Some people go to film school to learn the latest about 360-degree fly cams and head-mounted display systems. Others go to study the esoterics of film history and theory (usually at No. 10 Wesleyan). And many just want to figure out how to point a camera and make the movies that keep playing out in their heads.
These days, there's a school for everybody, though not all are created equal, so here's THR's annual Top 25 Film Schools list to sort out the differences. The magazine consulted with educators, alumni and industry pros to rank the best of the best. Somewhere on these pages is a school to match every ambition, even if that ambition is to just make friends in a TV writers room (see No. 11, University of Texas).
#20 Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida
Moonlight's big Oscar win pushed this small Tallahassee-based program up some spaces on this year's list. Alumnus Barry Jenkins ('03) staffed the production with fellow students he met during grad school. "People ask why we are so close," says Moonlight co-editor Joi McMillon (the first African-American female ever to be nominated in the editing category). "We are such a small school, so there is accountability that is placed on you from the very first project that you do." While FSU emphasizes the basics of storytelling, the school has been adding courses on more forward-looking mediums, such as VR (with new cameras, lab and postproduction facilities, and the hiring of VFX veteran Tom Mikota). All of this comes as a new dean, Reb Braddock, takes over for Frank Patterson, who left last year to run Pinewood Studios in Atlanta. TuitionUndergrad: $7,545 (in state), $25,239 (out of state); grad: $21,569 (production, in state), $49,982 (production, out of state), $14,859 (writing, in state), $34,432 (writing, out of state) Notable alumniThe Maze Runner directorWes Ball, Alan Ball, It Follows director David Robert Mitchell
Florida State University’s new School of Physician Assistant Practice has earned provisional accreditation and will start teaching its first classes in August.
The Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA) has awarded the new status as FSU’s PA program prepares to welcome its inaugural class of 40 students. Jim Zedaker is the associate dean and founding director of the School of Physician Assistant Practice. Zedaker joined Florida State last year to create the new school and guide it through the lengthy accreditation process.
Jim Zedaker, who joined Florida State last year to create the new school, has focused on guiding the program through the lengthy accreditation process.
“We’re excited about moving ahead,” said Zedaker, associate dean and founding director of the School of Physician Assistant Practice. “We anticipated getting good news and the announcement confirmed our expectations: The ARC-PA concluded we had zero areas of noncompliance with accreditation standards. That’s a testament to the excellence of everyone’s efforts at the College of Medicine.”
The status of “accreditation-provisional” is granted when:
A program without enrolled students demonstrates an ability to meet ARC-PA standards.
A program with accreditation-provisional status shows sustained progress in complying with the standards as it prepares for the graduation of its first class.
“We first began talking about adding a new PA program not quite four years ago, convincing the university there was a need before getting approval from the FSU Board of Trustees and the Florida Board of Governors,” said FSU College of Medicine Dean John P. Fogarty. “The accreditation process is lengthy and rigorous. Jim Zedaker and his new faculty and staff deserve a tremendous amount of credit for getting this done as quickly as they have.
“The PA program is the logical next step for us as we continue to meet primary care needs in Florida, especially in underserved communities and where access to care is a challenge.”
The program also was approved to grow to 50 students in August 2018 and to 60 in following years. The initial class committed to FSU’s PA program months before the program received this accreditation.
“The students who applied and those accepted as the inaugural class demonstrated confidence in FSU as an institution and the College of Medicine as providing the highest quality medical education,” said Ben Smith, faculty and academic coordinator for the program. “There existed a palpable feeling of excitement during the student interviews. Many students were impressed with the preparations that had occurred in the creation of the FSU PA program.”
There is high demand for physician assistants because of a shortage of doctors nationwide. PAs, who work as part of a health care team under a physician’s supervision, help alleviate that shortage by providing another level of health care. FSU’s College of Medicine is dedicated to improving access to primary care in Florida and beyond.
Students enrolled in the program will spend 15 months at the College of Medicine’s central campus in Tallahassee, followed by a year of education in a clinical setting at one of the medical school’s regional campuses. They will learn under the same network of faculty physicians who teach FSU medical students.
The first Florida State PAs will graduate in December 2019 with a Master of Science in Physician Assistant Practice.
“Learning to work in the same settings as our medical students will provide early experience in team-based care, a critical model to address the primary-care shortages in our state,” Fogarty said.
The job of physician assistant has been ranked at the top of Forbes magazine’s list of “Most Promising Jobs” due to increasing demand for PAs, high pay and short completion period. The median pay for a PA is about $100,000, according to the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants.
In addition to the FSU College of Medicine starting up its PA program, I think it is important to point out that the FSU COM continues to expand its partnership with TMH through the establishment of residency programs.
FSU and TMH now have a Surgical Residency Program (2013-14), Internal Medicine Residency Program (2012) and a Family Medicine Residency Program (earlier).
This is correct, just the annual payments not the full amount to maturity.
jamnolfin (Booster Rep)
We exceeded the amount we were hoping to get the club is a huge success to this point.
The Florida State football team has reported for the start of fall 2017 football practice and construction crews are finishing up enhancements to your Dunlap Champions Club. With the home opening football weekend less than 30 days away, we wanted to help you prepare for what we hope is a Championship season.
We learned a lot from you during our inaugural season by listening, observing and studying surveys and have spent the last nine months putting some of your ideas into action. There is a lot to share with you in this email. We'll be sending additional emails with more details in the weeks to come.
As Dunlap Champions Club seat holders, we wanted you to know the club showed a profit in its inaugural year of operations including covering the cost of repayment of the $85 million bond issue. This bond issue covered the cost of construction of the club and more than $25 million in improvements to the steel structure and painting of Doak Campbell Stadium. Thank you for this amazing first-year achievement.
Season ticket sales are up 10 percent over last year and we’re seeing healthy sales of half season packages, group packages and single game member-guest tickets. We’re ready to handle this growth and continued anticipated growth of season ticket sales with Virginia Tech, Clemson and Florida on the 2018 schedule.
As we continue to grow, it is important we maintain a high-quality experience throughout the club. To that end, we will enhance the amenities on the 6th floor covered terraces and in the outdoor seating sections as well as the food and beverage service on both levels. As more club seat holders spend time enjoying the terraces and sitting in their club seats it will help keep the 4th floor from becoming overcrowded.
We'll maintain a high-quality experience throughout our growth with enhanced amenities and services in the outdoor club seats and on the 6th floor which will maintain a spacious feel inside the club.
Encouraging club seat holders to sit outside
We’ve had feedback the club seating area looks empty on game day which is because our club seat holders choose to spend their time inside the air conditioned club. We designed the club to offer game day comfort to those who want or need it and we are happy it is being used and enjoyed.
We also want the club to look full on national television and for our football team to have the home field advantage a full stadium provides. And we firmly believe we will reach those goals over the next two seasons with growing seat sales numbers and enhanced outdoor experiences.
Here's what you will enjoy this year
• Club Corp, our food and beverage partner for 19 years, invested $1 million into the renovation of the 6th floor Osceola Grill which will give club seat holders another reason to enjoy the 6th floor club and covered rooftop terraces. The modern Osceola Grill features new floor tiles, carpet, upholstered furniture, a refreshed bar area and lounge, and new ceiling and lighting fixtures. There are also some cool banquette seating areas with views of the stadium.
• High-pressure, cooling misters have been installed around the perimeter of the 6th floor terraces to provide a cooler game day. The Mist Works system emit a very fine vapor that is known to reduce ambient temperatures by 10 to 20 degrees without feeling moisture or your hair frizzing. The system design takes advantage of natural southern fall breezes and existing fans to circulate the cooling mist across the terraces and into the seats.
• Mist Works misting fans have also been installed across the middle sections of the 6th floor to help push cool breezes into those seats where our single game, member-guest and group tickets will be seated outside the Grille. This will help the optics and spread the energy across all sections.
• You'll find a beautiful finished deck coating has been applied to the concrete floors leading from the elevators to the 3rd, 4th and 6th floor rooftop terrace seating sections.
• A new point of sale system has been installed with hand held devices to help provide better beverage service in the seats and in the club.
• We'll employ high speed beer delivery systems on the 4th floor west club which will expedite all beverage service.
• Club Corp has formed a relationship with FSU Alumnus John Rivers to deliver the very popular 4 Rivers Smokehouse Texas-style and southern cuisine alongside Club Corp offerings. Rivers will be working side by side with Club Corp to provide quality products on the 6th floor terrace kitchen pavilions. This is an effort to continue UCC’s tradition of supporting and serving regional favorites such as Bradley’s sausage, Proof Brewery craft beers and new this year, TOUCH vodka, which is produced by former FSU Tight End Reggie Johnson.
• We’ll also introduce day of game drawings for on-field experiences but you must be in your club seat to win.
• We know what snacks and deserts you like and while we'll still serve snacks and desserts inside, we’ll save some of those surprise treats exclusively to those seated outside.
• We have also invited a number of celebrity guests to sit in the outdoor seating sections and are planning other surprises as an incentive to join the fun outside.
Special Game Day Group Entertainment
We've been asked to create single game group packages for family, friends or businesses to use when they want to sit together for a special occasion. We created the Gold Indoor Package and the Garnet Outdoor Package.
Gold Indoor Package For Special Occasions
The Gold Package will be available on as many 12 field view tables along the glass wall on the East and West Side of the 4th floor this season.
Club seat holders will have the opportunity to rent these tables for only one special occasion birthday, anniversary, party or business occasion per year. The rental option addresses feedback you provided last year about these tables, where a few people would arrive early and "camp" on the table precluding others from using the table. We will try this rental program this year which we think will give more of our club seat holders an opportunity to use these tables once per year and will generate additional revenue we will invest back into the facility which will benefit everyone.
These field view tables will come with an attendant, view of two television screens, a table top monitor you can control, and eight (8) tickets with two complementary drink tickets per seat. This “Gold Package” will rent for $2,000 to $4,000 per game.
All other tables in the club will remain first-come, first-serve tables like last year. We listened to your concerns about people "camping" on the tables and will politely encourage club seat holders to enjoy their meal and return to their seat so others may enjoy their meal too. We’ve also increased the number of seats at the dining tables by replacing the heavy couches in the connector space with more tables and chairs including approximately 10 field view tables along the glass which will not be rented. We’ll also offer more round tables and high tops throughout the club.
Garnet Package for outdoor group seating
We’ve also created a special outdoor seating section for groups and corporate entertainment in the seats just outside the new Osceola Grille. This special outdoor group rental is called the “Garnet Package”. The top three rows of these sections have been modified with tables between the seats to rest food and now also have cool misting fans above. The Garnet Package includes a dedicated attendant for beverage service and two complementary drink tickets per seat. They are priced from $1,650 to $3,150 for 10 guests per game, depending on the game.
You can learn more about the Garnet and Gold packages by calling your account representative or 850-644-1830 line 1.
The Seminoles Booster club sent an email to it’s members today updating the latest details on the new Champions Club section inside of Doak Campbell Stadium.
In the email, Seminole Booster says the club showed a profit in the first year of operations, “including covering the cost of repayment of the $85 million bond issue”, for construction of the club and improvements to the steel structure and painting of Doak Campbell Stadium.
That’s quite an achievement in just one year.
According to the email, FSU season ticket sales are also up 10% over last year. Season tickets can be purchased by calling a representative at 850-644-1830 or at Seminoles.com/Tickets.
Gotta add this note. None of the others listed began play in Division 1 CF after 1952. The poll has been continuously tabulated since 1936. So every team listed has had ~15 years of opportunity that FSU did not have.
#1: Florida State's Chief Osceola — This is as good as it gets: A dude decked out in full gear, riding a horse at full speed and throwing a flaming spear into the ground. If it were at all possible, I'd rank this mascot even higher than No. 1. — Honrable mentions: Reveille (Texas A&M), Bucky Badger (Wisconsin), Brutus (Ohio State), Falcon (Air Force), The Leprechaun (Notre Dame), The Traveler (USC), Tusk (Arkansas), The Hokie Bird (Virginia Tech), The Masked Rider (Texas Tech), The Zip (Akron).
