Spring 2017: Breakdown of My Classes at USC

Back at it again with the class schedule, isn't that right? I know, me posting one of these is the only thing consistent about this blog. But according to my blog statistics, class descriptions are some of my most popular posts, so there you have it! So, if you're still interested in what classes I took this spring for my fake film major at USC, keep reading.

When you have that one 50 minute class on a Friday.

CHEM 205 | Chemical Forensics

This was my Physical Sciences GE and the last GE I'll ever take in my life, taken Pass/No Pass. It was a pretty simple yet interesting class, in which we talked about blood forensics, ballistics, fibers, time of death, toxicology and the different types of evidence, amongst other things. There was a lab each week and three midterms, and I did really well on all of them without studying too much, which pretty much proves how easy this class really was. Apparently the professor is one of the toughest ones in the Chemistry department and is known for his impossible tests, but he just asked us stuff like "Do you like turtles?" and curved the class to a B+ so he probably didn't take the whole thing too seriously either.

Grade Received: Pass

CORE 104 | Thematic Option Honors Program | Change and the Future: Church, Sex and State

Let me just put this out there: I loved my professor, and the subject material we covered is so important in today's society. That said, I don't think I learned as much in this class as I could have. We discussed the relationship between marriage and private property, marriage and religion, and non-normative marriage, to name a few things, and watched films such Carol, American Beauty and Brokeback Mountain. I also got to listen to some pretty interesting presentations and write a bunch of controversial papers (always loved those). So no, this was not a bad class at all. But, and I'm sure this is my fault as well for not doing the majority of the readings, although it was fun and easy, I feel like this class had very little substance. It had a lot of potential, don't get me wrong, but I felt like it was a little too broad and informal. Though at this point I'm not sure if it's even the class itself that didn't work, or it's all on me. So I'll keep thinking about that.

Grade Received: A

CTCS 192 | Race, Class and Gender in American Film

This has probably been the best film class I've ever taken at USC. Super short lectures with the Notorious PhD, very interesting readings, great screenings, and a TA who was just cooler and smarter than I or anyone else will ever be. I mean, first of all, she had blue hair. In class, we watched classics like The Godfather Parts I & II (The Godfather III doesn't exist, I hear), Do the Right Thing and Rocky, as well as films such as Boogie Nights (10/10 would recommend), Django Unchained and The Virgin Suicides. We talked a ton about the American Dream and the male gaze and read an article about the Oedipal complex and phallocentrism, so I definitely learned some things in there that I'll never forget. I also wrote a paper on Brooklyn (2015), liminality and the American Dream, so I got to do research on all the things I'm passionate about, which is always a plus.

Grade Received: A

CTPR 290 | Cinematic Communication

I made a bunch of terrible films that no one liked. Okay, that's a lie, my documentary turned out pretty good. I also spent an entire week trying to get location permits to film at a park downtown, which was an absolute disaster and I realized that hate paperwork, so I never want to be a location manager, that's for sure. That film was also supposed to be my masterpiece and my mom spent a fortune shipping me a wedding dress from Europe, I spent forever writing and rewriting and gathering props, and I even cast professional SAG actors in it. Needless to say, it all went wrong, our camera malfunctioned earlier that week, my crew wasn't confirmed until almost the day of, they tried to steal our equipment in Echo Park, and I'm still too embarrassed to show my actors the finished film. It didn't help that my entire class hated it. Apparently the rubber band on the wedding bouquet gave away how the whole thing was fake. Sure. Our last project turned out pretty good, though, so let me know if you want to see it.

ALSO: Please don't share the links to the films. There are copyright and other legal reasons.

Grade Received: A

CTWR 321 | Intro to Hour-Long TV Writing

I was going to say that this was my favorite class of the semester and that loved my professor, but she gave me an A- after promising us that we would all get As, so I'm little conflicted right now. We basically had to watch a lot of TV pilots (Breaking Bad, The Handmaid's Tale, Six Feet Under, Mad Men, UnReal (which I hated), This is Us, to name a few) and then talk about them. Yes, that's right, our homework was literally watching Netflix and Hulu. Our main goal of the semester, though, was to write a spec script (so an original episode for an existing show) for Stranger Things as a class. We each had a writing partner and were given scenes to write and rewrite over the weekend, and then in the end we put it all together into one big script. It was a really fun process and working with a partner is definitely something I'd do again. But then I got an A- so I'm not sure what to think anymore.

Grade Received: A- (sadness, utter disappointment, and feelings of betrayal #drama)

What the future holds: 

CTCS 403 | Studies in National and Regional Media: Refugee and Migrant Cinemas (taking it with the professor I had for 'Shot on Location,' 100% a topic I'm interested in, very excited)

CTCS 473 | Film and Media Theory (a dreaded Critical Studies class, a lot of work apparently, major requirement)

CTWR 415A | Advanced Writing (taking it with my CTWR 321 professor, supposed to be a continuation of Intro to Screenwriting, will probably get an A-)

CTWR 416 | Motion Picture Script Analysis (watching films and analyzing scripts, apparently a lot of fun)

LAW 402 | Psychology and Law (for my Forensics minor, deals with stuff like witness credibility, false confessions and cults, seems interesting yet intimidating)

SOWK 350 | Adolescent Gang Intervention (for Forensics, the only Social Work class for undergrads, apparently a popular class, very hands-on)

One Second(ish) a Day

Well hello, my friends!

Long time, no see, right? Have you been dying to know what I've been up to these past six months? Have you been worrying that I've abandoned my precious little blog? Do you even remember who I am? And if you do, are you as sad as I am that I haven't updated in so long? If you are, then here's your long sought-after update, only half a year after my last one, but the first of many to come this summer! Without further ado, let's get into it:

On January 1st, I started a little project, affectionately titled ‘One Second(ish) a Day,’ in which I film around one second of my day, every single day. Back when I started, I didn't really know where I was going with it, I thought it would just be, for the lack of a better word, fun. As it is, however, my friends over in the Production division were coincidentally given a similar (OK, the exact same) task this semester, giving the whole project an entirely new meaning. They had to do it, it was an actual assignment for them, and if filming snippets of your day is an actual task in film school, then I'll definitely be getting something out of it. The only difference was, of course, that while I casually got to document whatever ridiculous/boring/amazing/stupid thing I was doing that day, they were stressing over their shots not being cinematic enough, or their projects not telling a story, meaning that most of them were relieved to have it over with when the semester ended. I, on the other hand, absolutely love filming my seconds, and decided to continue it indefinitely! Yet since I cannot post a video that is still currently in production, please lay back, grab your popcorn, and enjoy part one of my project, starting on January 1st and ending the day I boarded the plane back to Budapest (sadly) in May.

OR WATCH ON YOUTUBE. I'D PREFER YOU WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE, HONESTLY. ON FULL SCREEN.

Yes, on days when nothing happened, I just made stupid faces. Don't judge.

Also, yes, I know about the app. I don't use it, though, because sometimes my videos are longer than one second, cuz YOLO, and sometimes I use more than one video for one day. And because that would be too convenient and I don't do convenient obviously.

USC Class of 2019

I've been rewriting this post for the past three months. It just never sounds quite right, it's either too lengthy or too choppy, or I feel like I'm bragging or I go off on tangents, so for this reason, I've decided to keep it short and sweet.

I am more than proud to announce that I am officially a member of the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts Class of 2019!

I am in the 17.5% of students accepted to USC and in the 4% of students accepted to SCA. I am one of the 75 people accepted to major in Critical Studies. I am also one of the approx. 100 Trustee Scholars this year, meaning that I get a full-tuition scholarship for my four years at USC. And, additionally, I am also one of the 200 students who has been accepted to the Thematic Option Honors Program.

It has happened, and even though all of this might seem surreal, or even impossible, it has, and I'm so grateful for every single person who has helped me get here!

It's all about getting ready now (be on the lookout for posts on that), but I'm doing good. My visa has been approved, my plane ticket has been purchased, and although I still don't know how I'll be shipping 15 pairs of shoes, my rollerblades, and a memory foam pillow, I'm all set. More or less anyway.

So, introducing my new way to bid farewell to you all,

Fight On, Trojans!

Also, if you guys would like to know more about USC, the application process, and why I ended up choosing it, leave a comment below!

--

PS. Just FYI, my other options in the US were Kenyon College and the University of Pennsylvania, and although it was a tough choice with Penn, I decided that USC would be the best place to study film.

Explore USC: Day 2 - Finally at USC!

Obligatory photo with Tommy Trojan.

After waking up for approximately the fifth time, and still finding that the digits on the iHome begin with 03, I decided to give up sleep for the day. It was clearly not working out. Instead, I had the marvelous idea to watch British YouTubers vlog at Venice Beach. In light of the previous day's events - not a great idea. Anyway, watching vlogs, staring at the parking structure outside my room and reading through the spring class schedule at USC somehow managed to take away 4 hours of my life, so soon enough it was 7 a.m. and time to get up.

My plan was to check out from the Radisson at 9, and arrive on campus by 9:30, which was the time the registration was set to begin. Ahem, I'm not too great with getting ready in the morning (mostly due to my eternal dissatisfaction with my hair, which I happened cut by 9 inches 2 days earlier) and I also forgot to hang my overpriced breakfast selection on the door, which left me with nothing but a Neapolitan wafer bar I'd brought from back home, but other than that I was all good, and ready to go.

After looking through the drawers three times and taking five pictures of every single piece of furniture, I finally took off, down to the reception, got my $100 deposit back, and off I was to USC. That's right, I was about to step onto the campus I had been dreaming about for the past five years. And it was intimidating.

It was intimidating, but also incredibly beautiful. All those buildings I saw in pictures - the Von Kleinsmid Center, the Doheny Library, but even Birnkrant Residence Hall - materialized in front of me, and instead of being underwhelming the way I thought they would me, they all managed to blow me away. I mean, we all think promotional photos and glossy brochures are filled with color-corrected, over-edited photos that have the pure intent of luring people in, but that's not the case with USC. The University of Southern California is even more stunning in real life.

Honestly, I almost got lost, since I was so busy looking around campus that I probably missed about three of the arrows saying EXPLORE that were supposed to lead me to check in. But I somehow got there anyway, and was greeted by an incredibly friendly & enthusiastic (this just about describes everyone I met) Theater major girl, who took my luggage and led me to check in, where I was given a free T-Shirt, a name tag and a folder that completely singled me out as an Explore student, but contained the campus map and program so necessary for the day. They also paired me up with a girl called Joanne, as we were both there on our own.

I have no idea what that Xxii was doing there...

The first program we took part in was the campus tour, the best part of which was our tour guide, Maddy, walking backwards. Anyway, she basically told us how back in 1880, USC had one building (now Alumni House), and the rest was all mustard fields, but then the university gradually started growing, and now it's midst one of its biggest ever projects, University Village. She also told us about the rivalry between Anna Bing and Eileen Norris and the inverted fountain resulting from it, the USC Instagram spot, and about the one person who actually joined the other tour group when the opportunity was given. And about a lot more, of course, but I won't spoil it for you - after all, who knows, you might end up visiting me there one day!

Next up was the USC Bookstore, which Joanne and I visited with two other girls - another Joanne and Alyssa. The bookstore, well...it's full of USC merch. Seriously, not just baseball caps and T-Shirts, but fuzzy socks and bobblehead dolls and bamboo salad tongs, and - as a prospective Trojan - I was inclined to buy all of it, even after seeing the hefty price tags. Yet it is in these moments that I appreciate my indecisiveness, thankfully, so I ended up leaving with nothing more than a key chain and kitchen magnet. And I feel like I made the right decision.

Following our bookstore adventure, we took part in a neighborhood bus tour, in one of those cool USC buses...

...with the coolest tour guide in the world, who berated everyone who had never been to In-N-Out Burger before - me included - and basically only talked about food. Well, mostly at least. Anyway, I couldn't really get that much out of the bus tour, but if I had to pick my favorite part of the 'hood, I'd pick the Greek Row. It was like a scene out of the movies...

After the tour, we had an hour to eat, so we decided to go to this "hidden gem" restaurant on campus, called Lemonade (it's actually a chain, but I didn't know that back then...). Erm, I guess the admission counselor guy we'd asked told all the Explore students about his secret place to eat, because by the time we arrived, Lemonade seemed not so hidden. And most people there wore name tags and were carrying folders around. Aside from that, though, food at Lemonade was perfect. I also tried red velvet cakes (you know who you are, thank you for the suggestion!), which I've been trying to find ever since in Hungary. So far, I have failed.

This is where USC students eat. For real.

Lunch was followed a Thematic Option presentation, which is basically a reading and writing heavy honors alternative to the general education curriculum. I, personally, have decided to apply and am struggling with the application questions ever since ("What do you feel ambivalent about?"), but Joanne virtually ran out after hearing the words "reading" and "writing" so many times. The guy giving the presentation was pretty funny, though ("Ask a question! Any question! Even what USC stands for!" or "That's why the graduate employment rate is so high here! USC just hires everyone after commencement!")

And now comes the best part...the Welcome Presentation, held at the Bovard Auditorium! I'm going to summarize it in bullet points:

• Kirk Brennan, the Director of Admissions, is the best. And he's a pretty avid Twitter user.
• Miloni Gandhi, the Associate Director of Admissions who admitted me, welcomed me personally on stage, and I even had the chance to wave at her & she waved back and it was perfect.
• In the application, we had to describe ourselves in three words. Here are some examples: worthy, of, admission; "very weird" as one word; "quirky", written about 50 times (for the record, I think one of my words was "scripturient")
• Best invention, according to two admitted students: the Common Application *facepalm* (I put the toothbrush, though, so I'm not judging)
• SURPRISE PERFORMANCE BY THE TROJAN MARCHING BAND!!! And the admission committee just started dancing out of the blue! And we all had to hold up the victory sign. And everyone check out the marching band!

The Kids Aren't Alright

This will be a little anticlimactic now, but after the Welcome Presentation, the four other School of Cinematic Arts students and I went to our school-specific presentation, where we toured all (well, a lot) of the film school. We saw a Foley room, a sound stage, many screening rooms, old cameras and hundreds of signed film posters. We also got another gift bag, and an SCA T-Shirt that I wore on my first day back at school. There was also a video introduction and a student panel, and I loved every moment of it.

When this was done, I was matched up with my host, Megan (shoutout to Megan!), who has the best shoe collection in the world and is also a Critical Studies major. We then got my luggage, dragged it across campus, went up to her dorm room, then went on another tour around campus (the fountains! the fountains!). Oh, and we also had dinner at the main dining hall in between, and I had a milkshake (called Chocolate Sunscreen) at Ground Zero, an amazing performance café with live music. And I also met lots and lots of people and had an amazing time, and proceeded to fall asleep at 8 p.m.

So many fountains.

The Traveler, USC's official mascot.

Random campus photo.

The rest of the night is vague...Megan went to the library, I slept on the floor in my sleeping bag, I began re-reading my application and realized that I forgot everything I knew about post-modernism, and...and...

TO BE CONTINUED

Yes, Yes, Yes I Know!

Hello Friends and Enemies and Non-Existent People Reading My Blog!

It's been a while, I know. I know. Tell me about it.

I know you probably think that I've grown tired of blogging, or I've died (thankfully not), or I've forgotten my password, or I've converted to the Amish, or I've decided to go on a strike to combat the Internet tax, but no. Although I'd be pretty proud if the last were true.

Anyway, you know what month it is? It's November! And what does that mean? Thousands of bad novels will be written thanks to NaNoWriMo! I am taking my last SAT this Saturday! I will have a Graduation Ball in 25 days!  And I still haven't written my speech and the organizers probably want to strangle me. Yet more importantly, I have less than a month to submit my application to USC! And to Vanderbilt, as a matter of fact. You're asking me how I'm doing? Well, not too well, as it is. My USC portfolio is in tatters. I already hate formatting screenplays, so I have no idea how I will do in the future. But I'm working on it...I'm working on it...

I'm working on it, and that is why I'm not working on entertaining you guys right now, who don't even exist, I know. A blogger always likes to believe she has readers, though, so don't drag me out of my illusion!

I do have a number of posts lined up, however, including but not limited to:

1) one on senior portraits. What a disaster those are. Oh dear. I've even annotated mine using Paint, so I can show you guys how messed up it is.

2) one on college applications, and no, this blog is not turning into The Prospect, which by the way is my latest obsession. Nor are we treading onto College Confidential territory. I won't ask you guys to "Chance me".

3) one on grad ball, once it happens, and if I survive it.

4) oh dear, how shall I say this, I really ought to finish those posts on Paris. No comment on this last point please.

So, yep. That is it. Oh, and I might have had a slight shift in career aspirations. Currently, I'm thinking about becoming an admissions officer. To torture the youth the way I am being tortured right now. Somebody, please take me on a nice trip so I can leave UCAS and The CommonApp behind me. Just for a little while. I feel that they are taking over my personality. I feel that they are "Please elaborate on one of your extracurric-" taking control of "This section is incomplete" who I a-"What makes our college different?"

Erm...they're taking control of who I am.

You have marked this section as complete.

I'm Alive and Such

You guys might have noted that I've been quite lax about posting recently, so I'm here to let you all know: DON'T WORRY. I'M ALIVE. I'M NOT IN JAIL. YET. Now, I don't exactly know who I'm addressing here, since my blog has approximately zero readers (at least none that I'm aware of) but if you happen to be lurking this site once in a while, and if you've started wondering about my whereabouts, well, I'm here. I'm here, it's just that most of the time I usually post when something significant happens and, let's face it, nothing has happened in the past few weeks. At least nothing blog-worthy.

But if you've actually read up to this point, I might be able to gather some minor happenings for you. Such as:

1) I attended my grandma's 80th birthday and, though I'm not too keen on family gatherings, it went very well! Everyone was super nice and my cousin from Paris was there and I absolutely love her and I hadn't seen her in ages so yep, that was fun. Plus, delicious cake as always.

2) I drove on my own in the middle of a STORM!!! Yes, this happened about an hour ago and if you can't tell, I'm very proud.

3) I met up with a friend of a friend who is now a friend, and I bought a pink glittery skirt. Now, you should know that I don't wear pink, I don't wear skirts, and I rarely wear glitter. So I'm quite concerned, as it is, most probably as I don't know whether this is a perfectly normal style evolution, or whether I'm subconsciously transforming into one of my friends, which would, if you know the circumstances, make perfect sense. So I might call a style psychologist and consult with her on the issue. Style psychologists exist, right?*

4) I watched a documentary on Nat Geo about a cannibalistic serial killer and proceeded to have a really morbid nightmare about murdering someone and have a dog eat his head. Then I read this article written by a Penn Criminology professor and found it really intriguing (is this word even used nowadays?) and did I tell you yet that I want to double major in Film AND Criminology? BTW, I have morbid dreams on a daily basis, no need to worry. I'm just a bit paranoid and think way too much into certain things.

5) I wrote my Common App essay, and have a very good feeling about it. I've actually written three, and each one started out of the other, and each one morphed into an answer to a different prompt but yeah. My advice to Common App essay writers: don't stick with one prompt and consider the deal sealed. I've also worked on a couple of supplements and the Penn one is giving me nightmares. You know when you've got all the content, but just can't form it into a coherent text? Welp, that's happening.

6) I've studied some A-Level Sociology and have done some ACT prep, but clearly not enough. In fact, that's what I should be doing now.

So, that is all I can think of right now, and erm, I don't know. I'll let you all (I still don't know who I'm talking to) know when something less mundane happens. I've got two tickets for this big music festival next month, so I'll definitely write about that. Yep. I think I should get back to ACT Math.

Take care and such.

*I was hoping style psychology would be something I just made up, but no. It actually exists.

Followup Post: The World Is Indeed Conspiring Against Me

2150

That is exactly :

• 120 points better on the Math section
• 70 points better on the Writing Section (3 better on the essay!)

and now watch out...

• 0 points better on the Critical Reading section.

Flashcards, you have failed me.

Seriously, right now, I am having a not-so-mini life crisis. I am refreshing College Confidential every two minutes, to get some hope from a random stranger. I have been depressed and unable to do a single thing for two and half days. I EVEN FRICKING MISSED SCHOOL. And I have Subject Tests on the 7th. 

You think I'm exaggerating? You think this is my typical self-deprecating, sarcastic style?

You are mistaken.

Seriously, what the ****  should I even do? All people tell me is: you are not good enough, look at less selective schools.

And this is unfair. And when most people say "It's unfair", they mean "It's not what I want". Yet this is unfair. I am not from the US. I'm from some godforsaken central European country, with no SAT preparation available. I have bought all the books. I have done 25 practice tests. I have...but little does it matter. They evaluate every single person equally, regardless of their circumstances, when it comes to the SATs. I can be the best student in my class, I can have the best stats possible, a 2150 is still a 2150. And I wouldn't mind it if it didn't matter so much, but contrary to what they say...it does.

Sigh.

I'll now go and wallow in self-pity and hatred for the world. I shouldn't even mention how each of my sections were above the 93rd percentile.

NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

Sigh.

I am not even being self-deprecating and sarcastic. Nope. Not at all. Not at all. OK, maybe a tiny bit. But I have to be or else I wouldn't be me.

#Blegh@Lyfe

What a lovely title up there, isn't it? It gives you such an acute insight about what this post will be about, doesn't it? You've guessed it, haven't you?

No? Well, what's the date today? Oh hey, 3rd of May. Why is this day important? Well, because in 1937, Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer prize. In 1802, Washington D.C. was incorporated as a city. In 1996 - but I guess you can find all of this yourself on Wikipedia. What I want to write about is the SAT.

That's right. The SAT, which doesn't stand for anything, which makes the lives of high school seniors miserable and which holds the ultimate key to university admission. Or at least they say so.

After more than twenty practice tests, more than 1000 words and two unsuccessful attempts, I took the SAT today for the third time. And, I mean, I was disappointed. I had a 2400 practice test yesterday (that's the maximum points) and today...I thought I did OK, but it was certainly not my best work. This week I made the bold assertion that if I score below 2300, this world is conspiring against me, but now that I'm done, and assessing everything, and looking at certain threads on College Confidential that should not exist, I'm genuinely worried that I'm not good enough.

The SAT has been deemed among others unfair, elitist, and outdated, and I don't know if any of these allegations are fair, but I certainly feel that it doesn't succeed in measuring what it ought to. You see, you can prepare for it. You can. I've prepared my butt off during these two years, and yet I still didn't get the desired score. I got close to it, but it's so dependent on the actual test you take. So while some people might turn up once, look at the paper, scratch their heads and question what the hell they're doing there, and still score a 2130, others might store 31 sweat-drenched, hair dryer-parched practice tests by their bedside, and then score a 2130. And inherently, it's the same result. It ought to be relative. But it's not.

And it's not that those people scoring low are stupid, it's just that they may excel in different areas. Or be used to different types of testing. After three years of essay-based exams full of evaluation and analysis and other complex beauties, having a multiple-choice test put in front of me left me somewhat astounded.

Oh well. Make of it what you will. There is simply a melancholy resignation in acknowledging that you've done your best, and your best is still not good enough.

And I really really wanted to go to USC.

I don't think I want to know how much I spent on these books. Neither does my mom.