midwest and east.
Ones I’m familiar or somewhat familiar with that offer BFA conservatory or “conservatory-style” programs are: Wright State, Northern Kentucky, CCM, Shenandoah, Baldwin-Wallace (BM), Indiana University. Having “more” dance experience would be helpful for all of these - as at any audition program - but dance is not #1 priority for acceptance at these schools. All are competitive, with CCM and BW towards the top end and NKU at the lower end. At any given program, in any given year “who gets in” can change significantly.
Buckeyebell, come west a little bit and apply to Ball State. It’s not a conservatory per se but the training is excellent and very focused. Great school, great program. My D is a junior MT student there and has really gotten a lot of dance thus far, and that was probably her least experienced area of the three MT disciplines. So much dance in fact that she was hired this summer to be one of the feature dancers in a professional run of Jesus Christ Superstar.
@BuckeyeBell - As I understand it - BW and CCM both place a good bit of emphasis on dance in the audition. I would recommend adding Otterbein, Point Park, and (if you want to buy a ticket to the lottery) CMU to “Midwest” schools. What type of “east” are you interested in? NYC and Boston both have any number of great school- does your kid want an urban environment or more traditional campus experience?
Mom4bwayboy thanks. I think she has all of those on her initial list except nku and Indiana University. We will look at those.
Jeffandann yes, Ball State is on her list. I will look more into that. Thanks for sharing you D’s experience.
Thanks to you both for helping out a newbie! There is so much info to sift through.
@Toowonderful - thanks! BW And CCT both told her that they take a variety of dancing levels and that it is more important to act and sell the dance. Otterbein is on the list. I wasn’t sure about point park so that’s good to know.
East and northeast are a consideration. NY NJ PA, NY, possibly Boston, maybe east coast, not florida. She is open to type of campus and size
More interested in the training and people.
And just to clarify, she does have some dance training but we were a little late to the game in that area.
Thanks again!
Buckeye, your daughter sounds like a carbon copy of mine. Anything I can help with let me know.
Just based on my D’s audition experiences and your geographic desires, you may want to include Western Michigan, Michigan, Ohio Northern, Roosevelt in Chicago, Illinois Wesleyan, Webster in St Louis in addition to others brought up here.
You are about to enter a crazy and exciting year. Lean on folks here that have gone through the process. And make either Excel spreadsheets or individual school folders your friend!
A balanced list and a safety your kid would like to attend are keys to maintaining some semblance of sanity this year! Esp if you can get a school or two with rolling admissions etc. That was something we did not do really well during my D’s year. She didn’t have real information (except for an early no from a bfa) until March of her senior year- and that made for a long season. On the other hand- one of the annoyances of the bfa world are schools which give early academic acceptance (and then flood you with calls emails etc) before you have heard he “real news” from the theater dept!
My S is a sophomore at Wright State. Feel free to ask questions. We’ve also heard good things about Kent State in Ohio.
@BuckeyeBelle, Roosevelt CCPA has two MT tracks, one dance focused, the other voice focused. You might want to consider one or both. The dance training on the voice-track side is very good, though not as concentrated as on the dance track. The acting training in the voice track is more robust than in the dance track. Feel free to PM me if you have questions. My son’s an acting major there, but he’s friends with a bunch of the MT dance kids and ASM’d their showcase last spring.
Anyone else out there in denial that it’s ‘our turn’ - I have a D in this chase…I’ll share more along the way. For now I just want to say best of luck to all on this journey & thanks to all you veterans for helping us along the way. I’ve learned so much reading post the last few years. I’ll certainly add to the conversation if I can, but will probably have more questions than answers! Here we go!!!
I’m checking back in. Thanks for the messages of support and shared experiences about my daughter’s change of heart about MT auditions. It was all very reassuring to hear. I had to take a serious break from everything too, which was very helpful.
However as someone pointed out, she’s at TPAP right now and things have changed again. She had a serious talk with Dave, and she’s going to audition for MT programs as well as audition for vocal performance. She will have a 3-pronged approach to college apps, so she can have the options of MT, vocal performance, and/or another major. Her college list will have to be completely revamped when she gets back home. The other development is that she is taking control of all the details with my support (it was the other way around before!). She’s got lots of work to do, but I’m encouraged that she’s ready to dive back in.
When I checked back in just now and saw the dates of Chicago Unifieds, I discovered that they overlap with the TMEA convention. It’s a huge deal to us, because D’s HS choir has been selected as an honor choir for the convention, and she was also part of the TX All State Choir last year at the convention (and hopefully this year too). The NYC dates will likely conflict with the dates of her HS musical. They don’t make any part of this process easy, do they? 
I’m looking forward to catching up!
Thanks everyone. I know I’m going to have a lot of questions along the way. Glad to connect with people who have been through it.
@jeffandann Ball State is definitely close enough to visit for the day. Now if I can find an empty day on the calendar! I’m trying the spreadsheet thing with audition dates and requirements. I’m sure it helps to be super organized with multiple auditions.
@toowonderful thanks for the advice. She has a few schools where she can schedule auditions in Nov/Dec.
@mom4bwayboy We will be visiting Wright State. I think she left a vm but hasn’t heard back. I’ll let you know. She knows someone at Kent State who loves it so it’s on the list as well.
@Jkellynh17 Her voice teacher told her to check out Roosevelt. I’m sure I’ll have questions to ask you!
Buckeye: If your D wants to visit Ball State and take a tour of the college my D is one of the tour guides for campus. I can let you know what days she works and perhaps you could schedule during that time. They’re back on campus August 13th I believe. You might also want to do a visit during the fall production of Mad World in September; the department website would have the dates for that. And just for planning purposes I know they do on campus auditions two weekends in February usually and they are at the Chicago and New York unifieds.
Hello everyone, I had a question or discussion to toss out here.
So, being a theatre person, I find myself to be much more of a city person as well. I like the idea of being in school in a city where I can see professional shows and be where it’s all happening. I’m assuming that’s a lot of us. I’m wondering if people who are at schools in more isolated or remote cities feel like they still have plenty to do.
This is kind of an in general question but specially in my mind I am thinking about UW Stevens Point, the program seems great, the cost is amazing, and they have quite a strong set of working Alums, I want to make this my number one school but I’m afraid that because it’s essentially in the middle of no where I’ll be bored but perhaps I’ll be too busy with shows and schools to care or notice.
Basing it off of my daughter’s experience the past three years, I’d say that you will be too busy to notice . . . of course, your schedule may vary, but generally speaking, between classes and rehearsals you’ll barely have time to eat, let alone attend productions outside of your school’s!
My daughter is a rising senior, and attends Otterbein. Westerville is about 15-20 minutes from Columbus, which hosts a lot of great theatre and Equity tours . . . she’s never once been able to see something on tour while living there because of her schedule.
However, proximity to larger, theatre-rich cities is a plus when it comes to auditioning for summer stock work, and an even bigger bonus if the program you attend has a working relationship with professional theatre companies.
and for internship connections while at school too.
@ParachuteBoy – as someone who goes to school in WI (I go to Viterbo in La Crosse, which is definitely worth looking to if you’re looking at Midwestern schools and WI in particular), you’re not going to get a “city” environment (with regards to theatre) except in Madison or Milwaukee. I know a lot of my friends at UWSP frequently spend weekends in Madison. Many of my classmates at Viterbo do as well. As long as you have a car, it’s a pretty easy drive. There’s a great regional theatre scene in both Madison and Milwaukee (Madison just established a new Equity summer stock producing organization, Capital City Theatre, and presented Violet with Leigh Ann Larkin and a host of other Broadway professionals this summer).
I’m also a baby arts administrator, so I know a little bit about the presenting culture across the state of Wisconsin (thank you, arts marketing projects). In Stevens Point, you probably won’t get many outside productions that aren’t community theatre/TYA, as equity tours tend to hit Madison and Milwaukee, and non-equity tours tend to hit La Crosse, Appleton, and sometimes Green Bay. Stevens Point is a little too close to both Appleton or Green Bay to be a tour stop. I believe that the UWSP Dept. of Theatre and Dance is the main source of theatre in town, then.
So it all kind of depends on if you’re willing to use up your weekends to drive to Madison or Milwaukee and see shows. I’ve certainly done it (at Viterbo, our faculty are very supportive of current students working in the regional theatre scene in those cities while they are in school, provided it doesn’t require that the student take too much time off from his/her classes) to go see friends in shows, but you’re right, the BFA schedule is demanding. I certainly don’t see as much theatre when I’m in WI as I do when I’m at home (I live in Toronto), where going to the theatre doesn’t require planning and a two-hour drive. But I also find that the onus is on me to create more theatre for my community while I’m in WI, which I love.
The great thing about living in WI, I find, is that you’ve got those two vibrant smaller regional theatre communities in Madison and Milwaukee, and they benefit from a lot of talent exchange with the two bigger theatre markets not too far away, Minneapolis and Chicago. I actually love going to school in La Crosse, because I’m about two hours from Minneapolis, two hours from Madison, four hours from Milwaukee, and about five hours from Chicago–if something amazing is happening in one of those communities, none of them are “too far” to make a weekend trip. It just takes a little coordination.
I guess ultimately what I would encourage you to do is tour UWSP and get a feel for it–and while you’re in WI, come and visit Viterbo, too!
Thanks guys for all your genuine and quick responses. I visited UWSP and Viterbo in April with some friends. I live in Minnesota so it was a day long road trip. The schools and theaters seemed beautiful, especially Viterbo’s theatre. I just noticed there wasn’t much around town so other schools in Chicago like Columbia have a stronger pull to me, despite that the training and cost is clearly superior at the two WI schools. I’m just trying to decide how much the setting should factor into the decision process.
I wish I could pick up UWSP and move it into Minneapolis.
I think there is merit to being encapsulated and focused, and merit to being exposed lots of great theater. Like so many other things, you have to pick what works for you. Also remember that summers can offer opportunities for the “opposite” (city vs not) experience.