<p>I've been reading your forum for about 6 months and can't tell you enough how helpful it has been. This was about half way through our visits to theatre programs and trying to figure out where the good MT programs were. I decided to sign up with a password and post after reading that at least one of you was at Elon 11/5 when we were and one of the Michigan moms may have been at Michigan about 10/17 when we were. I wanted to echo that both Jekyll & Hyde at Elon and A Chorus Line at Michigan were truly outstanding and Broadway quality with extremely talented kids. We were blown away impressed with both. We were not auditioning at Elon but happened to be there on an audition day because we wanted to see the show. </p>
<p>My son is a high school junior in Arkansas and is much like your kids. He has been seriously participating in professional and community theatre here for over 6 years. Musicals are his favorite and he sings and dances. In between shows and when he has time off from school, we've visited 21 colleges over the past year and a half. I wanted to share some thoughts. He currently plans for next year to audition at the following 9 programs at least. The first 4 listed below were the most recently seen (this fall) and are our top 4, both in terms of loving everything we've seen and geographically (OKC is a 5 hour drive, St. Louis 6 hours, and Michigan and Elon are 13 hours away each - could be driven if had to). </p>
<p>Elon - Can't say enough good things - loved the faculty (met 3), the show, students we met, size of university (4600), and other programs offered. Eric worked with 2 of their graduates who starred in our equity theatre show here last Christmas when he was in the ensemble. They raved about the school and keep in close contact with Catherine McNeela (dept. head). She spent over an hour with us that morning even though they were busy with auditions that afternoon. Linda Sabo who teaches MT and dance and choreographs most of their shows gave me good info. She previously worked under Brent Wagner (Michigan head MT) when he was at Syracuse for many years. </p>
<p>OCU - Very personable faculty and staff - got great info. from Dr. Herendeen head of MT and from Mary Mowry their admin. assistant. The university is small (1700 undergrads, I think) and feels like family. They have great theatre facilities and are adding a huge nice facility for music dept. The MT is under school of music, degree is a BM, and it seems that classical vocal music training is their strongest point. Also, they want the kids to be proficient in piano at least before they are done. The students take dance from the great dance dept. teachers. Eight or more levels of each type of dance are offered. For a small school, they have huge performing arts emphasis. </p>
<p>(side note - both of the above schools do not do senior showcases in NY, and after hearing their thoughts, I'm no longer worried if a school doesn't offer this. Their grad's are very successful. They bring casting directors and others from the business to the school to meet students and see shows).</p>
<p>Michigan - Wow - probably the perfect place if one can be accepted and especially if you could be a chosen one to get a scholarship. This school is expensive for out of state students without a scholarship. I have nothing bad to say. We had a great day, watched Brent Wagner's MT class and the great show. Toured the lovely and huge campus and the music facility and got great info. on auditions from Laura Strozeski, their assistant. This was the most informative info. session regarding the audition expectations. They are also building new theatre facilities. Their MT is also under the school of music. I couldn't believe how consistently well the kids in class could sing and how all of them (especially the guys - kind of unusual) could dance in A Chorus Line. I've hardly ever seen such advanced dance skills. </p>
<p>Webster - Great size school (probably smaller than Elon and bigger than OCU). My impression is that they want to be a strong acting program first with very good music and dance to supplement this. Acting and MT students are tracked together the first 2 years. It reminded me of the conservatory program at DePaul in Chicago if you took that and added voice, piano, and dance. All the faculty bent over backwards to spend time with us, as the head of MT was out sick. Eric got to shadow Sue's twins (from this forum) in acting and movement classes all afternoon. They are great! Eric raved about the teachers and what was done in the classes. Also, the students he met, Alex and Nathan and several others, took him under their wings and made him feel very comfortable. </p>
<p>Ithaca and Syracuse - Liked them both very much. They are very different programs but both have good qualities. We visited in summer so didn't get to witness school in session. The only negatives for us are that they are far away, expensive to travel to, and we hear, very cold with much snow in winter. He will audition, and scholarships would be nice!</p>
<p>Juilliard (straight drama) - Eric wants to audition to see if he can be one of the 2% accepted. I hope he won't be, as it would not be a real college experience, in my opinion. The lady that heads up drama recruiting for them spent an hour with us and was very personable.</p>
<p>NYU - Eric likes CAP 21 and will audition. I like the liberal arts aspect (which I think we also found at Michigan and Elon). I don't like the lack of campus experience, and I really don't like the cost! However, when I summarized our trip to the northeast (which was last spring break - NYC, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh), I thought the NYU program was the closest to what we were looking for. We had planned to fly into NYC, rent a car, drive to Ithaca and Syracuse, end up in Pittsburgh and fly home. Upstate NY got 15 inches of snow that week in mid-March, so we skipped those (went back in summer) and drove to Baltimore instead on the way to Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>CMU - Great program if a student could be one of the 10 accepted. They make students wait 2 years to audition for mainstage shows (if I remember right). Also, they recommend that a student go to Point Park in the summer for additional dance training, so I think they are emphasizing acting and voice with the basic dance added. We have a friend who auditioned for MT but was offered and accepted the acting program. He is a freshman (wasn't there when we went in spring) and his dad says he is happy but very busy - very intensive program. We loved Pittsburgh - got to spend an extra day there due to the upstate NY snow, and got to do much touring and hanging out with our friends who attend Point Park. What a great college town! This school is also very expensive absent scholarships.</p>
<p>Our maybe schools - </p>
<p>Point Park - We have 2 friends there, so the faculty and students spent extra time and were so nice to us. They have a great program. Eric just feels that it may have too much emphasis on dance (which may be its strongest point). I'm a little concerned about the academics because it is 4th tier in US News. My son does well in school and is at the top of his class, so I want him to be challenged academically.</p>
<p>Northwestern - Chicago was our first trip - we loved the campus and the university at Northwestern. No audition is required, but it is still hard to get into. Besides being expensive, the other drawback is that MT is not a degree but a certificate. Students audition for this after being there a year and only a few are accepted. I think they have 80 or 90 in a class of theatre (which limits performance opportunities based on a friend we have there). The MT takes 15 of the theatre students and 15 from the school of music (starting soph. year). Our friend is now in 2nd year and didn't get into MT.</p>
<p>OU (Univ. of Oklahoma) - only reason we would consider is that it is close to home and cheaper than others. We went there when did OCU. Our experience may have been worse than someone I read here recently who got 3 minutes of time with the head guy. We had scheduled ahead and were told he would not see us at all (which he didn't) because he had changed his policy and only meets with people he has seen audition at state thespian festivals, for example. Another drawback is that they require a student they haven't seen to send a video taped audition before they invite the student to audition on campus. We probably won't do this one. Also, a recent grad. from there is here in town to do his second show at our equity theatre. Eric has been in both of these shows as ensemble. They are rehearsing the Christmas show (Children of Eden) now and open next week. This guy told Eric that he liked the program but wished he had gone somewhere else and that he didn't get everything they told him he would. I'll try to get more details next week at the opening night reception.</p>
<p>Our safety or backup options (of which we must chose one) are currently:</p>
<p>Univ. of Tulsa - great college, but tiny MT program (we have a friend there who is performing in major roles as a freshman)</p>
<p>TCU (my alma mater - in business) - they offer a sub-major in MT under the theatre dept. We haven't visited TCU for Eric yet.
(Tulsa and TCU have auditions for scholarship consideration, not for admission)</p>
<p>Indiana University - great dept's of theatre, opera singing, and dance - in second year a student can effectively start MT under an individualized major program. They don't require an audition to get into the theatre major. We haven't visited IU yet.</p>
<p>Ericsmom</p>