<p>Hello! I have never posted here before but I have been trying to read and learn as much as I can about MT degrees and schools. My D who is a senior in high school wants to get a BFA in MT. She has had her heart set on going to AMDA in NYC for the past year. We visited the school, her best friend goes there and she is convinced AMDA is the only school for her. I have had a few reservations about the program being the right thing for her to do and I really want her to get a degree so she would have to finish her degree at the New School. She auditoned for AMDA 2 weeks ago and got accepted but after alot of consideration we just can not afford AMDA. She hasn't auditoned for any other school so we are looking at what should we do next. I have read some posts on CC that state that it is very hard to transfer into a MT program unless you do so as a freshman. I am at a loss at what to do next as I try to get my D's head out of the AMDA cloud and move forward. Her strongest talent is singing so I have been looking at OCU.</p>
<p>Transferring into an MT school can be done, but it is difficult. You might consider letting her take a year off to study and work on her skills before auditioning for MT schools next fall. I know quite a few students who have done that successfully. You will find that the 4-year MT programs have a much lower acceptance rate than the 2-year AMDA program, and really will require a lot of preparation.</p>
<p>My daughter is transferring from vocal performance(BA) into musical theatre(BFA) this fall and it was extremely difficult. She will be in college for an extra year and gave up a large talent scholarship. In some ways it has worked out for the best, she will be attending a conservatory and she is only lacking one class for an AA degree. So the well rounded foundation she has will help her in the long run. But as for transferring, it was tough and it will end up costing us a lot more. She regrets not going into a conservatory for MT out of high school but the concentration she has had on voice for the past two years really shows. In addition, over the last two years she has taken four semesters of music theory and piano, plus plays, Interlochen summer and Cap21 college summer. With all that, It was still difficult to transfer. In the long run I think things will all work out for the best. Luckily, she isn’t paying for college, we are, and the two extra years of maturity will work in her favor. She made the mistake of not applying to schools that are known for vocal concentration, figuring that what she was lacking was excellent dance training, she might have had more acceptances had she applied to a different list of schools. Oh well, It’s done and we are all happy. Her first choice costs 15,000 dollars per year more than her second choice, which accepted her so It’s all good! Her first choice is pending and whatever happens will be best.</p>
<p>My d managed to transfer between sophomore and junior year from a small, liberal arts college that offered a BA in Theatre to a large university with a strong MT major. She also managed, through taking summer classes and extra classes during the year, to graduate “on time.” In that sense, it is “do-able.” HOWEVER, I wish I had been more knowledgeable about the audition process as she began applying (or maybe it was better I DIDN’T know, or I’d never even have encouraged her to try). Some schools don’t accept transfers. Some appear to, but at one of the top programs which DID accept transfers, I was told by the program director that they considered transfers only after all the freshmen applicants were reviewed. Given their 800-1000 applicants for 24 spots, the odds seemed a bit overwhelming. Even though you can “start over” as a freshman, my d was far enough along that she had already completed some of the theatre courses the junior class were taking, but she still needed to fulfill a freshman requirement. I don’t think the teachers ever figured out where she “belonged.” That said, being new didn’t seem to work against her in being cast shows. Depending on the school and the structure of the program, I imagine that joining a cohort that has already “bonded” can be a real challenge. Good luck!</p>
<p>I would consider going to a local college and getting as many gen eds out of the way while working on voice, acting and dance. That way even if she had to go in as a freshman she would have a lot of stuff done. OCU for example requires MT students to have a math, a lab science, two years of foreign language, a couple of englishes, and a couple of histories plus a few others. The classes that would likely not transfer would be music theory, music history, things like that. I would call down there and talk with someone about all of this, preferably Mary Mowry, simply explain that you got started on this too late due to lack of knowlege of how the process works.</p>
<p>I agree with onstage’s suggestion that she take next year to further her training and audition/apply in the fall. I’m curious to know why she only auditioned for AMDA if she was interested in a BFA. It sounds like taking another year to really research the process is what she needs to do. It’s a shame she didn’t do that a year ago but there’s nothing wrong with taking a year to prepare properly and be ready for audition season. AMDA has a very high acceptance rate (in fact, I have never heard of a student who hasn’t been accepted). Most college programs are extremely selective so she’ll need to be well-prepared with a very reasonable and varied list of schools to make sure she is accepted somewhere. I would forget about AMDA and concentrate on that path. Even if she were to attend AMDA for a year, it would do her absolutely no good as a transfer at most programs, as her ‘credits’ would not transfer. I disagree with the advice to take ‘gen eds’ at another college. She is much better off applying as a freshman than as a transfer, and if she is a matriculated student at an accredited college, she must apply as a transfer.</p>
<p>i transferred and have received a couple options and waiting on another, but this process was not easy, many schools i auditioned for were not too into the idea of me being a transfer and some didn’t like that i was a couple years older than the freshman they will have in the fall. also, since your daughter will be a freshman, she can always audition next year as a freshman, granted she has not taken any college classes, i did the whole gen-ed thing and now i’m most likely going to a conservatory with only 12 liberal arts required courses, so depending on the school it may not be the best idea. but even though she does not go to school for her freshman year/1st year out of high school she can still apply as a freshman since she has no credits, a friend of mine did that a few years ago. and it will at least give her a lot of time to work, take dance, acting classes, and voice lessons, they want to know that you stayed busy while preparing and it honestly helped me quite a bit staying busy during the first part of this stressful time.</p>
<p>I respectfully disagree with srw (and agree with Bird). I coach many students and see how much MORE difficult it is to be accepted a female transfer student than as a regular auditionee. The percentage of female transfers accepted at each school is even lower than the number of “freshman” auditionees accepted, and like Bird indicated, some schools consider you a transfer if you’ve taken college credits, even if you say “but I want to be considered a freshman.” You daughter’s time and money is much better spent training (and she could get a part-time job, too, which helps defray the cost of the training). The stronger her auditions next year, the better chance she has of not only being accepted but getting scholarship money!</p>
<p>I am convinced that there all kind of ways to experience a successful transfer in the theatre college venue. The possibilities are endless and depend on many factors. </p>
<p>My own d had a bumpy ride, but has landed in the right place. She was able to transfer at age 21 as a freshman/sophomore (most gen-eds transferred, most theatre credits did not transfer) to a BFA-acting program from a BFA-mt program. She was accepted to the following programs as a transfer student (acting-BFA), so I know these schools do consider transfers. E-mail me if you want more specific info. </p>
<p>University of the Arts
Point Park
Hartt
College of Santa Fe (closed now)
Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts
University of Utah</p>
<p>In terms of advice for you…I’d go with Coach C’s advice:</p>
<p>“ The stronger her auditions next year, the better chance she has of not only being accepted but getting scholarship money! “</p>
<p>Thank you to everyone who replied! We are looking at classes in the area that she can take (acting,dance) she already takes voice and hopefully she can find a job to help out the cost.</p>
<p>I think she finally got that AMDA is just not the place for her. I know she is disappointed but if she is going to be in musical theater it won’t be the last!</p>