<p>Please forgive me if this has already been posted, I'm a newbie! With so many talented kids auditioning for just a few slots at most schools, I was wondering if the MT programs look at all of the attributes each student has outside of the realm of theatre. When making the final decision, if they have slots for ten and have forty kids that are just about equally gifted, do they take into consideration their extra curricular activities, grades (obviously a student has to be academically admissible), community service, etc or are these just interesting footnotes that have no bearing?</p>
<p>I believe they look at the whole candidate. They are trying to create a class, so that's their first consideration - those within the forty who are the same "type" may be competing with each other. All things being about equal, the committee will then look at transcripts/recommendations/activity sheets/resumes, etc. to get an idea of how the person would fit into the program beyond talent and type.
Unless of course, they pick from a hat. Obviously this is simply what I believe from being a witness to the process. I am not a member of an admissions committee!</p>
<p>I think that the university or college admissions office will look at all of those other atributes in their decision making process. However, I think the audition and your resume is what the MT panels truly consider. </p>
<p>I have heard, (this could, of course be hearsay,) that if U of M has two equal canditates they will usually end up taking the one with the highest GPA.</p>
<p>It most likely depends on the school. Each school will have a different admissions process. Some schools require that you are admitted to the university before they will even see you audition, at some schools the admitance is a departmental adnmitance first, and then the college admissions send the letter. In general, however, most schools are probably looking for students who seem like they will be a good match for the program. It is the "extras" that may help demonstrate that "match". When push comes to shove, all you can be is you... hopefully the schools that you think are a good match also see the special qualities that you have to offer to their program.</p>
<p>It really depends on the school. For example, Muhlenberg has an excellent reputation for theatre including acting and MT. It is a non-audition BA program, however, and admissions decissions are made on the same scope of factors as any other program at the school. Carnegie Mellon is a school with a reputation for being highly selective in its admissions criteria but for MT, the audition is weighted 90% and academics weighted only 10% unlike other programs where the "normal" criteria and weighting of them applies.. Then you have schools like Syracuse, Ithaca and Emerson which require students to be accepted academically (like any other liberal arts school) and also by the drama department in a 2 part process. Often, the drama departments never even see the student's application file that admissions has and rely solely on the audition and brief interview of the student that happens at the audition. The bottom line though is that given the highly competitive nature of admissions into these programs, it never hurts to bring everything to the process that you can. As suggested above, if trying to decide between 2 students who have comparable performance strengths, you never know what might sway a school's decission.</p>
<p>I agree. It only makes sense that the absolute yes's and no's will be pretty clear after a five-six minute audition. It's that middle group of kids that is going to be tougher. Things like interviews, grades, scores, essays, recommendations will have to come into play. A few of the schools only make offers to the number of kids they can take and no more, but that's the exception not the rule.</p>