BA programs and resumes

<p>Chapter2… I would not worry and instead just be proud of your daughters commitment and accomplishments in theatre. Young people who work so hard in one area are demonstrating they are dependable and focused. There are so many kids out there who go home to play video games or surf online and don’t know what they want to do. If a kid does one thing and does it great, that is not a problem at all.
My son was a runner; that’s all he did. But he did it year round for 4 years, with maybe 4 weeks off all year. He went to state championships. He couldn’t do other activities either. He was accepted at all the schools he applied to. My D acts, sings and dances and her resume only consists of these activities too. Again, I don’t see a problem with students who are seriously committed in one area.
I’m sure your daughter has learned so much from her work in theatre and the experiences will make strong college essays. Good luck!</p>

<p>5boys - I just have to say that your son is going to have a blast at the Fringe Festival this summer! It was one of my daughter’s favorite experiences ever. She was 15 or 16 when she went and found the whole community so friendly and helpful, and as a bonus, her show was full for most performances. So lucky!</p>

<p>My only caution here is although its nice to hear opinions of friends who have visited schools and opinions of people on this site, but if there is one and only one piece of advise that I will ever give that can be heard and listened to it is that your D has to visit the school and mingle with the current students see if SHE feels she fits in and what is important to her. Although many people had told us negative things about Pace, something happened to her when she attended the audition. She met “her people” she clicked with the faculty and felt a connection to the students that she did not feel anywhere else including high school. Just saying because From our visit to the Acting program at PPU , we saw the typical MT and dance students all over the place but my daughter who is an acting student with more of an MT flair felt that the acting students who she met in actual acting classes were more non traditional more inline with the way you describe your D. The students were so excited to talk about their works with the classics and the Restoration period which I didn’t even know what it was. </p>

<p>Another crucial issue for admission for marginal GPA students is to Ace the first two semesters of senior year. For one D, several schools held back decisions until seeing her progress, for my other D, her academic success in first two semesters pulled her into the honors program although she did not meet the reqs of being in the top5% of her class. Your D already has an amazing theatre resume along with a summer program, I would think she should cut down her involvement to focus on academics and testing and traveling around to visit schools and audition which does not coincide with being heavily involved in theatre. Wish you luck my friend, this is a journey, a process and keeping an open mind and thinking outside the box and listening to your D as she learns about herself is so crucial as you support her through the most tense and stressful experience she will have yet, but so rewarding.</p>

<p>The sorts of GPAs we are talking about (3.3-3.5) are not “marginal”. Yes, there are people like my Dad who had a high school GPA of 4.0 and was offered full scholarships to Harvard and MIT, but the rest of us get to have college educations as well.</p>

<p>These are very good GPAs, and I am uncomfortable with folks telling their kids that there is something wrong with these GPAS. Especially when we are talking about kids with artistic rather than academic aspirations.</p>

<p>Personally, I am a high school dropout, so I don’t even HAVE a GPA. But I was still able to go on and get both a BA with honors and a JD with distinction.</p>

<p>Stop obsessing about “perfect” GPAs!!!</p>

<p>KEVP</p>

<p>They may be good GPAs, but they are no guarantee of acceptance. I don’t think most people realize how difficult it’s become to get into any of the competitive schools anymore.</p>

<p>My S had an UW GPA of 3.6-ish, weighted 4.3, and got rejected at Northwestern and Vassar, waitlisted at Davidson and Washington St. Louis. (Both waitlist more than they accept, so it’s functionally another rejection.) His only real academic acceptance was at Pitt (ultimately ruled too depressing because of its three block proximity to CMU). Thank god for the audition schools or he’d have nothing.</p>

<p>Admissions to colleges are competitive for a lot of reasons and your GPA is just part of the equation. My non-theatre D has a 3.98 UW (something like a 4.4W), ACT of 34, great EC’s, work and volunteering history, in short, the whole package. She was initially deferred in EA to UChicago, rejected from Columbia, currently waitlisted at Vandy. She will be attending MiamiU on an almost full ride. I’m not complaining. The competition is fierce at the top academically. We also figured out too late that it matters what your intended major is… she should have went with English instead of science! Oh well. Anyway, my point is that you can NOT count on getting into almost any school unless you fall above the middle 50% line for that school and THEN you compete for scholarships. As far as the theatre major goes, even with great stats you are last in line for academic scholarships. That’s the way it rolls.</p>

<p>chaptertwo- Does your D’s GPA include her arts classes? If so, you may want to also calculate without them. We were told that many schools throw out arts grades when calculating GPAs. Too bad since those were a lot of my daughter’s As!</p>

<p>Also, you might want to take a look at Temple. It is not a LAC but it does have a very strong BA in theater and offers merit aid on top of it’s already relatively low tuition. And Philly is a great theater city. There are auditions to progress to higher level courses but not to get into the BA acting program itself. [ACADEMICS</a> : THEATER : TEMPLE UNIVERSITY](<a href=“http://www.temple.edu/theater/academics/baprogram.html]ACADEMICS”>http://www.temple.edu/theater/academics/baprogram.html)</p>

<p>Also, take a look at Beloit. One of the kids my D did theater with in high school is there and very happy.</p>

<p>The points about the GPA are all well-taken. I am 48, and when I was in school, A’s and B’s (and maybe a C or two in a whole career) was considered a good student. I STILL consider it a good student…with theatre as her “job”.</p>

<p>However, I am not the gatekeeper who says the GPA is not what it takes. I read Kenyon’s website, acceptance stats, common data sets, etc., and they tell me that this GPA is low (although not an impossibility). For other schools on our early list, she’s pretty much a match. If I had to pick a couple of “reach” schools this early on, I’d say Davidson and Wooster…again, because of the low ACT and middling GPA (accurate representation of the word “middling”). </p>

<p>Beloit and Temple are both appealing, but probably too far for us.</p>

<p>Good points about having the visit and feeling the fit (with Point Park as the example). I definitely feel as if my friends who visited could have felt it differently than my daughter might, and you just never know what she might find appealing. She has visited 6-8 campuses already over the last 3 years or so…without a lot of rhyme or reason or intent. And has loved things about all the schools - so she is not overly particular. She loves college campuses and won’t be hard to please. As all parents probably do, I just want a place she will love, and in which she will take pride and comfort, and for it to be a place in which she wants to learn and grow. </p>

<p>I feel we will need to invest in at least 10-12 applications to schools which foster creativity and have theatre BAs, which also have tried recently to meet a high percentage of need … and then hope she is admitted to a few, and there are affordable options. We do have one solid in-state university “safety” (I do kind of dislike this word) she really likes, which will totally suit her should we not find an out-of-state option we can afford. I think she would rather spread her wings a little further and go out of state, though.</p>

<p>Anyway, these responses are tremendously helpful. We will keep checking the sites to see what supplements to the CA, and what downloads are allowed. As soon as school is out, and before her summer rehearsals become overwhelming, she will need to start trucking on the common app essay. carpe free time! :-)</p>

<p>I absolutely agree that someone like my Dad, whose ambitions were to get into academically competitive programs, needs a very high GPA.</p>

<p>But nobody really “needs” to get into an academically competitive program. Especially the kids we are talking about, who are much more artistic than academic. And, yes, that does mean the programs they are applying for can be much more competitive, but there are different criteria.</p>

<p>Are people taking my usual suggestion, that young folks who want to be actors should start out by researching the sort of actors who right now are doing the sort of acting work they would like to do someday? Did they all have ridiculously high GPAs over 4.0, and did they all get into academically competitive programs?</p>

<p>KEVP</p>

<p>Great point, and I have read that on some of your other posts (which are thoughtful and on-target). However, a few points (both directly relating to my daughter and in general) to make here are: a) she doesn’t want to be a professional actress necessarily (mind not completely made up, but is a realist and knows the odds) b) her experiences and interests thus far are going to help her gain admission into college - but once there, who knows what other interests will be fostered c) looking at working actors today to see their bios and from whence they came is relevant…but, the college landscape has changed a heckuva lot in the last ten years…everyone talks about ‘what used to happen’…schools which were not competitive 5-10 yrs ago now are, etc. So these actors who may have gotten into Bard or Yale Drama or Northwestern with an artsy-level GPA …now? small shot at that.</p>

<p>I am not knocking my kid (she’s up early today doing her theatre final - a 10 page research paper on the Shakespeare conspiracy), but I am trying to keep it real…and look for the schools that she wants and want her … and which her stats will fit, and will still recognize her need/talent/merit. It’s a hard puzzle. </p>

<p>We’re getting there, though, and I very much appreciate the dialogue :-)</p>

<p>Also I see your point about working actors today having graduated from competitive programs…you’re right - I don’t think so. I’m sure that is all over the map. So, we are focusing on schools who recognize sharp kids can come in all types of packages…and a few of them are all on the CTCL list…so, I feel they are good programs. Reading the book and website now to do individual research …</p>

<p>I loved every interaction we had with Davidson. Their wait list letter was by far the nicest, most humane communication we had with any college, including acceptances. They are, in my view, doing everything right and supposedly have a pretty decent theater program for a LAC. Though of course, it is all about fit and your D will have to make up her own mind.</p>

<p>You can’t judge a school by one graduate, that’s for sure…but I know a 65-70 year old man, a scholar, a pastor, a doctor of religious studies and former Asbury professor - a very learned man, and more, a man who has the respect of everyone who knows him (including my teenage kids). He is a graduate of Davidson, and he speaks so fondly of the school, the area, the environment, and its traditions, that I can’t help being enamored of the place without ever having visited (yet). What you’ve said about the waitlist letter completely jives with his reports of his experiences, and his alum presence. Sounds like a wonderful school indeed.</p>

<p>Davidson is also need-blind, which is becoming a rarity lately. (I think my S might have gotten into Washington if he hadn’t needed so much aid. He was certainly in the top third of their stats universe.) </p>

<p>I wish you luck. It sounds like you are about where we were a year ago. I hope it goes better for you. (Though I think my son is really excited about going to Roosevelt/CCPA…happy ending except for the finances.)</p>