I Dropped My SCA Major

photo credit: USC

by Avery Thunder ‘26

Everytime I tell someone that I used to be in SCA, they have a visceral reaction. Usually it falls somewhere in between shocked and straight up shaming me for leaving the program. Yes, there is no denying that getting into the School of Cinematic Arts is an amazing opportunity – I will always be thankful that they gave me the chance to be a student there. This does not, however, change the fact that it was not for me. There’s this false narrative when it comes to prestigious schools or majors, that, if you get in, you should just commit. This sense of dedication to prestige is what I was searching for when I applied. Having experienced the reality many people only dream about, though, I learned that sometimes it doesn’t matter how good something looks on paper if it’s not the right fit.

Here’s the thing, SCA is not what I (and maybe you) expected, at all. In my opinion, its purpose is connections, and only connections (if you’re lucky). I love to play with cameras – cinematography has always been my strong suit. This was the one thing I was looking forward to in film school. I wanted to work with expensive cameras I didn’t have access to elsewhere. 

I wasn’t given a single camera the entire time I was there. I wasn’t even given the opportunity to access one. I was given zero editing software. SCA offered fewer resources than my public high school did. Every class where we actually got to film something, they made us do it on our phones. I was livid. I didn’t come to film school to shoot on my phone and edit in iMovie. I quickly lost interest.

Also, the classes are so long. Hours and hours. I had a four hour class on diversity in cinema. The class was completely thrown together because they picked a new professor a couple weeks before the start of the semester. Early in the class, they had us do a project on Lunar New Year, but no one in our group knew anything about the holiday, and we weren’t given any useful information. We were never given the opportunity to talk to anyone who celebrated the holiday. So, in an attempt to show us the importance of diversity in cinema, they had us completely misrepresent a culture by not bringing in anyone from the actual community to guide the activity.

I’m still not sure what I was supposed to learn from that class. People who want to represent a group they’re not a part of should just… go for it? Very counterproductive. For a school that professes to care about diversity and inclusion, you wouldn’t be able to tell from attending this class and many other classes I took. I think that the need to have a class on diversity really proves their intense need to overcompensate for the lack of it within the rest of their program. 

Already disenchanted, I talked to upperclassmen who told me about the fights they had to go through for equipment, when they could actually get their hands on it. I heard about the tedious paperwork to access any of SCAs resources and the boring classes they were being forced to take. I heard about the group projects, where you didn’t get to pick your group. I read about  graduates of the program who were working minimum wage jobs for years after college. So much for the promised connections.

At some point in my second semester of freshman year, I realized that I had been waiting for an experience I was never going to get. I was not going to be immersed in modern film tech, I was not going to make work that I was proud of, I was not going to be given the resources I wanted. I think the last straw was when they charged me several hundred dollars for equipment insurance. For what equipment? They haven’t so much given me a tripod, but here they were, asking for more money. 

So, I switched schools. I realized I was going to spend four years absolutely enraged by the disparity between what I expected and reality. If I was going to destroy my mental health for an art, I wanted to at least be given the resources to be good at it. I’m not saying SCA is horrible, but it wasn’t for me. I think I could’ve been successful in the program, but I don’t believe you’re truly successful if your work makes you miserable. Being good at something doesn’t mean you have to do it. 

I’m infinitely grateful that I left. I’ve enjoyed school far more because I’ve been actually learning. I don’t drag myself to class the way I used to, ready to sit in a theater for hours and come out with even less patience than before. And, yes, I’m sure I will hear for the rest of my life that I’ve given up a great opportunity, but I’m happier now. If anything, someone who wants that spot more can have it now. They deserve it more than I do, and I’m sure they’ll do great and make the most of it. 

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