<p>UNC is a great thought…</p>
<p>Tufts is reasonably strong. My son is musical and has used the very good facilities and seen a number of great productions. It wasn’t in her list though after we visited. </p>
<p>Interesting about the Virginia schools…</p>
<p>The problem with UNC is low acceptance rates for out-of-state applicants. 14% if I recall. If interested, your daughter should meet with a theatre professor with her theatre resume in hand and ask that the department contact admissions on her behalf. The department does have an admissions liaison.</p>
<p>It’s probably not as strong as other schools on your list and may be harder to get in to. so…</p>
<p>For us, it was near home, so it stayed on the list.</p>
<p>Edited to say: I only mentioned UNC because I think it’s better (theatre-wise) than nearby W&M and UVA.</p>
<p>Got it</p>
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<p>It is supposed to be best to deliver monologues that are not from a production you’ve been in. The auditors want to see the student’s own fresh interpretation of the material and not have the monologue reflect a director’s guidance. Your daughter might want to talk to her theatrical mentors to determine what they would advise regarding this.</p>
<p>The out-of-state admission rate for UNC-CH has been inching up due to budgetary issues. The OOS acceptance rate for 2014 was 17%. <a href=“http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2014/04/university-releases-admissions-statistics”>University releases admissions statistics - The Daily Tar Heel;
<p>sscncadams, I agree with NJTheatreMom 100%. It is very much preferred that you select monologues you haven’t ever done in any show. As she says, the auditors want to see your own interpretation, not another director’s vision within the context of a completed show. I agree, you may want to check with your daughter’s mentors on this.</p>
<p>But don’t be surprised if the auditors look at your resume and then ask you to perform something from a show you were in either. Also, just a thought, if you use an audition coach, isn’t that their interpretation of your monologue? Seems like it would be the same thing as a director. </p>
<p>My D was asked to perform something from a previous show at a couple auditions. Minn Guthrie did the most, they asked her to do a song from the musical she had just finished, a monologue from a play she had been in during the fall, AND a monologue from the show she was working on at the time (which freaked her the most, she had only been in rehearsal for a couple weeks). This was all in addition to the 2 monologues and “stretch piece” she had prepared! </p>
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<p>No. A good coach does not tell you what to do with the material. Rather, the coach helps you figure out how to showcase yourself effectively through your monologue.</p>
<p>In my son’s testimonial to his coach which appears on her website, he wrote:</p>
<p>“She got interested in who I was, what made me tick, and then channeled my own loves, hates and habits into monologues (pulled from a gargantuan library of plays) that enticed me, excited my imagination, and showed me off. Channeled is the word. She did not “make” me, she helped me make myself.”</p>
<p>I have to agree 100% with @NJTHeatreMOM, my D’s coaches don’t tell her what to do or direct her in anyway. They asked insighful questions that got to the heart of who she was and then suggested pieces for her to review and then she would read the plays. She brought her own choices and work to the material. If the coach is telling you what to do it is time for a new coach.</p>
<p>In a show the director is bringing his/her vision to the stage through the actor. In a monologue the actor is bringing his/her vision to the audition. I think this is why auditors don’t want to see monologues from shows.</p>
<p>Princeton should be on her list. I know a professional actor who chose it over NU (not saying one is better than the other; just that this was one case), and when I saw “Jersey Boys” the lead was from Princeton ( i think he quit or took a leave of absence; hadn’t graduated i don’t think.) They have a concentration, not a major. There are also very active student groups in all forms of theater.
<a href=“Princeton University Arts Events - Lewis Center for the Arts”>http://arts.princeton.edu/academics/theater/</a></p>
<p>too bad Williams didn’t resonate with her – they have a top-notch program and use the affiliation with the Williamstown Theater Festival (one of the country’s top regional summer theaters) to offer internships and learning opportunities. I know a number of my fellow alums who are working actors who go back to campus to work with students. </p>
<p>Not to rain on anyone’s parade but it’s easy to say “Princeton should be on her list.” Sure, put it on her list but it means yet another school to apply to, with all of the associated effort and expense. It’s a great school - no doubt about that, but the line of PERFECT stats kids, never mind great stats kids who do not get into schools like Princeton and many others like it is out the door. The same is true for all of the highly selective schools on the list above. The students that we knew who successfully navigated those applications with a high hit rate, all had a hook. Talent at schools that don’t include an evaluation of that as part of their admissions process is not a hook. Being a blonde female is regrettably not a hook either unless maybe you’re applying to Harvey Mudd for engineering. Being from an underrepresented state could be a hook so if you live in Wyoming for example, that could be really good. Legacy can be good too but sometimes it doesn’t help. (Stanford.)</p>
<p>My daughter was also a high stats kid and she had no hook. We tried to be pragmatic about her list because the applications are a pain and expensive. She was also more resolute in wanting a BFA program and MT so that ruled out many of the great schools on the list above. But if she had been more inclined to consider BA programs with or without MT, I’d have suggested going heavier on the Skidmore or Kenyon type schools rather than the Princeton heavy type when developing her list. Strategically, that would have felt to us like a better use of her time given that she did not have a hook.</p>
<p>Good point @halflokum . Princeton would be a great place to get a BA in theatre, but be judicious with your college list. Really focus on your safety and match schools. IMO, go with only two or three high reaches so you can focus a lot of energy on those few applications.</p>
<p>There was a theatre girl on CC in the 2013/2014 admission cycle who had a top-heavy list and, as a result, endured a very traumatic spring. She had a 2300+ SAT and a 4.0, but was NOT accepted to 6 Ivy league schools, Duke, Stanford, UChicago, Vandy, UVA and Northwestern. It became painful to read her father’s posts. </p>
<p>One of the tricky pieces for us was that in creating the “package” that would make D most likely to be accepted to a strong BFA program, she didn’t have the opportunity to create a “package” that would have been better for an ivy league-type program. She had the scores and the grades, but as @halflokum points out, so do a lot of people, and that is only one part of the picture in terms of admission. If you look at D’s application/resume, it is all theater all the time, not just shows, but clubs, leadership positions, everything. Even service opportunities. Not the eclectic and well rounded student that Ivies talk about wanting. (and to be fair, the kids that I know who have gone to Ivies have been that kind of kid, smart, but a lot of other things too. We really LOVED Brown (where I hope your D is having a great start to the year @arwarw) it was the only BA that she could really see herself turning down a BFA, amazing in every way. But after her alumni interview she pretty much knew; her interviewer let her know that being SO focused in one area was less typical of a successful applicant. Ah well.</p>
<p>I think this is one reason that research is INCREDIBLY important in the process- and ideally should start well before senior year. By the time a kid figures out what they want, they may not have lots of time left to figure out what they need to get there</p>
<p>@toowonderful the kid figuring it out part has definately proven to be the wild card here. If we had known D was going BA would I have let her drop AP Lit or not taken that third year of French, probably not. Would I have started her taking the ACT early in Junior year, yes. Unfortunately we can’t change any of that now, hopefully she will find the right place as everyone says these kids do and her late change won’t make it too much harder.</p>
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<p>@toowonderful , don’t get overly discouraged by the alumni interview. All my D’s activities were also mostly theatre-related: theatre, dance, voice, writing etc… No community service (unless you count volunteering at community theaters), no sports, no work experience, virtually no school clubs, no student government and no officer/leadership positions.</p>
<p>You might also check out this post by @gibby whose D is at Harvard and S is at Yale <a href=“Do I make the cut? - #7 by gibby - Harvard University - College Confidential Forums”>Do I make the cut? - #7 by gibby - Harvard University - College Confidential Forums;
<p>The story that @arwarw is recalling is the sort of story which prompted me to urge caution. I can’t tell you how many kids I knew personally from my daughter’s high school especially that had the same thing happen. Meanwhile a spectacular lad with impressive stats but not perfect and in fact lower than my daughter’s had a similar list of 12 schools… and he went 12 for 12 on acceptances. Great kid… Absolutely. Smart and capable of doing wonderful things… no question. Hook??? You bet he had one.</p>
<p>D is definitely not an “outside the box” (geographically, or in any other sense) candidate for an ivy. Absolutely hook free. And believe me, I had 99 college problems last year, and the Brown alumni interview, and/or the Brown rejection wasn’t one of them. IMHO- if you have the stats, applying to an Ivy is cool/interesting thing to do- after all, there aren’t many points in life where you can do something like that. Many years ago, for me, it was Princeton- and since the world was a different place…I got in, and was really proud. But I had another actual path in mind (BFA actually, though it didn’t last, I chose the school poorly and transferred to a small LAC) I still have the letter though :)</p>
<p>Just to comment on Ivies and schools of that ilk…sure, it helps to have a hook. But you don’t HAVE to have a hook to get in. My D went to an Ivy and got into others and did not have a hook. The odds of getting in are really slim of course, but some do get in and if you are realistically in the ballpark, it is worth a shot. </p>
<p>I disagree that Ivy schools want well rounded kids. In fact, today, they seem to gravitate towards kids who are really passionate and high achievers in just one or two areas. Long ago, they wanted well rounded kids. Now, they want kids with a special talent in an area and to build a well rounded class. In fact, I was worried that my D who applied to elite colleges was the true well rounded type which fell out of fashion for elite college admissions, but she made out well. </p>
<p>Of course people get into Ivies without hooks. The schools work hard to deserve their academic standards and cannot always choose a hook over academic qualifications or that would be compromised. But in the presence of both a hook AND a qualifications, that’s a seductive combination. If I’m an ivy admissions rep and I see an amazing standout candidate from rural Vermont, I might find that more interesting than yet another kid from Massachusetts, California or NJ. Everything I’ve read says yes that is how it works but I don’t personally know if it is true or not. My point was that for us, having a high stats kid with no hook meant we didn’t assume that the list should be top heavy even if we were not on a MT hunt. </p>
<p>Sometimes I think in this forum we all get a little excited about high stats theatre kids and assume the outcome for them will be different in these highly selective academic schools than they would be if they were looking to major in computer science, engineering, history or whatever. I’m trying to say… no, don’t assume that. They are TOUGH admissions similar to how the selective, tiny BFAs are and being a smart theatre kid with exceptional stats still means you are in the same boat with a huge pool of qualified kids. Tough odds so be careful of being lulled by what you read here. It’s a dog fight at those schools no matter how talented you are and rarely is there a direct opportunity to show artistic talent in the application. </p>