I am familiar with the MFA programs at schools like Juilliard, Yale and NYU Tisch, but can anyone tell me about Brown/Trinity Rep, Rutgers (for MFA), and Columbia. I’ve checked out the websites to all these schools, but I was wondering if anyone could give me a little more information about these three schools. Notable alumni? What is the training like? How do they compare with the first three schools I listed above and how do they rank nationally?
CC has a musical theater major forum here http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/ I recommend reposting there.
Hopefully the MT forum can help you, but they focus on undergrads primarily.
[url=<a href=“http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/25-best-drama-schools-a-797949%5DThis%5B/url”>http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/25-best-drama-schools-a-797949]This[/url] list has Brown and Rutgers ranked at #9 and #10 respectively, and Columbia at #20.
A lot of Columbia’s most famous alumni in acting actually attended for undergrad, but Kathryn Bigelow and James Franco both got their MFAs there, but Bigelow studied film criticism and theory, and Franco got his MFA in writing after he’d already become famous. A couple of other playwrights and directors got MFAs at Columbia. Brown also has a host of successful people in the performing arts, but most got their AB there; most of the notable MFA alumni I could find are in theater (Sarah Ruhl, Nilo Cruz, Quiara Alegría Hudes). Rutgers is similar - significant list of notable acting alumni, but unclear whether they got an MFA or BA from Rutgers.
Thanks for the information Juillet. I’ve looked at the Hollywood Reporter list for the best MFA Programs of 2015 before, but as many have pointed out, there are several inaccuracies. So I just used the list as a starting point for researching grad schools for acting.
Yeah, I think any ranking list is only a starting point - I only used it as a reference, since there are few of these kinds of things.
Honestly the best way to do this is the slow way - talking to academics and professionals in the field and getting their take on the programs. Individual opinions don’t say much, but talking to multiple people is the foundation of data.