<p>As to why I chose Juilliard...</p>
<p>honestly, it wasn't that tough a choice. It was the first school I heard from, and after that everything else sort of paled in comparison. </p>
<p>I applied very much on a whim, NEVER expected in my wildest dreams to get in, and when I did it was sort of like a fairy tale...Juilliard had been this mythic place to me ever since, at age 12, I saw a master class done by Barbara Cook with a bunch of students on musical theater songs. They were amazing. She was amazing. The opportunity for them to WORK with her like that was amazing. I was hooked.</p>
<p>Granted, those were voice majors...which I discovered later...but still.</p>
<p>I thought the program was by far the most interesting and impressive of those I looked at -- the small classes, the age variation, the fact that you're always in a play, the chance to work on classics, the incredible faculty, the playwrights program was a big selling point to me, I'm a huuuuuge lover of new work and a major fan of Durang and Marsha Norman...these were all great...I liked that there wasn't a big cut system...I liked that you were always working on a show, right from the beginning of first year...I liked that there wasn't a particular "method" they perscribed...and I just got a great impression of the school from the auditions and everything I saw. They are incredibly friendly to admitted (and prospective) students and immmediately gave me tickets to see everything the school was doing that season...and I went to see a production and was completely and entirely blown away. Like...blooooown away. And also, growing up in NY and being lucky enough to see a tremendous amount of theater, I had found that often a lot of the actors that I was most impressed with happened to be Juilliard trained. Probably often pure coincidence, but taht was my experience before I ever thought of applying to the school. So when I got the opportunity to go myself, I didn't really think twice. No other school really made me blink. Plus (though this was hardly the deciding factor) Juilliard's actually significantly less expensive than most of the other schools I was looking at...it's not cheap, by any means, but it was the least expensive place i looked at, including liberal arts schools. I don't know how the numbers compare now, a couple years later. </p>
<p>I have done a lot of musical theater -- it's my first love and I am, as Susan mentions, a huge Sondheim enthusiast and something of a musical theater encyclopedia -- but I think of myself VERY much as an actor first. And I think my career (if I have one! Hopefully!) will not be in musicals. Just because there are so many people out there who do that soooooo well that me being sort of halfway okay at it isn't going to really cut it. </p>
<p>Not to say that there isn't really strong singing training at school -- there definitely and absolutely is. In fact, some truly incredible singers choose Juilliard over a MT program -- three people in my class decided to turn down CMU's MT program to attend Juilliard -- and since they only take 12, they weren't too happy about that...but it varies. We have some students who are INCREDIBLE knock your socks off singers and musical theater performers, and that's what they want to do primarily when they leave school...and then we have others who are tone deaf and/or terrified of singing and will probably never do it again in their lives. And then we have some people who think they're not singers and discover over the course of the training that they're actually really wonderful singers -- and that's sort of the most exciting thing. </p>
<p>We have singing class, private singing coachings, the occasional chance to do musicals, and a big cabaret production. And though very very rarely are full scale musicals done, there's almost always elements of singing/music/dance in the productions, so it's not like you don't get any chance to work on those skills or use them in performance.</p>
<p>I really don't feel like I'm giving up anything at all in a straight theater program...but then, if I were a die hard only-want-to-do-musicals person, I might. The program definitely isn't for someone who only only wants to do musicals. But that's not me.</p>
<p>So that was my "decision" which really didn't feel like much of one at the time. It felt more like, "WOW, they'll let me go there?? yes yes yes yes yes, I don't know what they're thinking, but yes!" It felt sort of like a through-the-looking-glass crazy stroke of luck. You know? I know some of my classmates made much more rational, comparative, considered decisions after visiting lots of places and interviewing lots of people, etc...but mine was pretty immediate...</p>
<p>Also, I should add, I only applied to 5 conservatories, so I was only choosing among 5 schools, whereas I know some people are applying to eighty billion and have a lot more options to consider. </p>
<p>What you say about everyone finding their best fit is totally right -- not every school is a match for every person, and I'm a firm believer that people wind up where they belong.</p>
<p>But that's a big about my long-ago experience.</p>