Dance heavy vs Vocal heavy MT schools

College Majors Musical Theater Major
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So, I am just wondering if anyone can list some colleges that are more interested in strong dancers who can sing or strong singers who can move…
I heard Point Park is more dance and is on our list.

My D is Singer first/acting/dance-move well

Thanks in advance!

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My daughter is singer first, then actor with 2 years of sporadic dance. Get your kid in private classes if you can so they are ready to film their dance prescreens and for dance calls. Knowing terminology and practicing choreography is really helpful

My daughter applied to a mix of schools. We’re still going through the process but we found the following schools to be notable for a singer first with only some dance.

  • Carnegie Mellon - Uber reach, but they don’t even ask for a dance prescreen
  • Syracuse but only if you apply for both Acting and Musical Theatre and indicate interest in the Actor Singer track
  • Roosevelt - Musical Theatre Voice
  • Webster - no dance call
  • Marymount Manhattan

But we also found that even dance heavy schools took a chance on my kid. My kid passed some tough prescreens that we didn’t expect her to pass. The trick for her was to smile and have fun.

For non dancers, I think Penn State is really hard to get past the prescreen. I didn’t hear about any girls who were movers making it past the prescreen. Same with Syracuse if you apply Musical Theatre only. FSU, Elon, and Point Park also seem to really like dancers.

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Elon is known for great singer/dancers - strong at both, but also good actors.
Point Park is heavy on ballet training and taking students with dance potential.
UMich seems to take strong dancers who may need more help with singing and acting.
CMU is acting focused and strong singers, less emphasis on dancing.
CCM like tappers and strong singers.

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If singing is her strength, consider also looking at colleges that offer a BM in Musical Theater. Examples: NYU/Steinhart, Baldwin-Wallace, Oklahoma City, James Madison, Belmont, Catholic U, Manhattan School of Music.

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