Hey everyone. I’m currently looking at Five Towns College in New York, and Circle in the Square theatre school (also in New York). Does anyone know anything about these programs? I’ve surfed the websites, and intend to do more of that. Just wondering if anyone knew anyone who went there, what their experiences where, etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks so much!
I was under the impression Circle in the Square was more acting and not MT. I have heard positive things about it.
They have a MT track in addition to their acting track.
I am puzzled by your questions. You have said in other posts that you are from Colorado, would like to pursue MT, and can not afford expensive programs. So why are you considering a place like Five Towns College? The cost of attendance is over $40,000/ year, and it does not even offer MT. Colorado has several instate options that offer MT and are less than half the cost. One of those options is the University of Northern Colorado which has an outstanding program. If that doesn’t appeal to you there is also Metropolitan State in Denver or the University of Colorado. Both of those offer MT. And as has been suggested before, you could try the WUE for tuition discounts in western states like Wyoming, Arizona, etc. I really don’t understand exactly what you are searching for in a college program.
I’m honestly just exploring my options at this point. I’ve made plans to move to either LA or NYC in the next year or two, and so I’m looking around there. Also, I honestly didn’t realize 5 Towns was so expensive. The website definitely did not say it was that much, so thank you for telling me that. I suppose I will now have to cross that off my list. And I am not opposed to those programs in Colorado, it’s just that the gap year program I will be attending will be in either NYC or LA (depending on which city I like better), and I sort of doubt I will want to move back to Colorado after being in the big city. Sorry to be so confusing! Thank you for enlightening me about Five Towns!
Also, the reason I was looking at Five Towns College was because of their BM in Voice with a concentration of MT.
@endlesswonder I do not know anything about Five Towns programs, but not sure if you realize it is on Long Island, about the middle of the island so about 50 minute ride on the LIRR train to the city. Long Island is beautiful but just wanted to point that out in case you thought it was in or near the city.
Here’s the tuition for Five Towns College as listed on their website. It appears to be per semester.
http://www.ftc.edu/financial-aid/tuition-and-fees/
I wouldn’t necessarily eliminate programs that are intriguing to you now based on finances. Just know that those programs are financial reaches and find out who, if anyone, receives a lot of financial aid there. Most websites will list scholarship possibilities based on grades and test scores. Ask around and look on individual forums to see who has the best chance of receiving a lot of aid at each program. (For example, one or two we looked at last year seemed to give more to males than females.) Find out what amount of need they claim to meet.
Last year, when my D and I were looking at programs, we were also concerned about costs. So, most schools on D’s list were known for good scholarships and financial aid for her demographic/type or were less expensive to begin with. She did have a couple on her final list that were truly financial reaches (high cost, little chance of a lot of financial aid most of the time historically), and she knew the odds were that it wouldn’t pan out for her at those schools, but she just wanted to try, anyway; she thought she’d love the programs, so it was worth the chance to her. There were some on her list which have high tuition, but which had a real possibility of good aid for D. It turns out that the one she’s going to (UArts) was a financial reach (over $55k/year), but we knew that it can be generous with academic and talent scholarships and grants and that she’d earn high scholarships academically there. They were, indeed, quite generous to D, and we’re paying a tiny fraction of that cost. D got into other similarly priced schools and received significant scholarships and grants from them, as well. Just be realistic, research, go in with your eyes open as much as possible, and have mostly schools on your list which might be attainable financially.