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Review of Emerson Launch

Emerson was ABSOLUTELY my top second choice after ...

Emerson was ABSOLUTELY my top second choice after Hampshire College in Amherst (I only chose Hampshire over Emerson because I could completely self-design my education there and I wanted a suburban rather than an urban campus environment at that time coming from NYC) definitely BECAUSE of the fact that I was studying Theater & Film both side by side.

Hampshire was just a bit more academically interdisciplinary than Emerson was, and I could cross-study both fields, whereas at Emerson I would have had to choose either Theater OR Film (a major/minor situation). I auditioned for Emerson down in my hometown of NYC, got into the Theater Program, and then came up to Boston for a weekend to have a campus tour and visit, stayed in a Piano Row dorm room, attended some Friday late afternoon and early Monday morning classes, and have an Admissions office interview. I was impressed by the extensive facilities for Theater & Film, and by the resources afforded by the college. To me, Emerson seemed more like a small university or conservatory than a college. All the students I met were super friendly and creative and engaged.

I COMPLETELY fell in love with Emerson, It absolutely reminded me of a "smaller friendlier version of NYU." And NO ONE from my high school was attending (they were all at NYU) Emerson. I love Boston, and I had always imagined going to college there, just because of its reputation and the fact that it has some of the best colleges and universities in the entire country. I loved that at Emerson; I could go study Film in LA for a semester and then study abroad at Kasteel Well in the Netherlands, or in London doing a Theatre program, and it all would have fit together well academically, though Emerson is more "traditional" in the major/minor GPA, credits, letter grading sense than Hampshire is.

Hampshire ONLY won out over Emerson because of the fact that I got a slightly better financial aid award there (and it was a MUCH smaller school than Emerson with a "real" rather than an "urban" campus), with smaller Theater & Film programs and the more individualized self-designed programs of study that I wanted at the time I was applying to colleges. My one regret actually not choosing Emerson over Hampshire is ONLY because Emerson overall had better resources (member of the Pro Arts Consortium and all of it's on-campus facilities and Emerson LA and it's study abroad programs). I loved Hampshire (and it is part of the Five College Consortium), but I loved Emerson EQUALLY as much. Both schools appealed to me more than anywhere else I'd applied to college.

In fact, I'd already received my acceptance letter from Emerson, and was all set to accept, send in my deposits and enroll and become an Emersonian, when I finally got my Hampshire acceptance letter. That was that. A Hampster I became. And just barely a hairsbreadth away from being an Emersonian. Ironically, many Hampshire students from the Boston area that I met while attending school there, had also applied to Emerson, so the schools DO have some overlap, especially amongst creative students. For me, it was a total toss-up. I would have been equally happy and felt at home on either campus. It was the TOUGHEST decision of my undergraduate career. I also re-applied to Emerson again for graduate school, but I was kind of dead-set on returning to NYC for graduate school instead.