<p>I must not have stated my comment clearly. I wasn't saying they have the elite attitude, I was only saying that this previous PA student felt that some auditioners seem to prejudge or assume this. This student was only voicing an opinion he felt. I was in no way trying to offend. I have met many wonderful PA and non-PA students. Once again, this graduate from a PA back East felt it was the case with some auditioners.</p>
<p>No, no, no.....no offense taken at all. I was agreeing that there are some with very arrogant attitudes and all I was saying is that it is not fair for either auditioners to assume or people in general to assume that the arrogance has anything to do with where the student went to school. Hopefully they will assess the student for their resume, academic grades and work ethic and talent. </p>
<p>Having said that, I do think that students from well known PA high schools are held to a higher standard because they are expected to have a better insight to the whole process and the "theater world" than the student who has not had the exposure that the PA hs students have. They are expected to know how to dress for an audition, what to sing, what type of monologue to recite, whereas a student who has not had access to all of that training at school, may be given a little bit of a break for not knowing.</p>
<p>At D's audition, she was asked about her hs. It's small, highly academic, just the requisite two plays/yr. The auditioner seemed impressed that D had very little training, just two small summer programs. She was accepted ED to NYU. So, like others said, kids from highly regarded PAs might be held to a higher standard.
TaylorsDad, at this point, it would do more harm than good to switch schools.</p>
<p>If your D feels unprepared, which is why she is considering going to a performing arts school just for sr yr, why not just have several sessions privately with a teacher there (or better yet, at a local college). Then you can just get the actual help she needs, whether it be monologue selection, delivery, songs, etc. One-on-one help would be far more beneficial than being one of many during the few months left before audition season.</p>
<p>I feel there are probably some preconceived notions about students from certain PA h.s. that come in to play when the auditioners make decisions. There has to be. They are seeing hundreds of students for one or two dozen spots. They need to use all of the information they have.<br>
If their past experience is that students they have worked with from such-and-such h.s. have attitudes and are difficult to work with that will be considered when other students from that h.s. are auditioning. Just as if they have found the training from blah-blah h.s. is very conducive to the training their college employs they will take that in to consideration. As auditionees and parents of auditionees knowing that the auditioners have this knowledge is a good thing as it better assures that our kids will be selected for schools where they are more likely a great fit.<br>
And yes I realize that just because there is a negative trait connected with a certain h.s. that does not mean your child has that trait. However, if there is a college that doesn't like a certain h.s. because of past experiences I would not want my child from that h.s. going there as they may use those opinions against her. And yes, she could change those opinions, however as a college freshman she has enough going on without adding this cause.
I am a strong believer in doing your research, preparing properly for your audition and remembering that those rejection letters are not saying 'we don't want you' but 'this would not be a good fit for you for the next 4 years and we want you have a successful college life."</p>
<p>My older son did not attend a PA high school, although our local high school had a strong theater program. He is currently a Jr. at BoCo. The high school program changed dramatically for several reasons, so my younger son went to a 1/2 day PA high school his Jr. and Sr. year. He did his academics in the morning and then traveled to the PA high school in the afternoon. It was challenging, but he loved it. The staff at the PA high school were not that well versed as to all the college programs out there, but we had already gone through this once with my older son, so that helped. My younger son is currently a FR at Syracuse. I guess the real question is if attending the PA high school helped. He did other private lessons outside of school, but I do think attending the PA high school gave him more confidence. From my experience, we as parents of course want to figure out the magic formula to help our kids succeed through this grueling process. I truly believe that in the end, the auditioners know what they are looking for and if you have it, you are in. I know that sounds random, but a few kids in my older sons Fr class had never even had a voice lesson!! I am sure that is the exception and not the rule, but it happens. Both boys are very happy and I still can not believe we went through this whole craziness twice!! Best of luck to all. I don't post often, but I love to cheer from the side lines for everyone!!</p>
<p>Ahhhhh. There are no students responding to this! I attended a performing arts high school (for my senior year only) that was actually housed within one of the nation's finer college conservatories. I urge urge urge you to talk to your child, visit the school, speak to former students, etc. Arts school is an unbelievably unique experience that prepares you sooooo much for auditions. It's almost like testing out conservatory waters before trying to go to college. May I ask what the performing arts school is?</p>
<p>Performing arts school here in SoCal is either a public or private school that offers both academic and conservatory type arts classes.</p>
<p>At my son's school (and it is only one of many in our area), each student must be academically acceptable and then audition or submit a portfolio (for visual arts). If accepted, the students attend the academic part of their day from 8am-2pm. They then begin their conservatory classes until 5pm each day. The conservatory part of the school is run through a college and seperately funded, but gives many courses particular to each specific area of study and is all a part of the students official hs transript.</p>
<p>Over the course of 4 years, an MT student will recieive 4 levels of acting, voice training, multiple levels of dance, audition techniques, stage combat, make-up and costuming and music theory to just name a few.</p>
<p>In addition, the instructors are from the performance world so there are opportunites for the students to perform with Broadway artists and learn from people who have "been there, done that!"</p>
<p>Even with this opportunity, many students study privately for dance and voice in preparation for the rigorous and competetive nature of the college auditions process.</p>
<p>This is just one example, but the biggest misonception is that the pa hs are private and very, very expensive. There are ones like this that are a public school with a conservatory included.</p>
<p>My D attended a public arts high school that offers a program similar to, though not the same as, britbrat's son's. Admission is by-audition only and draws candidates from all over the region and from to time, they even get a kid from out of state who either moves to the area to attend or boards locally in order to be able to attend. The day runs from about 8:15 a.m. to about 4:15, which the first half of the day (about 8:15 - 12:15) devoted to academic classes and then the second half of the day (12:15 to 4:15) devoted to arts classes, or vice versa. (Schedules switch depending on what year you are.) The academic teachers are certified teachers, but the arts teachers are working professionals who know about their area first hand. </p>
<p>I think that when people think of performing arts high schools, their minds automatically jump to Interlochen or Walnut Hill and places like that, which are, of course, private schools that charge tuition. </p>
<p>When people ask me about my daughter's alma mater, I am always quick to caution them that that kind of school is not for everyone. It certainly is not for the kid who wants a well rounded, typical high school experience with a chance to work on the school newspaper and go to mixers and be in the pep squad and play on sports teams, because other than yearbook, there are no clubs and there certainly are no sports or teams. :) But for a kid who is focused on acting, singing, playing an instrument, painting or drawing (visual art), dance or theater tech, I'd say there is no better place.</p>
<p>This thread has touched on most of these subjects:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/472730-performing-arts-high-schools-4.html#post1059973972%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/472730-performing-arts-high-schools-4.html#post1059973972</a></p>
<p>"I went to a private boarding PA with almost 100% scholarship. I feel that my PA highschool prepared my peers and I extremely well for college auditions.
We had a private 30-minute audition technique session once a week beginning the first week of school. Those were to work mainly on monologues, but you could also bring in songs. Musical theatre kids were expected to have 3-6 monologues, and straight acting kids were expected to have 6-12.
There was musical theatre dance(including tap), ballet, jazz, and modern classes available to us. We also had a song for musical theatre, acting for musical theatre, and song and dance lab. Then you could also choose to pay extra for private voice lessons with the musical theatre teacher (part of the theatre faculty) or with the voice teachers (part of the music faculty).
We also had acting technique classes, directing, voice and diction, oral interpretation, acting for the camera, stage combat, stage elements, and stage movement classes every day. My school day was typically 8-5:30, with an hour for lunch, and some people had 1 free period. These days included very rigorous academics. They don't offer AP classes outside of math and science, but I was able to take the AP tests, anyways, and get 5's on both of my enlish AP Exams.
The one complaint I had though was that the theatre faculty was thoroughly knowledgable about acting programs, but only really knew about the big name musical theatre schools since most the graduates were all getting into them. Although, since it's been becoming so much harder to get into musical theatre schools they have been trying to expand their knowledge by visting some lesser known schools and getting into contact with the heads of the programs.
At my auditions this year the main difference I noticed was just an overall confidence, preparedness, and ease that most of the kids lacked, and not all but most students from my school felt prepared enough to have this confidence. We also went in sort of knowing what would be happening at each audition, and we had our teachers with us at Unifieds. At a lot of my auditions the auditors asked about my school and told me to say "hi" to my teachers for them. I guess there's a comfort in knowing that the schools I applied to already had a relationship with my school, the teachers, and kids at their schools that graduated from mine."</p>