Has anyone heard from CMU pre-college yet?

College Majors Musical Theater Major
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<p>Well, my s has been home for three weeks now, and things are back to normal in so many ways. We have music in the house again! Though s is an actor, he plays piano, and after the (expensive, but oh so worth it!!) private 1 hour voice lessons at CMU, he is singing all the time!! The notes given in the lessons were easily applied, and s will start voice lessons here next week. His former teachers really taught choral singing, and s has found a MT style teacher.</p>

<p>He looks very fit and limber as a result of the movement class, and his voice has a nice texture to it. I hope that continued practice will further develop these strengths. He starts dance again next week.</p>

<p>He received a letter encouraging him to apply later in the year for a spot at CMU, and then the evaluation packet came. He is pleased with the evals and believes he can apply the notes and have a strong audition season. The information was so valuable, and he is glad to have the opportunity for such honest feedback.</p>

<p>Through the grapevine, we hear that an MT (male) and a techie (female) were invited to CMU as early admits. I saw the MT perform at parent's weekend, and enjoyed him very much. </p>

<p>This program was so valuable in EVERY aspect. I found it a challenge to ready my s for life 'on his own' a year before I expected to. (It is very unusual in our local community for a 'child' to go away for any extended time before college.) We spent junior year allowing him to set his own schedule of laundry, eating, sleeping and study habits.</p>

<p>He was over the moon to be with SO MANY students of similar interests. He loved the classes and the increased freedom and respect from the teachers and the program itself, so different from high school. He loved dorm life, and meeting kids from all over. He made a lot of good friends, and has stayed in touch. I know that support system will come in handy as this year progresses.</p>

<p>I will share as things happen, and will keep reading the boards for the advice and support you all offer. Thank you for everything.</p>

<p>Carole</p>

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<p>i'd like to second pretty much everything wool4all said....it really was a fabulous summer for me and i definitely recommend the program for anyone who thinks they want the BFA in musical theater or theater. The most amazing thing about the program is that it absolutely confirmed that this is what i want.</p>

<p>other people had the exact opposite reaction....but hey...better they figure that out now than after spending a year in college, right?</p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon looked like a fabulous place to go, but one thing important to mention for people who want to go there for musical theater, it is a very different program than, say, Michigan or Syracuse. It's much more acting-focused and they only do one mainstage musical a year. They do tons of shows, but they are all dramas. It's still a terrific place, but that's something to keep in mind if you consider yourself more of a singer....There won't be as many singing opps.</p>

<p>It's been so hard being away from all the great teachers. I miss my classes so much....(Instead I've been a counselor at an acting camp, which is definitely not as fun when you have to deal with annoying cranky little kids......not that i'm complaining or anything lol). But i'm excited because one of my CMU floormates is coming up for this weekend.</p>

<p>Again, I encourage people to look into this program. I had so many fabulous teachers and the feedback was tremendous. And if you have any questions, feel free to ask away!</p>

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<p>Just a clarification for those who may be unfamiliar with CMU - </p>

<p>While it is definitely true that there are not as many mainstage "singing" opportunities at CMU as there are at a place like UM, there are many more singing performance opportunities than the one mainstage musical. Each year, there are usually a few smaller studio musicals that are directing projects and are always of excellent quality - and often involve some cool material, like KISS OF THE SPIDERWOMAN, for example. In addition, there are often one-time readings of new and lesser-known musicals done as student projects. CMU also has a "new musicals" partnership with Pittsburgh CLO - see this link:
<a href="http://www.pittsburghclo.org/shows/new_works.cfm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.pittsburghclo.org/shows/new_works.cfm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>These new works readings often involve underclassmen. Also, the junior class does a one-hour cabaret on the last Friday of each month at 11pm. These "Final Fridays" allow the juniors to apply what they learn in their cabaret singing class (taught lovingly by Gary Kline, who is a cabaret expert, a great singer himself, and VERY connected with cabaret singers and composers around the country). The Final Friday concerts are usually themed and often involve great music that is not yet released to the public - CMU students were performing Marcy and Zina songs (like "The Girl from 14G") long before I ever heard them anywhere else besides NYC. In addition, the students have a week called Playground, where classes are cancelled for the entire week and students can create and stage their own musicals, concerts, cabarets, plays, performance art, etc., all of which are performed during the 3 days at the end of the week. Last year, these pieces included abbreviated versions of THE LAST 5 YEARS, TABOO, and NINE (with one boy as Guido and one girl playing Claudia, Carla, AND Luisa).</p>

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<p>Thanks CoachC for this added information. My daughter found Gary Kline to be great.</p>

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<p>Does anybody know who the techie who got in was? My roomate was a techie so I made several techie friends and would be interested to know. </p>

<p>I miss it all so much! break a leg to everyone working on college auditions right now. Hope to see some of you in the circuit.</p>

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<p>Naomi is the person.</p>

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<p>After reading the play-by-play description of the CMU program, my junior S is very interested in attending the 2006 session. He interest is in Theater, not MT. Can any of you give us an indication of how difficult it is to be accepted to the pre-college program?? Did your kids apply to multiple programs to ensure an acceptance somewhere?</p>

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<p>Here is my feeling about difficulty of acceptances. Get your application in as early as possible. It is a rolling admission and they will run out of spaces. Between MT, acting and Tech there were at least 100 spots, but clearly more applied. They do not ask for an audition tape. What they are looking for, they say, is a demonstrated interest in theater.
While you have to submit transcript, etc., my guess is they really don't care about that for the theater program -- but the theater program uses the same application as the academic segments of the pre college program. </p>

<p>As you can see from reading this thread, many of us were annoyed at how slow the process was and did get nervous about not having a back up plan. We got our application in as early as was possible (I think February?) and did not hear for a long time. As you can also see from reading this threat, my daughter LOVED the program. </p>

<p>I would wish CMU would refine its process but I wouldn't could on it.</p>

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<p>My son was in the Acting program last summer, and LOVED it and misses it very much! He was not very timely with his application, and so did not have to wait very long to hear, I think two- three weeks. He had to include an acting resume, and include two recommendations. He did not have a backup plan, as the community theatre he usually works for took a year off. He did however direct, produce and act in a show which played the two nights before he left for Pittsburgh. I imagine he would have done another show, had CMU fallen through.</p>

<p>The only info regarding admission to the pre-college program, was a statement made during the orientation that over 1100 applied to the summer program, and just over 600 were accepted. I know that many students were taking purely academic classes, Advanced Placement Early Admission, and wonder if some of the rejections come from there, because there was a wide variety of experience in the theatre department, from working actors to "our school does one musical a year" actors.</p>

<p>My S is well into the application process, and has scheduled an audition at Syracuse for Dec 2. I think he plans on using the Unifieds in Chicago for most of the other auditions. He is very busy doing theatre and other supporting activities, voice, dance etc. He gained a lot of confidence this summer, and I am glad to see it carry over to this school year. Good luck to your son, and feel free to ask any questions.</p>

<p>Carole</p>

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<p>we'll be at Syracuse December 2 as well, so i'm sure we'll see you there :-D</p>

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<p>I only applied to CMU's program, and (luckily) got in. I don't think it was really high pressure to get in. There were kids there of all levels. There were some who had already done proffesional auditions and there were some who'd never had a lead in their high school shows. I suggest you get your application in fairly early and apply to some other programs if you want, but don't stress out too much.</p>

<p>From what I've read online about other summer programs, CMU is really unique in that it focuses on the audition. I found that really helpful. I had no idea how much I had to still learn until I got there.</p>

<p>I wish your s the best of luck</p>

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<p>I agree. My students who have attended have all echoed that. </p>

<p>The CMU pre-college has a wide variety of skill levels all lumped into one. But, frankly, I think most students will tell you that is the case at many of these summer opportunities.
The focus on audition at CMU is one thing that makes that a valuable program, if you don't have that knowledge going into the program.</p>

<p>Frankly, I wish more of these summer programs would require an audition for admission.</p>

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<p>Interesting comment about auditioning for the summer programs. Why do you suggest that? Would it be to ensure that the most qualified candidates gain admission? Or to better create a higher functioning group?</p>

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<p>Or maybe Mary Anna meant that the end product of a mock (but realistic) audition at CMU was wonderful. Mary Anna, I too was not sure which you meant.</p>

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<p>I agree Mary Anna...I think they ALL should be audition based. I know that the people who aren't as strong should have a chance to be better..but I'd rather not get in than go and have people of all different skill levels. I think being around people who are as good (or bad) as you are makes you want to better yourselves.</p>

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<p>Honestly, I didn't really feel it mattered that there was no audition. We were placed in our dance classes, so it wasn't like someone who was on pointe was in a ballet class with someone who didn't even know what first position was. And the classes were really really small. True, there were some people who obviously wouldn't have gotten had the program been more selective, but I didn't feel impacted by others. The teachers were so focused on the individual.</p>

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<p>for acting, I think an audition is an important screening tool. That insures that the talent quality of the participants will be near the same level. It makes the learning environment more fair for everyone involved.</p>

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<p>I just got into the summer program and am still waiting on a response from the other programs I applied to: BU and NCSA. Anyone have any recommendations about this (assuming I get in to the other two). </p>

<p>Thanks,
Travis</p>

<p>P.S. After reading loads of posts here, I finally joined. Yay.</p>

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<p>I went to CMU's Pre-College as a Musical Theatre major. I fell in love with the school. The program truly changed me so much as a performer as well as a person. You will meet such life long friends. I highly recommend the program.</p>

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<p>Travis, my D will be joining you at CMU pre-college. She got her letter of admission today! She is so excited to go. A friend of hers got in as well for the acting portion of the program. It will be an exciting summer for all of you!</p>

<p>kaysmom</p>