<p>I am in a hotel in Hagerstown, MD, just about 3 hours from Pittsburgh tonight.
Spoke to D today who was pleased with reaction from her auditions. She had dance yesterday and the other two today. She was excited about the "cruise" tonight and "hanging out" with her friends tomorrow. Not much talk about "packing up" though (what a surprise!). </p>
<p>I spoke with an admissions person from Otterbein yesterday just checking on audition info, etc. We ended up having a very nice, rather lengthy discussion, during which she made the comment that the CMU Pre-College students who auditioned for them were "some of the most well trained students" they see. What an affirmation - again, money well spent. My D has had almost an ephiphany at CMU in many regards, and I am so thrilled for her. She has made such good friends too! She wants to try to schedule her Elon audition with Kaysmom's D if possible, so we are working on that! The Otterbein rep also asked whether I posted or read College Confidential! How fullly - I told her I log in almost every night. We would not have known about CMU or many other things if I had not found this site. Hope to see you all this weekend! I will be at the Hampton Inn. Cathy</p>
<p>Hey, Cathy, fun to hear about your D's great experiences and the fact that you are spending the night in Hagerstown. Back when I was a college student preparing for a career in newspaper reporting, I spent the summer between jr and sr. years interning at the Hagerstown Herald-Mail. It was such a fun summer; I really enjoyed the "small city" atmosphere of Hagerstown and the people there. In any case, this is off topic, but hearing Hagerstown mentioned brought back a rush of memories, including that of riding in their annual soapbox derby!
Best of luck to your D in her auditions. A year from now, our family will be in the same situation. (I hope my D also will just be finishing up her CMU precollege program. Keeping fingers crossed that she is accepted!)
Lisa</p>
<p>About an hour outside of Pittsburgh this afternoon I got a phone call from D sobbing hysterically that she didn't want to leave Carnegie and that she had made the best friends she had ever had. I calmed her down, and am trying to get ahold of her now to meet and maybe move some of her things out. I probably won't hear till time for dinner! It really is wonderful that in addition to all the terrific training she has had that she also had such a spectacular experience with the kids there. I am sure your daughter will be accepted. The key is getting the application in early - check early in January on their website for new application info - if your daughter can show interest in theater (which I know she can) that's all you need to do. Best of luck to all of us. Cathy</p>
<p>my d had the time of her life. The only minor drawback was the heat but she learned to live with it. I think she is having more trouble adjusting to being home!</p>
<p>My d has also had the time of her life! As we sat down to dinner last night she was just reiterating that she could not imagine going through the college audition process without having gone to CMU. She said she learned so much about the process from simple things like how to properly walk in and introduce yourself and your material, and how to have your music put together to make it easier for the pianist, to more important things like preparing the right audition material. She thought the mock audition process was extremely valuable as well and left her with a clearer picture of what they were looking for in terms of material. </p>
<p>She met a group of friends there who are just wonderful! (She misses them terribly already), but how nice it will be to go to auditions and very likely know many of the kids auditioning with you. I hope it will be a nice support system for her. </p>
<p>CMU was the chance for her to be with people just like her. Kids who have a serious passion for theater. It also provided her with a chance to see some of the talent from all over. When you only know your own little theater world, sometimes it's hard to get an overall picture of where you stand. My d said there were quite a few students who decided that MT may not be for them after all and they were considering acting instead, and then there were those, of course, who thought this wasn't for them at all and either left the program early or have decided to pursue different career paths. </p>
<p>Yes, I would say heat was an incredible drawback (and the food) according to my d, but she too learned to adjust.</p>
<p>Evasmom:
Hi there....my d is one of the three MT girls in last year's Freshman class. None of the girls attended the pre-college program. My d said that one of the MT boys (they accepted six boys, I think) DID attend the pre-college program, and one of the actors had also attended.
Just thought I'd clarify that..... I am so impressed with all the feedback from everyone on the summer program!! Best of luck to everyone----its a great program and my d has been incredibly happy there!</p>
<p>To clarify further, I don't think anyone here suggested that attending CMU's precollege program actually gives one an advantage in admission to that school. In fact, people have been very careful to state that that is NOT the case, though there are unusual situations in which an exception student who attends the precollege program is invited (after the auditions at the end, I would presume!) to attend the college.
As everyone has stated repeatedly, the reason for your kid to attend CMU precollege is to learn and to prepare for the round of college admissions auditions that they are about to undertake, and NOT in order to get into CMU.</p>
<p>I am sorry for the misinformation. I was reporting what the kids at pre-college had been told. Thank you for the correct information. The Pre-college program at CMU is well worth everything. I did not mean to imply that it was a stepping stone to CMU acceptance.</p>
<p>evasmom, no need to apologize for anything. To my knowledge, you never implied anything of the kind. You simply reported on your D's experiences, and we appreciate it.</p>
<p>Our S came home from Pre-College broke, independant, and thankfull. This was a pivotal experience for him and his first with a national influence of talented and commited kids.</p>
<p>He seemed to "hit the wall" at about 3 weeks with the workload and expectations catching up with his energy and enthusiasm. The instructors were demanding and yet supportive. He was encouraged by two of them to consider directing, something he'd not thought much about in the past. </p>
<p>The formal evaluations arrived a few days ago. They were quite detailed, frank, and helpfull as we look forward to his senior year. Our S has said that he now leaning toward a more generalist college experience. The college tours we took this summer (both BA and BFA programs), the intensity of the coservatory approach at CMU Pre-College, and this new suggestion of directing has him thinking that the BA route with a possible MFA in the future may suit him the best. His decision and choice of colleges to apply to is evolving.</p>
<p>It sounds as if your son got a lot out of the CMU precollege program. It is obviously a really intense experience, but clearly also very worthwhile. Thank you for sharing with us.</p>
<p>I am hoping that someone who has done the CMU precollege summer program can answer a question for me:</p>
<p>Approximately how many kids does the University accept in both Acting and Musical Theatre? Is one division larger than another? (In other words, are there more straight actors or more MTers, or equal numbers of both?)</p>
<p>A few more ?s:</p>
<ul>
<li>Can someone describe a typical day or week, and what kinds of classes you take while there?</li>
<li>Were there written assignments, such as analyzing plays, characters, scripts, etc.?</li>
<li>were most of the teachers/instructors regular faculty from CMU's Dept of Drama?</li>
</ul>
<p>Hi NMR,
My son was at pre-college this past summer. MT was approx. 3 times
bigger with ~ 35 actors and > 100 MT's. Don't know if this reflects the
demographics every year, though.
Most, though not all of the faculty was from CMU.
The actors were very busy with a 6 week curriculum that would
give them a very good picture of how intense the course work
in the actual program would be. They had classes in acting,
movement, styles, voice, auditions and improv. The MT's took
dance and singing in place of movement and voice. Both groups
also had a drama lit class. The work for this was pretty intensive
with 6 plays studied over the 6 weeks. This was taught by the head
of CMU's Dramaturgy dept.
There were also electives in playwriting and direction for the actors
and I'm not sure what for the MT's. These were daily for the whole
6 weeks, but there were also many workshops as well.
It was a fabulous experience.
Hope this helps.</p>
<p>thanks, galwaymom. Did your S study acting or MT? I wonder if the reason they have such a discrepancy between the number of MTs and actors is because fewer actors apply, or whether CMU keeps the acting program deliberately small, for whatever reason. (I doubt that's the case.) Anyone know?</p>
<p>Thanks, galwaymum. Did the actors have their acting classes separate from the acting classes given to the MTs, or was there overlap? Sorry I did not think to ask this in our first exchange earlier. Feel free to PM me if you don't feel like answering all of this online. :)</p>
<p>Hey notmamarose...the classes did overlap betwen actors and MT..in my acting class with Tony Mckay, several of the stuents were studying acting not MT...:-)....i loved the fact that they mixed us thought :-) ...hope this helped!</p>