Advice for HS Juniors thinking about auditioning for Musical Theatre/Acting Colleges

College Majors Musical Theater Major
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<p>Unfortunately, most of these professional coaches (incl MTCA) are very expensive. It puts students from modest means at a disadvantage. If you can’t afford this there are other ways to prepare. Seek advice from not only your drama teachers at school, but seek out other theatre professionals in your area (local colleges, community theatre, etc). Many of them are happy to offer advice, listen to monologues, etc. Use CC to research schools and select a variety of likelies. It is possible to get into great schools without “coaching.”</p>

<p>For the record, the coaches that my kids use are not “college” coaches, per say. They are working MT professionals with lots of Broadway/national credits who also run a summer camp and coach on the side. We’ve been using them for audition prep for 8 years now and I trust them to tell us the truth - not just feed us false encouragement because we paid them big bucks. I’m not saying that other professional coaches do that, but 2 of my D’s good friends used a particular private coach for college auditions last year - and had no results to show for it. I don’t think either of them had the talent to do MT in college and the coach was not very honest with them. So, be very cautious.</p>

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<p>So, will I need a coach if I’m planning on auditioning for MFA or MM programs, and how do I get one?</p>

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<p>My son, currently a student in a BFA acting program, had a coaching experience very similar to that of nansan’s son. </p>

<p>The coaching was expensive, but we made some sacrifices in order to scrape the money together, and we felt that it was very much worth it.</p>

<p>One difference is that my son worked with his coach for only three months or so. One of the most valuable things the coach did for him was helping him find appropriate monologues, which in many ways is the most difficult part of the entire audition process.</p>

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<p>I just wanted add something to the coaching conversation. My daughter did coach with MTCA. I felt like we would have spent (wasted) a lot of money traveling to auditions without all the information we needed and proper audition material. I cannot stress how prepared my daughter was for auditions. She never felt like the best singer, actress, or dancer in the room, but she certainly felt like she could not have been more prepared. She enjoyed all her auditions because she felt like she was featuring herself at HER best. The relationships she made with her coaches will stay with her forever. I will never regret having spent that time and money. She got many wonderful acceptances (and def. some rejections), and is LOVING her BFA MT program! Having said that, along the way, I saw young man with so much charisma…a football player…def. not dressed for an audition, and reading over his monologue, not a proprer book for his repertoire…come out of a top school with a callback because he just had the “it” factor, you could tell in the waiting area, you just wanted to talk to this kid. Just my two cents.</p>

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<p>In addition to all the great suggestions above, I wanted to mention the importance of good high school grades to this whole process. Although a few college theatre programs, when considering students for admission will overlook lower grades for very talented students, most others won’t – eg., Michigan, NYU. But good grades aren’t only important for academic admission, they are essential for getting scholarship money. And unless your family is either wealthy or very, very poor or you have a trust fund to tap into, you’re going to need scholarship/grant funds to be able to afford these schools. And that money, for the most part, is going to come from academic awards, not talent awards. Sure, you’ll get some $$$ for talent, but the bulk of your award will be given for academic achievement. </p>

<p>Even if you’re an amazing performer and so extremely well-prepared for your auditions that you get admitted to every top theatre program in the country. It will do you absolutely no good if you can’t afford to attend those schools once you’re admitted. And don’t think you can rely on student loans to do it, that is NOT the solution. You’ll never be able to pursue your dreams of a career in theatre after graduation, no matter where you went to school or how well-trained you are, if you have to work to pay off enormous student loan debt.</p>

<p>Also, keep in mind, that even if you do get academic scholarships/grants and talent money, you still may not be able to afford to attend your dream school. There are so many tragic stories about such situations on these forums. Which makes it more critical that you don’t start off at an economic disadvantage even before you apply and audition. </p>

<p>So keep up those grades!</p>

46

<p>While I agree that a vocal coach may not be a bad investment, I don’t want readers to be under the impression that they have no chance at acceptance without one. My D did not go to a performing arts high school and she did not spend any summers at performing arts camps. We are fortunate to live in an area with a well recognized large regional theater and she was lucky to have been cast a number of times in shows in the area. She also sang at a lot of big events-MLB and MLS games, awards ceremonies etc.- which helped with her performance skills. However, her formal training was mostly limited to weekly lessons with a local voice teacher. We did pay for 2, 1-hour sessions with a coach to prepare her for a highly regarded competition her junior year, but went in to those sessions having already chosen all of her material, so he worked strictly on her presentation. She took dance where she could squeeze it in, but didn’t do a lot because it conflicted with shows. Most of her early dance she picked up on the high school dance team. She did not have any private acting lessons.</p>

<p>That being the case, I would say that she picked up most of her audition advice from squeezing information out of anyone she could find who had experience whether it be older actors in shows, directors, her voice teacher, etc. She constantly looked for local (usually free or very inexpensive) workshops she could attend and would bug them to death with questions. We have never spent money on expensive camps or extra training other than the weekly voice lesson. </p>

<p>With that type of background she was accepted into all of her top choices and felt very well prepared. So while I’m know it is a benefit to have private vocal and acting coaches, good results can be seen with other types of preparation. It is really a personal and financial decision, depending on background. I would say that if you really ask a lot of questions (I’m sure at times my D asked to the point of being irritating!) you can get a lot of free information that will help. Also throughly read each college website to make sure you really understand all of their requirements. Do your audition material in front of others to get honest reactions. Video yourself to look back and see where you could improve. If you can afford a private coach, go for it- but don’t stretch your finances if it is something you really can’t afford.</p>

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<p>Excellent point about not underestimating the importance of grades.</p>

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<p>also - in agreement that it’s not a requirement to have a coach to get in, for all the reasons listed above. (and I did allude to it in my previous post but it’s worth another emphatic nod of the head) - Run from anyone who doesn’t seem like they are going to be honest about shortcomings and weak areas - as well as what it is within a coach’s power to do. As I said, they can’t guarantee anything. All they can do is help a motivated kid to be well prepared for their auditions.* Now that in and of itself was, to us, very valuable, because unlike takeitallin’s D, we don’t live where there is any kind of well regarded ANYTHING and the local free or affordable opportunities to educate ourselves about how this is done, is pretty nonexistent. My D was as active as she could possibly be in what was offered here, but had she had only that to prepare herself, she would have been at a real disadvantage.

  • I say “all” - but that, is, a, HUGE, thing.
    We aren’t made of money either and because the coaching is expensive, what we did was decide to make our school list almost entirely schools we could drive to, and save on travel costs. We didn’t go to Unifieds because any schools at Unifieds that are close to us, we could drive to onsite auditions (usually preferred anyway) and any far away schools - well if they did like her, so what, the travel costs were prohibitive. Unifieds would have been a WONDERFUL experience and so much fun but we had to decide what our priorities were and where we would get the most return for our finite resources and for us, for our particular situation, we decided we’d settle for getting rejected from schools closer by instead of 2000 miles away. HAHAHAHAHA. There are a couple of big auditions here in the state that aren’t as far reaching as Unifieds but they offered plenty of opportunities as far as any school she wanted to see and even more, so we stuck with those. </p>

<p>But seriously - every family and situation is different. Looking back I know this was the right thing for us and we made the right choice for my daughter - it may not be the right choice for everyone though. We could afford the coaching with certain adjustments; I had just so much money to get us through this process and it was just enough as it turns out. But just as personally I wouldn’t want my D to choose a school where she had to take on a huge debt to attend, I wouldn’t put the family financial situation at stake to pay for coaching, either. We did sacrifice but not foolishly.</p>

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<p>A vocal coach is someone who picks the correct songs that are in your key or re-writes the music in your key. A teacher is someone who helps you with your vocal health and range. Other then for vocal health, I would avoid teachers until you are college age.</p>

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<p>Just to be clear about grades and scholarships. Most if not all BFA MT scholarships are TALENT based. Few schools have more stringent academic requirements (like NYU and UM) but most do not. I am also unaware of any schools that let you “stack awards” (adding academic and talent together). </p>

<p>Having good grades may help you get more “talent” money added later on but you have to have the talent first.</p>

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<p>@beenthereMTdad - I can’t speak for all schools, but D was offered a LOT of academic money by many of the BFA programs.</p>

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<p>Same for d regarding academic merit money – several schools have accepted her academically and offered merit dollars based on GPA, test scores, etc of half tuition or more…based on her academic profile. She would be able to add any talent dollars she would be fortunate enough to receive on top of the academic dollars. True, her grades and NMF status really don’t mean anything in the audition room itself…but do matter to the scholarship people…and to this family, who is trying very hard to afford this prospect of college! So…advice – it’s all important – train, dance, perform, keep your grades up (oh, and get a liitle sleep around the edges, too!)</p>

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<p>beenthereMTdad - Like MomCares’ D. my D was also offered a lot of academic money by many of the BFA programs. And there were programs where the scholarships were stackable. At one school, a private LAC, the combination was over $30,000 per year out of a total COA of about $40,000. That is very significant money! And while last year Coastal Carolina was not able to stack awards so she accepted the higher academic award, beginning with this incoming class they will be able to do so which is great for future MT majors.</p>

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<p>I have to agree with Momcares…we were all surprised (pleasantly) by how much academic scholarship money has been offered at the schools that have admitted D academically already. Two of the schools that D has been admitted to both academically and artistically have told us that “stacking” awards is definitely possible. Most have said that talent money won’t be awarded until after April 1. What i have seen though is that for the most part, the talent awards are much smaller than the academic monies are.</p>

<p>That said, except for the few schools for MT/Acting that have much more rigorous academic standards, there seems to be some money available for the talented student who is not academically minded too. We have known plenty of kids over the years in that category and they have done fine.</p>

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<p>I gotta chime in here with restating my emphasis on grades. Every school is different but there are a goodly number of them that give <em>some</em> money for talent, but the really big fat oh happy day offers are for academic merit.</p>

<p>It happens that is exactly the case with my D’s number one pleasepleaseohplease school right now - she’s in, and they gave her some money for academics, BUT, had she been up one or two notches on the academic scale, she’d be in right now, signed sealed and delivered, because we’d know she could afford it. We are having to wait to see how much talent money. There’s still a chance because this school isn’t capped as far as how much talent money they can give. So…<em>fingers crossed</em> it’s still a big of a Hail Mary though. Alas. My D says she did the best she could with her grades - and they are good - but this is a very selective school, academically.</p>

<p>The vast majority of the schools on our list, have departments in which their talent money is capped and a free ride to an academically weak student doesn’t seem like a realistic scenario. Of course I don’t know this for a fact but unless the schools are lying through their teeth about it, that seems to be the case.</p>

<p>They can only do what they can do, but, I wouldn’t recommend they blow off academics thinking it won’t matter because they are talented. It can matter a great deal.</p>

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<p>I agree with you too Snapdrangonfly…this field requires talent to succeed (and to get into a program), that’s for sure, but for a HUGE cost savings on the cost of college, it’s pretty simple: </p>

<p>GET REALLY GOOD GRADES</p>

<p>The rigorous programs will then be able to offer you some academic money and the less rigorous ones will offer more. Without a strong GPA/rigorous courses, there are definitely options for MT/Acting programs, but i don’t think the talent money could ever live up to the academic monies available at any school…though that is really just a guess on my part, as some schools may be in a position to offer equal amounts of talent and academic money.</p>

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<p>I was surprised that my D received academic scholarships from every school to which she was academically admitted prior to auditions. For talent scholarships, we have only heard from one school so far.</p>

<p>One interesting thing about academic scholarships – at least one of the schools and maybe others too, she could keep taking the ACT up until the day school starts in September and her academic scholarship could go up if she gets a higher ACT score.</p>

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<p>In addition to scholarship benefits, yet another reason to get the best grades you possibly can is that there are many doors that will not open to you at all otherwise. Amazing programs at Northwestern, Yale and Brown are off the table without very strong academics, and even schools like NYU and UMich may be out of academic reach.</p>

<p>Also, having lots of solid AP scores can eliminate many distribution requirements, either allowing early graduation, priority registration for higher-level course work, or more time to focus on MT training.</p>

<p>After getting several full-ride offers, D chose the one school that offers no merit or talent money… but HS academics will still pay huge dividends even at this school.</p>

<p>About the idea that BFA programs always offer a higher “quality” of training… not all BA or BFA programs are created equal. A BA at one school may have a curriculum almost identical to a BFA at another, so do your homework on a specific program rather than operating on generalizations. Also, I’ve heard that some graduate schools prefer not to admit students with a BFA.</p>

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<p>To add info on merit scholarships added to talent scholarships - our BFA/MT son graduated from Otterbein last year, having considerable merit and talent scholarships for all four years. It is quite possible for the high academic achieving student to compile a fair amount of scholarship funds. Another school where he was accepted for MT in '06 also offered substantial academic and talent awards. Each school disburses differently as we can see. If a student truly does their research for each school, it can be quite surprising.</p>

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<p>My daughter’s top pick is a BA program and it absolutely has all the wonderful things you would expect from a top notch BFA program. Although they offer an education degree, the BA program is very much a pre professional, performance based degree. I’d rank it above quite a few BFA’s we have looked at.</p>

<p>It totally depends on the school; there is such a huge variation between BFA and BA from one school to the next. I’d look more at the focus -preprofessional performance, or is it more geared towards teaching?</p>

<p>One thing I noticed at the schools we looked at (and there were hundreds we didn’t, so perhaps this doesn’t hold true everywhere) is that if the school ONLY offers a BA, it seems as if that BA makes available a high quality preprofessional performance emphasis. It seems many of the better schools offer a number of “emphasis” or “concentrations” in either MT or Acting or Tech, under that BA, and sometimes specialize even further - directing, dramaturg, etc.</p>

<p>(now I do mean to distinguish here when talking about schools that only offer a BA, between schools that have a reputation for a great theater and what I call “token” theater departments, who often only offer a BA, but they are clearly not the same caliber - only a general BA offered and a noticable lack of mentoring and training opportunities, stuff like that…one school we investigated but did not add to our list, has had their theater website under construction for OVER A YEAR. Yeah…no. lol.)</p>

<p>If the school offers only BFA’s, it seems they usually offer a separate emphasis for the various areas, including education.</p>

<p>Where the schools offer a BA and a BFA both, it seems as if the BA is often an educational tract and the BFA is the performance tract. When the BFA is the auditioned program and the BA is not, then you sometimes get a whole different dynamic where the schools swear up and down that the BA is just as great!! as the BFA!! of course it is, if you can’t get into the BFA then you’ll do just fine with the BA (except for the courses they won’t let you take, the teachers who only work with the BFAs, and the showcases and other opportunities you can’t take, etc) but then out of the other side of their mouth you hear about how exclusive and fabulous the BFA is. I’m sure many of the schools are in fact being honest about it but I personally would advise my own daughter to go for a BA at a school where that was all that was offered (either auditioned or not) than be in the non auditioned BA program at a school with an auditioned BFA, UNLESS of course she really wanted to double major or something which made the BA a necessity.</p>

<p>Some schools we looked at will let you double major with a BA and some would not! Normally one thinks of a BFA as something you cannot have a double major or minor but a BA as something you can - but not necessarily. St Edwards for example only offers a BA, but if you get a specialized emphasis they discourage trying to double major. If you get a general theater BA then you can. So in some cases, it’s more a matter of what emphasis (general, education, or performance) rather than the BA or BFA, that determines how much performance training you get.</p>

<p>This is very much a generalization and will certainly not hold true at all schools, but it is what held true at most of the schools we looked at.</p>