Hello, I’m not new to this forum but I need an imperative question asked about the college admissions for musical theater kids. I already started my college program search and everyday it feels like I dragging a dead weight. So I didn’t decide till last spring that I wanted to attend a mt college program and knew the necessary preparation. However I believe my biggest downturn is the only experience I have is limited to my school shows since 7th grade. Besides that , my worry is that I don’t possess any formal training in any of the three disciplines. I wish my 8th grade self would’ve told me to attend a performing arts high school but I didn’t. So do I even have a shot in the audition process? And I’m not going to say chances into to getting in a top program because the chances are slim for everyone. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts.
Doing shows is great training, and I don’t think schools are looking for kids from performing arts schools. You might want to think about getting coaches for the three disciplines which is what my D did, starting in the Spring/Summer. Or start right now by doing online dance classes to help get you ready!
Thank you for the advice. I never thought about the shows in that way so thank you and I will definitely look into online dance classes in ballet and tap , if possible.
To quote Texas State’s Kaitlin Hopkins when someone asked a similar question in a forum, “Are you good?” That’s all colleges want to know. If you’ve got it, you’ve got it, formal training or not. My daughter is in the thick of the college audition process now. She did not go to a performing arts high school, and her rural high school does not even have a strong theatre program. She has done some community theatre shows and is a very good singer and dancer, with formal training in those, but she has had similar worries to yours. Not every kid has been exposed to the same opportunities. We are still waiting results, but we have some very good, top-tier schools still on the table at this point, as well as some safeties that also have very good programs. Everybody brings different skillsets to the table. Be you. That’s all they want.
@RainbowHigh You could also look into some summer musical theater programs. If you google musical theater summer programs 2021, an article from Artsbridge will come up that lists a bunch of them. There are different kinds of programs but prepare for sticker shock. If you don’t have one, make a facebook account before you start googling and then facebook will feed you lots of ads with online training programs! If you are a sophomore, you definitely have plenty of time for training. If you are a Junior, now (like literally this month) is the time to line up some college audition coaching as it may be a bit late for actual training. If you read through this thread, there is lots of talk about who people used to help get them ready. You can totally do this. Pro tip: I wish I had started a google doc that I could have added info from each school and program I got out of this thread.