<p>My D will apply this fall and had been focused exclusively on MT programs. However, after a great experience at a summer acting only theatre program, she is now considering straight acting programs also. Are there schools that make sense (or allow) a student to apply to both MT and Acting BFA programs? It sounds a bit daunting to prepare and audition for two types of programs. Any other thoughts appreciated. (If this is covered in another thread, please direct me--I couldn't find anything in a search of both the Drama/Theatre forum and this one.) Thanks!</p>
<p>Many MT schools that have programs in both MT and Acting will consider the student for both programs during the one audition. I know that was the case at some of my D’s auditions, including CMU and OCU. Best to check with each school in which she’s interested to see how they handle it.</p>
<p>Point Park considers you for both. I auditioned for MT and got placed into Acting. Marymount Manhattan does this as well. I have heard (and I may be wrong on these) that UArts and Ithaca also consider you for both programs.</p>
<p>UArts does not generally consider MT applicants for the acting program. On rare occasions, a student may be asked if they would consider the acting program as an alternative to MT and if the student indicates in the affirmative, the student then meets with the head of the acting program. This is an exception to the general rule that you are considered for the program to which you have applied and you can select only one program to which to apply.</p>
<p>Thanks for clarifying that. I had a friend who auditioned for MT and ended up being placed into Acting, but I never found out from her how that actually happened.</p>
<p>Webster will also consider you for both.</p>
<p>When my son was auditioning, I believe that both Syracuse and Ithaca would consider you for both MT and Acting at an MT audition, possibly from a survey the student completed.</p>
<p>At that time, both OCU and Elon seemed to do the same, but I really believe that has changed at both schools - that you have to audition separately for BFA Acting or BFA Elon (BM at OCU) MT. Please double check me with their performing arts admissions advisors.</p>
<p>Does she only want to apply to schools that offer both acting and MT? There are few schools that are strong in both areas. Do you not want her to apply to some schools solely for acting?
I applied to a few separate schools just for acting. If she really does want to apply to some for acting the preparation will be hard but fun and rewarding.
I think attending an acting program as a ¨musical theatre person¨ is a very smart choice! Most good acting programs will have group voice lessons, on top of voice and diction classes, and a large variety of dance classes included in the curriculum.
Some acting schools require songs, which she´ll already have. She´ll just have to prepare some additional monologues.</p>
<p>BRdway: We are early in thinking this through, but she is considering adding a few acting schools (Purchase, BU, Fordham?) to the list of her current MT schools. Some of her top choices require that you choose one or the other, which may be a difficult choice–plus I’m not sure how her resume will be considered since most of her roles have been MT rather than straight drama. </p>
<p>UArts is interesting because you can do a MT minor if you are in the Acting program. Do you mind sharing what acting programs you applied to?</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for their responses so far.</p>
<p>I think when it comes to those programs that you have to choose bewtween one or the other, you have to consider which program is better.</p>
<p>The acting schools I applied to were: Fordham (accepted), Royal Scottish (accepted), Juilliard</p>
<p>I also applied to a few other schools that could put you in either mt or acting.</p>
<p>PM me if you have any specific questions!</p>
<p>CMU will also consider you for both Acting and MT.</p>
<p>My son auditioned for some schools that only offered acting BFA, some that only offered MT BFA and some that had a BFA in both acting and MT. There were 3 schools that he was able to tell the auditors that he would like to be considered for both programs at his MT audition. He did that for Otterbein, UArts and Webster. Roosevelt University (CCPA) in Chicago was very specific that you had to choose between acting and MT for auditioning. He auditioned for MT at UArts at Unifieds in Chicago and asked that his audition also be considered for the acting BFA. He was called later to confirm that he wanted to be considered for the acting BFA and was offered admission in that program from his MT audition. At the end of his freshman year, he did audition for the MT minor and was accepted.</p>
<p>Re the resume question. If your daughter wants to audition for straight acting programs, don’t worry about a resume with mostly MT. For a lot of kids, there are far more opportunities to do MT than to do straight plays. </p>
<p>When it comes to acceptance into acting programs, the audition is the most important thing by far. Get the best advice you can on choosing monologues. Spend several months in advance of the auditions polishing the monologues to a high sheen.</p>
<p>You can add Pace to the list of schools that allow students to audition for both. You do need to schedule each audition a head of time, at least that’s how they did it this year, because the musical theatre auditors don’t automatically consider someone for acting. They’re different departments with different professors. In fact many of their musical theatre auditionees ( is that a word? ) didn’t get to do their monologues at all. I guess the thinking was the song should be acted and they could tell from that. Some people were ok with it and some weren’t. Just a head’s up.</p>
<p>In general, auditioning for both is a great idea if your D is loving acting as much as musical theatre. Anyhow, the two are symbiotic right? 
and it’s really not that much harder, it might require a few more monologues, but she should have a few extra monologues on the ready anyway. </p>
<p>If she’s thinking of adding schools with only Acting programs, another great school to consider is Rutgers. I know one great actress/ singer graduate that’s having success out here in LA. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point also lets you audition for both acting and MT BfA’s. Though I don’t know if you can use one audition to be considered for both. When my son auditioned for the MT program, he asked if his audition could also be considered for the Acting program as well. He explained that he couldn’t make any of the specific acting audition dates because of performance conflicts. He just figured “while I’m here, it doesn’t hurt to at least ask, the worst that can happen is they say no”. Well, the staff could not have been nicer. He was told that the head of the acting department only lived a few blocks away and they would call and see if he was willing to come over and audition my son. He happily came over and spent time with my son auditioning,working monologues, and interview.</p>
<p>All these posts have been so helpful to us and I’m sure others. thanks much!</p>
<p>When you are thinking about whether to apply to “acting only” BFA programs, be sure to research the programs very carefully. Talk to people, visit, etc, etc. You mentioned Boston University, Purchase and Fordham. There are vast differences among those three schools.</p>
<p>Somebody else suggested Rutgers/Mason Gross. It has a fantastic acting program. The only “problem” with Rutgers and Purchase is that they are top programs in schools with relatively low tuitions, so “everybody” applies, setting the bar for acceptance kind of insanely high.</p>
<p>My son, who is thrilled to death to be starting as a freshman in BU’s School of Theatre this fall, applied to Purchase and Rutgers and was declined by both. (But then again, he knows a local theatre kid – someone with awesome MT chops – who was accepted by Rutgers but not by BU.)</p>
<p>In retrospect, it would have made more sense if he had applied to either Purchase or Rutgers, but not both. We were simply not savvy enough at the time to figure that out. It probably would have been better to have eliminated one of those two and substituted…hmmm…maybe Ithaca…</p>