@TNTheatreDad when you are in NYC see if you can stop by Drew. My daughter is a tour guide for the school as well as the theatre department. I know she would love to meet with your daughter.
@TNTheatreDad My D is at SUNY Purchase and you are correct - the program is rigid. Plus the school may not meet your Dās academic requirements. If she wants a tour from a current student, I can put her in touch with my D.
One more word of advice for the Palmer House: do download the Hilton app and check in early via your phone. Otherwise you may be walked to a different hotel if you arrive too late in the day. D had an offsite, all-day audition at a nearby school the first day we got there. We headed straight there from the airport, and back to the hotel at 11:30 pm. Model UN was in full swing, and with the influx of unifieds folks, there was no room at the inn. It was a mild hassle to head to another place for one night, considering D had another audition Sunday AM, so we could not unpack, settle in, etc. Mind you, Palmer House was super nice, giving us a free room at the Hilton Chicago around the corner, and cab fare there and back, and a free palmer house breakfast buffet, and a box of chocolates. Wait, maybe I should be advising everyone to check in after all the rooms are goneā¦ 
@Jkellynh17 I have to second your endorsement of the Revival food court - we ate there several times. And in '17, the NYU audition was at the Westin, just a couple of doors up from that. Great place to grab coffee with another parent while you are waiting for your kiddo to finish.
It does get very crowded at lunchtime though. Weāve had tacos, ramen, gelato, coffee and breakfast sandwiches from Fat Shallot there, and itās all amazingly high quality.
@TNTheatreDad My D will be attending an auditioned BA where there is plenty of room to minor or even double major but itās in LA so probably too far West for her! We really couldnāt find a ton of auditioned BAās on the East when we were looking. Tampa has one but not sure if she would be interested in Florida.
@TNTheatreDad actually I forgot about American Univesity in DC. Itās an auditioned BA with plenty of room for pursuing outside subjects. My D auditioned there in person and it was one of her favorite auditions. She ended up being accepted for Spring so we reallly didnāt give it any consideration.
@marg928 thanks for the input. Sheās really not interested in FL. I tried to get her to look at Miami, FIU, and a couple of others- maybe Jacksonville and Rollins but she doesnāt want to go to FL. I thought it would be great to be in Miami since she wants to speak Spanish more. We will look more at American U. She told me this weekend that if she didnāt get into any other school she thought she could be happy at Belmont. Her focus seems to be on getting prepared for some of the reach schools on her list already. Maybe our list is adequate as it stands since she has an option she can live with. Not too sure how generous Belmont will be but at least we have 2 good auditioned BFA schools that can serve as safeties. Thanks again to everyone for the input. I will continue to post periodically on how things are going. We have Palmer house booked already and I will certainly give feed back about her experience at Stratford when she gets back.
If you are considering Purchase, have you looked at SUNY Fredonia? It has BFA programs and an BA which is non-auditioned but which appears to allow a minor. By way of disclosure, my son will be starting a BFA in theater tech there this fall. He was accepted to Purchase as well, in addition to LIU-Post and Adelphi. He didnāt apply anywhere else because our budget is the cost of a SUNY.
Hello! Please does anyone know how early you need to submit your Prescreen videos? I see CMU says āafter Sept. 1ā but do we really have to submit in September? Is October okay? All thoughts welcomed, not just for CMU, for all prescreen BFA schools.
Most of the prescreens Iāve looked at have a deadline - perhaps if you look at the callback dates it might help with whether Oct is good for CMU. Weāre working on our timelines right now (because yes, after 1 year of list building, we are not final yet) and weāre planning Oct for the prescreen video work, with a submit in November. Creating the āmotherā of all spreadsheets.
@DoinResearch Thanks for your reply! Are you looking for MT prescreen or straight acting? I find it really confusing even when you go to various school sites. I canāt tell at either NYU or Michigan, for example, if there is a pre-screen. I finally called U Mich. Got the answer quickly. NO pre-screen for BFA acting, only pre-screen for MT. If that helps!
@FourStars - look here:
@FourStars Straight Acting, which makes it a little easier.
@FourStars when we visited CMU this summer they said the earlier the better. Last year they said they ran out of audition slots in early October. We also were told at Baldwin Wallace they ran out of slots by the end of September. So I guess it depends on the school and how bad you want to go there.
I figured before I started trying to figure this out on my own (many hours at the computer) I would ask this all knowing and kind group. Do MT programs fall on a continuum? Like some that are on one side being more actor training heavy (while still being MT) and the other side being more dance, music heavy? I guess what I want to know is are there MT programs that are known for being actor training heavy?
@ginaf1102 , this forum is primarily for straight acting, so itās better to go to the MT forum for MT questions. Itās here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/
Sorry. I thought it was more of a hybrid question. Will check with the MT folks. Thanks.
@ginaf1102 UNCSA is a comprehensive drama program. Considered straight āactingā but many MT kids end up there as it is acting focused, but students also take voice and dance, plus lots of other movement/physical classes every semesterā¦ Two recent grads (from May 2017) were/are workshopping musicals in NYC with big broadway stars. One just got a lead in the Broadway revival of Once on This Island. My own daughter is a straight actor and was surprised when she had to buy every type of dance shoe there is to start at UNCSA and take dance class. Just one idea - it obviously is not as dance/singing heavy as an MT program, but it is comprehensive.
@bfahopeful UNSCA is on my MT galās list. I look forward to hearing how your D is doing there!