Hi! I’m a struggling high school junior with a 2.9 (hoping for 3) and I’m looking at about 15 schools for musical theatre. I know that Elon and Syracuse are on the stricter side with grades for mt but is it still possible to get in with a good enough audition, letter of rec, essay, interview, etc?
Possible. Of course. But make sure you build a complete list. Even with a 2.9, lots of schools are out there. And these are both a stretch, especially SU.
If you can afford both you might want to try an ED. I think Elon is a better shot but which is right for you?
You might look at Marymount Manhattan. We know someone there and he struggled in HS. It’s an easier admit as would be U of Arizona.
Not sure how auditions play in admission or not. Lots of other parents will chime in.
Best of luck.
Ps how’d you do on the standardized test ?
What is an ED? I got a 22 on the act but will retake into summer until I get something much higher as I feel much better prepared.
Early decision. It has a much higher acceptance rate but you would be bound to attend.
This means you would need to ensure you can afford the school and that your parents are willing to pay. You can run each school’s net price calculator to see if you would qualify for need based aid.
What state do you live ? You probably will have in state options for study as well.
For MT except for a few schools, academics have almost no role. There are some schools (NYU, Michigan and CMU are the big ones) that have academic minimums. I don’t know about syracuse or Elon but I would guess that academics are not too important. BFA MT and acting programs are almost all about auditions.
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Doesn’t ED have almost no role also? Because the audition process dictates the admissions timeline? Not my area of expertise but that’s been my impression…
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If you can afford both you might want to try an ED.
If this student is auditioning, they need to find out of the BFA programs in musical theater have any early audition dates with early acceptance notifications. If not, they will need to apply and audition and wait.
Some programs do have early audition dates…so before recommending ED for an auditioned program….one needs to find out if this is even possible at their colleges of choice.
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In general it is not suggested to do early auditions since schools rarely need to take people Ed (these programs have acceptance rates much much lower than ivys) and generally auditions will improve with time. You don’t want to audition first at your first choice school.
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Very few BFA in MT schools offer ED. Off the top of my head, the only ones I can think of that do are NYU and Syracuse. Your academic stats are not in range for NYU, and are quite questionable for Syracuse.
Elon has EA…Early Action.
I do not agree with the statement that someone made that academics do not count in BFA in MT admissions. At many BFA programs, there is a separate admissions process to get into the college academically (example: Elon) and artistically. You have to be admissible on both fronts. To ascertain if you are in range for a school on the academic side, you need to look at the acceptance rate to the overall university, the GPA range of accepted students, rigor of coursework you’ve taken, and if submitting a test score, if that is in range, and so on. It so happens that a great number of BFA in MT programs are located within colleges that are not that selective academically, and so I would aim for such programs. Examples might be: Montclair State, Marymount Manhattan, Coastal Carolina,Baldwin Wallace, Oklahoma City. University, Ithaca, Rider, Boston Conservatory, University of the Arts, Wright State, CCM, and. many, many more. I would not apply to ones such as NYU, UMichigan, UMiami, USC, UCLA, Boston. University, and some others where your academic profile is not in range.
The chances to get admitted artistically by audition are VERY slim at all BFA in MT programs, particularly very well known programs.
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As a backup plan, you may want to investigate community colleges with strong MT programs - they do exist. There’s one in my area that a lot of kids from our arts-magnet high school go to, and I have seen a number of students transfer into good MT programs from there (including Boston Conservatory and Cal State Northridge, off the top of my head).
I’m not saying this out of pessimism - you certainly have a shot at auditioned programs that don’t apply a stringent GPA filter - but just in light of the reach-for-everybody nature of MT BFA programs generally. If you have a backup plan that you know you can be happy with, it’ll make the whole process at least a little less stressful.
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Don’t discount some lesser-known schools either. Take a look at the BIG LIST of schools at the top of the MT board. There are tons of schools that don’t always make everyone’s list that are excellent training grounds. Our DD is at such a school right now and is loving it, lots of performing and opportunities. Plus her food is excellent!