I’m class of 2017, but for my first year of college, I’m going to a local university to take my Gen Ed courses (technically I’ll be an Art Studio Major, but I’ll be taking the Gen Ed courses first). While I’m doing that I’ll be taking dance classes (my weakest area) and possibly auditioning for shows in my area to build up my resume. Has anyone been down this track? What else should I do this year? Are scholarships still possibles? Any advice is really helpful.
If it helps, the colleges I’m looking at are North Carolina School of the Arts, Montclair, CCM, and Ballstate (I can’t afford anything like Pace or Boston Conservatory).
You might check to make sure the schools you are interested in will accept your Gen Ed credits. If they do, you might be considered a “transfer” student and perhaps have a different application/audition process. Some MT programs will only accept “freshmen” and may, or may not, let you use your Gen Eds towards graduation. Does the school you are currently attending have any “agreements” with other schools offering MT (in your city, state or otherwise), who will automatically take your transfer credits?
Dance classes are a great idea. What is your experience with voice and acting? These skills are extremely important. You may want to look into getting some professional help with preparing and selecting your audition materials - can be somebody local, but should definitely be someone who is VERY familiar with the current MT program vetting process and who will be honest about your strengths and weakness. Your skills and audition prep should be much more of a focus than building your “performance resume”. Being in shows is great, but what you bring into the room at your auditions will play a much bigger role in how successful you are at getting accepted.
Agree about the credits & checking to see if they’ll transfer. Also, my non-MT son considered transferring after his first year of college and we found that going in as a transfer there weren’t nearly as many scholarship opportunities as there are for freshmen. He ended up deciding he liked where he was, but transferring would have been expensive.
You may have already done this, but if you haven’t, read, read, read the MT forum for information. You only have a few schools on your list, and they are audition schools (and highly competitive). ALL audition schools are competitive & you’ll see this over & over on multiple threads, but you need a non-audition safety school that you love. Best of luck to you!
@mom4bwayboy It doesn’t say anything about any agreements, but they’ll only let me transfer 1/3rd of my semester credits and some credits will transfer depending on different factors (this school doesn’t have a theatre major). My singing skill is competitive but actor can use work. I’m looking towards Mary Anna as a coach (let me know if you have any suggestions!), there’s no coaches here. Thank you for your advice, it really opened an eye a bit there!
@MTmom2017 My only safety schools as of now are all instate ones but my state isn’t notorious for having good theatre programs (in fact, I believe only one requires an audition, and that school is more expensive than Pace instate. Yeesh!) Was your son an acting major or non- performing arts?
@mtkb17 he was not performing arts, but I think transferring in general might be the same as far as scholarships not being as plentiful as for freshmen. If you’re thinking about using a coach, they should be able to help you out!
@mtkb17 - my S (current BFA MT junior) did not use a national coach, but many people on this forum have great things to say about Mary Anna - and other coaches. If you haven’t already, read her book, “I got in!”. If my S were giving advice - which he doesn’t, unless I ask him point blank - he would say beefing up your acting skills is critical, much more so than getting performance credits. A national coach may be able to help you with that, or perhaps point you in the right direction. Taking acting classes or private acting coaching might be a good idea.
Most MT scholarships that I’m aware of are school/program-specific and in general the best money is merit-based (grades/GPA etc.) rather than talent-based - but that varies greatly from school to school (I know this is the case for CCM and also the school where my S currently attends). I believe some of the national coaches offer scholarships to help alleviate the costs of private coaching.
@mom4bwayboy Hopefully so, I’m going to apply for separate scholarships if I can. My gpa in highschool isn’t so hot. Im sure with a coach we can create a list of colleges.
If you do not have a trusted, experienced adult from your current school, high school, community theater/music to assist you in navigating this process, finding a coach will probably help you the most with making good decisions about your college list, scholarship options and also help you with skill-building. Try to read as much as you can in the threads “[pinned” at the top of this MT Major forum. Feel free to ask more questions of the folks here on CC. Good Luck!