<p>I'm feeling overwhelmed trying to help my daughter narrow down her rather large list of MT colleges. We have heard that it is best to apply to a least 15 colleges due to how competitive things are. Is this true? Also looking for MT college programs that are best for an advanced dancer and that have good programs in straight theater as well. Since she would like to apply to some colleges in straight theater as a back up. Any suggestions? Thanks!</p>
<p>Many people are going to have a lot to say about this, so I’m not going to go into detail, but I would say that (although I applied to more than 15 colleges), 10 is probably a relatively even number, as long as you vary the colleges. It’s fine to have prestigious schools that take a select few from a large audition pool on your list, but you also are going to want a few matches that are academically safe and are not by any means guarantees (no audition-only school is a guarantee) but are more likely to be accepted to.</p>
<p>In addition, I would suggest that you have at least 2 programs that are completely NON-audition and that your daughter could easily see herself as attending and not feel like she was settling. Whether that’s a BA or BFA is up to you, as long as you love the school. I would recommend that said non-audition “safety school” does NOT have a BFA program that your D is auditioning for, because often it’s difficult to attend a school for a non-audition B.A. when you auditioned for the BFA. It can feel as if you are “less than” even if the faculty and the rest of the students do not treat you that way.</p>
<p>Also make sure that at least one of the non-audition safety school is an academic safety as well. People are going to bring up Northwestern and Muhlenberg which both have AWESOME non-audition B.A.'s in theatre (best in the country) but are tough to get into academically. They are great to have on your list and great to attend but, not knowing your daughters grades, are reaches for people academically. Having one or two of those is fine on your non-auditions, but some place that is both a non-audition and an easy-in academically is best.</p>
<p>At the top of the MT page there is a “featured Discussion” titled “Preparing to Apply- Information for H.S. Juniors and Seniors”. It’s not a bad place to start for information about the school selection/application/audition process. Lots of info from parents who have gone through the process, college counselors, school reps.</p>
<p>As to the number of schools, meaning no disrespect or offense to anyone, I think 15 schools is far in excess of what is necessary. 8-10 schools is more than enough if you structure your list with appropriate diversity. Diversity, in this case, means a mix of audition based schools that reflect differences in freshman class size, academic standards for admission, the weight given to academics vs talent, whether they draw from regional audition pools or national pools, number of applicants to the program. Make sure the schools seem to match the strengths your daughter brings to the table in terms of the weight given to the acting, voice and dance portions of the auditions. And, as AlexaMT advises, make sure to have at least 2 non-audition programs where admissions is based on the same student profile criteria as any other major. One of them should be a true academic safety school and the other a match. </p>
<p>If you put together a well thought out, calculated list of 8-10 schools, the odds of having at least 1 BFA and 1 BA acceptance to choose from are pretty good. Applying to 15 schools will do far more to create stress and time management chaos in your daughter’s senior year than it will to materially enhance your daughter’s chances for an acceptance. Remember, in addition to applications, audition prep, auditioning, travel time etc, she still has to take care of all her h.s. responsibilities and continue with her extracurricular activities, including local/school theatre and shows.</p>
<p>Thanks for your thoughts on this AlexaMT! My daughter has just under a 4.0 GPA, but had never considered trying for a non audition school. We haven’t got her ACT scores back yet. but guessing around a 27. I haven’t heard of Muhlenberg? We will check this out! Thanks! Are you happy were you are going to school?</p>
<p>Thanks MichealNKat! 10 seems to be a good number then. I will check out the Preparing to apply discussion. You are so right about trying to keep the stress level down senior year. Number one goal of mine! ; D</p>
<p>Opinions vary on the right number of schools. I recommend two things:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Read Mary Anna Dennard’s book, “I Got In” as soon as you can (if you haven’t already).</p></li>
<li><p>Read the “MT Rejections” thread (one of the most-viewed threads on this part of CC):</p></li>
</ol>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/866128-mt-rejections.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/866128-mt-rejections.html</a></p>
<p>Thanks EmsDad! I check these out!</p>
<p>I just wish my DD was interested in something simple, like getting into an Ivy League law school…</p>
<p>lol ^ 10char</p>
<p>xxostage, welcome! You’ve come to the right place for the info you’ll need. My recommendation is to do a search for MichaelNKat and soozievt’s posts. Everything you’ll ever need to know about this process will be found there. Both generous and knowledgeable, they are our resident experts who are happy to dispense their information for no charge!</p>
<p>Just click on the username and scroll down to Find More Posts and you will find a wealth of information. All you will need is time to read them. Best of luck!</p>
<p>Muhlenberg and Northwestern are in really different ballparks academically and in terms of selectivity. Muhlenberg is not going to be a reach for many, and it offers significant merit aid.</p>
<p>^Then Muhlenberg would be a good one to put on a list as a possible safety. I didn’t apply to Muhlenberg or Northwestern, so I don’t know much about the programs academically, I just see them brought up in a lot of similar conversations. 
I apologize if the comparisson was incorrect.</p>
<p>MichaelNKat is right that there are plenty of other threads worth looking through to find answers to your questions, including preparing to apply which all MT hopefuls should look at. I am very happy with my choice of school, and CCU has a subforum that has quite a few posts about my experience at the school and the program itself if you’d like to look more around it.</p>
<p>I’d also suggest finding the “Freshman Experience” thread and reading through it. There are many posts in that thread from various different schools where students post what their every day schedules are like. I would say that it would be a great place to start and read up on what programs are really like in practice, and it can narrow down your decisions some.</p>
<p>I think that the old “Final Tally” thread contains lots of interesting (and diverse) opinions and actual examples of audition lists and acceptances. I bumped the list so that it is easier to find. Opinions on how to best approach this complex process vary and I think its useful to collect as much information and as many opinions as you can stand… </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/503807-final-tally.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/503807-final-tally.html</a></p>
<p>Thanks to all of you who replied to my post! I have learned so much. Would love to locate a thread that talks about good fit! My daughter is a very strong dancer/actress and has a good voice, but truthfully we haven’t had a much time to focus on her voice due to a heavy dance schedule and more involvement with theater productions. We are regular with a good vocal coach now and will be able to focus on her voice and audition material all summer, but we both know we are not up to par with someone who has been focusing on voice heavily. Personally we have found it hard to balance all three. I’m guessing we would want to avoid schools who focus primarily on voice??? My daughter’s confidence in growing in the vocal department but she knows this is her weakest link. Also she has excellent GPA, but not as great in the standardized testing. We haven’t received her ACT scores back yet, but guessing around a 27. Of course she can practice this summer in hopes of bringing this score up. University of Michigan is top on her list right now. She did a summer dance intensive there last summer and loved the campus and knows that their MT program is strong in dance too. Any advice on finding out more about good fit? Thanks again!</p>
<p>XXO - There have been many discussions about fit, but I wasn’t able to find a thread dedicated to that specific topic. If you go to the main MT forum page and click on the “Search This Forum” option and type in “good fit” you can go back and read posts where that has been discussed. Lots of interesting reading there! I found this particular thread to have some good discussion about that issue:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1069905-comparing-programs.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1069905-comparing-programs.html</a></p>
<p>As your D identifies the attributes she most wants in a program, she can start building a good list of schools that most closely match what she wants. She may start with a list of 15 or 20 schools. l think my D’s original list had 22 schools on it - but it didn’t have the school she ended up choosing LOL - so be prepared to be flexible and open-minded as the process moves along! She can narrow the list as she looks more closely at things like the curriculum, the faculty, performance opportunities, study abroad options, location, BFA/BM/BA degree, etc. Best of luck!</p>
<p>For a strong dancer, as you’re making up that list, look for schools that also have a dance major or minor (not that your d would be in that track) but ask if MTs are able to take dance w/the majors and/or be placed by ability. Some programs start everyone in MT in the same dance class (that was the kiss of death for my strong dancer’s list) or don’t offer enough hours for a strong dancer to stay strong. </p>
<p>My d’s list (which changed and morphed throughout the process) used some of these criteria: strong dance, BFA preferred, showcase a plus (but not a dealbreaker), performance opportunities, academic honors program, availability of merit money (because talent scholarships are few and far between). </p>
<p>Some programs that looked great on paper did not make the final list after a campus visit (we were able to visit most of the schools that made her final list – a great thing, if you can pull it off). In the end, she auditioned for 9 programs, was academically accepted to all, was artistically accepted to 4. But you can only attend one school…make sure that every school on the list is one you would be truly happy attending…that’s why figuring out what’s important to you (beyond just “name”!!!) is another critical phase of the process. Good luck!</p>
<p>XXOSTAGE, here are some thoughts I have about fit. First, it’s not a static concept. How you evaluate it at the application/audition stage is going to be different from the point at which you are choosing from among acceptances. At the application stage, it’s a bilateral concept: what are you looking for in a school and what are schools looking for in an applicant. You need to think through both aspects as you put together your short list of schools to which to apply. At the end, when you are deciding from among your acceptances, it’s all about how you think the school fits you. The factors will be different for non-audition schools and audition based programs. And how you prioritize and evaluate the factors that go into fit will evolve throughout the process based on your experiences and info you pick up along the way. At the beginning of the process, the thresholds to be met in determining preliminarily whether a school fits your desires probably should be a bit lower than at the end so as to not prematurely eliminate schools where you match their criteria. Once acceptances are in, then you can re-evaluate schools and tighten up on your expectations. So, where to start .</p>
<p>First, what are your daughters strengths and weaknesses innate talent, training and experience in acting, voice and dance. Academic/student profile. How do they line up with schools on your long list. Keep in mind that in the audition process, schools often place different emphasis and weight on the 3 talent components and may evaluate them differently. Audition based schools require varying thresholds of academic performance and give varying weight to academics vs. talent. Non-audition schools are all about academics/student profile. School websites have a lot of valuable info. Visiting the schools and speaking both with admissions and theatre department reps can be an invaluable source of info of this type. This type of inquiry is an important aspect of figuring out the short list of schools to which to apply. Is your daughter a good fit for the schools she is considering for her list.</p>
<p>Second, what are you looking for in a school. There are so many factors that can go into this. Size of school/program, full university/college vs. arts university, city vs. town vs. suburban location, encapsulated campus vs. city streets campus. BA vs. BFA, balance of performance curriculum vs. liberal arts curriculum, balance of performance curriculum amongst and between acting, voice and dance, balance of academic theatre vs. performance classes, opportunity to minor or double major, strength of the liberal arts curriculum, typical performance season (drama vs. musicals). Dorms, meal plans, campus life and activities. Climate, geographic location. Scholarships, financial aid and costs. Does the school have some kind of cut system. All things to consider when putting together the short list. All things to look at again when deciding on acceptances.</p>
<p>At the end, when April hits and acceptances are in, you go back and evaluate fit all over again, with the benefit of an audition seasons worth of experience, having visited schools, met with reps and having asked a ton of questions. Probably the best description of how to evaluate and compare schools at the end of the process was posted by mtdog71. See <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1098171-any-advice-determining-quality-mt-program-2.html#post12112551[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1098171-any-advice-determining-quality-mt-program-2.html#post12112551</a> Also, sitting in on classes, once the decision is down to the 2 top acceptances, provides a tremendous opportunity to get a first hand feel for a school and could very well be the ultimate determinative factor (as it was for my daughter).</p>
<p>Its a multi-faceted process involving a lot of research and time. Theres a ton of objective information that can inform about fit and the trick is to methodically organize it so that you dont go nuts from information overload. But at the end, the ultimate determiner of fit is often a gut reaction! Ive posted this elsewhere but it is worth repeating. Throughout my daughters school selection, application, audition and final decision process, I had binders, charts, spread sheets, containing the accumulation of 2 years of research, web site browsing, campus and department visitations. At the end, when she was down to choosing between her top 2 schools from her acceptances, she sat in on classes and her gut reaction to that experience superseded all the objective research. When she came home conflicted about what choice to make, I had 3 questions for her: where do you feel you will learn the most, where do you feel you will have the best rapport with the teachers, where do you feel most at home.</p>
<p>Hope some of this is helpful.</p>
<p>Great info MichaelNKat … . I especially like the last three questions!</p>