<p>wenlee - How exciting for you and your daughter! That is so interesting and she will definitely gain so many life experiences through this great opportunity.</p>
<p>Hi Teri,</p>
<p>As others have said - welcome to the discussion and know that we all are happy to share what we've learned but none of us knows it all and we all come to gather information as well as shhare it. </p>
<p>The previous post from MTAussie echoes what I have been thinking about after reading your initial descriptions of your D's experience to date. I have to say I come down on the side of spending more time in quality training than doing the extra community theater or high school show. Of course they are great fun for the kids - it is what they want to do all the time and hopefully they will all be doing this as a career. But now is the time to work on skills. I kind of think of classes/instruction as dinner and doing a show as dessert. Except for some special occasions, I think you should eat your dinner before you get dessert.</p>
<p>I also agree with MTAussie about the importance of dance training and not just as a tool that might differentiate potential college candidates (although I agree that in some programs that may be how some close decisions are made). My D is a freshman at UM and this is the first year I have any information about the kids who have gone out to seek summer stock employment. I have to tell you that many more students who are dancers as well as singers received offers to work this summer. Obviously, most of the kids my D's age are looking at ensemble work this summer, but boy oh boy are they happy to have it. Dance just makes you that much more of an asset to potential employers. So while much of this may seem to be a long time in the future, that time is a gift to your D and I hope she can use the time to strengthen her dance and equally important, hone her audition skills. She won't regret it. As an added benefit, being a strong dancer also seems to be helpful in avoiding the dreaded "freshman 15" (pound weight gain).</p>
<p>Again, welcome!</p>
<p>gosh did those pounds go up??? When I went to college (although it was many moons ago) it was the freshman 10! lol</p>
<p>I also agree with of the importance of training....my daughter has been taking private voice for a number of years and has danced competitively, taken piano ..blah blah blah...but I believe at the age of 16 before the pressures of college and beyond they should be able to enjoy being in a performance whether it be community theater or professional or even high school. I guess it's all about balance! Just remembering not to trade off one for the other. Keep a good mix of performance opportunities with more of the focus on training!</p>
<p>Theatermom--My D's been eating lots of veggies, not too much ice cream or cake, for a long time! ;-) I hope her strategy pays off.</p>
<p>I would wager a guess that most MT BFA students don't gain much during their years in college...they are way too active. Oh to live life over again!! Listen this comes from a mom who gained over 80 pounds with twins....Aye-yay-yay. Fortunately 3 boys in less than 2 years wore it off. LOL</p>
<p>wenlee,</p>
<p>I just knew that things would fall into place for your D. When we met at those two auditions, she seemed to have that special spark. All the best wishes for continued success.</p>
<p>Thanks Kaysmom and Theatermom,
Your comments on balance were really what I was trying to get at. Every kid should have the opportunity to do their school shows and good community theater shows as long as they do not have a negative impact on training in the LONG run. Let's face it, doing ANY show does impact dance, voice and acting lessons/classes, even if only for the rehearsal period of that particular show! I think it's when you you sacrifice training for continual performances that it becomes a problem.
Theatermom - I love the dinner/dessert analogy!!! As you said - our kids should not sacrifice training (dinner) for yet ANOTHER show (dessert). Encourage your D to choose carefully, keep working on her skills/talents and she can have the best of both worlds!
MTaussie</p>
<p>Kaysmom,</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply regarding balance. I read some of these posts, and have concerns about her giving up some of the things she absolutely loves, especially show choir. Our program is very successful and she gets lots of positive reinforcement from it.</p>
<p>We live in the north/northwest Chicago suburbs - yea, I know - a plethora of resources within an hour's drive (with no traffic). But she just got her license and I don't think she's ready to start commuting into Chicago for this kind of stuff on her own. Unfortunately, I don't have the freedom to chauffer her around for all this stuff because of my own job and finishing up my own master's program. As I said, she has been in private voice lessons for over a year now, but is taking this term off due to school obligations. If she can't find the time to get serious about dance classes, then she may have to choose a vocal performance program over MT. </p>
<p>To the other mom who also took her daughter to see Wicked for her 16th birthday, I've been amazed to hear how many other moms have done that for their daughter's 16th birthday - and here I thought I was original! We have tickets to see it again here in Chicago next month (the national touring company), and after they leave, Chicago will get its own local company for an indefinite run, so I'm sure we'll see it again after that run begins.</p>
<p>Next summer we've talked about her doing a residential program at Northwestern. Hopefully it will open some doors for her, and maybe she can figure out who and what are some of the places she should start networking with. </p>
<p>The website for musical theater potential students was very helpful; at this point, I will pass this along to her, and she will need to start deciding if this is the route she wants to take. I will support her no matter what she does.</p>
<p>This will be a busy week for all of us - it's production week for their musical, "Working". I'd never heard of it until the drama teacher picked it; it's based on a Studs Terkel book, and music is by Stephen Schwartz and James Taylor (among others). Speaking of her drama teacher, teaching is new to him, he did the professional acting thing in Chicago (he met his wife when they did Working together), so he probably has some contacts or recommendations for people she should meet. Maybe once the play is over, I will make an appt. to talk with him about all this. His wife was the "musical" one of the two, and I think she might be willing to consult with us, too.</p>
<p>I was the one who took my daughter to see Wicked for her 16th birthday! But that is only the half of it...she loved it so much we got her tickets for a Christmas present to see Idina Menzel's last show on January 9th (which of course did not turn out to be her last show) but she still showed up which was an amazing experience for my d! Then my d went to NYC a few weeks ago with her drama class and saw it again this time with Shoshana Bean and loved her as Elphaba too! I also thought I was being original! How fun!</p>
<p>Freelance,</p>
<p>Thanks so much. Things have been happening so fast for her but it is certainly exciting. I will keep watching and reading this site for news about everyone's children and the college experience even though we may not be having that same experience quite yet. Best of luck to you and your daughter as well I will keep watching for everyones news and updates.</p>
<p>Teri,</p>
<p>Living where we do in NC my d is able to drive herself around without much traffic. I am with you -- I can not imagine letting a new driver drive into a city like Chicago alone. That would make it difficult for lessons because we all know that it can be CRAZY trying to get everyone where they need to be all the time! I have 3 kids in all directions and a hubbie works mon-fri in NJ (AHHH...no help from him). I feel like I spend eons driving around town (so much so that I should probably sell my home and move into the van) but the past 6 months my d has been driving has made the world of difference. Maybe your daughter could try to work out a carpool with someone. If she loves show choir...she must do it...you have to be able to do what you truly love in life...isn't this what this entire site is about?! Just see that she keeps up her private vocal training as well.</p>
<p>Just when I decide to that I really need to move on to something beside CC, my name gets mentioned, and I have to stay and talk some more!</p>
<p>For Terri and all the new lurkers, my name is Peg. I have a freshman in college, and have been hanging around here for almost two years. I serve two major purposes. First, I am the official Millikin University cheerleader. And secondly, I am a shoulder for those whose daughters end out with way too many rejection letters.</p>
<p>My daughter, along with Shania, did the audition circuit, but ended out with half a dozen rejection letters. Stephanie is a dancer who can sing and act. Unfortunately, we have discovered that singing is her weak point. After the fifth (sixth??) rejection letter, someone pointed her in the direction of Millikin. She auditioned there April 6. Millikin places everyone that day, so you don't have to wait for results. She is finishing up her freshman year, and dearly loves it. </p>
<p>Show choir camp. (Piece of trivial. The people that founded Show Choir Camp are graduates of Millikin.) Steph went to Show Choir Camp the summer after her freshman year in high school, and had a blast. She really enjoyed it. That is her style of performing. However, she had not major desire to go back. The summer after her sophomore year, she did two weeks in New York City at a summer dance intensive. The following summer, she did six weeks at the CMU Pre-College program.</p>
<p>I will tell you my opinion, but before you jump on me, finish the paragraph! If your daughter is seriously interested in MT, I would not recommend another summer of show choir camp. I don't think the level of skills is high enough. On the other hand, if I had to do it again, I don't think Stephanie should have taken as many dance classes. She should have worked more on getting dramatic roles, doing community theater, and working her voice. She should have skipped Solo & Ensemble competitions and learned to belt. HOWEVER, there is no way I could have convinced her of any of that. She loved her dance lessons, and got a lot of satisfaction out of them. She developed poise and confidence. I could never have convinced her to skip Solo & Ensemble, just because that's what "everyone" in our high school did. She would not have understood that she didn't necessarily need more work on choral singing; that she needed help on projecting and belting.</p>
<p>The summer program at Northwestern is a good one. There is a whole thread of summer programs. OCU has one, CMU has a good one (but expensive). Stagedoor Manor is one that is discussed often. If you can swing one of these financially, her life will be changed!</p>
<p>One more comment. Unlike most college majors, MT's do not always have the luxury of picking their colleges by size, what the buildings look like, etc. You figure out what your strength is and go from there. While your daughter may not like a town the size of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Conservatory is one of the elite that specializes in singing. Univ of Mich may be a huge sports college, but their MT program is among the best. We live within a half hour of Univ of Mich and Michigan State, and drive through both campuses fairly regularly. Stephanie admits she misses the "big college atmosphere", but realizes that she needed to sacrifice that for MT training.</p>
<p>If you, or anyone else, have questions about Millikin, feel free to e-mail me privately. I will gladly give you Stephanie's e-mail address and you can talk to her directly.</p>
<p>Got to go. Snack time in the day care!</p>
<p>Peg</p>
<p>S was determined to go to Show Choir Camp at Disney World the summer after his sophomore year. When the Disney World camp was cancelled, he was very disappointed. I went online searching for a camp he could get into at about this time of the year and discovered OCU. He went, loved it, and changed his focus a bit. He will be a part of OCU MT freshman class in the fall.</p>
<p>Hi everyone!
I'm new at this, but I was hoping someone might help me with a fairly urgent problem. I have been accepted to both OCU and Shenandoah U and I was wondering if anyone knew anything good/bad about the programs at either school to help me decide on one. The urgent part is that Shenadaoh's tuition deposit is due on May 1st. So if you know anything plese help!</p>
<p>OCU! Of course, I'm quite biased as I will be going there next year. Check out the ocu freshman class thread.</p>
<p>jcsuperstar: I think you can't go wrong with either school. I know OCU has a BM in MT, which is a real plus. I also know Shenandoah will educate a musician, along with the MT skills. Not knowing anymore of your prerequisites, i.e. finances, location, etc., I think that either choice is great. Let us know what you decide.</p>
<p>jcsuperstar,
OCU also has a great program for training musicians. One of the things that attracted me to the program is the musical basis in teaching.</p>
<p>jcsuperstar - I vote for OCU for you, as well!</p>
<p>Shauna, great job, girl! We're all so proud of you for getting into OCU with a talent scholarship!!!! I cried when I read the e-mail yesterday that notified me of your post on the acceptance and scholarship! I had an outing last night and couldn't take time to get on CC. </p>
<p>Newcomers - welcome! You need to know that Shauna was instrumental in keeping this MT thread going and linked in the early stages and also in putting together all the FAQ's that you need to go read (see link at top). Shauna is brilliant, and everyone is so proud of her success!</p>
<p>teriwtt - Don't you love the support and all the different perspectives you get from these wonderful people on this tread? Here I'm gone 2 days, and have come back to some wonderful information that everyone has given you. Each of our children has a little different focus or interest, and getting that wide variety of perspectives is so helpful! I'm going to do a separate post to answer some of the things you mentioned in your second post.</p>
<p>Junior parents - If your child took ACT on 4/9, the multiple choice part of the scores can be obtained online today by paying $8. We are sort of celebrating at our house this week. ACTs were good enough to get into the exclusive programs (not great, but fine - he'll take it again). SAT scores arrived from the March test and were very good (quite a bit higher than the ACT on the comparison charts). On the SAT, math was his highest score! The real celebration, though, was that Eric's principal told him today that he had the highest score in his school on the essay part of the "new" SAT! This was the part everyone was freaking out about! We were so pleased! Thank goodness writing seems to come easy for him, as he'll have a ton of essays to do this summer for college applications!</p>
<p>Last night Boston Conservatory held a get together for admitted students here on the West Coast. It was held at the home of parents of a senior student at the school. They had a great turnout and parents and students came from as far away as Las Vegas and Northern California. I felt very fortunate as it was only 1/2 hour from my home. </p>
<p>The Director of Admissions was there as well as alum from previous years. It was a great opportunity for the students to meet other kids that will be going there from this part of the country. Plans were made to fly back and forth together and there was definitely a lot of excitement in the air. The Director of Admissions spoke and we had a question and answer period. Of course I had to ask about the sophmore juries, but they really downplayed it and that the kids who are asked to leave have plenty of notice to go elsewhere since they get a probation in the middle of sophmore year. He said it should never come as a surprise to the kids, only to the parents. It truly only seems to be done if you are not doing the work, not showing up for class, etc. I feel that my mind was put at ease in this matter. </p>
<p>One alum said that it was the best time of his life, but that it was a LOT of work. I feel that CMU pre-college prepared her for the amount of work it will be and it truly is doing what they love, so it doesn't seem like work to them. There is a liberal arts component, but the only math and science will be the "history of math, etc....". An overwhelming sigh of relief was heard. </p>
<p>There were also a few graduate students there that will be attending next year. They showed videos of the previous dance, opera and musical theater shows. The host and hostess provided a beautiful spread of Bostonian favorites, i.e., clam chowder, beans, you get the picture. I was able to talk to them about the legistics of getting back and forth, where to stay, etc. The alums had wonderful credits to their names, and were very giving to show up and talk to all of us. It was a very warm and inviting evening and we really appreciated them having it. It's real. She's going. She's thrilled. I know she will be in good hands. Just not mine. I think I will invest in a computer with video. </p>
<p>SillyBOCOmonster - I'm sure she'll tell you all about it.</p>