Hello everyone,
My daughter wants to pursue acting in college, hoping to go into screen and/or stage performance. She has narrowed down her college choices to CalArts, AMDA, UCI, UCSB, CSULB, and CSUF, having been accepted to all 6 in their theatre departments.
For some background, she has been performing since the age of 3, in drama class at school since 4th grade, done community theatre, artist master classes, and summer theatre camps for many years, trained in classical Indian, western classical, and musical theater singing as well as various forms of dance for 13 years. She has been an A student throughout her school years. We have been on tours to all the colleges but she is not sure which will be the best for her.
She is looking for:
a strong acting program which has training in acting for film along with stage and hopefully a film department at the school
the opportunity to do musical(s) even if she is not an MT major
some level of a college experience and GEs even if it is a conservatory
a senior industry showcase or some form of making connections within the acting industry through the college
the opportunity to perform regularly (based on casting, of course)
a singing and dance training either as part of the department or available through another department within the school
the ability for acting students to either direct/create a show or take a class in directing
faculty working in the industry or that will also train in acting for new media
opportunity based only on talent with as limited racially biased casting as possible
a safe environment to grow as a person and artist
She would like to find a school that fits most of these, and we would greatly appreciate any input from alumni, current students, or parents of students or alumni regarding these colleges.
Thanks,
DadAct
Are finances a concern at all? If so, then calculate how much you’ll need to take out in loans for each school, and let that factor into your decision. It may require you to knock out one or two of these schools, once you see the four year price tag/loan amount.
Is there any chance she might change her mind now or in the future, and need to do something other than acting/theater? If so, then that might mean she doesn’t want AMDA, as that school is so narrow in focus.
For the other questions, you may need to ask the schools directly. I might prioritize those that are most important to her, such as the “acting for film” question, and ask those of admissions right now. Rule out schools that don’t offer the things that are absolutely key for her. I’d suggest using the film and the musical theater questions as initial key questions, plus maybe one other that she considers a top priority, because you normally will be able to rule some schools out with those alone. That will narrow your list, and you can start digging into the others.
When you contact admissions, it’s entirely permissible to ask to be connected with a current student - even a current student of the same ethnicity as she is - and she can then contact that student and ask frank questions.
The only schools with dedicated MT majors on her list are UCI and CSUF.
While the other schools may offer a musical each year or so, if there’s no dedicated MT, there
will be fewer opportunities for her to participate.
The two primary things you will want to know as you do you due diligence on the schools is, 1) can freshman audition for productions (and/or are there any courses that would need to be completed prior to the ability to audition), and 2) does the school consider her a pre-major for Theater, or a direct admit.
In general, you’ll want to see what type and how many general ed classes are required for graduation, as well as checking out the courses on offer to see if these are classes that she would be excited about taking.
Some schools have mandatory theater tech requirements for theater students, so be sure that she’d be on board with wielding a paint brush and a hammer at some point.
With all of that said, if I were in her shoes and cost was not an issue nor did I have a strong location preference, I would choose:
UCI>CSUF>CSULB>UCSB>CalArts>AMDA
Good luck with her choices.