gap year versus attend college and try to transfer in to MT

College Majors Musical Theater Major
1

<p>What is the conventional wisdom on the “i did not get into any of the prominent BFA, BM, or BA audition MT programs” but still want to pursue my dreams of performing? Daughter is talented (raw) with a wonderful voice, personality for acting and athleticism for dancing, but decided late to pursue musical theater so her resume is light and she has little formal training in acting, dance or voice. We live in a remote location with no nearby dance/voice instructors, and school only intemittently has a drama/music program. She has just recently begun taking ballet and driving an hour one way to take voice training from a BW trained music major, and is making great strides. But what if it is too little too late for this year (competing for the few spots at the ‘biggies’)? What would most impress auditors next year? I know talent wins out, but if talent is equal then what best breaks the tie?</p>

<li><p>Take a gap year, attend a summer musical theater program, continue training in ballet/dance, voice and try to find actor training, audition for any local theater productions, and reaudition next year for as many BFA, BM and BA MT programs that she can attend (every weekend beginning in the fall of 2007).</p></li>
<li><p>If accepted academically to one of the prominent programs with scholarship money for academic strength, but not accepted in to any of the audition required programs at that school, attend that school anyway, take theater courses, gen ed courses and hopefully private voice and dance lessons, and reaudition with that school and others hoping for a transfer in to the MT program.</p></li>
<li><p>Attend a non audition program, and proceed as in #2 above (Muhlenberg comes to mind). Although that could be an expensive option. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>Obviously there are many ways to achieve your goal if you are talented and persistent. There are many, many actors performing and singing on Broadway and elsewhere that do not have BFAs in MT from the ‘biggies’. Just trying to think through the options for laying out a way ahead, just in case. </p>

<p>Thanks. </p>

<p>Congrats to all those with acceptance letters. To all those without one yet…hang in there.</p>

2

<p>Personally I would advise your daughter to take a gap year, get a job, continue studying acting, dance and voice when she can and try to get involved in community theater.</p>

<p>Transfering is tough, I know cause I'm going through it now. It's a real hassle making sure transcripts and other documents are sent on time and stuff. Even though if you go to a state school you can get your gen-eds out of the way, unless you would get into that prominent school's program you'll kind of have to start over in many places anyway. Some schools, like Emerson, don't allow transfers into the BFA program and some schools have even more limited spots for transfers than if you'd audition as a freshman. I think in the long run it will cost more money to transfer (unless you're just changing majors at the same school). </p>

<p>I also think that you should look at MT BFA programs that aren't exactly the "top-tier" programs. Obviously no BFA program is safe, but ones that have less auditionees will prove to be a better chance of acceptance. </p>

<p>I'm not saying this as fact but I'm sure the auditors would be impressed that she took a year off and really made an effort to improve her skills and get more training. I think it would show dedication, responsibility and maturity. </p>

<p>Obviously all of this is moot depending on the outcome of her auditions this year, but she has many options and not one of them is the only way. Good luck to her and to you in the coming months.</p>

3

<p>My personal opinion is that your #3 is better than #2. In #3 she can take courses she desires, hopefully including acting, singing, and dance. With #2, at most of the competitive schools, she may have trouble getting the desired classes in acting, singing, and dance, because often these classes are either limited to the majors or the majors in the field get first choice of signing up for the classes.</p>

4

<p>A problem with #2 above is, projecting yourself and her to spring '08, how hard it will be for her to attend to all of her college classes successfully, at the same time chasing around to many schools to audition. </p>

<p>To me, if you and she think she'll have a lot of time and opportunity to practice and train in a gap year, that could be such a wonderful year. She could learn so much, with complete time to focus. Is she very disciplined to take full advantage of it (I'm guessing so, since her Mom is kinda forward-thinking :) I always remember a line from an old movie about the life of Louisa May Alcott. Her Quaker mom just saw terrible things happening for the girl at high school (not your situation) and, try as she might, she could not effect change in the school situation, so began to think of pulling her out to let her self-school. But the mom had to work (a widow, I think) so couldn't tend to Louisa's workflow daily. The mom pulls aside Louisa, looks her straight in the eye and asks, "Do you have the discipline to handle this?" When the answer was a clear "yes" the Mom did pull her out of school, which is when Louisa began to write seriously...and apparently never stopped.</p>

<p>Would the gap year be from your home, or might she move to a location where some of the training pieces are in place in that community? I can see pros and cons, and only you can gauge her level of maturity. It's hard to just send a teen away, for example to work a part-time job and share an apartment, without any supervision. If she had a relative who lived in a bigger city, who might (for example) give her room and board in exchange for childcare part-time of a cousin...this might be the kind of approach that might safely put her into a place with more opportunities for the gap year.
If not, however, even if she's always driving far to lessons, she could really learn so much in a year with just performance training and no academic "distractions." Ooops, my priorities are showing.</p>

<p>My D really wanted a gap year badly, but couldn't take it after h.s. because she also wanted an ED decision and you can't have both. Now that she's graduating college, however, she really is longing for a gap year between college and grad school. One of my sons is considering a gap year between h.s. and college because he wants to get a BFA in writing. He has some wild and wondrous ideas about how and where to live before he heads off to school, so that he brings some "real" stories to write about in college.</p>

<p>I've heard consistently that it's too hard for actors to get stagetime in schools where they're in the BA program but there exists a BFA program at the same school. </p>

<p>Is there an affordable way to attend a non-degree program somewhere that might package all your trainings together better? I'm thinking (but this isn't the right program) of NYArts & Film, or for film production kids there's a place that Robert deNiro created in NYC where kids come and study there for 5 weeks, 2 months, or up to a year to learn how to make films. That's not the right program for your D's training needs, but I'm just wondering if that's a better way to get training, even if it doesn't count at all academically (ever). It might be worth a national search on Google. If you found just the right program for a season or a year, and could bear to send her away, that might be a school identity for her that would package the training better than driving to the nearest voice lesson and hoping for acting school locally...I've lived remote and rural, so I know how hard that can be. Maybe the year could be broken up into segments, with one part of it lived away from home...the point being, not to "get away from home" but just to make sure her year of training is best possible. If you end up piecing together local lessons, however, she'll also be able to live free at home and not worry about roommates or landlords, so much less distraction. Will she be okay when her h.s. friends leave the area (or will they?).
Anyway, if 95% of what's on HER (not your) mind for the gap year is "how can I get training..." then to me, IMHO, she's like Louisa May Alcott and coudl make excellent use of that year. I do believe that anyone so devoted and with a year to work up skills could get into those auditions NEXT spring with success, again, being flexible since there are never guarantees.
Best wishes. This is quite a journey, isn't it :)</p>

5

<p>Wow! Excellent words of wisdom from everyone. Thanks. We have a few more auditions and then to hear back from 8 schools still.</p>

6

<p>of course, keep in mind, "gap year" isn't really a "year," especially if your attending a summer musical theatre program. Some schools can audition as early as December (or even earlier), so in reality, it would be more of a "gap months."</p>

7

<p>Alfieism - I was thinking of that, too. In reality, if you really, really wanted to get some schooling started earlier, I suppose if you trained really hard all summer, then auditioned for a school that holds early auditions (i.e., Point Park) and found out you were accepted by October or November, couldn't you possibly actually start school in January (even if you can only take your general education classes and get 5 of them out of the way) and then start your MT classes in September? I know Marymount Manhattan has an audition before December, too. Just a thought.</p>