<p>ocumtinfo</p>
<p>Do you know anything about the Dance Management program? We just came across it and think it a better "fit" for my D than a BM. Can you minor in theater?</p>
<p>Thanks for all your info!</p>
<p>Hi Illinsue...</p>
<p>Thanks for your interest in the Dance Management program at OCU. It is indeed an unique program for those who want to be involved in the "other" side of this business.</p>
<p>This program comes from OCU's School of American Dance and Arts Management. I'm not as familiar with the details of this degree since it is not part of the Bass School of Music. But here's their program information:</p>
<p>I assume that one can major in Management and minor in theater. However, one of our OCU Admissions Counselors would be able to assist you with all your questions. Also, the OCU School of Theater offers a Technical Theater degree that provides training in theater management. Feel free to contact the admissions office at 1-800-633-7242 extension one. If you PM me what state you're from, I'll tell you who your counselor is! Thanks</p>
<p>to OCU,
Sorry for the mistake. That would be OU, not OCU.</p>
<p>I went back and looked at the list of NETD participants from last year and saw Oklahoma University Department of Musical Theatre. </p>
<p>Thanks for being so alert</p>
<p>Thanks Rossji, Looks like I better throw some more money in the bank (I wish it were that easy!). I am strongly encouraging my D to make sure she keeps her grades up so she can have a shot at some scholarship money.</p>
<p>Soozievt, Thank you so much for taking the time to give such good information. I feel the same way about the skills the theatre gives to young people. It is an education unto itself. The financial information is a little scary. When you compare it to the cost of in-state tuition at a state university, there is a big gap. From what I have read so far about the level of competition, your daughter must be very talented and smart to do so well in her auditions. </p>
<p>I did have a question about the advice not to start the audition process at your first choice school. I have read that if you audition early, the chance of getting scholarship money is better. For that reason, I thought it might be better for my D to audition first chance at her number one choice (assuming it stays the same). I am sure your D's went through numerous auditions for various plays, etc. prior to the school auditions. Are the school auditions that different that you should have a couple under your belt for practice?</p>
<p>Uh oh, I just saw the post that I am putting this in the wrong place..,</p>
<p>Dramadad, though this is not the best place to answer your question, true, I want to make sure you see the answer but from now on in, you can either start a new thread or find one on the topic if there is an existing thread. </p>
<p>Anyway, I hear your point about schools where the chance at scholarship money is better if auditioning early. I have read that on here about some schools but that was NOT the case anywhere my D applied that I know of. I have read that on here, for example, about OCU, but my D did not apply there. So, find that information out specifically from each school and apply accordingly. If there is no difference in terms of scholarship money by date of audition (as was the case at all eight of my daughter's schools), then the rule of thumb between those who have gone through this is that it is best not to do your very first choice school as the first college audition. I don't think this has to do with nervousness (or was not the issue for my kid, I should say as she is not the nervous type). But besides everyone who had done it suggesting this to us, now that we have gone through it, I agree with the advice. My D remarked toward the second half of the 8 auditions that she felt the best about the last half ones and thought she was better in those. And her final results kinda proved that true a bit.</p>
<p>You asked if it was that different than auditions she had done in the past. It is for a few reasons....way way more is at stake. It is also way way way more competitive. You are not auditioning for a specific role so you have to show a range of skills. Nobody has ever seen ya before and has no idea how good you are on stage, and they only know what they see in those ten min. or so. Our high school auditions did not have monologues for the musical auditions (maybe a cold reading though). The dance audition for a high school musical or community theater production is very basic and is meant to see if you can move or dance at all whereas the level of your dance technique is more scrutinized and the dance audition is more advanced at a BFA audition. However, as different as they may be, it is super advantageous for an applicant to a BFA program to have experienced all sorts of auditions at various levels of theater before doing auditions for a BFA program because the more you audition, the better you get at actually auditioning itself. Also, the more comfortable you are in such situations. I have to say that my own kid has auditioned so much in her life and is comfortable (as one can be) in an audition situation and I feel that her background in such situations has helped to do these important ones. She has been in some high powered auditions that were "competitive" such as Broadway ones (which really did give a feel for auditions where there are many talented people in one place and also a panel of auditors). </p>
<p>Another thing about the order of the auditions....I know my D, looking back on her first audition, realized that she needed to change one of her songs and she did after that. Her admissions results did improve in the audition season, so who knows. </p>
<p>So, the upshot is that prior audition experience itself is VERY good going into BFA auditions. But amongst the actual BFA auditions (which still are a little different than regular ones or at least what is at stake), usually kids get better at them as they do them....they know what to expect or they get better at that audition material or something. I know my D even said to me that normally when she auditions, the only thing at stake is getting into the show and which part but this time, a whole lot more was riding on the line. That is likely the biggest difference. Audition experience helps a lot but still the BFA audition experience is its own thing of sorts. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>Good insight and advice! Thanks very much.</p>
<p>Dramadad...
My D said the auditions got "easier" as she proceeded through the process. I think you can take that to mean she got more comfortable with the passage of time. But her results were better in the beginning than the end. (What THAT means, I don't know!) So...we would not advise you to save the most important for last! </p>
<p>We personally saved a lot of money by auditioning early (and her being accepted) for favorite schools in the fall. It meant we didn't have to do nearly half of the auditions she had planned. It is an expensive process, both financially and emotionally. We were happy to have the process cut in half by having a favorite school say yes early. </p>
<p>Just my two cents from our journey.</p>
<p>Picking up on what Musicalthtrmom wrote.....I agree that it can be beneficial to audition at a school you like that offers Early Action or any sort of early notification because it MAY mean, IF the student gets in, being able to cut out a couple auditions (and save time and money). Actually my D had that plan in place. She applied EA to Emerson in early December, her only audition before January. At the time, she really loved Emerson and it was probably third on her list of 8 schools in terms of preference. She said if she got in, she was going to cut out a couple of her planned auditions (not all by any means). What happened was that on Dec. 15, she found out she was accepted to Emerson but deferred until April for the decision regarding the BFA program. True, she had a college admissions in her pocket but had no interest in attending if not in the BFA program so she then could not cut out any of her remaining auditions. Looking back, I am almost glad this happened because as the year went on, some of her preferences shifted. At that early juncture she had only visited four of her 8 schools and so she naturally knew more about schools she had seen in depth (inc. Emerson which we saw in Oct. as well) and those schools were elevated to the top of the list. She really could not truthfully say she did not like some of the others as much because she had not been to them yet (ideally I'd visit each school in junior year but due to graduating early, her audition year WAS her junior year and so we only got to see four of her schools prior to auditions and then all 8 during auditions). As we went to the college auditions all winter, she found out that she really liked some of the programs she was not as keen about earlier way more now that she visited them. In fact, Emerson was not as high up her list as it was when she applied EA. Had she gotten into the BFA at Emerson in Dec., she may have cut out some programs she ended up really liking and was admitted to. So, in a way, while it involved more time and money, it was beneficial to have visited all her schools (which again could have been done junior year in a normal case but hers was not that normal and we only saw one school in tenth grade which was equivalent to her junior year in retrospect). While she did end up at one of her first choices that she has wanted to go to for years, I am glad that she fully explored each school and subsequently found out that she would have been happy with attending many of them and in fact, some of the order of her preferences changed as the year went on. </p>
<p>So, while it sure would have helped psychologically (not to mention monetarily!) to have started off with an admittance (well I guess she had an actual admittance...she knew she could go to college...but I mean a BFA admittance), her process turned out to be beneficial in other ways. It did mean lotsa trips and auditions though. We were able to combine a few based on location and that helps.
Susan</p>
<p>Hey guys, it's Theatermom again, aka the "Thread Police." ;)</p>
<p>Can you all please move/continue this discussion to the General Musical Theater thread? I'll even bump it up so it's easy to find.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>BUMPED for the thread impaired...........</p>
<p>Yoo hoo, dramadad, Soozievt, et al............. :)</p>
<p>I just moved a large chunk of posts from the "Welcome to the Musical Theater Forum" thread to this ongoing discussion here on Part 40. Many of those posts are recent discussions and now appear right above my post here, fairly intact. But some of the posts from that thread that I moved here go back the past 9 months and when I moved them here, they got inserted chronologically, which is the only way to move them so THOSE posts may come across, at times, as out of context with other posts on this thread. </p>
<p>From here on in, let's try to keep ongoing general discussions to the "colleges for musical theater part X" threads and specific topics to specific topic threads. We'll leave the welcome thread for "welcoming" people or helping to navigate the forum and things of that nature. I had allowed regular posters to respond to discussions on that thread even though it was not really the right thread for that because they were trying to help newbies posting there and making sure they could then find their responses. I hope I have redirected anyone on that thread to now find their posts over here. </p>
<p>Happy posting!
I hope to hear about all those families starting the process this fall and to hear back from those who just began or are continuing at their theater programs.
CollegeMom</p>
<p>The reasoning behind early auditions and the most possible scholarship money is simple. At least in regards to OCU.</p>
<p>Our first auditions are Nov 18th and 19th. There won't be another round till February. Let's say (and this is a random number so don't think it is factual) OCU accepts 20 MT students from that November audition. Music school scholarships are awarded based on points from the voice faculty. If an audition scores high, they can be awarded an maximum amount because no scholarships have been awarded yet. However (and again, this is not always the case), if a similar talented student auditions in April and receives the same high score but there is much less scholarship money available, the student could not receive as much as they would have if they had auditioned in November. It's all simple math.</p>
<p>Sure, amazing people audition in April and still receive good scholarships. And this should not stop someone who cannot audition earlier. It's just the latter you are...the less "pie" is available. We have many students who commit to OCU in December after auditions so there is less scholarship money.</p>
<p>OCUMT...thanks for explaining that. Just so others are aware, that is not how it works at many other schools. At several schools, everyone finds out when they get admitted at one time. At many schools, the date of your audition has no bearing on the amt. of your scholarship. That is why it is very important to research each school's process thoroughly and directly.
Susan</p>
<p>Glad to explain. When you audition at OCU, you are notified about 3-4 weeks after your audition if you have been acepted.</p>
<p>Also, I forgot to add that I was talking about all of the music school scholarship fund. This is the fund that all music school students are awarded from. So not only are MT students awarded from this fund, but also instrumentalists, composers, music edcuation, music business, and vocal performance students. It makes the pie even smaller!</p>
<p>hey all...im applying early decision to tisch (cap 21)...I know i want to be in ny, and i know i want their academics...and i know they have a good program...but since there are so many people that get in (60, which seems high for a bfa program)...is there no real personalized attention? id like to have some...and im assuming there is a little...but does anyone know?</p>
<p>Chris...my D just started at CAP and while I can't talk much yet of experience, I can tell you that the class is broken up into "sections". So, for vocal, acting and speech classes, you are in a section (that stays the same) and I THINK 20 kids (or less) are in the section. There is also music theory but you can place out of that (everyone takes a test the first day and my D placed out) For each discipline of dance (ballet, tap, jazz), there are FOUR levels and I am JUST talking for freshmen (they just had placement into these). I think the most in a dance class is 20. The classes just began today now that the placement auditions are done. My D is in the top level for each of these disciplines. She said in tap, there are less than 20 in it. So, while I can't comment on personalized attention quite yet, the class size or ratio is similar to other programs in terms of instruction. Starting second semester, you take private voice for seven semesters, too. The program is larger than many schools but the class sizes are not. There are also more faculty to work with over the years. I'm sure it is different than a small program. I am merely commenting on the numbers in a class. Hope that helps some. It is best to visit and talk to kids IN the program to garner several perspectives. BOCO also has a large program but they also divvy the kids up into sections. Academically, however, the programs are quite different.
Susan</p>
<p>Do not think this question is worth creating a new thread for, but didn't see anywhere else to put it. First of all, how are all of you??? Hope the start of the schoolyear is going smoothly for all. I have not been on this board as frequently, because life is BUSY. Anyway, just wanted suggestions--- I'm applying to mostly liberal arts schools with intent upon pursuing a B.A. in theatre/drama. I was wondering what your opinions were on providing supplements (for colleges that offer this option) in the form of a video... (perhaps a reel of clips of roles I've done?) in addition to a theatrical resume. Are there any other suggestions of supplements that could demonstrate my theatre involvement? Thank you!</p>
<p>Dani</p>
<p>your resume and video will be welcome at private schools who also offer an interview. Public universities most likely will not be able to look at the supplimental materials. There may be a few exceptions.</p>
<p>Hopefully someone would be kind enough to share their experience from last year, especially with the "ivy" MT schools (CCM, U-M, Otterbein, CMU, Cap 21, Northwestern, etc.). </p>
<p>If your child was accepted (especially in the fall auditions), did the school give you a date that you needed to accept or decline by? And if so, was it two-weeks, 30 days, April 1st, etc. I'm just wondering how the schools handle that.</p>
<p>Also, did they include any scholarship awards with the acceptance letter?</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone during this nerve-wracking process!</p>