<prompt> Human: Im aware that the title probably makes me sound crazy for doing this, but here me out.My lifelong dream has been able to study film in college, and pursue a career in that field. I completed 1 year at a liberal arts college, but they didnt have my major so I had to transfer out. Ive been of school for the past year now since every film school I have gotten into has been too much for my family. Ive reapplied to film schools for the upcoming school year, and once again, my family is running into the same problem. Each school is 10-15k more than what we can afford this is already including the financial aid, scholarships, and loans that the schools are offering. My family has begged me to change my major to something liberal arts related so that I can return to my former college where I would graduate debt free, but I honestly cannot see myself doing that. I know that this major and career path is the right one for me, and I do not want to study something I have 0 interest in, will not do well in, and then spend the rest of my life in a career I hate. Also, my former college does not offer any sort of major remotely close to film or my future career plans, so I feel like Id be wasting a large amount of money for a degree that I wouldnt utilize to its full potential.So, my family has given me the OK to go ahead and attend one of these film schools that Ive been accepted to. The consequence is that the schools offered me about 10k in loans each year all of which I will need to take out. Also, the school is about 20k more than my family can afford, so in addition to getting in debt for 1 year, they cannot guarantee that I will be able to return to the school for a second year, since after 1 year I will have drained out lifes savings to attend.I know I sound crazy for even wanting to go through with this, but having the opportunity to attend this university and study film in the heart of LA seems like something I cannot pass up. Also, its too late to apply to schools elsewhere. Im already a year behind Ill be starting my sophomore year at 20 instead of 19 since I didnt go to school this past year, and I really do not want to delay my education any longer. I dont know what to do. I have dreamed for so long to be able to study film at Loyola Marymount, but the cost of possibly only attending for my sophomore year before running out of money, draining out life savings, and never being able to return to college is conflicting me.P.S. I appealed to the school for my financial aid already, and they said no, so I cant get anymore help from them.  <response>: Hey, you sound exactly like me. I always wanted to be in the entertainment industry. I wanted to be an actor since I was 13 years old, but I was in a real bad car wreck when I was 19, sliced up my face, ruined my knee, gained weight, and lost all my confidence. I still wanted to work in movies, though, so I decided I wanted to become a writerdirector. My parents had no interest in me going down that path. They always said I was too smart and I should be a doctor or a lawyer or whatever else. But, like you, I had no interest in anything else but film. My first year of college I studied mechanical engineering at their insistence at a local college that actually had a really good mechanical engineering and law program. Plus it was only 5 grand a year to attend, so that was a plus as my family is middle class but doesnt really have enough to help pay for anything much more than that. Anyway, cause of the car wreck, I had a lot of depression issues, PTSD, and was extremely suicidal. Thats when my folks said screw it, and let me go to film school. If I recall, it was 20 grand a year at my school, and I was able to do the one thing that I truly loved, which was great. Honestly, it was stressful as hell. I always dealt with extremely unreliable people, crew and actors alike. I had a producer who refused any of my requests in terms of locations and props, a writer who refused to turn in drafts of scripts, and some really pretentious professors. At the end of the day, I graduated with a degree in Cinema and Digital Arts I tried to minor in Psychology, but my school screwed me out of that over one course that didnt count towards it even though I asked my counselor repeatedly if I had enough credits. I worked for a year back home to save up money and to move to LA. During that time, my best friend and I made two 24 hour film projects that won awards, and I had a film at the Slamdance Film Festival that also won an award. So, eventually, I had 20K saved up, moves to LA, and started to try and get a film career started. I had lost weight during that time, my scars healed, and I got my confidence back, so I started going to acting school out here so I could chase those dreams. But, my knee blew up again and I gained 85 pounds and spiraled into deeper depression. The rent at my first place was 2500 a month. That was split 5 ways. Eventually I moved to a duplex with my then girlfriend that was 1395 a month. We broke up a couple years ago and my rent is now 1700 a month for that two bedroom duplex. Thats actually the cheapest place I can find out here. Most one bedroom places cost more than that. Anyway, I worked for a bunch of different companies doing PA work, hoping to make connections and move up. Almost all those jobs were unpaid with the people claiming it would get you experience. The thing I quickly learned was that if you accept an unpaid job, then people wont want to pay you because they feel if youre willing to work for free once, then they can keep trying to get you to work for free. And if you wont do the job, theres literally thousands of others who will. Eventually I was able to get some paid PA work, but it sucked. Absolutely sucked. Id earn 125 a day for 12-16 hours of work per day. I was on my feet all day long doing miserable and menial tasks while people who I considered idiots were getting paid a ton of money to do what I know I could do better than them. Theres A LOT of nepotism out here. It doesnt matter how good or talented you are at your job, its all about who you know. Plus, work was always infrequent. Lots of productions have been moving out of LA cause of tax credits. Anyway, cause of my knee, I realized I wouldnt be able to do PA work for more than a year. I was constantly in pain and not getting anywhere. So I had to learn to do something else. I studied computer programming and taught myself Ruby on Rails. After a bunch of struggling I was finally able to land a job at a huge company out here doing Web Apps for them. Keep in mind, my degree is in film, but Im earning decent money Id probably be considered upper class almost anywhere in the country except for out here. I earn over 80K a year, but thats considered low income by SoCal standards. Plus thats way less than the average is for a Rails developer doing something I enjoy, but isnt my dream, and I dont have a degree in. So, thats a lot of info, but I wanted to set this up. Personally, for me, college was a massive waste of time and money. ESPECIALLY for a film degree. You wont learn anything there that you couldnt learn on your own. The ONLY benefit of going to film school is access to equipment. Personally, Id rather take the 50 grand and shoot a fantastic short film that you could shop around. With YouTube and the way things are these days, film school really isnt necessary. The internet can answer anything and everything that youd ever want to know and is a perfect way to gain exposure. I know I probably sound like a jaded hack or whatever, but this is all based on my experiences. It takes a STUPID amount of luck to make it in this business. And, like I said before, if you dont know someone youre gonna be struggling for the rest of your life and breaking your back for almost no money. The best way to get ahead and get exposure is to have a really killer feel and great short films to show off. Theres also a program that the DGA had out here that you can apply to and be trained as a 1st AD. Once you finish the program, you get into the DGA, can earn a dumb amount of money, and have more or less guaranteed work straight away. I applied to do that but was turned down. Plus, 1st AD sounds miserable in my opinion, but itd still be steady work in the industry while expanding your contacts.Anyway, I havent given up my dreams yet. Im still out here. Im going to get back into acting real soon as Ive almost lost all that weight and have rehabbed my knee been a long 13 years. Plus, my boss is great and is real understanding about all that, so hed be willing to work with me and my desire to audition and all that good stuff. I dont want to dissuade you from pursuing your dreams. Im all for it. You never know. But know that its bloody hard and expensive and spending 50k on college for a worthless piece of paper in an industry where that means nothing is a real bad decision in my opinion. I strongly believe college is a scam unless you want to be a doctor or a lawyer. Id be more than happy to answer any questions you might have. I wish I had someone to talk to before I went down the path I did. I wish you the best of luck. 