<p>I agree that trying is important. My D auditioned for Juilliard. She said it was a good experience. She said if you are ready to audition for Juilliard, you are ready to audition everywhere else. So, I would never discourage anyone from auditioning for Juilliard. But my understanding is they only accepted two this year straight out of high school, and they were both young men. This information came from one of the high school students who made final call backs and was waitlisted. It seems Juilliard is accepting older and older classes. </p>
<p>But that’s not to say there are many programs that care more about talent than academics. Cal Arts is one, and it is very well regarded. You don’t even have to send them an SAT score. CMU is another and it is 80% talent, 20% SAT/Grades, but again, highly competitive. Even UCLA is 80% audition! You still have to meet the UC requirements, but 80% is audition. Still, this year for UCLA 1100 students auditioned for the 30 Acting and 30 MT spots, and the 30 Junior Transfer spots (90 total, plus 10 to allow for those who say “no.”) So, when a student maps out a plan, he or she needs some nonaudition schools that he or she can be admitted to academically, some audition schools that are not quite as competitive and maybe not as academically challenging, and some reach schools. A good mix. </p>
<p>Just make sure you have lots of options, a broad mix of schools if you will…</p>
<p>I know that if you want to live in Los Angeles, Los Angeles City College has a two year conservatory program. No grades needed as it is a community college and it is CHEAP. But, it you are looking for friends/college campus/sororities etc…that ain’t it. With grades you can transfer. CalArts doesn’t care about grades. LMU has gotten a lot tougher grade wise. I will say that (I don’t know what you mean by mediocre grades) that at many schools it is 80% audition, 20% grades.</p>
<p>Bumping this up in case any new members have additional recommendations for schools with theater programs for talented students with average grades and test scores. The previous responses focused primarily on very competitive schools, which is appreciated, but don’t feel obligated to limit your comments to the most highly regarded programs.</p>
<p>I know an amazing actress who graduated from DeSales recently. And an amazing director just out of U Alabama at Birmingham, who thinks the world of the program there. (and who has been doing pretty brilliantly in NYC since he graduated)…</p>
<p>Frostburg State U in MD is easy to get into (2.0 GPA and < 1000 SAT)and has a BA theater program non-audition. I went there with my daughter in Oct and we toured the dept. They have really nice facilities and it seems to be a good program. Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ is another one to look at. They are an audition BA program, my d’s drama teacher really likes their program. Their theater is really old, the campus is nice, and Rowan is about a half hour from Philadelphia. However, they emphasized that they are a BA program and that they are preparing you for a MFA and not as a professional actor. One of the students we talked to had an internship with a theater in Philly. A friend of my D’s went there, he’s getting acting work in Philly. Rowan also said that grades and test scores were not as important for being admitted into the theater department. </p>
<p>Frostburg is rolling admission until March I think and I think that Rowan’s deadline is also 1 Mar. I know they’re not on the west coast, but they might be worth looking at</p>