<p>Also, OCU did a great job at "selling" the BM degree and my D was "sold" that this was the way to go. Now she is rethinking that as well.</p>
<p>TXKatsmom, yes, I have heard that the OCU faculty are very positive to the summer program kids and encourage them, which is really nice. But for some, it can be misleading. I have known kids who went who were highly encouraged by the faculty (lots of positive feedback and lots of "hope you'll audition for us" comments) at OCU and very well cast in the summer program as well, who ultimately were not accepted to OCU's BFA in MT Program. They landed at other fine BFA in MT programs. </p>
<p>I had a student who did the pre-college at UArts and was also highly encouraged by the faculty and one of his recs was from the faculty. He also was not accepted to the BFA there (is now at Tisch). </p>
<p>So, quite often these folks are very encouraging but it can lead at times to false hopes.</p>
<p>Oh, I forgot to mention that she IS applying to a non-audition (true back-up, because she will be accepted based on her academic standing...its a match, not a reach) school with a major in Theatre Arts and can minor in either dance OR music. So, we have covered most of our bases. </p>
<p>I just would like to visit maybe 2 (3?) more BFA programs if possible.</p>
<p>I forgot that the term is SAFETY not back-up. :)</p>
<p>Susan,
You are indeed a wealth of knowledge! It is so great to reconnect with you after all of these years! I am so happy for your daughter and her success. She must be an amazingly talented young lady. Perhaps our girls will meet one day on Broadway! :)
I think my daughter will still audition for the other schools, but right now, her #1 choice is where she's already been accepted unofficially. (Could you edit your post and take out the name of the school because I shouldn't have named it - as they told me it won't be official until the middle of December. I edited my post to take it out. Nobody from this school was supposed to be notified yet and I don't want to get the admissions office or theatre department angry at me.) I am such a blabbermouth :)!
I don't know what we would do if she did, by chance, get into any of the other programs. They are too good to turn down, but they may not be the right schools for her- far away, expensive, etc. Here we go again! Ha ha! But, with the odds of acceptance, I don't think we have too much to worry about! She loves auditioning so much. She just wants to see how well she can do.
It will certainly be an interesting year!
Do you know how much the average scholarship is to the big schools?</p>
<p>Tina,
I did not see that you had edited your post but CC has now edited mine (per your request) to remove the name of the university where your D's acceptance is pending. It was past the edit time window for me to edit it now that I see your new message (a member can only edit their post within about a 20 minute time frame).</p>
<p>You asked:
[quote]
Do you know how much the average scholarship is to the big schools?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>There truly is no hard and fast data on this or answer to it, sorry. It varies from school to school and from student to student a real lot. Some scholarships are just need based, some are just merit based (and some are just academic and some are talent or some are a mixture) and some are a mix of need and merit. And so the types of scholarships offered also varies between schools. What you can do is ask at each school's theater program or admissions office. My D was a financial aid applicant. All her schools offered her aid including scholarships and some of these (I think all of them actually) had a merit aspect to them. The amounts varied from college to college. Actually, the largest four year scholarship she was offered was from NYU/Tisch and so you can't just go by the price tag but see what need and/or merit based aid your D will receive. I don't know if she applied for financial aid.</p>
<p>Tina -- as SoozieVT said going the BFA in Professional Acting route will not preclude your D from performing in MT. Going the BFA in MT route (particularly at a school with strong acting/ theatre training) will not preclude her from performing in non-musicals professionally, working as an acting teacher, in casting, etc... Best of luck to your D! :) It is exciting to have options!</p>
<p>Can I ask you guys for your opinions on something? With such a small acceptance rate at all of the MT schools, what do you think they are looking for? There are so many talented kids in the country and they obviously have to turn down the majority of the talent. Is there a certain type that usually rises to the top? I think most parents, if not every parent, goes into this thinking that their kids have what it takes to make it. It's easy to be overly confident when your child usually succeeds at large auditions. (I am realistic, though - ha ha)
And, are the 2-3% acceptance rates really a fair statistic? In other words, if 300 kids audition for a particular program, are they all talented enough to be considered competition? Or, can you cancel out a good percentage of them right away?</p>
<p>Just my opinion, but I think each school is probably looking for something a little different. This is why a kid may get into University of Michigan, NYU, and Shenandoah, and not Syracuse, CMU, and Indiana (for example). It is a subjective process. I would think that all schools are looking for talent, potential, and some sort of performing "spark". However, how this translates when personal preference is taken into account is highly variable. There are many more talented students who audition for all of these programs than the programs can accept. So, ultimately it will come down to "fit" both for the school and the student. But, there are also probably more talented students, who could be a great fit for a school than they can accept... this is why it is important to haev a balanced list of schools on ones list. </p>
<p>As far as your question about acceptance rate--- the 2-3% (or whatever the admission rate at a particular school) if published or quoted by the department is accurate -- but this will be for ALL students who audition. I would imagine that most schools see a certain number of students who are not competitive. But that they also see quite a few who are. And again, sometimes "competitive" will be in the eye of the beholder. </p>
<p>GOOD LUCK! I am sure you will get many responses and opinions :)!</p>
<p>I agree with KatMT that different schools may have different "types" they are looking for. That's why it's a great idea to visit as many schools as possible to get a better idea of whether you "fit in" and can be competitive. </p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that schools are essentially putting together an ensemble, from which they have to cast all of their productions. If they already have 5 blond soprano ingenues, they may be in need of other types to fill roles this year. So if you're a blond soprano ingenue, you could be out of luck no matter how talented you are.</p>
<p>Audition question for schools like CMU, Ithaca, Indiana and NYU...
My daughter looks like the blonde ingenue but has a pop/rock belt. In her entire life, she has never sung legit soprano at an audition. I'm not sure why, but she's never tried it for an audition. Is it necessary to sing in head voice at these auditions? If so, she could be in BIG trouble as I'm not sure she would have the same confidence. Uh oh! :)</p>
<p>TXKatsmom, I wish your daughter well and believe she will have many fine choices.</p>
<p>I think Susan and I are friends with some of the same people whose kids have had the experience of having leads in OCU summer shows and major faculty encouragement at summer camp only to be rejected from the BM in MT degree (often offered theatre BA instead, back before they offered BFA in theatre). I can tell you for a fact that almost all of the kids (particularly girls) who played leading roles in my son's summer camp at OCU did not get an offer when they auditioned for the BM in MT for college. Hopefully your daughter's experience will be different.</p>
<p>Also, I'm sure there are benefits to both BM and BFA degrees. I would just advise your daughter to review carefully the REQUIRED courses in a program, once her acceptances are in hand. Within a BFA, one can often ELECT many of the very same music courses if one so chooses, but not as many are required. In a BM degree, many levels are required of music theory, etc., and they take a conducting course. BM and BFA will both offer and require instrumental music, music theory, voice lessons, dance, and acting. BFAs may allow opportunity for students to elect to take more dance or more acting rather than quite so much music. It would just depend on the student's desires. When my son evaluated course requirements, he could see quite a large difference in where he would be spending the bulk of his time. Don't get me wrong, he loves music. He just didn't feel the need to become quite as advanced of a musician as the BM would make a student, and he wanted to concentrate in other areas, such as dance, where he was weaker to begin with. This would be very much an individual student's decision.</p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>
<p>My daughter had her second audition. The first was at Elon and the second was at NYU. Although they were very different, both groups of people were very nice and encouraging. When we got to the audition we were surprised that we were the only ones there. Apparently with this new audition schedule they have of letting regular admissions kids audition early hasn't caught on. In the end, we were only one of two kids that were there to audition. The admissions person spoke briefly and then my daughter was sent in to sing and then proceeded to another room to do her monolgues. During the monologue session, she was asked a few questions and was also asked to try one of her monologues in a different way. My D. enjoyed the audition and wanted to do another one right away. Apparently the auditor laughed through most of the comedic monologue. It was a surprisingly quiet morning with only two people there and helped to keep the nerves down. Good luck to others going to the NYU audition.</p>
<p>Just a thought for those w/ upcoming auditions at U of MI. We stayed at the Inn At Michigan League, right on Central Campus and found it to be stress free. Audition morning you are in the same building as the 8:30 meeting, near the dance audition, buses to North Campus for the vocal and acting auditions are right across the street, and parking is included. Very little hassle, don't have to drive once you are there.</p>
<p>tinamay -- your D should not attempt a head voice if she is not confident and skilled in that area. She needs to go into the audition with her absolute best material. If she is auditioning this year, now is not the time to make changes. I would suggest, however, that she bring along an additional song that she CAN do in her head voice if requested.
On the other hand, if she is now a junior and has a year before her auditions, there is certainly time to work on that aspect of her audition performance.</p>
<p>Just got back from my D's first audition at Elon. As told in previous posts Elon's audition is warm and fuzzy. The faculty and students were incredibly supportive and made the kids feel really comfortable. The day went very smoothly; observe an acting class, information session for students and parents, rehearse with the accompanist, one hour dance audition, and then individual times for songs/monologues in front of a panel of six in a wonderful recital hall. That night we saw a dance concert, very impressive, in their intimate black box theater. Fortunately for us the next day was one of their big Fall Open Houses where we got to really explore the campus and the University as a whole. My D fell in love with Elon and is now even considering a BA Theatre Studies/ Dance Minor if she is not accepted into the BFA program but is accepted into the University. I think Elon was a super choice for her first audition and now she can be more relaxed for the big audition season she has in Jan/Feb. She was able to confirm her clothing choice and how she felt with her choice of songs and monologues which will help her confidence moving forward.
Anyone interested in more details about Elon, feel free to pm me.</p>
<p>My D's first audition was also Elon and I also could not have been happier with the experience. I agree with the above post, the faculty and students were genuinely friendly and helpful. While walking the campus students would come up to her and ask her how the audition went and wished her luck! The students working the audition were very supportive.</p>
<p>We were also lucky to have seen Sweeney Todd and were just blown away by the whole performance. The acting, singing, sets and costumes were all incredible. We are fortunate to have seen many college mainstage productions (at various colleges) and Elon's Sweeney Todd is one of our all time favorites!!! Please, please listen to the people on CC who recommend that you go to a production if you can. It is a great way to see how strong the training is at a college.</p>
<p>Good luck to all the students auditioning and I hope to have more positive experiences to report inthe future!</p>
<p>Just got back from Hartt. Checked in at 8am. Dance at 830. There were 4 bar warm ups. then an across the floor. then a combo from jesus christ superstar. overall it was fun, it was challenging for me because I wouldn't call myself a dancer. Then I had about 15 minutes to change, warm up (I'd warmed up at 6am as well) and put makeup on my sweaty face. The 15 minutes did not seem like enough for me. The I went in and did my voice and acting audition. The panel did not seem overly friendly, and I got the feeling they didn't like me. But I think everyone feels like that. They asked me no questions after I'd finished, and then I left. I don't know if it was the lack of words from the panel, but it didn't leave me with a good feeling. But this was my 1st audition so I guess this one was to work out the kinks and figure out what works and what doesn't. I know that trying to successfully sing 15 minute after hardcore dance is hard for me, so thats something to work on. the performance space was beautiful though, its very new. So..thats all!</p>
<p>tinysinger, try not to read too much into the auditors' stone faces! More than once, kids have posted similar experiences here and later reported that they were admitted, so you never know.</p>
<p>As far as having difficulty singing after dance, my D found just the opposite: that her voice felt more free and open after a really rousing dance call! :) But it certainly is a challenge to strip off your sweaty dance clothing, get into your dress or dress clothing, fix your hair and makeup and get your music together and be ready to do your singing and acting audition in 15 minutes!</p>
<p>Try to pat yourself on the back for getting through this very first one. That's a feat in and of itself. I bet you did really well! Keep the faith. </p>
<p>We look forward to hearing more reports from you and others in the future.</p>
<p>Syracuse 12/5:
Got there by 10 am and waited in the lobby for a while filling out forms and stuff. They moved us all to the theater (MT and Acting and parents). As soon as we were in the theater all the MTs had to leave for the dance call. The acting auditioners and all the parents stayed for an info session with the head of the department and an admissions counselor. The MTs went and quickly changed into dance clothes and were divided into two dancing groups in two different studios. My group did a dance to a song from RENT and the other group a dance to a song from The Wiz. We had plenty of time to learn the dance, but I would say it may have been rushed learning for a non-dancer. We then did the dance in groups of two. The dance instructor (don't remember his name- David maybe) looked at our posture and some very simple ballet stuff. He asked to see a timestep if we could tap and asked if we could do gymnastics and to demonstrate if we were sure we wouldn't hurt ourself. I felt it was very relaxed.
We then were rushed to change and we did a group warm-up in a room upstairs. After the short warm-up we went into a conference room and waited to be called to dance. I waited maybe a half an hour to forty-five minutes. I went into the room and there was the accompanist and a woman sitting at a table (never got her name, mistake on my part.) Before I started the dance teacher came in and sat down next to the lady. I went over the rhythm and then went to the center of the room. I sang the first song and then they asked for the next. After my two songs she asked to do some vocalizing (not scales) but more vowel stuff. She asked about my voice teacher and a few other questions. She then asked me to do my monologue. I did and then she asked if I had another one prepared - a more contemporary one. (My first was 1936 so very borderline.) I started the other one and she cut me off half way though, thanked me, and told me I was finished. I got out around 1:30 and I was in the middle of the group. We won't hear anything until March.</p>