A long-winded and corny-as-hell response, but maybe it'll help.
I only realized at the end of high school that I wanted to go to film school and I had virtually no experience. In either my junior or senior year I signed up for an intro to video course (in both high school and a local college) to get some basic technical knowledge and, more importantly, to just bite the bullet and use the camera. What I made was c-r-a-p, but you need to start somewhere.
I live in NY so I applied to a few (very few) schools on the east coast, and I had absolutely ZERO confidence that I'd get in anywhere. NYU was too costly, and so was the School of Visual Arts but I went through the application process anyway. They had me create two pieces of writing as I recall... a description of a dream or event, and then a creative short story (or something) based on that dream or event. I got accepted but couldn't afford it.
I also applied to the film conservatory at SUNY Purchase, which required an essay explaining why I wanted to go to film school (my biggest influences were Apocalypse Now and Do the Right Thing and that's what I discussed - I later talked to a guy who didn't get past the essay writing process, apparently he wrote about Star Wars. I looked at what he submitted and it was poorly written, but I do admit that different schools are going to have different standards as far as what they think good movies are).
From there they choose a certain number of people to be interviewed. My high school grades and SATs were pretty good, but I naively didn't put a reel together because I was embarrassed about the little bit of video work I'd done. When I went in for the interview, I looked around the waiting room and everyone had stacks of material to show. I had nothing but a flimsy portfolio of my writing. The first thing my interviewer said to me was "What do you got to show me?" I showed him the folder. His response: "Sam, Sam, Sam. You're not making my job any easier ya know."
Anyway, I felt I had bombed the interview, but I believed that my video work wasn't strong enough, and I still believe that if I'd shown it to my interviewer it would've lessened my chances of getting in. My writing was strong though and I had several letters of recommendation (this is essential stuff to have when you're applying to any college, really), and his final question is what gave me the edge. He asked me what movie I would make if I was given a lump of money and expected an answer right then and there. I slowly told him I wanted to make a film dealing with what high schoolers really go through in their day-to-day, something more honest than what was being shown in Hollywood's renditions of high school life. It was a topic that I felt I had some authority on and that I really believed in (at the time) because I was living it. I guess he saw a drive to create for a purpose in that response, and I was accepted.
Of course, other kids in my class got in because of their videos, because they have experience working on productions, etc. But if you're sincere enough, dedicated enough, and are strong in at least one area of filmmaking going in (writing, cinematography, editing, whatever), then don't worry about experience.
