Help and advice needed- huge conflict.

College Majors Musical Theater Major
1

<p>Hey everyone!</p>

<p>I'm a high school senior and I'm planning on applying to BFA programs this fall. </p>

<p>For the past few months of my life, my parents and I have been fighting endlessly. I came out to them about wanting to pursue theater and acting before the summer, and my dream to pursue a BFA program at college. My mom is adamantly against the idea of doing this because I explained that BFA programs are too demanding to do a double major with. My father throughout this time has been just following in the steps of my mom and tends to agree with whatever she does, although is more reasonable and willing to listen.</p>

<p>Background: the past two years or so, I've been working professionally and auditioning in New York, and have done everything basically on my own. My parents have no background in this business. I've talked to countless of actors for advice, and especially on the subject of survival- my parents' biggest issue with me pursing acting. They (my mom especially) do not believe I will be able to support myself after graduation while working and auditioning. I understand how risky it is to pursue acting, but the huge majority of actors I spoke with all manage to support themselves through survival jobs while acting. I believe if other people have been doing it, I can do it to. I trust myself and I know this economy is not ideal but I trust my work ethic, knowledge, and skills. </p>

<p>We kept fighting relentlessly throughout the summer about this. My mom told me multiple times things such as</p>

<p>*Actors don't need college degrees. If you're talented enough, you'll be a star.
*Asians don't book jobs.
*You should take a year off and figure out your life. You can flip burgers.
*You're not talented enough</p>

<p>They told me they would not financially support me if I didn't double major, so for most of the summer, I knew I had start preparing applications and putting together audition materials, get coached, plan prescreens, narrow down my list of colleges, etc. </p>

<p>Then, a month ago, we had a miraculous breakthrough compromise where after a fight, my mom told me I could apply to BFA programs as long as I applied to BA programs (where I'd have to double major) and if I got accepted to a BFA program for a very affordable cost, they would let me go and support me.</p>

<p>All of a sudden this week though, my mom changed her mind (subsequently getting my dad to change his mind as well...) and now is telling me again that my only option is to stay at home and "flip burgers" or double major.</p>

<p>I'm reaching out to the parents on this forum to offer me any advice or anything that can change my mom's mind. I understand why my parents are doing this. They are immigrants from Asia who came here with very little money and have worked hard to get to where we are now, living comfortably with better quality of life then we would have in Asia. They sacrificed so much for my sister and I to have the lives we do and I understand why they don't want me to pursue what is probably the hardest industry to be successful in. </p>

<p>I've considered double majoring but I know exactly what I want to do and why. I told them that my interest is in pursuing a BFA in Musical Theater because I'll get the most intense training, better connections, and overall, it's just how I want to spend my four years at college, really working at this, not trying to pursue another major simultaneously. I'm just at a huge loss of what to do now though. I've started all my applications but I don't even know if they'll pay for any of them, or how I'll even get to some of the auditions are still deciding not to support me. I would GREATLY appreciate any words of advice I could get on this situation. I know I don't have a lot of time before auditions start.</p>

<p>Thank you so much for reading this. Again, any advice or anything I can tell my parents would be so appreciated.</p>

2

<p>If it weren’t already fall of senior year, I would have someone knowledgeable in this field, a coach, a college counselor in the arts, or an industry professional talk to your parents about how a degree in theater prepares you to do many kinds of jobs, and it is not as if you can only pursue acting jobs with this degree. </p>

<p>But be it as it may, at this point, a good compromise with your parents is to find both BFA and BA in MT programs where you could double major or do a minor in another subject (not that I think you need to but it may appease them while you get to study MT too). There are some BFA programs where this is possible…and I have no clue your academic profile or artistic level of talent, but just for example, NYU/Tisch, U of Michigan, Elon, and others are BFA programs where you could do a second major or minor. Or there are fine BA in MT programs by audition where you could double major…such as James Madison, Northwestern, Wagner, or American (and others). What about Muhlenberg? You could get fine MT training at these schools and pursue the same career goals as in a BFA degree program. In other words, it is not like BFA in MT or nothing in your case. There is a compromise solution that they seem like they would bend toward supporting.</p>

3

<p>How about monitoring in arts management and extensively interning along with your BFA?</p>

4

<p>Following along with what soozievt said (and she is an expert), why not just find somewhere you can double major, either BFA or BA, and get on with it? I would not worry about the letters on your degree, and besides, there are BA’s with as many or more hours in theatre at some schools as a BFA at other schools. Look carefully at curricula, you may be very surprised at what you find. Northern Colorado, for example, has a BA with as many hours in theatre as most BFA’s.</p>

<p>There are things that you can do to ease your path down the double-major road:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Pick a school that has generous AP credit and transfer credit opportunities.</p></li>
<li><p>Study hard this year and pass as many AP tests as you can, even 1 or 2 will help. At many schools, a 3 on an AP test will get you college credit. A 4 or 5 earns two credits at many schools. It is possible to study enough over winter break to pass an AP test for many determined students.</p></li>
<li><p>Take summer school classes during college. You can transfer credits from community college at many schools for Gen Eds. If possible, take summer courses at your college, that way you don’t have to worry about transfers and you may be able to take major-sequence courses.</p></li>
<li><p>Accumulating credit for Gen Eds through approaches like this will free up your class schedule to help with your double-major, and enable you to take as many theatre classes as possible.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>In general, you may find that it is easier to follow programs like this at relatively large, public schools, who tend to be more generous with AP and transfer credits, and tend to offer more summer courses (but certainly not in all cases).</p>

<p>It just takes research, careful planning, and hard work. Beats arguing with your parents and “flipping burgers” …</p>

5

<p>attheballet, when considering the BA option, I would suggest a visit to Muhlenberg. You can easily do a double major, in fact it is commonplace, and still have a great theater experience. It might chill Mom, give you a great college experience, still allow you to have great connections and experiences in musical theater and a chance to pursue a second major in a subject you might also be interested in. Best of luck to you! </p>

6

<p>How about minoring in business which would open the door to the possibility of earning an MBA post-graduation if needed? I think the business minor is an awesome compliment to an acting degree. After all, actors are their own business and they need to understand accounting to handle their taxes, marketing to promote themselves, and management so they know how to deal with agents and theatre managers when their career takes off. You could also pick a trade to pursue online and in the summers. For instance headshot photography, web design, graphic design, coding, etc. All of these would open up better options for day jobs when you are first getting started as an actor (as would a minor in business). Besides, pursuing other interests will only make you a more interesting and more marketable as an actor.</p>

<p>~VT</p>

7

<p>Hi everyone, thanks so much for all your advice so far. A family friend of ours who is an artist spoke to my mom about benefits of this kind of degree and also the head of a college theater program spoke with her too at a visit recently.</p>

<p>Thanks for the information about the double majoring, especially about looking more at the curriculum. I like that that way I’d still get education in two fields, I just think part of me is still caught up on getting a fancy BFA degree from one of those big name top schools (which I know are hard enough to get accepted to)</p>

<p>But thank you so much for the extra information! Would still love to hear more from other people too!</p>

8

<p>VoiceTeacher, I’m DEFINITELY interested in pursuing a business minor because I’m sure it would be helpful for anyone to have, and spoke about that a little bit with my parents. They want me to double major but I’ll try discussing a minor with them again</p>

9

<p>EmsDad gave you some concrete advice. Try to find BFA programs that allow for a double major or minor. There are quite a few. Add some excellent BA in MT programs where you can do this as well. Some BA programs offer almost as much training as a BFA program. And EmsDad gave you some ideas for how to free up some gen ed credits and so on. This is doable. </p>

<p>Frankly, whether you double major or minor in something else, the effect will be similar when you graduate. One’s major is not the end all and be all of what job one can get when they graduate. Having a degree is what really matters.</p>

10

<p>Also, consider schools that accept CLEP credit for general education requirements. I often advise out-of-state students to take CLEP tests for financial reasons, but it could also free up time in the schedule for a second major.</p>

11

<p>Golly - I hate to be the one who points this out, but your odds of being successful are exponentially higher due to your heritage. Your parents line of thinking that Asians don’t book jobs is the opposite of the truth.</p>

<p>I have worked with Asian high school students who get better college possibilities than their (often times) more talented caucasian peers. </p>

<p>I have worked on AEA shows where we had to bring in MULTIPLE agents/managers to find enough Asians to cast our project. </p>

<p>At my current Non-Eq theater, we want to cast Asian and often can’t because we are limited in our talent pool.</p>

<p>Your actor friends have probably all told you this, too - but outside of Middle Eastern, Asian is the hardest and hottest ethnic casting market today.</p>

12

<p>@TheaterHiringCo – that is music to this mom’s ears! </p>

13

<p>TheaterHiringCo is dead on. Under-represented look. And I’m not a part of this program, but I am relatively certain that at U Mich you can double major. As you can at several other BFA programs. Few of us will “not allow” the double major. It’s just damn hard. Summer classes, AP, dual enrollment. Those will get you there. We have one student graduating with a double major in Business and getting a BFA in Theatre. It is possible for the organized and motivated student. </p>

<p>All that said, I’d ask your parents what they expect you to get out of a college degree. Because a good theatre program will teach you work ethic, communication skills, entrepreneurship, ability to take criticism, fearlessness (relatively), the ability to work within a large group towards a common goal with a hard deadline, etc, etc. etc. I have a good friend who was a successful actress. After many years, she decided it was time to switch roles. Got a low level job in finance in NYC. Several years later she had rocketed up the chain and now lives in an apartment I can only dream about. And she tells me it was the theatre training that made it so easy to move forward quickly. Go figure.</p>

<p>College isn’t really a vocational school. Although the expectation regarding college certainly has changed in the past decade or two. The majority of graduates aren’t working in a field in which they majored 10 years post-college. That is true across the spectrum except for very few majors (engineering degrees are one major exception.) </p>

<p>Good luck. </p>

14

<p>

You have gotten lots of fantastic advice above, but I’d also urge you to examine why you prefer a BFA. Keep in mind that plenty of kids who are admitted to top BFA programs purposely opt instead for a performance BA (D is surrounded by just such kids) – in many cases in part because they want to double major or want more traditional college experiences – and they often fare just as well as those with a BFA when they hit the post-college audition circuit.</p>

<p>If you are currently being professionally cast you are clearly already talented, well-trained and castable. My observation is that nothing you do in 4 years is likely to radically change that.</p>

<p>It might be wise to pause and spell out in detail what YOU want to gain from 4 years of college, and what you want that experience to include. If all you want is a better crack at Broadway it’s possible that, as your mom said, you’d do just as well moving straight to NYC, getting a survival job, auditioning and taking training. If you want something more than that, maybe college is a better option but it’s possible that a BA might actually meet your needs as well as or better than a BFA. It would be worth at least a short pause to write your wants in detail before you move forward, if nothing else so you can share the details with your parents.</p>

<p>Also keep in mind that as an artist you’ll want as many people in your court as possible, including your parents, so if you can find a mutually agreeable compromise that may have lifelong value to all of you.</p>

<p>Best of luck!</p>

15

<p>Again, thank you everyone for your generosity in your responses. Every single detail of advice I’ve gotten is super helpful, about the Asian casting, writing a list of what I want, anecdotes regarding having this type of degree, and everything else!</p>

16

<p>

My D graduated in May with a BFA in MT. She moved to NYC 2 months ago, and with that degree landed 2 really terrific part-time non performing jobs. Both are in the industry. Both use skills she definitely acquired/honed in college, partly in “the classroom” and partly in her part time job in the theatre office at her school. She found one of the jobs through a connection she made in college. They pay well enough that she is pretty much self supporting at this time. She is still able to go on auditions and callbacks. She even freelances as an audition monitor and casting assistant. She will be taking time off in the spring to go to a regional theatre job. Don’t get me wrong. She isn’t living high on the hog. She works more hours than I would like. On a recent weekend she got off work at 2:00 am, then had a call to be on set for a music video at 9:00 am, then was back at work that evening. It’s an exhausting schedule! But you know what, that crazy BFA schedule she lived in college for 4 years helped prepare her for that. </p>

17

<p>That’s amazing to hear austinmtmom. When I reached out to a huge network of current auditioning actors, they all told me that with the skills of their theater degrees or just by having a degree/working hard, they found survival jobs that let them support themselves. Thank you so much!</p>

18

<p>attheballet, apply to Montclair. I heard that they are currently “short” of Asian students in their MT program, and missed out on a few last year that they hoped to get. It is a pretty affordable program, even for out of state. They have BFA’s in MT and Acting, or a BA in theater studies where you could minor in MT or dance or business (or lots of other things). </p>

19

<p>THANK YOU @Calliene‌ for that info! I actually live in NJ and would qualify for in state tuition and that’s awesome news to hear.</p>

20

<p>Attheballet: couple things. One, tell your mom to go to the SUNY Fredonia Theater Department website and read an article written by their chair. It talks about the skills that MT and theater students acquire that make them very marketable outside of just the performing arts world. Kids with a performing arts degree/background learn how to work both collaboratively as well as independently, they understand the concept of deadlines and don’t get upset by them. They are able to express their ideas confidently to different groups, clients, etc. Some of the things a performing arts student does out of habit, companines spend lots of dollars for to send employees to training, seminars, etc. </p>

<p>You will have a 4 year college degree that will allow you to market yourself in a variety of ways, allow you to go on to grad school etc. As an example, a local musical theater company just put on My Fair Lady and one of the emsemble parts was played by a woman who has a BFA in MT and is a local attorney.</p>

<p>Also, very cool to hear that Asian women are in short supply and are being sought after. My older D is currently a BFA MT, and her younger sister is adopted from China and is showing smilar talent and eagerness about performing arts. Nice to know there would be a market for her down the road should she choose that path; if anything we are told by many that there is a very limited market for Asian performers. </p>