<p>I'm a Junior in High School. I've started the college search process, and I'm very interested in taking up a B.F.A in Acting, specifically in or near NYC. The thing is, I live in Jakarta, Indonesia, and I'm not a U.S Citizen. I go to an international school.</p>
<p>I was wondering if anyone could help me find schools where you are able to submit a video audition for the program. Right now, my top schools are:
SUNY Purchase
Syracuse (but its so far!)
NYU (but its expensive)</p>
<p>Another question I have is: What if I apply to a school as an undecided major and then audition as a transfer student? That way I could get all general education requirements (if there are any) out of the way, and I can do auditions in person. Also, it'd be useful for schools like NYU, where you can only apply to one college, but I wanna still go there if I don't get in the theatre program at Tisch.</p>
<p>BFA’s rarely have many gen ed requirements, while for a BA you often have to take about half your courses in gen ed.</p>
<p>What I did was bum around a few colleges for a two years, changing my major frequently and taking a lot of different courses. So when I figured out I wanted a BA in theatre, I was able to transfer all those courses which pretty much made up my gen ed requirements. Then I could spend the final two years of my undergrad just taking theatre courses. Is that the kind of thing you are thinking of?</p>
<p>If you KNOW you want to be a theatre major, you should go ahead and declare that as your major. It won’t prevent you from transferring later.</p>
<p>I think I need to have a clearer understanding of what it is you plan to do. Some programs are difficult to transfer into.</p>
<p>Be careful about the gen ed issue and bfa programs within liberal arts colleges.<br>
Ive seen many programs which require the BFAs to have same or similar gen eds for all undergrads.</p>
<p>I’ll second that many BFAs have significant gen eds. Not unbearable (and maybe valuable) but not non-existent.</p>
<p>I’ll second that transferring can be problematic. You can’t always anticipate all of the gen eds that you might need in advance. Many BFAs will start you as a freshman regardless, and many will require you to spend 4 years to complete the program. </p>
<p>There are a number of schools that will allow video auditions. There is a thread started on this forum which lists some of those specific aspects, although it’s not in the title. Look at the third page for the DVD info:</p>
<p>My daughter goes to Adelphi University on Long Island. Their Acting BFA (which does have academic gen eds) does accept video auditions, and I know people do get into the program that way.</p>
<p>tnjello - every school and department has different departments. Transferring into BFA programs can be tricky, but certainly not impossible. If money is an issue (as you suggest it is), then you shouldn’t embark on a career with the intention of transferring. That makes sense for people who start off at public colleges, for financial reasons, but most merit and talent awards are non-transferrable. You might find yourself transferring, for any number of reasons - many people do that, and are happier for it - but I think you should apply to colleges with the expectation that you will attend one of them for four years. NYU only allows you to apply to a single college within the university, so you don’t have the option of pursuing a BA if you are rejected by Tisch for the BFA program. DePaul has a similar policy, but other colleges will accept you into their general colleges even if you don’t get into the auditioned BFA. I don’t know how strong your academic credentials are, but you should probably consider Pace, and - if you have solid grades and test scores - Fordham-Lincoln Center. They are both as costly as NYU, but they will admit you academically, even if they reject you for the Acting/Performance major. Mason Gross School of the Arts, at Rutgers University (New Jersey) is one of the most prestigious and selective theater schools in the country, but you can also apply to Rutgers School of Arts & Sciences simultaneously. MGSA has additional audition and resume requirements, but you have to submit a university application, which can be used for up to three divisions of Rutgers. EmmyBet (a regular contributor on these pages) has a daughter at Adelphi, on Long Island. She can tell you more about their programs. There is a brand-new undergraduate theater program at The New School, in NYC, which is also worth considering. I don’t know what their policies are regarding cross-applications with Eugene Lang College (New School’s undergraduate liberal arts division).</p>
<p>The American theater scene doesn’t begin and end in NYC. Chicago, Philadelphia, Minneapolis (if you can tolerate the cold), Pittsburgh, Boston, and LA, all have thriving theater scenes with very strong colleges in the area. Some of those cities actually have more exciting, emerging, creative communities, because they are more affordable for “starving artists.” </p>
<p>Hi everyone, thanks for the replies! I was really only wondering about the gened for NYU, because that’s a school that I’d like to go to even if I don’t get into Tisch. I’m not so sure what I’m doing at this point!</p>
<p>Anyway, right now I have a list of schools:</p>
<p>NYU
Syracuse
SUNY Purchase
Fordham
Wagner
Rider
Boston Conservatory
University of Connecticut
Chapman University
CSU
University of the Arts
University of Michigan
Elon</p>
<p>My top choices are NYU, Syracuse and Purchase.
I really like Rutgers, but I’ll have to audition in persone! Flights out to the US are expensive, and I was just there, and I’m going back for college visits this summer, so I don’t want to strain my parent’s pockets too much.</p>
<p>Stagemum, I’ve looked into other parts of the US, and for the longest time, I actually wanted to go to LA, but after going to NYC a few years ago, I fell in love with it, not to mention that most of my friends are there/going there. That does not mean I’m discounting other places, but I think for now at least, New York is on the tippy top of my list.</p>
<p>I would add Montclair State and Hartt School/University of Hartford. I will also tell you that Elon is no where near NYC…and you generally need to apply and audition for this school early admission as their regular decision students tend to get waitlisted or are accepted for the spring session.</p>
<p>I can’t 100% promise this, but I’m pretty sure when my daughter applied to NYU last year there was a place to check off a second choice school if she didn’t get into Tisch. If you’d be happy at NYU in a different major, that could be a way to go. But don’t count on transferring to Tisch drama. It would not be an easy thing to do.</p>
<p>Tnjello, it’s hard to recommend schools when we don’t know exactly what kind of school you are looking for and what your grades are etc. I think we would need to hear more details about what you want. Academics, large, small, etc.</p>
<p>I may be the only one, but I couldn’t imagine traveling across the world to go to a school like Purchase. Yes, it has an excellent reputation for its drama program, but it is a small college, mostly arts based, in the suburbs with nothing around it. It is not a University. Manhattan is not that close. It’s also not really a global community like some of the other schools on your list. It is mostly New Yorkers and many commuters. Plus academically it is not in the same league as some of the other schools.</p>
<p>Some of the other schools on your list have great drama programs but would give you a lot of other things as well. Such as NYU, Syracuse, Fordham, Rutgers and Michigan. I don’t know anything about the other schools you mentioned. If you like a large city school like NYU, I would also add Boston University and DePaul ( in Chicago) to your list. And if you have your heart set on NYC only then I would concentrate on NYU, Fordham or Pace. Rutgers is far and in the middle of Jersey.</p>