<p>With regard to Harvard (undergrad), what is strong is their extensive extracurricular theater opportunities, not so much as a field of study. Strong actors do attend, graduate, and succeed from there. To my knowledge, up until now, Harvard has not had a theater concentration (their term for “major”) and only as a secondary concentration (basically a “minor”), but they are working toward having a “Theater, Dance, Performance” major in the near future. </p>
<p>So, in the past, Harvard was known for excellent extracurricular theater offerings and a top notch graduate program in acting through American Repertory Theater, but not for an undergraduate theater major.</p>
<p>Thank you for all the positive feedback about Northwestern, JMU, Fordham and others. Can’t wait to visit and explore. KatMT I would love to pick your brain about James Madison…</p>
<p>After talking to everyone and doing more online research, it is looking like this is an updated set of schools (obviously still a bit too long of a list). No order of choices yet. I would love the possibility of Early Action or Early Decision if she is able to make a first choice. One of our sons didn’t ( now happily a senior at Tufts) and waiting till March was a long haul. Our other son was so lucky to get his first choice (now a junior at Yale) , and had a very relaxing senior year! The end result will be the same but it sure made for a different November-March!</p>
<p>Highly selective academic and theatre BA programs</p>
<p>Northwestern
Yale
Brown</p>
<p>followed by
Kenyon
Middlebury
Wesleyan</p>
<p>Safety probably Skidmore which she liked</p>
<p>We still need to investigate UVA and William and Mary </p>
<p>Audition BAs we will look into ( haven’t visited any, but sound very interesting, thanks for the ideas!)</p>
<p>Fordham
American
James Madison
Emerson</p>
<p>Auditon BFAs</p>
<p>Minnesota-Guthrie
NYU
BU</p>
<p>She will prepare her monologues, but isn’t as stressed as I would be about choosing/memorizing, as she has just finished two roles with great monologues ( Jessie in 'night Mother, and Carol in Black Comedy, as well as one in the Tempest, and feels that much of the heavy lifting of monologue preparation is behind her. She is working on essays and done with testing. I agree it will be hard to press full steam ahead on applying to a large range of schools in both the BFA and BA degrees, but I guess since she is leaning towards BA this seems reasonable.</p>
<p>In BFA- Both BU and NYU have ED options (though with NYU, you don’t find out studio placement until April, and that can be a deal breaker for some kids) NYU also has EDII, which might be able to be used after an ED option at somewhere like Brown/Yale/Northwestern (in case it didn’t work out)</p>
<p>Also, with monologues- Guthrie requires a “stretch” piece- a role you feel passionate about, but could not be cast (age, gender, race etc) It’s kind of fun</p>
The exception to that at NYU is if you audition ED and write on your application that you are only interested in being considered for the MT studio, and then you get in ED, you know early that you were in fact placed in the MT studio.</p>
<p>I am STUNNED to find myself in this very position as of right now. And my D does not have these kinds of stats. I have a list in mind but am 100% in shock at the time.</p>
<p>@sscncadams- In theater/drama forum you posted that your D was leaning towards “straight” theater as opposed to MT. I don’t believe there is a way to indicate a single acting studio at NYU, only MT</p>
<p>@toowonderful, right you can’t indicate that you would only take placement in a particular acting studio. (Unless it has changed but I don’t think so). However the people that tend to be on pins and needles about studio placement usually are the MTs who don’t know if they got the MT studio or an acting studio. The actors all know they will be in an acting studio and though may prefer one vs. the other, tend to be happy enough just to know they are in and will be studying acting otherwise they wouldn’t have rolled the dice with applying ED. </p>
<p>Yes, IF she was accepted to NYU ( and IF she decided to go the BFA route) she could/would do MT If placed in that studio. But feels her true calling is acting. </p>
<p>Evilqueen, good luck! As I am seeing there are lots of options in the BA/theatre world. Our list is above, but also, a little less academically competitive but still looking very appealing are</p>
<p>Fordham ( auditioned)
Emerson ( auditioned)
American ( auditioned)
Otterbein
Wittenberg
Skidmore
Muhlenberg
Indiana University
University Minnesota
University Texas
Texas Christian University
Wake Forest</p>
<p>I’m sure I’m missing a ton. I am a lot less stressed a week after her decision change than initially. Just read everything on these forums, and spend a day on line looking at the websites. You’ll get a handle on it.</p>
<p>I hate to use the term, but here in L.A., a lot is made of the “Wesleyan mafia” and the “Sarah Lawrence mafia” as many of their grads have done very well in the film, television, theatre and studio world. Lin-Manuel Miranda conceived “In The Heights” at Wesleyan; JJ Abrams is an SL alum. You can google more, but both highly regarded small universities. </p>
<p>That is amazing, MTTwinsinCA. Wesleyan was the very first school we visited and she absolutely loved it. It’s great to see that the alums are so successful.</p>
<p>We have a good friend who selected American with similar stats and the same desire to balance her academic bent with her MT training. Good luck! This process is mind-boggling!</p>
<p>Since you live in the midwest, another school you might want to consider is Northern Kentucky University. My D just started her freshman year there as a BA-Theatre after not being accepted to any BFA programs. But she has the option of auditioning again after freshman year. It isn’t as “big” a name as some the others on your list, but as a parent I was very impressed with what they are doing both from a theatre perspective and for the overall university. </p>
<p>Reasons to consider NKU:
Good Theatre program with lots of class flexibility and options
First year classes are the same for BA and BFA (although I think the BFAs now have a “special topics” class only for them). The only thing we were concerned about was voice lessons as they don’t let BAs register for that during summer orientation. But signup was during the first week and my D now has a teacher; only had one lesson so far but she was happy with it. Students can audition for BFA after freshman year, but they fully support the BA degrees as well. Good full range of classes to choose from and all are open to BAs (except for that special topics class). Aside from performance degrees (acting and MT), they have the tech degrees, stage management, playwriting, etc. They are also willing to tailor a degree to suit your interests. Good selection of shows throughout the year (mainstage and student) plus a first-year show as well (for first-year students not in a mainstage show. This year it is Aristophanes’ “The Birds”).</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Honors program
They do their honors program as a minor. BAs are required to have a minor, but we have seen quite a few theatre BFAs also taking that minor. They do a lot of neat honors courses and one of their professors was an NKU theatre BFA (and got an MFA elsewhere). My D has academic numbers almost exactly the same as your kid and she is excited about the honors program (especially the Fandom Honors 101 class). </p></li>
<li><p>Outstanding financial aid
NKU is trying to upgrade its student base - they want the talented students and are willing to pay for them. Does 'full ride" mean anything to you? I’m pretty sure that with your academic numbers you would qualify for their top scholarship, which is a VERY good one. We are out of state and D still qualified for this award (many other places only pay part of OOS tuition even for top students). </p></li>
<li><p>Not too far south
I know you said you wanted seasons and didn’t want to go to the south. NKU is just across the river from Cincinnati (~5 miles). It still gets the seasons - I know there was snow there in December when we were there! </p></li>
</ol>
<p>NKU is a smaller public school, about 16000 students (mostly undergrad). It is a newer school meaning the buildings are newer - doesn’t have the “old school” charm of some places, but has lots of new technology. Be glad to answer any other questions you might have. </p>
</p>