Colleges for Musical Theater - PART 39 !

College Majors Musical Theater Major
521

<p>Hi shortnsweet! You mentioned that there is a "great vocal teacher" in the Saratoga area. Maybe you could give me the name for this person...and any contact info you might have. That would be awesome! You also mentioned Deb Draper...I know who she is and she's great!</p>

<p>Thanks everyone for the replies so far! You have been exceedingly helpful and I feel 100 times better about my decision. I have only heard positive things about Skidmore, and it shows that Skidmore is a great school with a lot to offer. Thanks again...I'll let you know how my year there goes.
Amy</p>

522

<p>Hi - I was curious. You advised to "apply early" for the most in scholarships. Do you mean early decision, or early action, or just get your application in way before the due date? Reason I'm asking is my d applied ED to a school, got a relatively small scholarship (considering the cost of the school!) and I was wondering if she wouldn't have gotten MORE if she HADN'T applied ED. Our rationale was if that college was her first choice, the school didn't really have to "entice" her. What do you think? Thx for all your words of wisdom!</p>

523

<p>RossJi, I picked up on that comment by the person from the music school admissions office as well. It kinda made me realize what school she was from, though I won't mention it. But the reason was that the way the school she works at operates and the things she said to do time wise, did not apply to the majority of schools my child applied to (she did not apply to the one I think this person represents). You did not need to audition or apply early at many of my D's schools. (as an aside, it was good to get the audition appointment reserved as soon as allowed) You also did not hear as early as she is talking about and some did not even render decisions until March or even April 1. So, her advice is excellent but only applies to schools using the "system" that her school uses. It sounds a bit like a "rolling" system. It is also a MUSIC school.<br>
She wrote: " It's much easier to do a scholarship increase in December or January than March." Most of the BFA programs my D applied to did not accept students that early on. I am not referring to ED or EA, however, which few programs offered. But for regular decision (not rolling admissions), decisions were not that early.</p>

<p>I agree with everything you said about Tisch. Conventional wisdom with regard to Early Decision schools is that financial aid packages cannot be compared and schools do not need to entice already committed applicants. On the bright side, your D was done with this whole bit way earlier than those of us who had to sweat it out, lol.</p>

524

<p>I agree with Susan, Rossji. You also saved a lot of money in travel and auditions. I have no idea how NYU works in their generosity of award, that is, whether the early applicants get more or less aid, or merit grants. Most schools do not give out this information, and the ones that do have a policy in place (BC only give EA applicants their merit awards, JHU does not give a number of their grants to EDers). For those colleges without a formal policy, the admissions office may not even be able to give you an answer as they may not even chart out who gets the most merit money. Just like auditioning first or last, it can be an advantage or disadvantage, and it is not always the case one way or the other. S got merit award at 3 MT programs that did let him know early, but 2 out of 3 did not give out amounts until much later, just eligibility for merit money. I guess for those who whom the money is an important consideration, it is wise to audition early to those schools where it is beneficial in being considered for the awards. </p>

<p>I can also say that it does bother me when an admissions or financial aid office of a college penalizes a student because of how obnoxious the parent is. I saw many wonderful and obnoxious parental reactions when I worked in an admissions office, but the adcoms there were 100% professional in that they did not take that into any consideration in evaluating the students. I can also tell you that CMU operates the same way. They may shake their heads and talk about inappropriate comments or reactions, but never have I seen that school take it out on the kid. The same with the prep school where my kids go. When I work with kids, I follow these guidelines as well. The kids did not choose their parents.</p>

525

<p>musicschool03 - We're so glad you shared the helpful info. from your perspective, and it is great to hear from the administration of a college! </p>

<p>I think the above discussion points out something important for readers of this forum. One must check out the individual school's requirements for admission, scholarships, signing up for auditions, etc. We have visited many MT schools over the past couple of years and have narrowed the list down to a still sizeable audition list. Several of the schools my son is auditioning for have encouraged us to apply early and to try to audition in the fall, just as musicschool03 mentioned. These are not Early Decision schools. Others seem to discourage fall and encourage the winter auditions. Musicschool has a great point that you should not wait until the last minute to schedule the audition - try to be on top of when the school accepts appointments, and do it soon after. Some schools let you schedule the audition and apply separately as long as by a set deadline or before the audition date. Others want you to be accepted by admissions before being invited to audition. </p>

<p>Some of these schools wait until they have seen everyone before scholarship awards are announced, so a student might know of an acceptance at a date earlier than when they would know of scholarship offer. Other schools will offer the scholarship with acceptance. Do not assume anything to be the same from one school to another. The same is true for monologue and song requirements. My son will be busy getting all this together and doing required paperwork this summer along with other planned activities! Our chart of requirements and due dates is almost overwhelming! I think we blew the mind of our HS's college counselor when we gave him all these early dates for getting our paperwork in (transcripts, counselor and teacher rec's). No one besides this CC group has an appreciation for what all it takes to apply and audition for MT!</p>

526

<p>Ericsmom, it is really nice to have something in hand before the holidays. Even if it is not a top choice, you can often adjust the remaining schools on your list so that you only audition to schools you like better than the accepted school. But I also know some families for whom the news was not good with the early auditions, and it made for a very difficult December, as they did have to revemp and look at some non audition programs as well, and perhaps add Unifieds when they did not plan on doing so. It can really hurt when that happens and it is hard to keep in perspective that at least you have time and the knowledge to add some more schools. Can't do that in April. So that early peek does provide a good litmus test.</p>

<p>The only other comment I want to add, is that for some of the kids who did not get a good first peek, it was often not indicative of what was to come. I suspect some schools are harder on the early auditioners simply because they have to be careful not to fill up to early and you are then competing as memory against live auditions at the tail end of the process. So you want to vary the timing for that reason as well as the fact that few of us know how things will go with the kid. Will he get tired of the process, get sick and wipe out the last few auditions, or improve as he goes along? That's one area where chance plays a role and you want to give it as many chances as you can.</p>

527

<p>Thanks, Jamimom, and we are fully aware that Christmas time could be celebration time or depression time depending on the outcome in fall. Some of our very top choices will be in the fall. We are only doing in the fall the schools that encouraged us to come then. I'm trying to spread it out because he seems to get sick at least once in winter, which can ruin the voice for several weeks. We will have about an even split between unifieds and earlier auditons. Also, he is applying to 2 very well respected non-audition schools that we liked very much, so hopefully news of rejections from auditions would be softened.</p>

<p>I would encourage everyone to have a non-audition option that you are happy with. The percentage chances of admission into MT are so low! We are trying to be realistic about this. I don't like to call these schools "safeties" because, in some cases, they may be your best option and not a backup choice.</p>

528

<p>I went and visited Michigan and CMU for interviews this week. Loved both. Unfortunatly neither had classes in session due to the time of year, but one of the acting professors at CMU that I ran into gave me a personalized tour of thier building, which was awesome! I go on these visits and it is hard because I would love to get into any of these programs. I was wondering how many of you guys out their knew anyone who auditioned for around 5-7 BFA programs and didn't get into a single one? Then what happened? Gosh, I'm getting so stresses and Fall isn't even here yet.</p>

<p>On a tangent. I go to a small school and I am pretty sure that both my friend and I are planning on applying early decsion at NYU (not 100% sure) I'm a boy and she's a girl, but will they want to balance statistics by potentially only accepting one of us or will we be judged individually. And on the subject of early decsion, I know Michigan and CMU don't have it. Like I said I would love to go to any of these fine BFA programs and it seems advantagous to play to early decsion card given my family can financially handle NYU, but what other good BFA programs offer it, given that I can only choose one to take this option with.</p>

<p>Enjoy the Tony's Everyone!</p>

529

<p>Musicman6887, both Michigan and CMU are among the most difficult programs for entry. Look at as you would apps to HPY. I am sure that thre are those who auditioned to 5-7 BFA programs and did not get into a single one if they did not pick progrmas that are not the most selective. No problem auditioning to the top and best known programs, but it is wise to also include some less selective schools as well just as top students would who are applying to the ivies. Also, as mentioned, some good non audition alternatives might well be in order as well. </p>

<p>As for NYU, I don't think they care where you come from. I doubt if it has much impact if any with any of the schools, as the audition is the most powerful part of the application. If you are what they want at the audition, and that includes M/F ratios, voice types, body types, personality types, that is a very strong plus, and you are in if other parts of your app do not contraindicate acceptance. At NYU the academic resume is also very important, particularly the grades. We know one very talented young lady who was accepted with scholarship at the schools that did have a strong academic requirement, but did not get into the schools that did. She had a low SAT and a sub 3.0 average, and the schools came right out and said that was her problem. She will do well to reaudtion next year with strong college grades. NYu is large enough that it can absorb more of the same than the tinier programs who have to be more choosy in picking certain"types". </p>

<p>Most of the kids S knows, did get into some program. I know that my one friend (whom I actually re-met on the audition trail after years of lost contact) was discouraged in December because they did not have a good accept record and wanted to be done with the process by then, and the early feedback indicated that they had better continue. But three deferrals did turn into accepts, and he hit the jackpot at Unifieds as well, and he ended up with some nice choices in the spring But it did not look good at the end of the year, as you just have to assume that the deferrals are not going to be accepts in planning the next step. </p>

<p>My son was sorely tempted to apply ED at NYU. The problem was that he knew it was not his true first choice. He did consider applying ED there and EA and early rolling for as many choices as he could. I don't remember any other ED options. He was not a good candidate for ED because he was not sure what he wanted, thought he would prefer CMU or a HPY school to NYU, and was really debating the relief of getting a top choice school all set by December vs agonizing to the bitter end over some long shots. He decided that he really wanted the choice. Since he veered away from some top MT programs in the process, it was a good thing for him that he did not go ED. I don't think the chances were that much better ED vs RD at NYU, given the sheer number of applicants they can take, and he clearly had other preferences and it was good for him to go through the thought process needed to arrive at his final decision. I know that Soozievt's daughter went full circle and ended up at NYU, but gave everything else a shot as well, gaining the experience of it all in the process. We have friends whose D is in her last year at Tisch, and though she has done well there, and enjoyed the process, she was an ED acceptee several years ago there, she wishes now that she had looked at some other programs first hand. There is something to be gained from this difficult audition process. Whether you get in or not, you can learn the nuts and bolts of what else is available and what training others are getting. Also when assessing your options, you can compare the curriculums to your top choices that you did not get. There are some excellent programs out there that are not as well known, and some include more of what some kids want/need than others. WIthout forcing yourself through the process, it is unlikely that you learn these intricacies.</p>

530

<p>Picking up on what Ericsmom wrote....it is essential to be very very well organized with this process. You have to research each school's PROCESS for how to even go about scheduling the auditions as they all do it differently....some by phone, some online, some not until a certain date, some once you are admitted academically and so forth. As well, it is important to have a master list of all audition requirements as they vary from school to school and once you have the master list, you can come up with a summary of what you need to prepare and at which schools you will use X or Y or a variation of there of. A big chart with each school and all the required dates and paper work needed can be made and then checked off or noted by date as record keeping. As mentioned before, at some schools, there is no advantage to auditioning early as the administrator of a music school posted on this thread (I realize it is important at HER school, however) but it is important to make the appointments as soon as you are permitted to do so, in order to secure a spot, particularly on the dates you prefer as it is a puzzle piecing together all the auditioning and travel for those few months. By scheduling as soon as you are allowed to, you often can get the dates you want (we did). </p>

<p>Picking up on what Jamimom wrote, it is a good idea to do at least one school before the holidays because for one thing, good to get your feet wet, feel it out, see if you need to readjust anything, etc. Also, if it is a school that notifies early, it sure would feel good going into the other auditions with one in the bag. My D took that option by applying Early Action to Emerson in December. It did not go her way in terms of having one in the bag because while she did get accepted to the college, she was deferred until April for the BFA program. While on the one hand, I guess you could say she got into college, whew, it was not that meaningful or did not accomplish the "one in the bag" deal. I would agree with Jami's point: "for some of the kids who did not get a good first peek, it was often not indicative of what was to come. I suspect some schools are harder on the early auditioners simply because they have to be careful not to fill up too early and you are then competing as memory against live auditions at the tail end of the process." At Emerson, I was told they only accepted a handful in that round because they did not want to fill the class up yet and then they held a small pile that my D was in who got accepted but deferred on the BFA. So, if you audition early at a school that does it this way and you don't get in, it may not be an indicator that you won't be successful later on. If they are only taking a few kids at that juncture, the odds are way slimmer than overall odds of admission. In my child's case, it was not indicative of what was to come. She ended up with five acceptances, one waitlist, and one rejection after that. So, the early audition is good and if you get in, even better. But you can't get bent out of shape if it does not happen in that round and just keep on keeping on. My D did choose to switch a song she used at Emerson and never used it again and so doing that one early one was good and a pause before the many in Jan. and Feb. Upon reflection, she says she thinks she improved as her auditions went on and that she felt she was at her best at the last few auditions (which points to the often mentioned notion of not applying to your favorite first). </p>

<p>Musicman.....not that many schools offer ED. I don't have a definitive list of who does offer it for a BFA but I know Tisch does and Syracuse I think does and then Emerson has Early Action. However, I would be wary of your line of thinking that you want to play the ED card and you are strategizing of where it is best to do that. I think you should only apply ED IF, BIG IF, you are CERTAIN a particular school is your much preferred school and you want to go there most of all. My D gave up the ED card which she considered at Tisch because she was not certain at that point and in fact, had another school she favored just as much at the time and chose to do all RD and in fact, as we visited and auditioned at other schools, she came to like them all for various reasons and would have been happy to go to any of them though in the end, chose Tisch, after getting in RD.</p>

531

<p>I totally agree with what Ericsmom is saying. I was also wondering if any of you have guidence counselors that are very familiar with this field? Mine sure isn't. I don't think she understands how auditioning and preparation will be going on next year and has been going on for my whole life :) I wish that she was more knowledgable about the subject. My mom tried to help her and explain to her what I have to do in the coming year, and it seems she forgets every time my mom or I tell her. Everytime I go into her office, she asks me, "So, what are you planning on majoring in?" </p>

<p>Hm.. I know she has lots and lots of people she sees, but couldn't she write it down? :) Just some venting time I guess..</p>

532

<p>Amy, You're not alone. My D's guidance counselor in high school had zero idea on a music ed degree let alone musical theatre or performance. We had to educate her in the way the process takes place. She would pretend to know things and be so wrong on all accounts that we finally just stopped asking.</p>

533

<p>Amy, my D had a very nice guidance counselor but she was clueless about theater programs (any kind of theater) but at least she admitted it - we did all the research ourselves (most of it here!) and just notified her when my D needed stuff done. </p>

<p>I think most GC are this way - it's just too much of a specialty, esp. if they work in a public school setting, to expect them to be on top of all the weird processes and requirements for MT.</p>

534

<p>Even the most caring and competent guidance counselor will not have that much expereince with the audition route. So there are things you have to do to help:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>One of the very important things that you must give your guidance counselor is a list of dates when applications will have to be in. Are you applying early decision, rolling, early action, just regular? All these have different dates. </p></li>
<li><p>She/he must understand that you may miss more days of schools than some other seniors due to auditions. </p></li>
<li><p>People have mentioned on this forum that some schools restrict the number of places you can apply to. Go to the mat on this one -- and make sure you are not restricted to 3 or 4 schools. </p></li>
<li><p>In return for the quantity of paper pushing that you will be asking your counselor to take care of, make sure you abide by deadlines she/he has. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>So be organized and help your counselor as much as you can.</p>

535

<p>Ericsmom--You are so right about having a non-audition MT or some form of alternative to fall back on. I don't think I would be able to stand the waiting game without one! I also welcome musicschool03 to the forum; it's great to have the professional view of all this complicated process!<br>
Susan--I agree about the being organized bit A LOT! We are being so organized over here and even so I feel like we're barely organized in the face of what needs to be done. It's daunting! But then little things happen and one by one they will be like the ropes tying down the balloon being broken or untie. Eventually that thing's gonna fly! One rope pinged 2 days ago when D found a monologue she loves. Yes!!</p>

536

<p>MTMommy, I know how overwhelming this process feels having had two kids apply to college and of course one go through the audition process. Sometimes it feels like it won't all get done because their lives were busy and full without all this extra stuff to do so how to fit it all in?? But I found it helped to develop a time line of all the college related tasks that needed to be done from summer through the first half of senior year and break them down into month by month plans. We had our plan of attack and checked in with each other frequently on what was next to accomplish. It breaks it down into pieces. PLus it keeps you on schedule. Then, I already explained the record keeping chart we set up to use throughout the process. Looking up all requirements, dates, procedures for lining up auditions, etc. was needed early on and also recorded. It definitely involves a lot of work and time but as overwhelming as it seems, it eventually all gets done. I never knew how my kids were gonna fit all this stuff in on top of what they already do (and were gone in summer) but they both somehow did. It does all get done and there is an end in sight. Then comes the WAIT. I will admit, I'm glad we are all done with this stuff! </p>

<p>I'm glad your D found a monologue she liked. It is early yet and so that is great. I think my D drove me a bit nuts on her choosing of the songs in particular and changing her mind over and over again all fall to the point when I had to say it is not THAT important WHAT the song is, but more that you pick one and practice it already before the auditions are going to start. For a while, she was so set on it having to be "unique" or should I say, NOT commonly used, that she was ruling out like every possibility, lol. But eventually songs were chosen and I thought that would never happen. She did not go back and forth as much on the monologues (she needed four different ones for her schools) because she was not as familiar with the body of monologues out there and was choosing among just a few options she had and not from like every song ever written, lol (she knows a lot of them, and maybe that is part of the problem there). </p>

<p>Susan</p>

537

<p>Last night my reply got posted before I was done--it happened just as CC went out on me again, having been out all day. I wasn't finished with what I was going to say and hadn't revised, so I'm sorry if it sounds incomplete and sorry for the errors.</p>

<p>Thanks, Susan! Yeah, my D knows lots of monologues because she went through this almost 2 years ago to find monologues for a competition. But she wanted stuff that's more unique, so she found one that she doesn't think anybody will have ever heard of and she loves it! It just needs to be a full length published play, not one necessarily produced (on stage), right? If so, that's one down, probably three to go, not to mention the songs LOL. She is working on some possible classical pieces for the schools that require classical and has been researching old musicals for uptempo songs, as well. Since she starts auditioning in October and will be gone most of the summer, it's good she's starting now!</p>

<p>I wanted to add about guidance counselors, that my D goes to a large public high school and nobody has ever done the audition circuit before for any performing arts at all. A couple have done one or two auditions, that's it. So the counselors and teachers don't know anything about it. But I did talk to the principal and get his approval for the extra absences for auditions.</p>

538

<p>Hi..I'm glad you're all playing the guessing game of the school I'm from. Just remember, the infomation I give does not necessarily mean that this is how my school operates. :)</p>

<p>In regards to scholarships for different music majors, in most schools, each major has it's own scholarship requirements. A voice major may receive more schoalrship than a music ED major simply because that is what the scholarship fund allows. In most cases, you'll find instrumentalists receiving more schoalrship money cause there is a lack of them as opposed to vocalists.</p>

<p>Reagarding scholarships, a school's financial assiatnce department should be able to give you some leads about non university related sources. In fact..here's a helpful tip...check out the web sites of some major universitys. Many, like mine, have a complete listing on their financial assiatance web site which is available to the public. It may take some seraching but they can be very helpful and beneficial. Most will list scholarships of general interest (meaning non music related), but those scholarships are just as important and valuable. The easiest way to find them is do a Yahoo or Google serach under "2005 college scholarships" and look for sites that are related to specific schools.</p>

<p>Which leads me to non university scholarship sites. I believe Shauna's FAQ page may include this but it bears repeating. You should never have to pay for a scholarship search. The information pay sites provide can also be found for free on the web with some hard work. Also, be careful when signing up with free scholarship sites to get "updates". Some of these sites are spam makers. I would suggest you or your child set up a an email account to receive these scholarships notices. Otherwise you may find your mailbox stuffed with spam.</p>

539

<p>The above posts reminded me of what a task it was last year to just sort through the requirements and get her application materials together.</p>

<p>You must read the school's theater program website thoroughly. There are usually application requirements there that are separate and different than the main school admission website. They may have a separate application, require separate recommendations, may or may not want a portfolio, audition, interview, essay, and these materials will probably go to a different address than the school. Unfortunately I've found many school websites aren't well designed and the information you may need may be buried where you wouldn't expect to find it. So you must be sure you understand the main school admissions requirements as well as the theater department's requirements. Document all the who-what-where and when in your master school checklist, but keep re-checking their website as schools typically update their requirements during the summer for the fall 2006 year.</p>

<p>Finally, when you get your application packet in the mail, you have to read THAT from cover to cover and see if it mentions any additional or different data not already on your checklist. For example, I recall USC's theater website didn't say anything about when to submit a portfolio for production. I knew they wanted one but assumed D would bring it with her to her interview in January. With horror I saw the fine print in the application packet on December 8 that they wanted "all supplemental materials" WITH her application by December 10. Did that mean her portfolio? I had to call and ask. The best answer I could get was a "yes if it said all supplemental materials, it means ALL supplemental materials". So I had to assume her application would be considered incomplete if the portfolio wasn't in there too. She had 85% of it done, but it was still a panic for the rest. Thank heavens the school is 10 minutes away from us and my husband hand-delivered this huge application package personally to the department on 12/10. I suspect nobody looked at it anyway till she interviewed.</p>

<p>So read everything--the website and the printed materials, and read it again and again. If there's anything vague or contradictory, call and resolve asap. The good thing is that admissions offices are fairly quiet over the summer and they have time to talk and answer questions. Once fall semester and the application season starts, the lines get busy. Trouble is, a lot of schools seem to take their time sending out application packets, and we didn't get several until October.</p>

540

<p>I am 20 years old, and am currently attending a community college in Berkshire County, MA. (Home of Williamstown Theatre Festival and Barrington Stage CO.) I am looking to transfer to either a BA or BFA program in Musical Theatre. I want a competitive program, but I don't have much professional training, yet. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for schools to apply that take transfers to MT programs. I am willing to start as a freshman. Also, ideally I would like to transfer in the winter of this coming year...any idea if there are programs that take people mid year??
Thanks in advace-
Greeny</p>