacking in theatricality.) Finally, I found the right program for me: the PhD in Directing program at UC Berkeley. That was a tough road, but I eventually completed the degree.
And at this point I still hadn’t remembered the name of the college I had applied to and did a search for “private Pennsylvania colleges” et voila! Ursinus College in Collegeville, google tells me. Current cost of degree: $56,600, though it was lower back in the day. There’s no longer a Cinematography major, though there are Film Studies, and Media and Communication majors. No surprises there.
Quite frankly, having delayed starting college for two years, I really put myself on the best footing for success. I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone, but it worked for me. And my choices solidly built the foundation for my successful career.
MUSOFYR 