Them Learnin' Places

So, as I left off in one of my previous posts. I need to figure out a place to go to school. Something that I'm going to get the proper skills I'm looking for and something that's going to help me move up in the world.

Adding to the list of possible suitors we have:


Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador(MUN)

MUN offers a undergraduate minor program in film studies. This isn't at the top of the list of places I'm looking into and it definitely wouldn't do on it's own, but it does offer some benefits.

Pros:

-I can stay in town and do this. Possibly while still working. This helps with the money issue and the moving.
-It may help give me experience I may need to get into other schools that are a little more hands on or I may need some previous experience to get into.
-Since the money and moving aren't really issues here, I may be able to start this sooner than anything else.

Cons:

-What I'm getting out of it ultimately isn't what I'm looking to do. From what I've read and heard so far MUN doesn't really offer anything technical with this course. It's all in-class and educational. Which is fine in its own way but it's not really the direction I'm looking to go. I may not get much out of this and may delay my getting into something else if I pump a lot of money into this.



Toronto Film School at RCC Institute of Technology


This one is definitely on the top of the list of programs I would like to look into. I requested information from their website a couple weeks ago and I've received plenty of emails and calls from their recruiting officer since then offering me any information I require. They seem to generally want to help and are interested in my application.

Pros:


-The course load for this program looks to be exactly what I'm looking for. It's got educational, technical and creative elements. With the schools I've looked at so far, this one seems like I could learn the most out of it.
-It's only an 18 month program. Perfect amount of time for what I'm looking for.
-It's based out of Toronto. I've always wanted to live in a large city like this. Just for a bit anyway. And I shouldn't have any issues finding work in the area part time. Possibly even looking into a transfer with the company I'm currently with.

Cons:

-The biggest con of all. Cost. This place seems expensive. The tuition is fairly high for an 18 month course. Then there's the cost of getting there and living there. I would need to have my debt pretty much wiped clean before I start something like this which may take a little longer than I would hope.
-Possibly having to leave a few things behind while living there. I don't think I would want to have a vehicle while living in TO so I would probably have to leave the good ol' green grand am home and fly up there. I've had the luxury of a vehicle for the past 5+ years of my life and it's not something that I really want to give up. Also it probably wouldn't be the best situation for a pet either. That may mean finding someone to look after Tifa for the time I'm doing the program which would kinda break my heart to do.



So there's another couple options I'm looking at. Will post others later but for now I would really appreciate it if anyone knows somebody who's done any of these courses, to let me know what they think.

Also in the meantime I'm going to start working on some kind of project(short film, storyboard, etc.) to help with the experience thing. I don't plan on filming anything anytime soon but I'm going to try to see what it takes to make something like this happen in the real world.