<p>Curmudgeon</p>
<p>Again not NYC but both Elon and Oklahoma City University have strong theater programs; OKC has a very fine production program. Both have been known to be generous with FA/merit awards.</p>
<p>Years ago when I was looking for this type of school for my older son I came across Benoit and Emerson. Not in NYC, I know, but worth looking at.</p>
<p>Northeast, artsy and NYC influenced, but not in NYC: Bard College, Hampshire College,
Ithaca College, Skidmore. Hampshire has a senior capstone project that might appeal, plus it's in the Five College Consortium that includes Smith, Mt.Holyoke, Amherst and UMass at Amherst. So there are 30,000 students in a safe, clean-air, creative, intellectual valley together just 3 hours north of NYC. That means NYC is accessible for a weekend, if she knows a suburban dweller; or go down together with friends and rent a room to see shows, go to museums, etc. Right on the Hampshire College campus is the Eric Carle Museum of Children's Literature (aww, see the Hungry Caterpillar whenever you wish to) and the National Yiddish Book Center with occasional klezmer concerts. Look up the Five College Events calendar, realize that Hampshire only builds single rooms for dorms, and it's got some real draw! </p>
<p>For SUNY Purchase, in Theater Arts: look at their Dramatic Writing BFA portfolio requirements early on, as it takes advance time to develop a competitive portfolio, not to be squished in between the usual apps and essays. I believe it's a different program for Creative Writing. If she wants to consider writing for the stage, then BFA Dramatic Writing. But understand they only take 20 students each year. What I hear about SUNY Purchase is:
ugly facility (high rise and a parking lot) with a woods nearby that's fun to throw Frisbee; exceptionally poor food; but for the conservatory students there focussed on their program, what matters to them more is a programmatic focus and the ability to get into NYC every weekend. My S in NYC tells me the SUNY Purchase kids are also tight as graduates, know each other, use each other in projects and so on. </p>
<p>An interesting thought is to prepare an application for SUNY Purchase but also submit it to SUNY New Paltz, which is perhaps 2 hours from Manhattan and has a strong theater community as well. For artistas around here, if they can't get into Purchase, they're almost as happy to be at New Paltz.</p>
<p>Sarah Lawrence came to mind for writing.</p>
<p>Ithaca College (in the same town as Cornell, but a completely different school) has very strong departments in Musical Theater and Music, so this would be a very creative environment, too. It is uber-rural but in a progressive knoll in upstate New York full of progressive hippies who settled there in the l960's to create an artistic rural environment. Mollie Katz, who wrote Moosewood Cookbook, began from right there and the village center is now full of many art galleries, alternative cuisine cafes for the students from Cornell and Ithaca College. It's 3 or 4 hours from NYC, accessible by bus.</p>
<p>Why does she think she likes NYC? Here's why I ask: many kids come to NYC for a springtime weekend with friends and have a blast, staying in a hotel together and seeing shows. Or their parents bring them, and they enjoy a great expensive time together. But if she just wants a Northeastern city that has a different feeling than Texas, she might be just as happy at a school like Emerson, in the middle of Boston; or explore Goucher (safety? perhaps) in Batlimore, as to head for NYC. I grew up in Baltimore and met Texans over at JHU who really believed they were in the North, even though it was below the Mason Dixon line. I describe Baltimore as a city with northern problems and a southern pace of solving them. It has some great resrouces for art, including the Walters Art Gallery, but Goucher isn't in the heart of downtown. So I don't know...am just asking if she'd consider other Northeastern cities than NYC, to open up a few more options. </p>
<p>NYC requires a lot of inner maturity and organization to deal with the subways, rush of people, and so on. My own kid made a decision to study
within 4 hours of NYC and move there right after graduation. Meanwhile, he got to know people in and around the city, to visit on holidays. It was not a total sudden immersion. </p>
<p>Just a thought. I can also see why ANYONE would want to live in or near NYC (I would).</p>
<p>Realistically, if she's not actually attending school in NYC, she might be able to fit in 2 or 3 weekends in NYC each semester and still pass her courses and have enough money left to fly home to Texas in May.</p>
<p>On the West coast, the screenwriting major at Chapman U Dodge College of Film takes 25 percent of applicants, as compared to the general admissions stats for that department which are cited around 8-12 percent. They'd prepare her to write for films or TV, but they have an industry focus and make sure the kids know how to function in a commercial environment. Creative, yes, but with an eye towards being able to work for a living with their B.A. degree. I'd love to see their senior year course where they teach kids to pitch a script in an LA office. I imagine it's like role playing with Ari on HBO's "Entourage." </p>
<p>In addition to Dodge for film, Chapman U has majors in the Performing Arts with some new consolidation in the dance and theater departments. There's a beautiful performance stage as well.</p>
<p>University-wide SAT averages at Chapman run around 1850 but the film department supposedly is a bit higher re: scores. They are a bright and clever group of students, that's certainly palpable as you meet them.</p>
<p>The Town of Orange is definitely, totally Orange County; 45 minutes from downtown LA. with a commuter train that goes in and out once or twice daily only. Anaheim is nearby so that's Disneyland. Are these blessings or curses to your client? Only she knows ;)</p>
<p>You've gotten some terrific suggestions. However, if this young lady wants to be IN a city, I would suggest she apply to a school IN a city, not "nearby". Vassar, Bard, Muhlenberg, New Paltz. Kenyon, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Skidmore. Elon are NOT in cities....and truthfully getting from them to the city takes some effort. Great schools...just not in a city.</p>
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I have zippo idea what happened on the "writing" when it doesn't even have an essay.????
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<p>Curm, am puzzling on your puzzlement here. I know the new Writing third of the SAT-I's has a Multiple Choice section; It also calls for an essay with numbers up to a perfect 12. She can train by reading on the College Board and the SAT CC neighborhood old threads on how to improve from an 8 to a 10 or 12 essay. It's formulaic. </p>
<p>There are some fine writers who don't learn the 3 necessary moves to write an essay that brings in an 11 or 12. That has to do with writing the opening thesis, using 2 (not 1, not 3) examples to support the thesis, understanding that a "conclusion" can be a sentence not a paragraph if the rest is solidly constructed. </p>
<p>The Multiple Choice part of that exam carries heavier weight than the essay itself.
If she's a fine writer who didn't score as high as she'd like on the Writing SAT-I's, she should definitely get books or training to do the Multiple Choice part, where she troubleshoots poor writing and bubbles the "wrong" one, all based on grammatical rules such as subject/verb agreement, parallel syntax, and so on. That's like being a great editor.</p>
<p>I think high SAT-I Writing scores require the abilities of a copy-editor (for Multiple Choice) and the nuts-and-bolts training on the formula for getting an 11 or 12. Someone who writes well according to her English teacher may still need to prepare very well for the Writing SAT I.</p>
<p>If she would consider the West Coast, there may be a couple of good options in the Los Angeles area. USC has terrific programs in the arts, is very generous with both need based and merit money, and has added bonus of arts grads who seem to emerge employable. Their theater program has BFA's in various behind-the-scenes areas including technical direction and stage management. Theater, film, art, design, and music are all thriving, and students don't have to be majors to have a lot of course options to explore. I don't know a lot about their straight-up creative writing, but both dramatic and screenwriting areas are very strong. </p>
<p>Another possibility is Scripps, a small, women's LAC in the Claremont College cluster, reputed to be very generous as well. Small school support and atmosphere, but big school facilities with the other Claremont Schools a short walk or bike ride away, and completely open to students from the other schools. Lovely small town setting, but LA is accessible, if a bit of a shlep.</p>
<p>I've got a similar type of city-loving, quirky kid (not artsy per se, more music-y) with similar stats (ACT 29 and 30, 3.75 unweighted GPA, top 15%). She loved NYU (of course) but didn't apply (in the long run, I think she loved visiting NYC but was a little leery of living there.)</p>
<p>Applied and was admitted to Depaul and Loyola in Chicago and Emerson and Northeastern in Boston. She also got merit money everywhere, if that's a consideration. She's leaning toward Depaul and Northeastern - mainly because of their particular city vibes.</p>
<p>We're Midwestern, if that matters.......</p>
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<p>Yep, thumper. My brain did that also....and then I realized it was the PSAT. No essay.</p>
<p>One thing that has not been mentioned about Drew is that it is within easy walking distance of a train that provides frequent service into Penn Station in NYC, a little less than an hour ride from Madison. Lots of Drew students (as well as students from neighboring Fairleigh Dickinson and College of St. Elizabeth) head into the city for an evening or a weekend.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon?</p>
<p>Perhaps try a summer program at Carnegie Mellon this summer before senior year?</p>
<p>Not near the Big Apple, but a good program:</p>
<p>Penn</a> State | School of Theatre</p>
<p>Second (third?) CMU. Pittsburgh is a good city for musical theater and college in general.</p>