Craving Advice Re: Summer Pre-College Programs

College Majors Theater/Drama Majors
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<p>I have been reading but not posting recently… but now find myself needing to make decisions I feel unprepared for, and I would love the advice of the knowledgeable people on this board!</p>

<p>My daughter is a junior, hoping for a career as an actor (aiming for TV more than stage). We are trying to figure out how she should spend her summer to best get ready for the onslaught of applications and auditions beginning next fall.</p>

<p>We went through a huge list of summer programs and she narrowed it down to the ones she was most interested in and that we felt might give her the best preparation for auditions (and, as a less important consideration, that would look most interesting on her resume).</p>

<p>She has been accepted into LAMDA's 2-week program in Screen Acting at the end of the summer. Thanks to some help from her godmother, she'll be going to that.</p>

<p>She has also been accepted into Northwestern's "Cherubs" program, and we are waiting to hear from Carnegie-Mellon's pre-college program.</p>

<p>But I am wondering if the best thing might just be to stay home, work on her monologues, get those college essays written, take lots of extra dance classes to be in the best shape possible, and otherwise just chill -- and let us save a little money to get ready for the audition circuit…. We are in Los Angeles, so we do have opportunities to get monologue coaching, etc., close to home.</p>

<p>I would so love to hear advice and opinions from anyone who's been to the Cherubs program or to Carnegie-Mellon regarding how it helped you prepare for auditions, and how much you think you could have succeeded without it.</p>

<p>And just overall opinions on which of her three options (NW, CMU, "home-school" audition prep) sound like the best choice to all of you. I am always amazed at how helpful everyone is, esp. for those of us muddling our way through this for the first time, and appreciate all advice.</p>

<p>Thank you so much!</p>

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<p>Here’s the thing about the precollege programs: your daughter will be immersed in theater training around the clock. She’ll be with her peers–making connections with kids who will be her allies (and, yes, competitors) throughout auditions and beyond. She’ll get a good sense of where she fits and what the national applicant pool is like. And she’ll see what it’s like to live and breathe this kind of training, living with other “theater kids” and working till late, napping on the green room couch, slogging through a day of classes and a night of rehearsals and getting up the next morning and doing it again. Yes, it’s good preparation for auditions, but it’s also an incredibly valuable testing ground for this kind of college education and (hopefully) eventual career. And as expensive as it may seem, it’s a good way to be sure that you aren’t wasting time and money pursuing an education that she may not want once she gets there. When kids drop out of BFA programs, it’s often because they didn’t know what they were getting into. </p>

<p>Re: your daughter’s options, I’ve heard great things about them all and would only say that my son did a 5-week program the summer after junior year and felt it was much more valuable than the shorter ones he’d done in the past. The longer immersion meant he learned a lot more and really developed as an actor–plus it was a more realistic test of whether he could thrive in that environment. But of course, do what’s most feasible in terms of schedule and expense. Good luck!</p>

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<p>My S did Cherubs last summer and I would agree that it does help you understand what you will be getting yourself into as far as a BFA. He absolutely loved it, but he decided against a BFA after he finished. Cherubs has no audition prep whatsoever, it basically replicates in a condensed way a semester in a BFA program. My S is thinking of applying to the LAMDA semester class next Spring on his gap year. I know a few people who have kids who did it and thought it was insanely good. </p>

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<p>5boys, your son’s experience is a great example of the value of finding out <em>before</em> senior year whether a BFA path is the right one! </p>

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<p>Thank you so much for weighing in. 5boys, I’m grateful to learn there is no audition prep at Cherubs; that’s a factor we will definitely consider. My D has done a couple of short summer programs and knows this is what she wants, but I agree – the BFA path is so difficult and so specific, I think it’s a great way for kids to figure it out before making the big 4-year commitment. Thank you!</p>

<p>Anyone with experience at CMU pre-college? Would love to hear! And more about the others as well will be helpful too, of course!</p>

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<p>My daughter chose Brown’s TheatreBridge because of its small size and the emphasis on the Meisner Technique. She loved it and the experience assured her the BFA path is what she wants. She did that program the summer after her sophomore year and while there wasn’t explicit “audition prep,” the director of the program had lunch with each kid, talked about colleges, monologues, etc and she did work on a monologue that ended up being one she used for YoungArts, another fantastic opportunity to meet with high achieving theater kids from around the country. She has stayed in touch with TheatreBridge and YoungArts kids and was thrilled when she saw some of them at college auditions. Both those experiences absolutely helped her to visualize herself at the next steps in her education.</p>

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<p>Both @ActingDad (whose daughter is now at UNCSA) and @entertainersmom (son auditioning for MT in the current cycle) had kids who went to the CMU program. You may want to PM them with specific questions!</p>

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<p>PayingOurDues - It sounds like your daughter will have some wonderful choices (including staying near home).
Our son’s situation is a bit unique. Son was planning to major in Jazz Studies (Drumset), though he has been involved in theater, community and school, since he was small. He attended the NE Thespian conference a year ago last December and ended up getting all Superior ratings and was Best in Fest for Individual Musical Theatre. Having that validation enabled him to tell us what he really wanted to do in college and the rest is almost history :slight_smile: . I knew absolutely nothing about the audition process etc., and became a voracious reader of the MT forum. Son faced extremely long odds since he had not had the years of training many prospective MT majors had, and I had no idea how he would measure up to the competition. We chose CMU pre-college because of the reputation, and honestly, because it did not require a pre-screen (my head was spinning enough as it was!!). Son attended last summer and loved it. He received very encouraging evaluations and so the race was on! It also had the added bonus of allowing him to be independent for six weeks, which helped his dad and I know he would be ready for college when the time came. It is very expensive, and fortunately we had money my mother had left me to pay for it. I considered it an investment. We needed to know if MT was a path he should pursue. If my son had had many years of training and we had easy access to resources near home, he may not have attended a summer program. </p>

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<p>My daughter went to CMU precollege after 11th grade and found the audition prep was very helpful.</p>

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<p>PayingOurDues - this won’t help you, because the deadline has passed, but it might help someone in the future searching for info on summer programs.</p>

<p>I can highly recommend the training and total experience for Theatre students at the Interlochen Arts Camp. They offer a six-week High School program in Musical Theatre and a six-week High School program in Repertory Theatre (as well as similar programs for middle-school students). The instructors are fantastic, and the level of growth our D experienced in just 6 weeks was astounding. The Theatre and MT students take classes together in the morning in Acting Technique and other areas. Afternoons and evenings are devoted to more focused work as well as rehearsals.</p>

<p>Don’t know if it’s an anomaly, but this past cycle, I know that 5 of the students accepted to the Univ of Minn/ Guthrie BFA program have attended Inty at some point (both MT and Rep Theatre).</p>

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<p>@PayingOurDues</p>

<p>

That train of thought would be a direct page out of my book. Like, you, we also lived in a place where there were plenty of local training options for 1/7th of the price and that is what we did. Our daughter did the equivalent of what you’ve find in any of these programs over 8 weeks, full time the summer before junior year for $950. Worth every penny and the training was extraordinary. </p>

<p>With all due respect to the many wonderful residential training programs that are out there where you can get fantastic experience and a taste of what the intensity of a BFA program really looks like, I do not believe they are a yardstick to gauge your competitiveness on a national scale. (I fully expect to be whipped for this so go ahead.) You may find yourself surrounded by a deeper talent pool than you ever saw in high school and some of the wonderful friends you meet there will sweep their college auditions and will have talents that will blow your hair back. However, if you are looking at this as a gauge for national competitiveness you will come up short. Most kids that you will be auditioning with when it is your turn for college auditions do not attend these programs and you can take that a step farther to also say the most talented kids in any audition year “might” have attended these programs, but they also “might not have.” There are also many very wonderful theatre-loving students at these programs who are full of chutzpah for theatre, but regretfully that chutzpah is not always accompanied by innate talent. From my own list of acquaintances, I can list several who had the passion, but not the real talent but they were there and LOVED their experiences so it was worth it for that but it didn’t translate at all into college acceptances.</p>

<p>To me, it is only a question of training. If you can get the training where you live and that makes better financial sense to you than investing in a very expensive residential program, then do it. You will be missing nothing as long as the training is good. But if you have the inclination and ability to get that training in one of the many wonderful residential programs, your kid will probably LOVE it and LOVE spending the 6-8 weeks away from you with kindred spirits. How is that not fun when you are 16-17 and think your parents are stupid? It is fun. But it is also not a must. </p>

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<p>I think the thing you are missing in your post halfhokum are the points Times3 makes about confirming whether or not this is the path that is best for your child. Living, eating, sleeping, breathing theater performance 24/7 is not for everyone. My daughter did CMU summer 2 years ago and absolutely knew for certain this was the kind of training she wanted. Many she went to CMU summer with made different conclusions and are pursuing BAs instead. She has peers who did not do these kind of summer programs are now in BFA programs and are finding out that this is not what they expected. As to training, I agree that a summer program is not make or break for getting into a BFA program and the local training – if high quality – may well provide better college prep. </p>

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<p>I am not missing that point @actingdad. You can get a read on that in an intensive non-residential program too. My daughter’s program was 8 weeks long, 5 days a week from 8 AM until 5 or 6 PM (I forget). Then afterwards these kids often went to dinner together and many nights, ended up at my house frequently some of them slept over in the basement and did the same thing the next day. On weekends, they hung out and ran amok somewhere. There were kids that did decide the BFA route was not for them. From that experience came a few life long friends, none of whom my daughter had gone to high school with or known before.</p>

<p>Living, eating, sleeping, breathing theatre 24/7 is not a requirement for a BFA program day in and day out. A student can choose to include other activities, other friends, other fields of study. I get what you are saying because many kids do choose to think about theatre 24/7 and only seek friends that are like minded. If that works best for them, it’s great but it is not a requirement, it’s a choice.</p>

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<p>So true halflokum. I envisioned my son as being with his “people” at CMU…
He hung out with the game design guys most of the time, lol.</p>