@actingdreams Thank you so much for all this information!
@actingdreams - You are a much better reporter than I am!!! Of course, youâre younger and have a better memory than I :))
DePaul âTTSâ (The Theatre School) admitted day was great. My S had already committed - so it was kind of a fun & relaxed day for us. Met lots of parents w/kids who were still deciding between 2 or 3 programs. Our student tour guide was very entertaining and was very clear about the fact that DePaul is NOT a musical theatre program.
The faculty panel was helpful & informative â things you donât see on the website. As I heard & understand - DePaul is an intense training program for straight acting. There are loads of resources around Chicago for those who want to take courses in comedy (Second City & IO) and dance (companies in every neighborhood). But those are not done through the university. The TTS curriculum is for Acting / Tech / Design / Management, plus a good helping of Liberal Arts. The Theatre Arts (BFA) program seems very robust and integrated with the other majors too. (Definitely not disconnected.)
There were some questions from parents about students getting roles with local theatre companies during the school year. The word is: students donât have permission because they wonât have time. (We heard the same at BU, Michigan and Minnesota.) Classes for students in TTS run from 8 am to 4:15pm. Evenings are dedicated to crew & rehearsals. (Same as other BFA programs.) Free evenings â there are always plays to see around town at student rates and better.
Overall â very busy and a very lively vibe, just as you would expect in a school where the kids are NOT going from one lecture or lab to another. It really looks like FUN! (Iâm sure itâs like that at all of the theatre programs our kids are signing up for.) Good for themâŠfollowing the dream!
@Atreuh you didnât notice the Grey hair that I forgot to dye :-B? Thank you for sharing the typical day (how many hours they are training daily etc) We totally missed that part and if they were talking about it, I was texting my S that I hope heâs INHALING what an opportunity this would be for him and us (so that weâre not flying out constantly to see him in his shows! )
you know, I drive Pass DePaul all of the time but never went through all of the streets and really checked everything out. It really an awesome place to be! ohh to be young and have options to Dream So Big! Tickets to the shows can be inexpensive for those who live here and know how to shop for them but it looks like Students at TTS really get the goodies of free or practically free shows and Theatres seem to be EVERYWHERE.
@actingdreams and @Atreuh - DePaul sounds really amazing. Your enthusiasm is tangible. The strong track record of representation is a huge plus. I love reading all about it. Seems like a true place for a serious actor to thrive.
@actorparent1 have the past two weekends brought your daughter closer to a decision? My daughter was at Hartt this weekend (she stayed after Accepted Students Day to take classes today), and we will be at UArts a week from today after a quick trip to Marymount Manhattan. Then, I will nap. 
Hello, all you caring, knowledgeable CC friends. I am trying to help out a nice mom and D we met at auditions who is not on CC (yet!). We all make some friends along the way right? Her D has choices for BFA at Wright State Ohio, which seems selective, but which I am not familiar with. And Marymount Manhattan (BFA) and Loyola Marymount (BA). Cost matters. General comments here, or Please consider PM. Thank you all!
@takealeap , we were at Hartt today too! I wish I had known you were there - we could have met up! What classes did your D sit in on? They put my D in a voice class and an acting class, but both classes were MT students, not acting. But D said the classes were very good, and Alan Rust taught the acting one, and she said he was a great teacher. We also saw âDancing at Lughnasaâ last night and it was excellent! We were both very impressed.
How was the Accepted Students day? We werenât able to come up on Saturday, so I would love to hear about that!
The only thing that gave her slight pause at Hartt is that acting class is twice a week for an hour and 20 minutes, so itâs a total of 2 hours and 40 minutes a week, which doesnât seem like a lot. (Marymount has the same; UArts has acting 3 hours twice a week, so 6 hours altogether.) They also have movement and voice & speech etc, but it seems like maybe 3 classes a day. D wanted to be in class ALL day every day. But starting sophomore year, theyâre cast in plays and are in rehearsal for hours every weekday evening and on weekends, and the plays are considered an integral part of their training, so I presume thatâs when it becomes the âintense conservatoryâ schedule where youâre busy all the time and working long days. (Freshman year you run crew for the productions.)
We did UArts last weekend. Everyone there was warm and friendly, and the location was very appealing on the Avenue of the Arts in Philadelphia. The dorms are apartments, which D loved. But overall she felt that UArts was better for someone who wants to explore multiple artistic interests, and collaborate with others to create their own work, etc. Lots of energy and creativity there!
But D is focused solely on acting training, and in particular wants strong classical/Shakespeare training, and feels that Hartt would be better for that, plus she loves the study in London aspect, and Harttâs connections with Hartford Stage and Goodspeed and the Monomoy Theater.
So sheâs leaning strongly toward Hartt. But she had also auditioned at Stella Adler conservatory and got a callback, so she wants to wait and see if she gets accepted there before making a final decision.
Let me know your experience and impressions of Hartt, the classes, and the accepted students day! And tell me what you think of Marymount and UArts when you go there!
My D was in those same classes! She said there were a few other girls observing too. D is going for straight acting as well. She was invited by a sweet student to sit in on a private voice lesson (D loves to sing and dance, but no interest in MT). She thought the teachers were great and the students were passionate. She also sat in on a jazz dance class. We saw the same play, but on Saturday night, and were very impressed! Accepted Students Day was nice, but the best part for her was when 2 students gave us a tour of the performing arts building and so many students stopped to say hi and share information. She is not the biggest fan of the city of Hartford, but the program has the level of training she is looking for. Her main interest is film acting, and they are adding more collaboration with the cinema program this coming year, but stage is obviously the main focus so we will see.
We visited UArts when she auditioned there, but never took an official tour. She is taking a day of classes there next Monday, meeting with the head of the theater department, and taking a tour. She wasnât able to schedule classes at Marymount, but is going for Accepted Students Day to see what she thinks. Iâll keep you posted, and would love to hear how Stella Adler works out.
By the way, on Saturday afternoon, the performing arts center was packed with kids hard at work in rehearsals. I definitely think those are also viewed as acting classes. From what we saw, they were very instructional in nature.
Thatâs great to hear, @takealeap - thanks! My D loved everything about the program, but wanted to make sure sheâd be spending many hours working hard on her craft. I will tell her your comment about Saturday!
Our Ds probably saw each other in passing, since they sat in on the same classes! Tell your D mine is tiny (4â11") and has black hair.
Itâs also nice to hear that the students were friendly and answering questions on Saturday!
@katew529 and @myloves and @actingdreams Thank you for your heartfelt concern. My D is still in counselling because of that situation. It left her with major trust, self-esteem and guilt issues. And I know of at least one other girl at a different program who left for similar reasons. I would bet there are many more in difficult situations that just donât say anything because they donât know what to do about it. College environment is not what it was when I attended over 30 yrs ago. I caution everyone to watch over your kids, especially your daughters. She was in way over her head before I found out what was going on.
@actorparent1 and @takealeap so glad you had nice visits. I will vouch for the fact these kids work hard. I donât know if my daughter has ever worked so hard in her life! Everything they do is training - in class and at rehearsals, behind the scenes and master classes, etc. She is very excited about the cinema connection. In fact the just did an open audition for AT and MT students interested in performing in some of the film student final projects. She has been invited to perform in one but is not sure she can make it work because her schedule is so full and she has juries coming up. As for Hartford itâs actually not too bad. She rarely goes into the city but goes to many nice places in West Hartford like Blue Back Square, Bishops Corner and Westfarms Mall. That pretty much covers her shopping needs as my bank account will attest. Haha! I miss her so much though! Canât wait to go pack her up and bring her home in a few weeks!
Thatâs great to hear, @sopranomtmom !
We walked around Blue Back Square and had dinner there, and my D was very relieved - âokay, hereâs a nice area!â It made her feel better, because the other areas we had seen while driving around werenât so attractive. Iâll mention to her that there are a few other nice shopping areas too.
@daughtersdreams - I just wanted to acknowledge and express my sadness at hearing about your D being on the receiving end of serious problem on campus. That is upsetting enough without it now impacting the financial packages. That is so unfair and so maddening. I really donât know what to say except that I feel for you and her and hope for a super positive fresh start with supportive people.
@daughtersdreams , I am so sorry too. When I first saw your original post, I somehow missed the part about why your D left her first school - I just saw the unfairness of not getting any scholarships when they found out she was technically a transfer, even though she was entering as a freshman. And that was so unfair! But now, after seeing the other posts, I went back and reread it, and I am so, so sorry that she had such a traumatic experience and that the school did nothing! That is so horrible! Iâm glad sheâs getting counseling, and Iâm glad that Point Park give her at least some money. Hugs to her and you.
@daughtersdreams - likewise, I had to reread it to understand the calendar, and that she already has her fresh start, but what a rough, bumpy journey to get there. I hope she is thriving now. Thank you for sharing everything.
Today I received an email from FAFSA, our data had been updated by a college. Not sure what was changed, and not sure which college made the change. Thanks to previous discussions here on CC I knew to go in and print the student aid report so I can figure out what had been changed. EFC looks the same, but still, Iâm super cautious to make sure everythingâs OK. It may be too much to ask, but if a college is going to change something, Iâd like to know which data fields were changed, it only seems fair.
^^^did you use the IRS data retrieval tool? It seems odd for a college to âchallengeâ your FAFSA!
@DoinResearch I have a feeling that it was an IL local school. as soon as they had 1 number corrected on my S application, we receive a âyour fafsa has been updatedâ Umm Nothing was wrong with our FAFSA! Since we had received all of our financial aid packages from everyone except for the local and it changed the next day after they had received everything, I knew who it was. Why would they need to fix anything? nothing was broken here
@DoinResearch A friend of mine had the same thing happen, Duke changed her childs FAFSA and it was quite a rigmarole to figure out. Didnât seem to make sense. But they did get it resolved! Best wishes!