Good safety schools for MT?

<p>Ok, so this is my first post and is probably way too long and if this is not the correct place to post this please let me know. My S is a senior this year and we too spent last weekend trying to come up with a final list for him to apply to. He is sure he wants to be in a MT program. The problem is that I don't know anything about MT and he is at a severe disadvantage because he attends a very small (less than 40 in his class) all boys school. The school has struggled to keep a drama program active since he was a sophomore, they didn't have a director for most of his junior year and they won't have one until the spring this year. During this time he has been in musicals at an all girls' schools. He has been taking piano lessons and voice lessons for several years and can't see himself doing anything other than pursuing MT. His school is academically challenging, every class averages a 27 ACT) and he has taken the most demanding classes (several AP, he scored a 5 on his AP History exam last year) and has a 4.0 and scored a 34 on the ACT. He is very worried about whether he has enough talent at this point to get into an MT program since he has limited stage experience, and the experience he has had has been on a small scale. He also did a couple of summer programs at the local community theater and he did the summer program at Oklahoma City this last summer. The list below is where we are at today. Unfortunately cost is a significant concern, we have 6 kids and have always told our kids that they will be responsible for their college education, my wife and I both were and we think it is important for them to take ownership in their education (I am sure this could lead to a long debate), although with the costs these days it is nothing like it was when I was going to college. All that being said we are looking for schools that he will be able to get into and will offer significant scholarships based on academics and possibly talent.</p>

<p>Here are the schools currently on the list:
Oklahoma City University
University of Tulsa (his sister is there now, she is not in MT but a friend is)
Syracuse
Michigan
SUNY Cortland
Ithaca
Millikin
North Central College
University of Nebraska Kearney (safety school for cost - we live in Nebraska)</p>

<p>Any help for a struggling dad trying to help his S find his way into an MT program is appreciated.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>dadofsix -- I can tell you from personal experience that Syracuse and Ithaca both offer significant academic scholarships and grants. Those schools, plus Michigan, sound like good academic matches for your son. You should consider them reach schools as far as MT, however, as they are audition programs and highly selective. I'm not familiar with your other choices, but I'm sure others on this board will be.</p>

<p>By the way, dad, your son's resume is much less important than his actual audition performance. But I would strongly suggest that you try to find him some professional coaching, so he's really prepared to do his best at the audition.</p>

<p>I think that is what I am most worried about, his talent, since he is at a bit of a disadvantage at this point since his high school is so lacking when it comes to drama. We are in the process of getting him help with audition material. One reason I posted in this thread was because I want to make sure we have a few schools on his list that will give him a great chance to get into an MT program and will consider his academics.</p>

<p>Syracuse DEFINITELY considers academics as an important part of the mix and in fact, final decisions for SU's BFA Drama and MT programs are actually made by SU's General Admissions, rather than by the College of Visual & Perf'g Arts (which recommends kids to Admissions after auditions). Plus, OnStage is correct in stating that SU is known to be generous with scholarship money, and your son has great stats. Finally, it's my understanding that SU actually favors talented kids with less training and experience for its BFA programs ... If you can find a good MT coach to help your son choose his material and prepare for his auditions, he should be all set. Best of luck to both of you!</p>

<p>You might want to look into the University of Miami -- they would probably be very generous with academic scholarships as well.</p>

<p>Ithaca can be very generous in terms of both artistic and academic scholarships for MT and acting majors.</p>

<p>dadofsix, I just wanted to answer another question that I see in your post, the concern that you have about his "lack of experience". Please know that most schools could care less about experience, or a big resume. At the end of the day, the audition, and how your son presents himself will be much more important. Like Onstage also suggests, I would recommend that your S selects some monologues and songs (try to stay away from overdone material - see other threads) that showcase your S's strengths. You also mention he has taken voice and piano lessons, he may want to look into taking some dance classes (ballet), or at this point, perhaps some privates, so that he will be somewhat more comfortable with the dance component and related verbiage of the audition. As you probably know, MT looks to train well rounded performers who act, sing and dance. The more prepared you are, the more confident you will feel.</p>

<p>Academically speaking, he should definitely qualify for some very nice scholarships, and the schools jersey44 and NMR refer, are known to reward academic and artistic excellence. Good luck!</p>

<p>Re: experience and its importance in the college audition process:</p>

<p>Listen to MTgrlsmom. (That's always good to do, anyway! ;))</p>

<p>If you read this list's archives, you will read about kids who had extensive professional resumes (and I am talking about <em>very</em> prestigious stuff) who did not do very well in the college process. </p>

<p>What that tells you is two things:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>experience is not as important as what happens in the actual audition itself, and</p></li>
<li><p>equally as important as the audition is creating an appropriate, balanced and realistic college list</p></li>
</ul>

<p>As you look at schools that are generous with scholarship money (whether merit based, need based, academic or talent), don't allow this factor to unduly skew your list of schools. All the scholarship generosity in the world won't matter unless your list has sufficient diversification so as to assure a reasonable opportunity for an acceptance. There has been a lot posted on the Class of 2009 and 2010 thread about what "diversification" is all about so I won't repeat it here. Just be cautious about allowing "scholarships" to create a "filter" that inadvertently creates an imbalanced list of schools to which to apply. So, just for purposes of illustration, Ithaca and University of Miami may be generous with scholarships and let's assume they are more generous than Syracuse (just a hypothetical "assumption" for purposes of this discussion, not being stated as a "fact"). If the decision is made to knock Syracuse off the list in favor of adding University of Miami, then you end up with 2 very small programs (Miami and Ithaca) and have eliminated Syracuse which has a larger program and accepts more students, thereby potentially creating a self defeating imbalance on the list.</p>

<p>dadofsix - </p>

<p>It's good to see you have a true safety on your list in North Central College. I would bet anything your S would get close to a full ride there. Our D (applying for English) was awarded their full ride Presidential scholarship for academics with similar stats to your S. Our S (applying for MT) got an academic scholarship (with nowhere near your S's stats), a vocal award and a theatre award which would have been nearly a full ride. Neither ended up attending there, but the people were terrific and the MT program, while not an audition program, has had some success (recent grad now on National Tour with The Lion King for ex.) They both applied because their theatre director who was a mentor to them both went there for undergrad. He had a nice career as a professional actor before settling down into directing/teaching.</p>

<p>Thanks everyone for the great replies and great information. MichaelNKat, I was thinking along the same lines, I don't want to only have schools on his list that offer great academic scholarships but it is a concern and wanted to have enough schools that look at academics to help give him more options.
Anyone else have any particular thoughts of the list of schools on his list currently, good or bad? I did forget to mention that SUNY Cortland is on his list because his former drama director is on the staff there now but I don't know much about it and have not seen much about it in the discussions here.</p>

<p>Thanks again, this is a great place with a lot of great folks helping people like me who are clueless about MT.</p>

<p>Just want to throw in my two cents based on jersey44's post. U of Miami is not so generous with scholarships in our experience. This is based on personal experience with MT and the experiences of family friends who are non-MT who currently attend. These students are all very good students who did very well in high school and also scored well on tests. If U of Miami is on your list, apply EARLY -- that might help you out. The early birds tend to get more money than the birds who apply and/or audition towards the latter part of the admissions process. GREAT school but not generous with merit $$ in my opinion as compared to other schools which are incredibly generous.</p>

<p>I think it is misleading to say that any school is "generous" with scholarships, because the way schools distribute scholarships varies. Some do come forth with money based solely on an applicant's merit or talent, but others distribute talent/merit scholarships based on whether the student actually (according to the way schools calculate this, via the FAFSA and so on) need it.</p>

<p>You might look at Ball State U in Muncie, Indiana. They have a great BFA program that includes 3 Sr. showcases.</p>

<p>They give OOS honor students IS tuition rates regardless of need.</p>

<p>I am no expert on the college scholarship process by any stretch of the imagination. In my experience, some schools have been more generous than others with my daughters depending upon certain factors. </p>

<p>The only thing I know and wanted to convey is that U of Miami is one of the priciest schools in the nation and one of the stingiest with merit money. If money is a concern to anyone thinking of applying there for MT, just note that. I am going to assume that academic or MT prodigies would get a decent amount of money there but they must be at the very, very top of their game compared to other students applying.</p>

<p>Things may have changed in the last 2 years, but Miami offered my daughter a 2/3 tuition scholarship (renewable for all 4 years), on academics alone (pre-audition). Her ACT score was good, but not as good as this young man's. They raised their offer in April (to 3/4, if I remember correctly).</p>

<p>I think things have changed in the last 2 years due to record-breaking numbers of applications nationwide (meaning money is tighter than ever before). Having said that, WOW. Awesome for your daughter (and you of course as bill payer).</p>

<p>The 3 kids I am talking about are no academic slouches (2 currently there; 1 chose another school due, in part, to money) -- so I am really surprised. These kids represent high school graduating class of 2007 (2) and 2008 (1).</p>

<p>Just wanted to chime in that a good friend of my D received a "3/4 scholarship" to U of Miami last year. This girl had a good, albeit not 'off the charts' academic track record, but is quite talented. Interesting enough she was rejected at other schools (such as NYU, Syracuse and PSU): needless to say U of Miami was a dream come true. I don't know about the timing of her U of Miami application, other than that she applied ED to NYU. My guess would be that therefore she was an RD applicant. I can check if anyone wants to know.</p>

<p>Thanks for the info on Miami although I am not sure my S will want to attend there, he hates hot weather so it will be interesting to see what happens if he gets into OCU, I guess it is not as hot there.
Britbrat thanks for the info on Ball State, would be great to get a tuition break like that.</p>

<p>What are good schools for MT i live in a small oklahoma town am a junior in high school, and act at a regional junior college theatre. i cant ask the jucos because they just want me to come there, what schools should i look at</p>