I’ve always known it would be theatre and I think that’s fairly common. There was never anything else I seriously considered, and I actually feel lucky to be so sure of it! Stupidly, I somehow never considered going beyond local theatre before I was about 13 (though I was wildly jealous of the kids on TV!). That’s when I got myself in dance classes and voice lessons. I had no clue about college until sophomore year, though I knew a few names (almost none of which I ended up applying to, as they weren’t the right programs for me). If you can get to an arts college fair as a sophomore or junior, that is very helpful. I went to the NACAC one in Boston in the fall of my junior year and combined it with college visits. And then I busted my butt researching in high school, and became absolutely fascinated by the process, so here I am.
Again, thanks for the input! As the OP, I just want to clarify that all we are doing is asking questions about what we can do now to help her progress toward what she says that she wants to in college. It is my desire for her to be fully prepared for whatever direction she wants to go. If she wanted to be a doctor, we would spend her 8th grade year mapping out all the science courses she would need to take to put her in the best position 4 years from now.
My three biggest take aways from the posts on this thread…
Take more dance classes
Focus on grades
SAT/ACT prep
As far as schools go, I do appreciate the suggestions. I agree that we won’t be formally visiting any schools for a couple of years, but if we happen to be driving near any of the schools, it will now be on our radar to take a look at the campus.
I have no idea how to do the quote thing, but @Notmath1, you are right that her direction could totally change over these next 4 years and I need to be just as aware of that as I am of what she says she wants to do. However, I think a lot of high school students get lost in their freshman and sophomore years because they don’t have a “future focus” and then spend their junior and senior year trying to catch up.
I would not want to wish away these next several years for anything!!! I want them to be as low stress as possible though and I do better with a long term plan. :).
Soozie actually just explained why it would be a good idea to get started looking at college programs as soon as possible (even though she doesn’t think it is!). Suppose your daughter should decide to graduate a year early. That puts you one year closer to graduation and really only gives you two summers to do college programs (since it is too late to apply to most of them this year, and she is still a bit young). While she won’t be attending most college programs this summer, it would be great to start looking at them to plan which ones you are interested in, the cost, focus of each, and how many will be possible each summer. Know which ones require prescreens, what is required, what are the ages, and the deadline for applying. Organization and preparation is really key.
Also, Soozie’s daughter graduated several years ago when students applied and auditioned to fewer schools. Now that kids are auditioning for more schools, it is difficult to fit so many college visits into just one summer. And if you take Soozie’s advice that “junior year is a good time” to visit and explore colleges, and your daughter should decide to graduate early, you may find yourself frantically trying to visit well over a dozen schools (perhaps closevto 20) while trying to do college apps, auditions, attend school and graduate. It is definitely not too soon to start researching the schools and even visiting schools that you happen to be near just to get a feel for the area so that your daughter has a few things to compare later on.
@Dusing2 , you make some very good points. It’s a balancing act and you have to be flexible, and it also depends on your kid
@Dusing2, you are going to give me an anxiety attack. I need 4 1/2 years to get used to the idea of her going off to college. Just say no to early graduation!!! Haha!
Seriously, good points, though.
@MTVT2015, you are right. It always has been and always will be theatre. She may not end up majoring in MT in college, but it will always be a big part of who she is and what she ends up doing. I’m glad you are doing what you love.
First of all, very few kids graduate HS a year early. So, that would not be a strong reason to start the college exploration/selection process in the early high school years, in my view.
Second, my D was able to visit every school on her list, half of them twice, all before admission decisions were released, when many people on this forum advocate not visiting schools until after acceptances have been received. So, we were able to fit in the visits just fine, even though everything was pushed up a year.
Third, there are more than 2 summers to do MT programs. You mention ONLY pre-college programs. My D had no interest in pre-college programs, nor are these necessary (though they are excellent and many of my students have done them). She went 8 summers to an intensive theater program for six weeks every summer. Graduating a year early did not affect that aspect. In fact, all of her theater cohorts at her summer program had either already gone to college or were applying the year she ended up applying and she would not have wanted to go back after everyone else had moved on. She was ready to move on herself along with them.
I agree that organization and preparation is key. But I don’t think specific college exploration is needed in the early HS years. Those years are best spent training in voice, acting, and dance and doing theater and being a great student and many other activities, and possibly spending summers in theater programs. Looking at the big picture with college down the line as a goal is important, but beginning the college process itself should not be the focus of the early HS years. I think that time should be put into developing into a good student and a talented, trained artist to be a contender for college admissions, rather than focusing on college selection and all that too soon. The pace of the college process for my own two daughters, and every student whom I have advised, starting in their junior year, has worked out just fine. I can’t even see how you can determine which college is in a student’s academic ballpark when they haven’t even amassed any sort of HS academic record yet. But there is a lot one can do in the early years to set themselves up for being a contender…being a great student, taking the most rigorous courses they can handle, training in all the skill sets needed for MT, and doing theater.
First, while my D applied to 8 BFA in MT programs back in her admissions year, even today, I doubt she’d apply to more than 10. No matter the number, college visits were not done in summer (she went away to a theater program every summer) and summer is not the most ideal time to visit. The visits can be spread throughout junior year and early in senior year (and again, some here don’t visit until campus auditions or even after acceptances are rendered, though I believe in visiting before admissions decisions are released). Visiting a dozen schools is doable for many people over the course of 18 months. I don’t think you need four years to do college visits. When my older D applied to grad schools while a senior in college, she applied to ten and was able to visit them all that year, even while a college student.
I think it is good to set long term goals and discuss what a student needs to do over the four years of HS to reach those goals. But I don’t think focusing on college admissions itself for four years is necessary. My kids and my advisees don’t and they did just fine. Spend the early HS years focusing on becoming an excellent candidate!
Soozie, when I said there was only 2 summers to do MT programs, I was referring to the fact that it is too late to apply for this year and that leaves only the summer after 9th and 10th grades for kids that graduate a year early if they are planning to do them before graduating. Some kids do graduate early. Your child is not the only one to ever do that.
Visiting colleges is much easier for students living on the east coast since so many of the colleges seem to be located in the east. Easterners can visit many of them in day trips or even on overnight trips, and have already been to many of those cities before so already have an idea of whether they even like the location. Southerners and West Coasters don’t have it so easy. It takes an entire day of travel in each direction just to get to and from, plus the expense of airline tickets, rental cars and hotel stays. Often the colleges are in cities or parts of the country that the student has never been, making the trip even more important (many had never even seen snow before college visits!). Every year we have parents on this forum that have issues with schools over student absences for auditions. Some parents this year have had to deal with that and they have not even begun their college visits! While summer is not the ideal time to visit, it can help to narrow down a list of colleges to apply and audition for and it is better than no visit at all.
For me, it was important to start “figuring out the lay of the land” for college MT programs when d was a Freshman in High School. As her senior friends went through the audition process, she started asking questions about this school or that school and it was helpful for me to be able to give her some reasonably well-informed answers. Her questions about about specific schools increased in frequency and depth each year, and only because I started early was I able to keep up. Luckily for me, I had stumbled across and read “I Got In” the spring of her 8th grade year and had decided that I better “get on the stick” at that time.
At her school, audition prep begins in the fall of the Junior year and auditions start in June at the International Thespian Festival. So, they get deep into the process by the summer before their senior year even begins. Her nationally-recognized audition coach recommended girls do at least 12-14 auditions for MT programs in hopes of securing two to three acceptances, based on many years of experience and hundreds of students. I am glad that I did not wait until her Junior year to start moving up the learning curve.
Our journey through the process was fairly relaxed, in large part because I had started early and accumulated a fairly broad knowledge base about MT programs. That served us well along the way. It is certainly not required, but I think its a good thing for parents to start researching schools as soon as they realize their students are serious about majoring in theatre in college. All the department heads that I spoke with said, “you were smart to get started so early.”
But that is just my experience and opinion. Your mileage may vary.
@soozievt, I really haven’t gotten the impression that anyone has been giving advice on this thread to be “focusing on college admissions itself…” (Sorry, don’t know how to reference on here). At least that is not how I am interpreting it. The conversation evolved into a discussion of specific programs in our area that may not have been on my radar, but even that is just good information to have.
Frankly, my 9 year old is interested in running a ranch and I know names of a couple of colleges where they have great ag departments. Not because I am ready to get him into college, but because I want him to be aware of the programs! He will probably change his mind about what he wants to do. If so, no harm done!
My original question was… what does my D need to do now to help her later. I am trying to help her “focus on becoming an excellent candidate” (how do you reference a post???) by asking you all what you would do if you could look back to freshman year. I don’t know many MT students in real life, so I value your opinions and experiences and hope others who may be lurking with younger high schoolers do too.
Mom 2MTgal: I have said previously that grades are very important if you need a lot of scholarship $$. as for the artistic sdie, what my D would tell you in retrospect is she should have kept up with dance lessons, especially ballet. In junior high she was also playing a competitive sport, and there wasn’t time for both practices and dance lessons. So when she decided to go the MT route as a freshman she never got back into ballet and now she is playing a bit of catch up in college.
@Dusing2: well of course my kid is not the only one to ever graduate HS early!!! That said, I think advising someone about when to start down the college path with the concern that the student may graduate early is not the most solid reason since the majority of HS students do go to HS for four years. Yes, there is always a chance a student doesn’t, but it is not the likely scenario.
I certainly agree with you on that too! I don’t know where the OP lives. However, I still don’t think college visits need to begin or a college list made in ninth grade. I do think understanding what it takes to be prepared to go to a college for MT is a good thing to explore early, yes! Another way to see colleges is to audition on campus, at least for some of them. Perhaps see some in junior year and see the rest at college auditions in senior year. We did only campus auditions as it allowed also for a visit, though we had already visited half of them before that. Yes, we live on the East Coast, but we did have a fly to about to a third of the schools on D’s list.
I agree with this as well and give such advice to others. Summer visits are definitely better than no visit at all. Another good time is during school breaks, when often colleges are in session, and several schools can be visited in a week’s time.
I generally believe that starting early is the BEST way to go. I just don’t think that someone who has yet to enter high school needs to focus too much on SPECIFIC colleges at this point. I think that is the best time to become a competitive candidate. It is good to understand what is needed for that and what is involved in being admitted to colleges for this field EARLY. It would be late to understand that AND to start training, etc. in junior year. So, I DO believe starting early on the long range goal is for the best. I run into WAY too many people who start TOO LATE…senior year. I was trying to say that the early HS years need not focus on building a specific college list (the student hasn’t yet even amassed an academic record), but to understand what it takes to get into MT colleges and then use these years to become a solid candidate, and then focus on building the specific college list in junior year. Start early on training, as well as becoming a great student, and learning about what is ahead to enter a MT college program. Start a bit later, creating the college list. A student’s preferences with regard to college selection criteria may develop as they develop as people. This is what I meant in earlier posts.
The OP stated that she was near the Dallas Texas area. I would imagine visiting colleges in that area is takes a Lotta time!
Anyway I think the single most important thing you can do is attend the NACAC performing and visual arts college fair, I’m pretty sure they go to Houston and Dallas
here is the link
http://www.nacacnet.org/college-fairs/PVA-College-Fairs/Pages/default.aspx
you will learn much, if you attend the fair and it is geared towards high school freshman sophomores and you would get to meet with theatre representatives from many many of the colleges
I will chime in again and add that I think visiting campuses, even in a casual way (meaning you don’t get to sit in on classes etc- maybe you just take the general tour, or just walk around) is really valuable. We did start early with my kid- visited the campus of northwestern for the 1st time when she was in 9th grade. It was a short stroll, part of a long weekend in Chicago, but got the conversation about what she liked and didn’t like started.
Another note about starting early- my kid started getting stuff from colleges spring of freshman year- the schools themselves are making the game earlier and earlier.
Finally, @mom2MTgal - you mention wanting to stay within a 6 hour drive. I am a huge proponent of “your journey, your choice” in this whole game- so that is great. But if you and your family travel in the next few years, you might want to check out other schools too, just for comparison.
@mom2MTgal - TCU’s MT department head, Harry Parker, hosts an MT camp every summer on campus:
http://www.usperformingarts.com/tcu-musicalcamp.php
You may want to check it out. Harry is great to chat with about college MT programs and what they look for at TCU.
By the way, regarding cost, my d has top 5% grades and test scores (good, but not Ivy League), and received large merit scholarships from TCU and Baylor, but they both ended up being relatively expensive. OCU with merit and talent scholarships was a little cheaper than TCU and Baylor, but still almost twice the cost of her lowest cost schools. Illinois Wesleyan, a comparable school artistically and academically to Baylor and TCU, gave her a fantastic merit+talent scholarship and ended up being much less expensive.
The cheapest schools on her list are (a) out of state, public schools that discount room and board and/or give you in-state tuition for good grades and scores, such as Wright State and Florida State; and (b) private schools in the south and midwest that are not too expensive to begin with and give good merit aid, such as Webster and Viterbo. Her cost at all of these schools came in at $15,000 to $20,000 per year for room, board, and tuition. Our ECF is too high to qualify for need-based aid.
Her costs at some of these schools ended up being cheaper than Texas State with in-state tuition (although she may have received scholarship dollars at Texas State that would have lowered the cost - she didn’t apply). Although it is basically never mentioned here on CC, South Dakota is the least expensive school on her list by a really wide margin. She could attend the MT BFA program at South Dakota for 4 years for about what it would cost at Baylor and TCU for one year (after scholarships!). These are just examples.
@emsdad, didn’t you or someone here post about a college weekend sponsored by the Dallas Summer Musicals where all the BFAs in that area (Texas and Oklahoma) workshop and mock audition over a weekend in the summer? :-*
Please forgive me if I am repeating something that someone else said (some of these responses are long) but the one piece of advice I would give is get a coach of some kind or at least someone who can really help with monologue and song choices. That was the one thing we did not do and I think it hurt my daughter in the long run. I paid for SAT prep and didn’t even blink and eye, but thought a coach was a waste of money. I was wrong. JMHO
Here is the link to the Dallas Mock Auditions from 2014:
http://www.dallassummermusicals.org/HSMA-CollegeInfo.shtm
Some of the theatre camps in Texas and Oklahoma include:
Texas Musical Theatre Workshop (UT and Texas State)
http://www.texasmusicaltheatreworkshop.com/
Tal’s Camp at Southwestern:
http://www.talscamp.com/
Broadway Artists Intensive at Sam Houston:
http://www.shsu.edu/academics/theatre/events/the-broadway-artists-intensive/
Texas Arts Project in Austin
http://texasartsproject.com/programs-of-study/senior-camp-ages-14-18/musical-theatre/
Texas State Theatre Camp
http://www.theatreanddance.txstate.edu/Theatre-Programs/Camp-overview/High-school-theatre-camp.html
The High School Musical Theatre Program at OCU
http://www.okcu.edu/music/performing-arts-academy/programs/summer/high-school/
A really fun camp for younger students is Camp Shakespeare at Winedale:
http://www.utexas.edu/cola/progs/winedale/Camp-Shakespeare/Camp-Shakespeare.php
When you get closer to the senior year, be aware of the North Texas Drama Auditions:
http://www.collintheatrecenter.com/NorthTexasAuditions/InvitationtoParticipate.htm
They attract 50-75 schools every year.
One piece of advice that I would give regarding early preparation would be to have your student start learning about the breadth and depth of the Broadway Canon now. A great place to start is to watch the PBS Series, “Broadway: The American Musical” - it is available on DVD.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/
The book is also an excellent resource - strongly recommended. It really, really helps when you assemble your audition repertoire to know who the major players are: Kander & Ebb, Alder & Ross, Jule Styne, Harnick & Bock, Frank Loesser, not to mention Lerner & Lowe, Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, R&H, etc.
Also, staying abreast of contemporary musical theatre is important, the New Musical Theatre web page is a great resource:
Students need songs from both the Golden Age and Contemporary MT for college auditions, and the hunt for the right repertoire be agonizing if you don’t have a strong background in the genre. Hiring a coach to help pick songs can, of course, save a lot of time, but it really helps to be able to have your own ideas and input.
D ended up with more than 100 musicals on her iPod which she listened to all the time through High School. She has many stories about being able to catch references from directors to Broadway shows while her castmates look blank-faced and whisper, “what is he/she talking about?” Some audition panels will ask a few questions to probe how much you know about the genre.
@mom2MTgal, I think all this advice is good, and glean from it what fits you best. We started early and I’m glad we did. Sometimes I wish we had started earlier! I am still learning more about this business (and how to get there) every day, and the entire process is extremely daunting, especially for girls, and the college admittance process is just one low rung on the ladder. But one thing I’m not sure has been mentioned here that isn’t about college admittance per se but more about helping them prepare emotionally for the challenge at a young age (like your daughter), is making sure they have the opportunity to compete on a larger scale than what is normally available for most kids locally. Maybe in the Dallas area you don’t have to worry about this so much, I don’t know. But my daughter was a big fish in a pretty small pond, and I had a flash of insight when she was in middle school that she needed to get out of the pond and see if she still had the passion while in a bigger playing field. That was when I hit the internet and found Stagedoor. Her first summer there was right after 8th grade, and my big fish became a little fish overnight, and working to the point of exhaustion. I remember driving her home at the end of it saying, “Well, did you like it?” I really wasn’t sure what she would say. But though she could barely keep her eyes open, she said, “Yes, I want to go back.” There are other places besides Stagedoor, but if you can be sure your child has the opportunity to compete on a larger scale well before college auditions, and the earlier the better, they’ll have a better sense of what they’re up against. Our mantra was “You may be the star of your high school, but there are a LOT of high schools!!” And even if a kid knows this intellectually, there is nothing like MEETING some of those other kids. Eventually Stagedoor became a small pond for my daughter, and she once again became a small fish in college. I guess the message is that the kid that is showered with accolades and the star of everything has to eventually be able to handle being a very little fish, and facing that early is excellent preparation for not only college auditions but survival in the business.