<p>This is my first post and I have read many of the other posts on Directing degrees. I am looking for any current information that might have changed in the last couple of years. There isn't an abundance of information specifically focused on the undergrad Directing programs.</p>
<p>My son has been involved from a performing aspect in Theater for the last six years and attends a Performing Arts HS in So Cal where he is in the Musical Theater program which basically means that he attends two additional classes after school. This is his fourth year in this program and he is currenting directing the first production, Bye Bye Birdie.</p>
<p>He was the Asst Director this past summer at a Children's Summer Theater Camp and has also directed scenes for other school assignments.</p>
<p>We visited NYU, PACE, University of the Arts and University of Michigan in the summer and he will be applying to all of those schools in addition to Carnegie Mellon, Webster, Marymount Manhattan, DePaul and Columbia College.</p>
<p>Are there other programs out there that should be added to the list? He is intent on a university with a degree in Directing, not a general Theater Arts degree. He prefers the big city to a rural area.</p>
<p>Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Any tips for his portfolio for his interview would be gladly accepted as well!</p>
<p>I would add Emerson and BU to the list, also. Fordham-Lincoln Center’s Theater program is excellent, and the location is unbeatable, but it is a BA degree instead of a BFA (they still require an audition or portfolio review). I don’t know how your son feels about that, but he would have to fulfill math, science, and foreign language requirements. Other schools include some general, liberal arts requirements, but Fordham’s are more rigorous.</p>
<p>UNCSA has a directing track that students can start in junior year. The first two years of study are the same as the actors. I am not sure how many students they allow in the directing track, or the process for admission but I am sure UNCSA would be happy to provide the information.</p>
<p>We’ve checked out Emerson & BU, but neither of them have a Directing concentration. They do touch on it as part of their program, but it is definitely not geared to Directing. I’ve looked at Fordham several times, but my son isn’t interested in the whole Jesuit side of the school.</p>
<p>CADirectorMom, my daughter is a freshman in the theater program at Fordham. We are not Catholic. If you could elaborate on your son’s reservations are about the “Jesuit side of the school”, I might be able to address them. FWIW, my daughter is politically very liberal yet feels very much at home there. As it turns out, the Jesuit tradition of social activism is a good fit for her, due to her interest in social justice. Of course, your son might have different reservations.</p>
<p>Interestingly enough, we are Catholic, however we do not attend church on a regular basis. My son is a free thinker and as he was going through thr process of Confirmation in the 9th grade, he decided that organized religion just wasn’t for him. He is spiritual and a kind, loving person, but he doesn’t care for the rules of the Catholic church amid all the hypocrisy.</p>
<p>So the real turn off is that they are a Jesuit school and he is afraid that it will be at the core of their teachings.</p>
<p>CaDirectorMom, Fordham wasn’t on our radar until I read about it here on CC, and at first I was hesitant because it is a Catholic university. My background in Catholicism is more complicated than I initially let on, having been raised Catholic and having spent 13 years in Catholic schools before college. I really did not expect my politically liberal, feminist daughter to choose a Catholic school; however, she has an open mind. She wanted to look at Fordham because older friends of hers (not Catholic) had applied there, and because we’d read about it here on CC. She was very much won over by the playwriting department in her audition interview (she is a double major), and more so after spending time visiting acting and playwriting classes last spring, so that Fordham became her first choice. She turned down NYU and Mason Gross, for example, to go to Fordham. </p>
<p>She was home this weekend to appear in a Fringe production so I got to speak to her at length for the first time since we dropped her off in August. She said (in response to me telling her about your comment) that there has been no religious content in her classes. There are some posters in the hallways, but that’s it. The theater and dance departments have a diverse student body. It may be that the Rose Hill campus has more of a Catholic orientation and less diverity. She told me that she had observed (and others also) that the freshman theater class all work well together, with a similar style of communication. She feels it’s a great fit for her. My daughter would not hesitate to tell me if she felt coerced or compelled to adopt any belief system-- she would be the first to resist. As for church rules, I don’t think they have any impact on her life. She lives in a co-ed dorm, on a co-ed floor. </p>
<p>Anyway, Fordham may not be his cup of tea, but I wanted to let you know that, like you, I was ready at first to dismiss the school based on my own baggage about Catholic education, but I’m glad my daughter wanted to explore the school more closely.</p>
<p>Glassharmonica…thanks so much for that info. It sounds like we are in very similar situations and I will definitely sit down and talk with my son. He is actually interested in playwriting as well, so maybe it is a better fit than originally thought.</p>
<p>What was it about Fordham that stood out so much for your daughter? My son loved NYU, but the price tag is outrageous!</p>
<p>Fordham rejected my son, but I think it was my first-choice college, even if it wasn’t his. I loved the fact that a well-rounded liberal arts education was available. I also thought that the balance between Fordham-Lincoln Center’s small size and location and the opportunity to participate in some traditional campus activities (ie. Division I college basketball and football to watch) up at Rose Hill would appeal to my son. Is your son a good student? Fordham has become increasingly selective academically in recent years.</p>
<p>CADirectorMom, my daughter wanted both an auditioned acting program and a program where she could continue to develop as a playwright. She went into the college application process thinking that she would enter a BFA program, but as the year progressed she realized that she wanted to be able to take academic courses in addition to conservatory courses. (One of her sisters goes to a music conservatory, another to an art school; both have expressed regret over not being able to take academic courses in addition to their arts studies.) </p>
<p>Fordham has an auditioned playwriting major; this was very attractive to my daughter. When we visited in November she met with the son of a CC parent who is double-majoring in acting and playwriting. He gave her an insider’s report about the school. Then, at her playwriting interview she spoke at some length with the playwriting teachers (and later sat in on classes.) So, Fordham became her first choice. The other schools she applied to where it would have been possible, at least in theory, to study playwriting intensively were Bard and NYU, but (without going into great detail) Fordham was where she felt that she fit.</p>
<p>Fordham is expensive. They don’t guarantee meeting financial need as some schools do, and she actually received no need-based financial aid (even though we have 3 kids in college right now!) However, she was able to get enough merit aid to keep it within the ballpark.</p>
<p>@stagemum…yes, my son is a good student with a 4.0 GPA, 1900 SAT (which he will be retaking in Oct). He is also Thespian President and has been on the board for 3 years. @glassharmonica, I also have a daughter who is a Junior in college in California, so I will have 2 in for at least one, if not 2 years. I don’t expect to get any need-based financial aid either. I’m just hoping for some merit along the way. I still don’t understand how everyone is doing it. The competition is fierce and yet the spots are all taken. How do all these people pay for it? I know there are plenty of loans out there, but with the crappy economy, I’d hate to go that route.</p>
<p>CADirectorMom, to answer your question about how people pay for it: some families do qualify for significant financial aid, but even so the proportionate burden on their finances is usually quite demanding on family resources. Most families (that we know, and like us) end up with a combination of debt spread between the student and parents. But, some families are able to pay in cash, thanks to significant savings, inheritances, gifts from relatives, or simply very high incomes. Some families send their kids to less expensive schools. Two years in a community college and a transfer into an state university is a great strategy for graduating with as little debt as possible. There are a lot of days when I ponder how different our lives would be if we had taken that fiscally prudent road! </p>
<p>More helpful, perhaps, would be to point out that merit aid is available at many colleges and universities. It’s hard to predict what financial offers your student will receive in advance of early April, so one strategy is to apply to many schools. I have been a little astonished by the unpredictability and large variation in the financial aid offers my kids have received. If you have significant merit aid from a school that is considered equally or more competitive, you may have success (or not-- it’s gone both ways with us) in appealing to the FA committee. Merit aid is guaranteed for four years, generally contingent upon student performance (e.g., maintaining a minimum GPA.) Merit aid is not usually so large that a family will not have to make sacrifices, but it can provide relief from many tens of thousands of dollars of potential debt. </p>
<p>Of course, there are other factors in the mix: NYU Tisch does give merit aid, but their COA (cost of attendance) is quite high (I think it was $67K/year last year), so, to use round numbers, a $17K merit scholarship will bring NYU into the same debt ball-park as another school with a $50K COA that offers no financial aid. And, COA is not always straightforward. After freshman year, if one moves out of the dorms, COA can drop quite a bit, depending on location.</p>
<p>My s also looked at Fordham–I loved it for him. He liked their playwriting program but ultimately decided to do acting undergrad and focus on directing or playwriting for his MFA. He was VERY turned off by Fordham being Catholic (we are Catholic but he decided in HS church wasn’t for him). He is now at DePaul (Catholic!) and LOVES it. He likes the social justice and community involvement focus of the school and the theater school is anything but conservative. All students who receive scholarships at DePaul are required to provide community service while they are there. Also, DePaul has a generous academic scholarship program and students are eligible for talent scholarships after freshman year. (they only offer an MFA in directing though). I think it is a misconception that Catholic schools are necessarily conservative.</p>
<p>Hi, in case your son is still looking, he may perhaps be interested in our new BFA program in theater at The New School for Drama (New School University in NYC) which we’re launching Fall 2013.
Based on our collaborative MFA program, the BFA is audition/apply in for students wishing to concentrate in acting, directing or playwriting.
The program will be multi-disciplinary, with requisite courses in the primary disclipline as well as in Theater History, Collaboration, Aesthetic Inquiry, Research Methods and community-based practice.
The BFA will share prestigious faculty with our MFA program and is designed to promote interaction between the undergrad and graduate students.
More, obviously, on the website.
Thanks so much!</p>
<p>NSDramaBFA, is the New School as in Eugene Lang, Mannes, etc., etc.? Very interested to learn about this new program. I’m aware of their MFA program in fiction writing, but did not know about the new drama division. Maybe you can start a new thread on the CC theater forum to tell us about the program.</p>
<p>Thanks, I’ll do that!
And yes, New School for Drama is one of 7 divisions of The New School – including Mannes, Eugene Lang, Parsons, New School for Social Research, New School of Public Engagement, New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music.</p>