<p>(This is a duplicate of a post I put on another thread but I thought I would also start a new thread for those interested in UArts so that any UArts comments would be in one place and easier to find.)</p>
<p>My daughter’s first month at UArts as a MT major can only be described as a dream come true. For those interested in the school, let me share some experiences and observations.</p>
<p>Move in day went flawlessly. I was wondering how in the world freshmen were going to move into apartment style dorms on city streets during a normal business day, particularly given all the extra stuff a kid needs to bring since there is no meal plan and you must stock the kitchenette in your apartment with all the stuff you need to have a functional kitchen. It couldn’t have gone smoother. Check in at Hamilton Hall took all of 10 minutes and then we drove down to my daughter’s dorm about 3 blocks away on Spruce St. Once there, there were a ton of student volunteers to assist in unloading and getting all her stuff onto an elevator and up to her apartment. The school had arranged with the city to take over 1 lane of Spruce St and the whole process from check in to parking and unloading took all of 45 minutes.</p>
<p>All of the dorm buildings at UArts are converted apartments. Most dorms are studios but there are a number of 1 and 2 bedroom units as well. Depends on which building you are in and you can have 1 - 3 roommates depending on the configuration. All of the dorms have their own kitchen space and private bathrooms, and are plenty spacious. There is an IKEA and Home Depot within 15 minutes easy driving from this part of the city for those who need to pick up stuff to complete setting up their apartment. Comcast cable was also on hand for those who were interested but unless you have a burning need for a TV in your dorm, is not really necessary. Each dorm room is set up for both wireless and ethernet cable connections to the UArts network. More on that later.</p>
<p>If you are a person who enjoys the city, Philadelphia is a student mecca. Restaurants and cafes with outdoor seating abound on almost every block in center city. The UArts Artsbank Theater, Wilma Theater, Merriam Theater (also owned by UArts), Kimmel Center, Academy of Music, Prince Music Theater, Walnut St Theater and Forest Theaters are all within 5-10 minutes walking from every dorm, with other theaters, such as the Arden, a little further but still walkable. Touring companies of current Broadway shows, regional productions, local theater and dance companies, world class orchestras, opera and ballet companies are all at a student’s doorsteps with rush tickets always available. A load of music venues, both indoor and out featuring everything from classical to heavy metal. Major art, science and natural history museums within walking distance. A safe city park system (one of the largest in the world) with bicycle trails and paths, walking paths and green space along the river. And of course, for those inclined, all the shopping a major city has to offer. As you walk along the city streets in the late afternoon and evening, you are surrounded by college and grad students and young professionals enjoying what the city has to offer. It is simply an exciting and dynamic place to be.</p>
<p>My daughter’s days are jam packed. Over 23 hours of classes alone per week. Add to it time in a studio or practice room, doing required readings, writing assignments, preparing monologues or songs for class, “dropping in” for an extra dance class, going to shows (as a homework assignment:) ) and her days start at 7:30 am until she falls into bed at 12:30 am. Time management skills are an essential survival tool! Even with all that, she still finds time to work out an hour each day at a nearby gym. </p>
<p>My daughter absolutely loves her classes and professors/instructors. She feels that she is learning an incredible amount in an environment, which while very demanding, is extremely supportive of her as an artist. All of the faculty are working pros (for example, the head of the MT program currently has a show at the NY Musical Theater Festival, her acting professor just came back from 2 days on a movie in NYC and her Music Lab instructor is the Music Director for the Philadelphia production of Assassins) and bring their real world experience into the classroom and studio. In addition to the classroom and studio work she is doing, her acting and voice teachers are working with her to develop a strong repertoire of materials for auditions and in this regard my daughter will start auditioning for school productions in November. Also, UArts has implemented a major technology initiative for this year’s freshmen. All freshmen School of Theater Arts students (and Fine Arts also) were given a MacBook Pro laptop fully configured with selected software for their major. (The laptops are theirs to keep upon graduation.) As I mentioned earlier, all the dorms are now wireless connected (as are the rest of the UArts buildings). The computers are being used for a broad variety of purposes. One of the coolest, though, is that my daughter’s voice instructor plays my daughter’s music on an electronic piano and uploads the music as a file into the school’s library. Back at her dorm room, my daughter can access the file and download it to ITunes on her laptop. She then feeds the laptop into some external speakers and voila, instant high quality accompaniment to practice her songs! My daughter can also record her voice lessons on her IPod, including her teachers comments and instructions, and upload that to her laptop so that when she practices she can also review the guidance she was given.</p>
<p>In sum total, my daughter could not have imagined this first month being any better than it has. She has made many new friends, she loves her program, and living in the heart of a major city is exciting and dynamic. While she is working her butt off, it’s doing the things she loves and for which she has a passion. As she put it, “I spend my days in class and studio acting, singing, dancing, studying plays and other literature, learning to play the piano and learning about theater. My homework consists of reading and writing about plays and other literature, acting, singing and dancing, playing the piano. Oh yeah, I also am required to go to shows and write about it. In between, I go to the gym, sit with friends with our laptops in a cafe with wifi accessing the school network to do some work. And at night, when I fall into bed exhausted, I fall asleep with my window open listening to the guy in the dorm above me playing mellow jazz on his saxophone. It doesn’t get any better than this.”</p>