<p>Hi Danimal,
I am in Tucson, too, and just finished this process with my son and a friend of his. Both now are freshmen at OCU. PM me if you want to hear about that process.</p>
<p>Keep dancing danimal, keep dancing!! Take ballet!!</p>
<p>danimal,
As far as looking at schools, because you said your strongest point is voice, I'd first decide if you want classical vocal training or not. I know that's a big consideration people often forget to focus on. It's really one of the most important aspects of your training (if you view voice as your strongest, and/or selling point.) Also, take a look at what shows the schools produce: how many a year, and what shows.
I know of some programs that favor the classics and others that premiere shows every year. This might be of interest to you.
Lastly, the curriculum is really a big indicator. When you look at this information for each school, try to focus on whether or not this school fits what you're looking for: not so much what the 'reputation' of the school is.
People always ask for the "top 10" and such, but that list doesn't exist. Figure out what kind of training you want, and you should have an easier time deciding.
Good luck!</p>
<p>(ps, keep up with the dance, and kudos for jumping in there! I was in the same boat, and every single class helps just that much more!)</p>
<p>Listmates,</p>
<p>Forgive me if I am going about this wrong, and there is another thread where I should be asking this.
I was reading the "acceptance" thread and people had posted that they had been accepted at various universities and had auditions scheduled for a later time.
Here's where I expose my ignorance: doesn't one have to audition to BE accepted? Or, in MT programs, does a student have to be accepted on paper (grades, etc.) and is not officially "in" the program until he or she auditions and passes muster there? I hope I am asking this right.
Thanks in advance for the answer.
LD</p>
<p>NotMamaRose--I am finding out all the schools are different. As pointed out elsewhere, Soozievt's d's schools handled things differently than my daughter's schools. The majority of my d's schools are accepting her ACADEMICALLY first. That means that she can enter those schools as a freshman in liberal studies or university studies or whatever without even being an MT major. She has seven colleges to go to right now on that basis. Her auditions will determine if she gets accepted into the MT programs or not. But some schools handle the whole thing together, so when you get accepted it's as an MT in that school or else you don't get in that school at all. Or UM invites one to audition based on an academic acceptance, but I do not think that academic acceptance is an acceptance for the university in general. That would be just too easy to get into one of the very top ranked public universities in the country, if that were true, considering the stats they allow in that way. Theatermom is the resident expert on UM, so she would know the answer to that one. As a side note, my daughter applied to her colleges this summer which was very early for most of these colleges. By applying so early the colleges have been very prompt with their acceptances and academic scholarship offers. It takes off some pressure and allows the student to concentrate on audition material during the school year, so I highly recommend early applications for all the schools that allow early ones.</p>
<p>There is no one way it is done. Some schools admit you into the college (presumably liberal arts) before or separately from the BFA program. If you don't get into the BFA, you can still go to that school. Others give you the complete decision at once. It's very confusing.</p>
<p>As a caveat to the above, if a student is marginally situated on the issue of academic acceptances, early applications might backfire. At her OU audition, my d heard that if the MT department wants a student badly enough, they can generally get them accepted to the school. That might be a mangling of how they phrased it, but that was the general idea. But for every school my d applied for, we were certain she was in the academic ballpark, so the early applications were very helpful in this process.</p>
<p>Hi everyone! I haven't been on this forum for soooo long, but I have decided to post since auditions are coming up and there have been some questions about PSU. I am, like last year, the student receptionist at the auditions. If anyone plans on auditioning for PSU, please let me know!! I hope to meet everyone at some time or another auditioning. </p>
<p>Admissions is rolling academically at Penn State, but as far as MT goes, its a bit different. Generally you will hear within a few weeks from the audition date whether you are accepted or not. In some cases, they need additional time to decide on a few auditionees (usually only a handful). If you are one of the auditioners that the faculty needs more time on then you will most likely get waitlisted until all of the auditions are over. It doesn't mean anything negative! Soozievt, because your awesome D was at the last audition (right?) she heard within a few weeks as did the rest of the auditioners. If she were to audition earlier, she would have heard within a few weeks from that date. I hope this helps!</p>
<p>PSUCat, we will be at Penn State Friday (coming for the classes and the show) and Saturday for the audition. Email me or PM me and I will tell you who we are. Thanks for all the information.</p>
<p>Anyone going there this weekend? We will be there for D's first audition. I cant believe its starting and I know its going to be a long and busy winter.</p>
<p>PSUCAT...so glad to hear from you!!! I wish you well as Shelley in Bat Boy if it hasn't happened yet! It is such a fun show and my D did it this summer at a professional theater in our state. Your role is such a fab one and I only wish I could see you in it. Break a leg! I loved you in Sweet Charity last year. Coincidentally, I'm going to your hometown (and mine) in a few days. </p>
<p>I want to say to people like NYTheaterMom and others, that PSUCat and her mom were wonderful additions to my D's visit and audition day at PSU and were instrumental in what she learned of the program and her developing interest in it. She really liked it and to no small thanks to PSUCat. I hope you meet up. </p>
<p>PSU CAT...I realized as I think I posted somewhere here that after reading other posts on PSU that said the MT acceptances came through the winter following auditions as they went along that I had just assumed people found out in March because like you say, my D heard in March because her audition day was the last one, around Feb. 27 and so the result was finding out a couple weeks later and it just happened to be the end of the whole season when other schools' decisions came out too. I now realize others who auditioned earlier in the year at PSU, heard sooner.</p>
<p>It was a great audition day. My daughter was thrilled to be accepted.Too bad she can't attend more than one program, lol....I hope her path crosses with yours once again down the line as I think many of you kids will some day in NYC or elsewhere. I have not heard many discuss PSU this year and hope to hear more do so as it is a great option to consider.
Susan</p>
<p>Mtmommy,</p>
<p>While I'm guessing you would prefer not to list the actual schools on this public forum that accepted your D academically before auditions (major congrats, by the way!!), I think it would be interesting to know what kind of programs these schools are offering i.e., MT BFA's or BM with MT concentration or BA's? I ask only because of the 8 schools my D applied to 2 years ago, the only one that I know of that might have accepted her academically into the university or college before and regardless of the MT program decision was Emerson and I only know this because it happened to Soozievt's D. Psucat's post makes me think that perhaps PSU might offer admission to the University without MT admission as well but I'm not sure about this. I bring this up because I'm thinking that other parents may find it comforting to have this kind of a program on their list and perhaps if they contacted you privately you would be willing to share that info. Thespiandreams post said it all - at least she knows she has a 4 year college to go to.</p>
<p>With regard to UM, the invitation to audition for MT does not connote acceptance to any school or program at UM. It just means that if the MT program wants to offer admission to a student after their audition, they don't have to worry about the student's academic eligibility or "go to bat" with admissions for a student with marginal academic stats.</p>
<p>This goes 2 years back; however, my D received academic acceptances, and scholarship offers from Webster, Otterbein, Point Park, and Baldwin-Wallace before auditions.</p>
<p>Theatermom, four of the academic acceptances are schools with BFAs in MT and three are schools with BMs in MT. Two of the BMs have awarded the academic scholarships and two of the BFAs have awarded them so far. That's a very clear description of UM's policy of having study apply for an invitation for an audition.</p>
<p>YAY! I am glad that someone will be there on Fri-Sat. Nytheatremom-I will PM you! Soozievt--so glad to hear from you! Bat Boy was such an amazing experiences and I think I've found my favorite role. I loved the journey that the character took me on as an actor...I hope that I will be able to play Shelly again someday! I hope your D is doing well--I check her away messages from time to time to see how she's doing :o) I hope that our paths cross some day soon. She is so great!</p>
<p>PSU has not been discussed much this fall and I'm surprised. The program has been undergoing some changes this year. There have been major changes as of this year in the curriculum--unfortunately, I do not get to go by them because I'm a junior (ahh!) but it is very beneficial to the freshman this year and classes to come. First, the General Education requirement has been lowered to 36 credits, freshman start acting class called "BFA Foundations" first semester along with Voice and Speech and Movement. Those are just a few of the changes!
Aaaaanyway...I wish you all the best of luck with auditions!! It's a tough, long process that only makes us stronger and better in the end.</p>
<p>As I think I mentioned some place....of my D's schools, the student did not get this early notification of academic acceptance but it all basically came at once. These schools were: NYU, UMich, Emerson, Syracuse, Ithaca, Penn State, Boston Conservatory, Carnegie Mellon. The only ones that had something NOT EXACTLY like I just said, still were not what is being talked about here where these kids are getting in academically before auditions....and these two variations were UMich...exactly as TheaterMom explained....you are not academically accepted to attend UMich before auditions but you do have to pass an academic review to be invited to audition. Then when you do not get admitted to the BFA, as my D was not, it is not like she could then attend UMich in another degree program. The thing with Emerson ALSO is not like the situations being talked about here. Emerson had Early Action and my D was an early applicant in that round. It wasn't like they admitted everyone who was qualified academically and waited until the auditions on the BFA decision (like the schools being discussed here). Rather in the EARLY round, they accepted a handful of kids to the BFA AFTER auditions and on Dec. 15, the typical ED or EA date for colleges. Most of the rest were rejected to the college AND BFA (not because they did not pass academic muster but simply that is how it works there). Then a small number of kids were admitted to Emerson but deferred on the BFA....this was NOT before they auditioned....they had already auditioned. It was like a deferral at most colleges except she was admitted and could attend Emerson but was deferred to get into this specific degree program. Then the wait was until Regular Decision where ALL of those applicants heard April 1, in one fell swoop both academically AND for the BFA and AFTER all auditions were completed. My D was only waiting on getting into the BFA degree program however, unlike the RD applicants.</p>
<p>Other than this one variation that happened at this one school that has Early Action and even where her outcome in Dec. was not that common or where there were not too many on this "accepted but deferred for BFA until all auditions are done in the RD round", she basically heard from all schools with the entire decision in one envelope at one time and much later in the year. Academics were not separated out. By the way, the thing that happened with Emerson was a bit odd as we did not even know such an outcome existed there and so she got the big fat envelope saying she was admitted and all that jazz and only later in a letter upon reading further, did it come out that she was deferred for the BFA until RD was done, as they did not want to fill the small class in the program up in that round. On the one hand, it was nice to know she could go to college but on the other, she would never have considered attending that school without being in the BFA program. If she were to do a BA some place, her list of schools would have differed. She picked these colleges primarily for their BFA programs. So, it was a positive note indeed but still was not a true fall back for my daughter. </p>
<p>So many schools deal with it differently but that is why you have to find out. It is cool how many of your kids are finding out they are in at these schools so early (academically). That just was not the case with my D's list. Even my other D's schools had reply dates of April 1, and were not rolling. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>PSUCat....IM my daughter sometime. She loved you and would have loved going to school with you! She is having a blast at her school too. She saw Devon May who played the original Bat Boy in a show in September. The Bat Boy production my daughter was in was an adult show and some of the actors were cast in NYC and some were Equity. She was the youngest person in it, being 16, so was lucky to just get to do it. She played two roles, Ruthie Taylor (she got to get murdered twice this summer in that role and as Lucy in Jekyll and Hyde!) and Ned (can you imagine my D as that hick man, Ned?? from little Ruthie to Ned? lol....actually stretches the acting!). They gave her a signifcant part of the opening number as a solo which was very nice of them. Having to act the part of someone in the hospital was not a stretch for her, however. Though she looked like 12 years old to me in Ruthie's last scene and then played a man in other scenes and a whore in Jekyll a few weeks prior! The role of Shelly is such a great one and I imagine you shined in it. I'm proud of you to be a lead at your school, not easy to do in a BFA program!</p>
<p>Enjoy school! The changes made to your program seem like good ones. The Gen. Ed. requirements at PSU were heavier or more locked in with less flexibility in terms of things you had to take than some other programs. My niece who is at PSU (not in theater) really likes it!</p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>I am auditioning for Penn State at the Unifieds in Chicago (no dance audition, which is sort of good for me. ;) ) Actually, what turned me on to Penn State was a non-Equity tour of Fame that came to Korea over the summer. The girl playing Serena kicked butt, and I looked her up online to find out where she went to school - and I discovered PSU. After doing some research on their program, I decided to add them to my audition list.</p>
<p>PSUcat, do you know of many people who transfer into the BFA program as sophomores? That's what I'm trying to do for Fall '06. Also, does PSU accept students who don't have a whole lot of dance training? And most importantly, what do you think PSU looks for in auditions? Do they seem to prefer legit singers or belters? I'm trying to tailor my audition song/monologue combinations to the invididual schools and what they're looking for, so as to avoid any school getting a narrow impression of my abilities. I don't want anyone to think, "Oh she's belting, she must not be able to sing legit," or "Oh she's belt mixing, she must not be able to belt," etc. Any insight on this for PSU?</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>hi soozievt--i have a few questions for you--or anyone else who feels comfortable answering them: question #1: what do you recommend is a good ratio safety/match/reach programs for someone to apply for MT and question #2 is: what do you suggest is a good number of MT programs to apply for in total? just curious if we are on the right track! thanks!</p>
<p>Samia....one thought or suggestion for you....in EVERY audition, no matter the school, try to show a range of skills. For instance, one song may be a belt up tempo song and the other song a legit ballad. Then you show you can do both. Maybe there is a part in one of the songs that shows a mix. If you do that, then someone can't say "She belts and I wonder if she can sing legit"...try to show both. Also try to show range. Sometimes they even vocalize you. At a few schools, my daughter was asked to sing scales higher and higher into a high soprano range to see what she could do I suppose. Two schools asked her to sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow (after she sang her own songs) and one made her sing that song in higher and higher keys. So, maybe they liked her voice but wanted to see how high she could go in the legit range. Each school handles this a bit differently. In any case, try to show as many things that you can do between your two songs. Contrast them. I know that my D did not go into each school thinking what each school wants and only singing belt or only singing legit. She tried to show both. Also show your strengths. Her strength is the belt voice in a wide range and so she made sure to show that and then tried to show other skills too of course. PSU is a very good program and up and coming so I am glad you are checking it out. Also if you value having some liberal arts, this is one school where you also get an education alongside the BFA training and this is an appeal to those who want that kind of college, a balance of training with being an educated person. Not for all but for those who want this kind of setting, this one fits that bill. </p>
<p>Sareccasmom,
If you asked me about a good ratio for a "normal" college applicant, I would have said 40% reaches, 40% matches, 20% safeties. For regular applicants, the number of schools may vary but for many kids about 8 schools would be good, 3 reach, 3 match, 2 safeties. For those applying to elite colleges, sometimes more may be needed when the odds are like a lottery at the top schools. For those applying to local colleges or state schools within range of their stats, sometimes fewer schools will do. My older child who was a top student and applied to highly selective colleges, had 8 schools and with the balance I just described. </p>
<p>However, let's talk MT BFA candidates. This is an ENTIRELY different situation. In my view, MOST BFA programs are all REACHES. When we are talking admit rates under 10%, nobody, no matter how talented, can be assured of admissions to a particular BFA program. For VERY qualified candidates who have the "package" of very good academics, lots of training, strong skills in all three disciplines of acting, voice, and dance, the "it" factor or stage presence, lots of experience in productions, audition experience, confidence, passion, work ethic, achievements in this field, various benchmarks to assess their talent be it awards, leads, and so forth....these kids who are appropriate or reasonable or ballpark candidates for these BFA programs....and in THOSE cases, it is reasonable to think that they should get into SOME BFA program (s) but it is unpredictable just which ones will come through. I know many kids who fit this description and in their cases, they had about 8-10 schools on their list. Personally speaking, my child had 8 BFA in MT programs on her list and all had acceptance rates 10% or under. So, they were all reaches. In her case, as well as others who I believe were in the ballpark and appropriate candidates for a BFA, I felt they likely would get into at least one (this ended up being true of her and all the other kids I know who fit this level or description). As a colllege counselor, I normally would say anyone is NUTS to only have reaches. For regular college applicants, I say "no way". For a BFA candidate, there are hardly any match or safeties so it is a different ballgame. </p>
<p>So, if you are applying to a BFA in MT and fit the description of someone who is a VERY strong candidate, then you may be able to do 8 BFA in MT programs, though they must be considered reaches. However, it is hard to advise this for someone without knowing their talent and background. Kids and families must assess their level.....you can ask professionals in their field their opinion....voice teachers, acting coaches, directors....you can look at how your child fares amongst local talent when it comes to casting....does he/she stand out? has she been accomplished in the field in the local region? has he/she won any state type awards? how has he/she fared when amongst a stronger talent pool such at a summer immersion program? compared to kids you see in the field, how does your child seem to match up? do you personally know kids who have gotten into these BFA programs and how do you see yourself in comparison to those kids who fared well? are you on par? etc. </p>
<p>For many students, they will need some options that are not as much of an unpredictable "reach". For those students, I recommend a few things. For some, adding on some BFA programs that while selective in terms of their admit rates being low, are not in the so called "top tier" of BFA programs. I do not want to mention names of certain programs but there are some where either the talent pool is not as strong as at others or where once the top kids talent wise nationally have decided to enroll at which ever schools they picked of their acceptances (and they may pick the more top programs off their pile of acceptances), that leaves open available slots at these other programs for those next in line so to speak. So, for some students, I would have some BFA options on the list that are not the top programs. </p>
<p>Next, for some students, I would add some BA by audition programs. There are options out there like this such as Muhlenberg, Wagner, American and several others. </p>
<p>Lastly, I would add some BA in theater programs where there are MT opportunities and productions, some coursework, some interdisciplinary options with dance and music departments and so forth. There are many schools out there that fit this category. Amongst, these BA schools, I would have a reach, match, and safety academically (as normal college applicants would because there is NO audition). </p>
<p>For each kid, I would have to do an evaluation as to which type of college list and which sort of balance is needed. I'm working with someone right now who may not be a strong candidate for the BFA and I have some audition BA program and non-audition BA programs that round out the list. The list is longer than 8 schools due to this need to have some of each. </p>
<p>Personally, I'm not that into having more than 10 schools because the attention that a student can devote to the applications and expressing interest in the school and visits and everything else, will be diluted. Each of my children, who both were involved in very selective college admissions processes, each had 8 schools on their list. </p>
<p>I hope this helps.
Regards,
Susan</p>