<p>I would love to hear from students majoring in Acting at Marymount. Have you enjoyed your time there? How is the training? General opinions about the school and the dorms etc. My daughter will be taking another look at the school in April. Thanks for any feedback.</p>
<p>My daughter is a freshman in Theatre Performance, with the Musical Theater Minor and she loves it! She wakes up every morning to dance, has a wonderful voice teacher she meets with weekly, and has loved her yearlong Acting 1-2 class. Musical Theater minors also take Musical theater fundamentals which incorporates theory and musical theatre history.
The other students are supportive and friendly- and she has had some great professors.
It’s of course a very small school-so one drawback is it doesn’t have some of what bigger campuses might offer- like an on campus gym, health center, etc. When my D was sick, she needed to find an off site med center, and she joined a local gym. Also, the food plan doesn’t cover all meals, so she has had to buy groceries, which can get a bit expensive in DC. The students do go out together, so there seems to be a nice feeling of community.
The dorms are nice, they are apartment style. Freshman live on 55th st. between 2nd and 3rd avenue. They are not a far walk at all from campus. My d is looking forward to the upperclass dorms which are on Roosevelt Island. There’s a tram that connects the island to Manhattan, and it’s a more peaceful place to live, but still a really easy commute to the city.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback. I did wonder about a gym being available to the students. I also wondered about the food situation. I figured it was a combination of eating at school and then fending for yourself the rest of the time. What does your daughter think about the academic side of the school? Is it challenging? I really appreciate you taking the time to respond. We are looking forward to a trip to Marymount again in a couple of weeks.</p>
<p>My daughter has enjoyed her academic classes. She is taking a history of Civil Rights class this semester which she really loves. Marymount has extensive liberal arts requirements-spread out over some broad areas. I know she has been working very hard this semester with papers, etc in addition to performance oriented classes.</p>
<p>Have there been opportunities to perform in shows?</p>
<p>Does anyone know if those who are in the BFA Acting major can take any voice or any dance? Also, can those in the BFA Acting major be cast in the musicals? I’m asking on the behalf of a student who is admitted for the BFA in Acting but wanted MT.</p>
<p>I believe anyone can audition for the musicals or other main stage plays, regardless of major. I am not too sure about the opportunites for vocal study or dance for non MT majors though</p>
<p>I was wondering about the performance opportunities at Marymount. Do you know how many productions they have each year? I would also like to know if the acting students can take some dance and vocal classes. Thanks for any information you can provide.</p>
<p>I don’t know about the availability of dance and voice lessons for non Mt students.
There are 4 mainstage productions a year- one is a musical. There are some other student produced productions. I’ve heard from students that they would like more performance opportunites. Ive only heard great comments about the training,etc.</p>
<p>I am happy to hear positive things about MMC. My daughter has gone off MMC because of reviews she has read online. It doesn’t seem like students go onto this forum, so I was wondering if you would ask your daughter specifically, her opinion on the following negative stuff in the reviews…
faculty disinterested?
academics are “a joke” ie not rigorous?
theatre students not liked by other students?
lots of extra costs?
not enough extra curricular stuff?
mediocre acting training?
I would like to be able to counter some of this anonymous stuff on line with some positive comments! thanks,</p>
<p>The best advice I can give is to visit if possible. My d loved Marymount from the first visit- it was just felt like a great fit to her.
She has had some great professors, and she has found them to be very approachable. The academic classes have been keeping her plenty busy- and she has had to work hard on them.
She has found the acting training to be wonderful. She says she has really grown as an actor this year.
Marymount does charge an extra tuition fee for dance and voice for MT minors. The basic tuition is lower than many other schools in the NYC area.
It’s a small school, so my d did join a gym etc. which isnt offered at Marymount. That might be the main disadvantage- not being big enough to offer some of the resources that other larger colleges have. My d loves it though, she wouldn’t want to go anywhere else.</p>
<p>I’m currently a BFA Acting major at MMC (going to be a sophomore in the fall), and I’ll GLADLY answer some questions :)</p>
<p>1) BFA Acting majors CAN get voice outside of school, HOWEVER, it does not count as credits for the semester or anything. What you can do, I believe, is make an appt. with one of the MT staff and discuss some of the voice teachers recommended by the school (aka the ones the school uses), and make an appt. with them, and I’m sure everything goes smoothly from there. Of course, another option is just finding a separate voice teacher who has absolutely NO connection to MMC what so ever. Many BFA Acting majors, who also sing, do that as well. It’s very common. As for dance, there is quite a few dance classes for non-majors offered right in school (if I’m not mistaken anyways).</p>
<p>2) Non-majors get cast in shows ALL the time. In fact, in our musical this year, “Thoroughly Modern Millie”, Millie was a BFA Acting Major (and was phenom), a few of the dancers were BFA Acting, and I know one of the dancers was a communications major of all thing! Because MMC often brings outside directors in for the musical, the director doesn’t distinguish one major from another. They simply distinguish talent.</p>
<p>3) MMC doesn’t have <em>quite</em> as many performance opportunities as a lot of other schools, BUT, that doesn’t mean we don’t have any. Every year, the school has 4 mainstage shows. 3 of those are straight plays, 1 is a musical. Auditions for the fall shows are held in the spring, and auditions for the spring are held in the winter. </p>
<p>Besides the mainstages, there are also the “Directing Projects”. These are a set of one act shows directed by upperclassmen directing majors. They are held in the blackbox theatre, and usually consist of 3-5 member casts per show, with 6 shows each set of Projects. There are two sets of Directing Projects every year, one per semester. This means, in total, there are 12 directing projects all together every year. Every BFA Acting major is required to audition for these. BA majors and MTs are not required, but strongly encouraged (MTs of course are required to audition for the musical). Besides the directing projects, however, there is a group known as the MTA. This is a student run Musical Theatre Association that produces full fledged musicals at school. This past year they did “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” for example. </p>
<p>Granted, the reason many kids complain about not many performance opportunities is because the dpt. is quite big. In total, I’d say there was around 300-350 kids in total in the entire theatre dpt (about 20-30 MTs per year, 30 BAs, 20-30 BFAs and the rest Technical Theatre). As you can imagine, when you have only 2 mainstage shows, and 6 directing projects with casts of 3-5 people each per semester, the shows are VERY competitive to get into. Fortunately, as a freshman, I was lucky enough to be the only freshman cast in the spring Directing Projects, and one of the only freshman cast for the fall mainstages.</p>
<p>4) Regarding meal plans etc. Every freshman is required to get a meal plan their entire freshman year. This means that they are given $1000 a semester to spend on food (it’s included in tuition), wherever the meal card is accepted (at school and various restaurants etc). Once that $1000 is up, however, it’s gone… until the next semester however. Money from first semester DOES carry over to second semester, however, BUT, by the end of the year, money will not transfer over the summer. This teaches us students how to spend our money wisely, and how to manage what we eat. It can be tough at times, but in the long run, helps us mature etc.</p>
<p>5) Faculty disinterested? I don’t know WHO said this or WHERE it was said, BUT, let me tell you, EVERY teacher at MMC is interested, and completely nurturing. YES, every professor is a working professional and has a career on TOP of teaching, but let me tell you, they are all looking for the student’s best interest. In fact, there is a probation system at Marymount designed for teacher’s to be watching each one of their students intently, and seeing if they are progressing at the desired level of the program in general. If you would like me to elaborate more on this subject, I would love to, but in all honesty, this is a MYTH.</p>
<p>6) Academics… this is a tricky subject. In all honesty, as an AP and Honors student in high school, I came into MMC expecting academics to be a joke because of this rumor. I was rudely awakened. I found myself quite challenged in many of my academic classes, especially math and science (my biology prof. IS a doctor). In all honesty, I think this stems from the fact that Marymount’s expectations to get INTO the school are not very high. Why, may you ask? Well, for the theatre program esp., they care more about your auditions, than your grades, unlike many theatre programs (such as NYU for example). This is a MIRACLE for many students, as they get rejected from other colleges solely based on grades. Again, if I can elaborate on this any more, please, just ask.</p>
<p>7) Theatre students not liked by other students? Hmmm… this, is well… interesting, because the majority of MMC is theatre students. The other main population at Marymount are dancers, and despite the occasional fight for practice rooms, the dance and acting majors get along just fine. As for the others… I think you’ll find wherEVER you go, that many people have a preconceived notion that theatre kids are snobby, rude, obnoxious, annoying etc etc etc. I can say, from a personal level, many of my friends at MMC are NOT theatre majors, and many are. I’ve found this to be true with all of my theatre friends as well. We reach out to EVERYONE. What you heard is just one of those stupid stereotypes I’m afraid.</p>
<p>8) Lots of extra costs… this is tough, because this is a very vague statement and I’m not sure what you’re referring to. Explain?</p>
<p>9) Again, I’m not sure what you mean. There are PLENTY of extra-curricular activities at MMC. There’s SGA, CAB, Residence Life, and soo much more. I will admit, I don’t partake in ANY of those activities, as I feel that extra-curriculars in college is a bit too much like high school, but they ARE there. </p>
<p>10) Let me tell you one thing, the acting training is anything BUT mediocre. If you need any proof, see the Millie clips I posted on the general MMC forum, and also consider this: in the past three years alone, SOOO many MMC alumni have made it. People like Annaleigh Ashford, Jenna Ushowitz, Spencer Grammar, Adam Chanler-Berat and SOOO many more that aren’t even credited on sites like Wikipedia, are out there, working on Broadway, in National Tours, and are on tv/in movies. Just do the research, I’m sure you’ll find the program is NOT mediocre.</p>
<p>If anyone has any other questions or comments, please feel free to ask! :)</p>
<p>Do you know if MMC is generous with financial aid and/or scholarships?</p>
<p>62442-- I was accepted to MMC this year but did not receive a lot of scholarships. I’m pretty sure their biggest talent scholarship is 4,000. I also got a small academic an academic scholarship. However, though I got several loans, I still was not willing to assume that much debt over 4 years. Others may have had a different experience with financial aid though.</p>
<p>62442 - my D received what was practically a “free ride” to MMC for the 08/09 school year. I am not sure if things were much different this year, but she received an academic scholarship, a community service award scholarship and a leadership recognition type scholarship. </p>
<p>All three combined (none of the scholarships were need based) amounted to a very generous offer. I think that MMC is a school that offers a lot of scholarships beyond the standard or typical talent scholarship, and it may be worth generating more information on beforehand. My D had no clue that providing details about her volunteer work, and involvement with different clubs would lead to these scholarships, and so we were really surprised she received these.</p>
<p>^^^What this goes to show are two things…</p>
<p>One, you can’t judge merit or need based aid based on what someone else got and therefore, the question of “are they generous with aid” is very difficult to answer. At a particular college, someone can get a lot of aid and someone else get little or none and a lot of factors play into who gets what. </p>
<p>Second, as MTgrlsmom shows, a lot of things can be considered by a college when determining scholarships and it is not necessarily simply talent at an audition and not always simply stats like test scores and GPA and so forth. The entire application matters. When I read many posts on CC, I get the impression that people think it is either ALL the audition or else think when it comes to academics that it is simply GPA and test scores, but at many schools, how you present yourself on an application and the many other factors beyond “numbers” can REALLY matter. I know when my D was selected for certain things at colleges (be it Honors/Scholars and scholarships), when I read the criteria for how she was selected, I could readily see that many things on her application were read and considered. It wasn’t about who had the highest SAT score or highest GPA but rather many other activities, accomplishments, initiatives, leadership, and so on. Colleges do read these things and do consider them. It is very important to be a GREAT deal of effort into preparing an excellent application. It can make a difference in being admitted and in receiving scholarship offers. Colleges want to know you beyond the numbers and beyond the audition.</p>
<p>Thanks guys!</p>
<p>~Caitlyn</p>
<p>62442 - just to second what Soozie said, my D got full rides at some schools, and literally nothing at others. It was very unpredictable as we did necessarily know which schools had big scholarships for community service etc. That said, certain schools do have set criteria for specific academic scholarships (all 3.5 receive XYZ $$$ amount etc). These you can actually anticipate. Since my D’s academic scores were not so stellar 
she did not get a whole lot of those…</p>
<p>I agree with what has been said. You just don’t know what you will qualify for until you receive your financial aid package. My daughter received an academic scholarship from Marymount but was told the talent scholarship also took into consideration need so she didn’t receive one of those, but with the school being on the lower end of the cost scale (NYU $50,000 plus, Syracuse $50,000 plus etc.) it came in as one of her better deals as costs go. You just have to have a mix of schools that you would be happy attending and then wait for the packages to arrive and if cost is a factor you can decide from there.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if you got i for the BFA in Acting if you could minor in Studio Art?</p>