My D auditioned in Chicago for CMU and loved the program. I know their academic requirements are stiff … Does anyone know how the university views academics for the Theatre programs? My D is over 3.0 and 1000 SAT but the school has a pretty high threshold. Thanks
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@user_752736 - what I have heard is that entrance to CMU’s BFA MT or Acting program is almost entirely based upon the audition. The average SAT or GPA for Carnegie Mellon overall is kind of irrelevant to BFA applicants.
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My D also auditioned in Chicago for CMU. Here’s the link to the 2019 first year class profile of School of Drama. It appears that their average GPA and SAT/ACT are very competitive but as CMU does not require a minimum GPA or standard test score like U of Michigan does, their admission decision may weigh heavily on the artistic side.
https://admission.enrollment.cmu.edu/pages/school-of-drama-programs
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When CMU came to visit my son’s performing arts school (he was class of 2019) they said that grades and scores really do not matter for Acting or MT admissions. This is quite different from other schools that are well-ranked for academics overall, such as BU, Michigan and NYU.
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That’s definitely what I have heard @MomMimi. The grades and scores from the School of Drama overall may be a bit misleading - only about a quarter of the School of Drama admits are in Acting or MT, the rest are Directing, Writing and Production majors.
Thanks everyone for your answers. I was really concerned about that because I know their normal school requirements are really high academically. My daughter is definitely above the curve but not at the levels that they were wanting. We’ll just keep our fingers crossed. Hard to get excited when it’s so competitive. Does anyone know how many they are looking to accept for musical theater for the class of 2024?
@user_752736 They told us 12 for MT and 12 for Acting. Pretty scary odds. Basically 6 girls for MT out of HUNDREDS ?
Thousands, actually. The told us they prescreen 2000 people and conduct 1000 auditions. There’s a reason CMU is referred to as a “lottery school” on these boards.
CMU wants “smart actors”, their term not mine. But they only weigh academics at approximately 20%, while artistic review accounts for 80%. Something to keep in mind - even Actors (both straight and MT) have to complete gen ed requirements; additionally, the way Carnegie approaches arts instruction is pretty academic (almost scientific in some cases).
They usually accept 24 total (12 and 12, with a fairly even ratio of males to females). It tends to seem as though several Actors initially auditioned for MT, and the group is very homogeneous. Program directors pride themselves on diversity (deservedly so), and want their students to lead as actors first.
Since beginning the prescreen process, my understanding is that they are receiving 2000-2500 screens from Tartan hopefuls, and that their yield of accepted offers is very high. So the WL is typically short and only 1-2 (if any) might be pulled from it each year.
I would expect notifications to go out around 3/6 - but that’s just my unofficial guess.
Hope that helps!
My D auditioned for CMU at NY Unifieds and they told us that notifications would go out at the end of March.
Not sure what they said during auditions this year, but last year they communicated that they would take 6 girls and 6 boys for MT, and of the 6 - 3 would be “diversity” students. My son ended up with a MT PH.
@peacemama what do you mean by MT PH?
^^It probably means Musical Theater Priority Hold (which to my knowledge was called Priority Wait List, or at least was when my D got it in the past).
@soozievt Thank you!
Did he get in? Is there truth to situation that if you don’t get passed to second rooms at on-campus auditions you are out of the running?( A alum and coach mentioned that)
@mamaboyz I don’t necessarily think that if you don’t get passed at a on-campus audition you’re out of the running. They could’ve been running behind or they simply saw what they needed to see. I have a friend who’s there for MT, and she said there are multiple students in her class that only went into one room. I know you’ve heard that from people who know what they’re talking about, but this process is so unpredictable so anything could happen. I wouldn’t read too much into ANYTHING!
How do you hear about wait list for MT? Email call or protal
Wait list is communicated through Accepted.
So did anyone here on CC get accepted to either CMU musical theatre/acting this year?
@2231Starcross3 , @Jasklo did!