Christopher Newport, Mary Washington, Fairleigh Dickinson

My D has been academically accepted at all of her schools and has had her audition at JMU and will audition at George Mason and Montclair. I am preparing for the reality of the competition and low chances for the JMU, GMU and Montclair programs. CNU and UMW are her safety schools with an audition at FDU coming up as well - they have given her a nice scholarship. If you had to select a safety from those three, which would you recommend? Does anyone have any particular feedback on any of these three schools?

@jrydholm my D was accepted to Univ of M Washington last season as well. That was her non audition safety. I would have been fine with her attending there. It was a bit pricey for us but they did give her $. She also auditioned at JMU & was waitlisted but did not come off the waitlist. It was her first choice from her acceptance/waitlist options. We have visited M Washington several times & it is a nice campus and the theatre people are top notch. The man who runs the dept is wonderful. The theater is small but nice. They seem to have tons of community support for shows etc. I would choose M Washington from your safeties but that’s because I was just really impressed by the visits we had. I have not been to CNU nor F Dickinson. Perhaps someone else is familiar with those and can chime in.

@theaterwork Can I ask where your D eventually went? We loved UMW too but CNU seems to have more dance classes and a newer facility. UMW seems to be more affordable though and it is closer to home. JMU is also my D’s first at this point but I just think that the chances given the numbers are slim.

I pmd you @jrydholm

@jrydholm CNU is my daughter’s non audition safety as well. Did you go to the scholarship audition day? We loved the campus and like you said - we were happy to see the dance classes available and the music/ ensemble opportunities etc. i wish they had done a parent presentation / info session about the program that day! I would have loved a Q & A and it would have probably really helped me feel more confident about CNU as a solid option. We are out of state so I’m not as familiar with the school. I did meet the new MT director- so i was glad to see that is a position- I’m thinking the program may grow! Please let me know if you find out any more info or specifics that you think i should hear! Thank you!!!

@savedrama4momma yes we were there. It was not the greatest for my D; her first audition and she felt she did horrible. We have visited before and really liked the campus. I had not realized there was a new director; the man who heard the auditions was the person I thought was the director. We made an appointment last spring to meet him and have a tour - I took a day off for this. When we got there he was a no show and no one knew where he was. His wife was lovely though and took us on a short tour. Everyone I know in state here says that all the kids who go there love it. But that is not specific to the MT program. I, too, wish there was more of an information session/presentation.