<p>When you say 3.5 are you saying out of 4.0 scale? If so do you realize that is an excellent GPA? </p>
<p>Give Point Park U serious consideration since they have a BA track which can mimic a BFA track. Allowing the student to take extra theatre electives or a LA track double major. The Acting students can take private voice as part of their curriculum and probably non major dance classes. There are plenty of opportunities to direct and write and work on tech with a great number of productions going on all year long. I spoke to a student who took a playwright course several times to get more experience in writing and is going to follow that with an independent study to finish her screenplay and direct it this year. They are very generous with merit aid and with your kids stats you will surely be pleasantly surprised. Where it is located in the middle of the city there are numerous opportunities for internships.</p>
<p>Yes it is around 3.4-3.5 unweighted. However, her school weights, and tons of kids have over a 4.0. (Her weighted is around a 3.75, I guess). So, it sounds like a great GPA, but many many kids on CC have much higher stats.</p>
<p>Again, I think what will help her is that she is has steady, focused ECs, which support her interests and abilities, and path. But although that seems logical to me, college admissions folks may not view at as such, and would rather have the high GPA and high ACT kids. That seems to be way more the norm. My hope is that some schools to which she applies look at the big picture.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for all the info on Coastal Carolina, austinmtmom, and on Texas State, austinmt. Both are appealing to us for different reasons- but the distance does worry me.</p>
<p>Point Park is one for which I am trying to gather more info right now. I love Pittsburgh and it is about 6 hours from our house.</p>
<p>I appreciate all of this helpful advice and feedback very much.</p>
<p>Chaptertwo…the stats of theatre kids are usually far different from the “regular” CC kids. I would stress that she should keep up her grades and get the ACT/SAT scores up as much as she can, but the schools look at these kids in a different light. </p>
<p>I was going to recommend Montclair, truly a wonderful gem of a school, as well as Point Park. PPU has additional bonus in that they offer early admissions if you audition in December.</p>
<p>I’m going to jump back in and HIGHLY suggest you give further consideration to both Coastal and Point Park. Austinmtmom did a great job explaining the wonderfulness that is Coastal! We feel the same about PPU, too. My daughter is ended up picking Otterbein, but the other two schools were very, very high on our list. You can’t go wrong with either one.</p>
<p>We recently visited PPU and felt that the facilities were great. All the buildings were very close to one another and many were interconnected by indoor skywalks including all the administrative offices, a cafe and a dining commons and the library, all without walking outside. Some of the classrooms are in refurbished old buildings with magnificent architectural detail in side and out. The hallways and lounge areas around offices and classrooms were wide open and spacious, clean, pretty with a lot of large window pains making it feel larger and open. Do not be concerned that the playhouse is not on the campus. There wasn’t a minute that we did not see a PPU van either at the playhouse or ready to leave the campus area. That van takes the kids into the heart of the UPitt and CMU area also allowing the kids to help out on student films at CMU. This is a conservatory with less gen eds than other programs. The students said that the administration is receptive to revising the courses to respond to student suggestions. A crucial difference about this program is that the acting majors are allowed considerable flexibility in selecting classes outside of the basic conservatory training.</p>
<p>Again, as far as the great majority of Acting programs that she will apply to her GPA is considered on the high end, so we all hope she keeps up her GPA and shows a strong finish but please know that all of us who are posting here know from very personal experience that her GPA will be an asset for all but a few very select prestigious programs. So much so that she should be able to get some hefty merit scholarships. </p>
<p>As photomom mentions, Montclair is another hidden gem which probably won’t award much FA but has a lower Cost than other schools and is a lovely campus with an up and coming program.</p>
<p>If your daughter is interested in acting, many of the colleges she will be applying to will be looking closely at her audition. This is something that her purely “academic” colleagues simply don’t have to worry about. Please make sure she is giving the process of preparing for auditions the attention it needs.</p>
<p>For many technical type theatre majors, schools are going to be asking for a portfolio. That is, a collection of materials (photographs, sketches, technical drawings, cue plots, prompt books, etc) that shows her technical work. Think about beginning to collect this stuff together.</p>
<p>The process for you and your daughter is going to be completely different than the process for those “academic” slouches who have just spent all of high school sitting on their rear ends studying or attending class, without a single theatre production in all that time!!!</p>
<p>Funny, all this time I’ve admired my daughter’s work ethic and by no means thought she was a slouch! All through high school she has been involved in every theater production in some way (whether or not she was cast) and even if she did have a role, she came in on Saturdays for set building and worked on publicity for the shows. Also her involvement in ITS in a leadership capacity, participation in all of the conferences, and an occasional role in the community theater program. Plus private voice lessons, a well as being an accomplished musician (violinist) and has been sitting concertmaster of her HS orchestra, as well as in every choir, both class based and after school auditioned based and all of the solo and ensemble festivals that go along with choir and orchestra as well. Private violin lessons and then there is a couple of other organizations that have nothing to do with the performing arts that she has been involved with. All that while maintaining a 3.3 GPA and scoring a 26 on her ACT. So, no. Not a slouch.</p>
<p>theatremom2013: I work in the education field with people whose children have extremely high stats while maintaining all of the aforementioned ECs…but the term “slouch” was tongue-in-cheek, and had more to do with me than my daughter. I am super proud of her in many ways … though (and you’d have to know her), she needs to put more effort into grades, and prioritize better. probably a typical tean in that regard. where theatre is concerned, she will always research a role to death, pull an all-nighter, or prepare for an audition by whatever means necessary let’s hope she puts that much effort into ACT prep!</p>
<p>THEREALKEVP: I sure hope you’re right. I hope they have a slightly different set of criteria for theatre kids, because it totally is a juggle. Doing 3-4 shows a year with constant production expectations is HARD - mentally and physically. She is more an actress than a singer or dancer (way more), but she just did Les Mis in a principal role and it was very mentally taxing … not to mention training on some very tough songs which were out of her comfort zone. thank you for the encouragement on that bit!</p>
<p>Re: Montclair and Point Park: I need to research both further … the distance for Montclair and the sophomore audition for PPU or conservatory-ish atmosphere may not be for us … but I will continue reading, because people really like those programs! :-)</p>
<p>Ahh, personally I think it’s a slippery slope when we start comparing our kids to other people’s kids. Of course you know her best, but a 3.5 will all that she does is pretty darned good. And seriously, in terms of admission, you’d be surprised at the minimum ACT scores most BFA programs will accept. I think that even a lot of the academic based merit scholarships are looking at GPA, but I could be wrong. My daughter was offered several generous academic scholarships at schools where she was accepted academically prior to attending her audition…all with the stats I posted above.</p>
<p>That is encouraging! Thank you for posting - because they sound as if they have similar interests. Agreed on the comparisons. It’s really tough not to given her high school world…everything is a competition in that school. Love the school for many reasons, but tons of talented smart kids who all should be celebrated. My daughter’s ACT score is lower, and GPA is slightly higher…so stats are very similar. Thank you again - helpful!! :-)</p>
<p>You don’t have to just “hope”, chapter2. The programs we discuss here DO have different criteria for theatre students than the more “academic” programs do.</p>
<p>That’s why you need to start looking at these theatre criteria, and start thinking seriously about your daughter’s audition, or portfolio, or whatever else she is going to need.</p>
<p>KEVP, definitely have all the theatre audition requirements, constraints, unifieds (if necessary), monologues, plus/minus/delta compilations for BA vs. BFA, etc. From her having been in a performing arts school these past years, we definitely know how college for performance-minded students differs in the entry process.</p>
<p>What I meant was I hope they view her lower GPA and ACT as the juggling act that it actually was: year 'round auditions, shows, and productions mean a balance with academics … that is my hope that admissions counselors will consider, because it will likely pan out this way in college as well.</p>
<p>chaptertwo…what we are trying to say without throwing our kids under the bus is that she just does not have lower GPA/ACT scores than a majority of the theatre kids. She will be fine…</p>
<p>I think it depends on whether chaptertwo’s daughter plans to apply to BFA type programs or to BA programs with a theater major. She also mentioned that they will need a large aid package without the wide gaps that artistic program leave (especially lately.) </p>
<p>Her daughter’s stats are fine for BFA programs, and she could possible get a large talent grant. Most BFA schools don’t give great financial aid, however, so the trick will be to try to find match schools that will potentially fund her daughter well enough. I think we can reassure her that admission to good schools will not be a problem, but it will still be a challenge to find the right school (and geographical constraints are added to the mix.)</p>
<p>Merlehay, I think we will need several big buses. Congratulations party under the buses for all our slouches who got great merit aid and wonderful placements in Acting programs.</p>
<p>hahaha sorry to start throwing the kids under the bus. didn’t mean it that way! my kid is sharp, motivated and has her stuff together <where the="" arts="" are="" concerned!="">…this is my running caveat :-)</where></p>
<p>theatremom2013 has a good point about dangers of comparisons - so point taken.</p>
<p>glassharmonica: you are dead-on. in running the calculators on different sites, even if she received talent scholarships, most of the BFA programs do not offer the aid we’re going to require. luckily, I believe she is most suited to BA’s … I had just hoped that an audition might help in the admissions process. </p>
<p>the deeper I get into this, the more I am realizing that her best bet may be applying to several LACs with big endowments who meet most of need and also happen to have decent theatre programs. they will be difficult to get into, but I think she may stand a chance. her senior year is looking good in terms of what can support her GPA/ACT…lots to add to her resume in terms of theatre leadership, senior theatre project and this summers’ conservatory performance. </p>
<p>I am becoming a little more hopeful and I very much appreciate your comments and commiseration and good will :-)</p>
chaptertwo, the more I read about the ever-shifting world of college admissions and financial aid, the more I understand the wisdom of your approach. If only I’d had this information a few years ago (but even then the situation was different, and endowments were larger.) The problem with many schools is that even their top talent grant plus their top academic merit grant leaves a gap. And, often, private schools that give full-tuition, or near that, to students with 0 EFC just can’t or won’t cover the gap after the Stafford loan. If the parent can’t qualify for a Plus loan (which I wouldn’t recommend, anyway), the student is then given more loan, not grant. So, the student will graduate with closer to $80K debt instead of the usual Stafford $30-ishK. </p>
<p>Graduating completely debt-free is probably not an option or even a reasonable goal for almost anyone but the most wealthy-- but starting life with crippling debt is not wise (which of course you know!) So yes, LACs with big endowments. And universities that offer automatic upgrades for scores/GPAs. That’s where the slouch-factor becomes problematic. Of course, as we have all pointed out, your daughter is not a slouch at all. But with a 21 ACT and a 3.5 GPA she would not get the automatic tuition discounts that come to someone with, say, a 31 ACT. (Don’t quote me, but I think for a 31 or 32, Temple University, which has a good theater program, will give full tuition and a travel stipend.) </p>
<p>It’s a lot to think about, but your proactive strategizing will certainly help a lot.</p>
We feel the same about PPU, too. My daughter is ended up picking Otterbein, but the other two schools were very, very high on our list. You can’t go wrong with either one.</p>
Of course you know her best, but a 3.5 will all that she does is pretty darned good. And seriously, in terms of admission, you’d be surprised at the minimum ACT scores most BFA programs will accept. I think that even a lot of the academic based merit scholarships are looking at GPA, but I could be wrong. My daughter was offered several generous academic scholarships at schools where she was accepted academically prior to attending her audition…all with the stats I posted above.</p>