Accepted to both MT and Acting - advice?

<p>My son has been given the choice of entering Ithaca as a Musical Theater major or as an Acting major. He has definitely chosen Ithaca, which was one of his top two choices, and we’ve paid the deposit. He will be talking to the head of the department and to some friends who are currently enrolled.</p>

<p>I know that some of you have looked into the MT vs Acting issue at Ithaca and would be glad of any tidbits of insight.</p>

<p>My son is very serious about acting and singing. He hasn’t taken a dance class in his life.</p>

<p>We talked to both MTs and Acting majors when we visited last week. One senior boy talked at length to us and he started out as an MT and in his Sophomore year transferred into Acting. For him, it gave him more flexibility in his schedule to add in general education classes. He is supplementing his acting training with voice lessons that he pays for on his own. I am not sure how he fits in dance, but he did do a recent master class on “Chicago” and the visiting teacher was so impressed with his ability to “sell the dance” that he remarked to the class that acting is most important, singling this fellow out on the point. So he must be getting some dance, I suspect.</p>

<p>prodesse - just sent you a PM</p>

<p>During the course of doing online research last night, my son came across this thread on College Confidential! “Mom, is that you?”</p>

<p>I think he’s leaning toward taking the MT slot but I’m pointing out that there isn’t any real hurry. It’s the additional music training that he’s interested in.</p>

<p>Haha! Busted, mom! If it is of any interest to him, he can go to the Ithaca website and download the list of classes that you take for the various theatre majors. He can compare a bit what he would get. The list of classes is not completely helpful though, as we talked to students who said that in Freshman year MTs take: sight singing, script analysis, keyboarding (which you can test out of if you are trained already), voice/movement, academic writing, ballet and jazz. In addition to the half hour vocal coaching you get, you have 1 hour with your accompanist (you pay privately for this), bi-weekly voice coaching in small groups, and once a week voice pedagogy with a small group. I mention these classes as they aren’t listed entirely on the schools curriculum for the BFA in MT.</p>

<p>My son was accepted in Acting and will be very happily going to Ithaca. He is very eager to continue his singing, so I called to get details. Private voice lessons are available and are with faculty, which is great. However, you pay about $1500 per semester, so that may be a consideration.
I think my son probably would have gone the MT route had it been offered, but he turned down another MT opportunity at another school, and is really excited about the additional flexibility that Acting majors have. He plans to take many creative writing/screenplay classes, a real strength at Ithaca. Many actors seem to have been able to advance their careers by writing their own material, so this seems like a complement to the acting program, that probably wouldn’t be possible with MT. Either way, I think you can’t go wrong!</p>

<p>A boy that we know is also going for acting. From what I understand, he is adding a music minor which will make the private voice lessons free. Don’t know all the details but this could be an option.</p>

<p>thanks, md311mt – great heads up --I’ll check it out!</p>