<p>We are the parents of a 15-year-old emerging 10th grader, who is strongly considering pursuing a degree in musical theater. She has been actively involved with both our local community theater and high school plays - last year 7 plays (both straight and musicals). She has been taking voice lessons for several years, competes in vocal competitions, Literary competitions, and has been a member of a company dance team. She also will start taking piano lessons next week. As her parents, we want to be proactive in helping her to position herself for possible acceptance in a quality musical theater program, knowing full well that it is extremely competitive and expensive..... My question is....... for those of you already in a college program (or to those parents whose kids are), what could you tell us to focus on? I mean, if you had to do it over again.... what would you do differently? Please share some of your valuable experiences with us..... Are we missing anything? What were the keys to success/acceptance? Put yourself in our position and please provide any direction you can..... Thank you!</p>
<p>Good Morning MrDutt.</p>
<p>I know we have corresponded privately but I wanted to answer your post publicly with some advise to parents.</p>
<p>RELAX! Calm down..... the process of getting your s/d accepted and actually enrolled in a BFA Program is long and bumpy. Your daughter is 15... you are doing great! Just guide her......... it is HER passion for what she wants to do with her life that should be fueling the process. It is her passion that will ultimately make the difference.</p>
<p>I have seen parents literally get hysterical during certain parts of the process.... this does no one any good.....it only puts stress on your child. If anything, you should try to HIDE your anxiety from your child.... or at least 80 percent of it.</p>
<p>I could go on, but you get the point. It's a process...relax and take one step at a time.</p>
<p>mrdutt, it sounds to me (for what <em>that's</em> worth!:)) that your daughter is doing just fine. If I were you, I wouldn't begin talking to her about the whole college admissions process just yet: as Tom says above, doing so at this point will only stress your daughter out and could well leach the fun out of things. In my opinion, at this point she should be singing, dancing and acting because she loves to do so, without the whole college thing hanging over her head. That comes soon enough. Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks.... we needed to hear that. We just know that she has to be in the process of creating a "good resume". Seems that she is doing that but don't want to have any regrets. Appreciate it!</p>
<p>Thanks! We do appreciate your suggestions......</p>
<p>mrdutt, I will echo the others in saying that you shouldn't be stressing yet! :) I would advise that you not choose what your D is doing in the next couple of years strictly to 'create a good resume'. While it's true that the experience and training are both important, allow her to do the things she enjoys for the enjoyment only, and not because they'll look good on a college resume. One piece of advice I'd give is to be sure you don't focus on the artistic side while ignoring the academics. You didn't mention anything about her academic 'resume' but it is probably just as, if not more, important. Best of luck to both of you!</p>
<p>I guess I would echo Tom here. As a parent, I don't recall either of my kids "positioning" themselves to get into the colleges of their choice as they went through their high school years. None of the things my kids did was with college admissions in mind. In fact, it was never discussed. The ONLY thing I can think of that fell into that realm would be that they always knew that doing well in school was important if one has goals of going to a good college. However, even in that realm, I think my kids are self motivated learners who want to do well in school even if college was not at stake. For instance, my D who is in a BFA program now, strives for good grades, even though the grades don't matter when she graduates college as she is not going onto grad school. Her own personal standards and expectations are to get the most she can out of school and do well. But I guess I could say that my kids did think of college when they also tried to do well at school....both because they have that standard anyway for themselves but also because doing well in high school matters when you apply to college. So, that is one thing that they did to "get into college."</p>
<p>Other than that, they chose to do things because they WANTED to do them. Never did they pick extracurricular activities or summer activities with college in mind. They sought out activities they were passionate about doing and would have done them if they were never going to college. So, there was no "plan" in mind as to what they needed to do to go to college. What they did do, in retrospect, is that they were engaged in activities over many many years which they were committed to and in which they garnered achievements, participated in a significant capacity, and in some cases, involved leadership. So, while that was not planned, those are things that a college would look for. </p>
<p>For someone seeking musical theater college programs, there is no formula. However, since talent is involved in the admissions process, it helps to HONE that talent and to develop skills. I would say that a solid background of training and production experience will help a student get good at their craft. The resume itself is not so important but it is what the student went through to build the resume......the experiences themselves benefitted their growth in musical theater. So, training in voice, ballet/jazz/tap, piano, music theory, and acting will help the student who wants to go on in this field beyond high school. Ensemble work is good. Participating in adjudications and various types of selection/achievement processes gives them some clue as to their competitiveness as well. Summer intensives are good experiences but are not essential. Production work in musicals and plays is important to gain stage experience. A variety of such experiences is useful as different things can be gained from youth productions, adult productions, community theater, or professional theater. But each person is going to have different opportunities available depending where they live and there is no "right" experience. But doing theater is important. I also would say that the more experience someone has with auditioning itself, the better they get at auditioning because auditioning is a skill. While not imperative, it is good to be involved in something you might lead or create.....such as directing a student run production or teaching theater/dance to children, or any number of things. I'm not saying a student has to do all of these things but I'm just listing things that are beneficial experiences and training. </p>
<p>As far as your D, MrDutt, it sounds like she is immersed in her area of passion and on course. I don't think you have to truly plan out anything. I also don't think you have to be thiinking about college much in tenth grade. At the beginning of 11th grade, the college search should ideally begin, visits done if possible, and testing plans in place so that testing can be done ideally by the end of 11th grade. Right now, your D's job is to do her best in school, do whatever training she can and wants to do, continue to do shows and follow her passion. Your job can be to support her choices and to help facilitate her opportunities, whether it is financial, transporting her, or being there to support her choices and desires. She should pick what she wants to do for activities and I can't imagine telling my kids what activities to do. The child should initiate and lead the process and the parent is there to support their endeavors and process. My kids drove their process and we went along and supported their choices. We never asked them to do anything to get into college. So, my advice is to be there for your kid, ask her what she wants to do this year and also next summer, and definitely no need to be worrying about college yet. In any case, there are not many "shoulds" when it comes to any "formula" as to what you need to do to get into college. Do what you love and do it well, seek out opportunities for training and production work, and do well in academics. The rest will follow.</p>
<p>It looks like a bunch of us cross posted but are on thinking on the same wavelength! :D</p>
<p>I forgot the one question you asked about if we had to do it all over, would we have done anything differently and my answer is no.</p>
<p>While I already mentioned academics in my post, I want to ditto what AlwaysAMom said about academics too. I have worked with several students whose academic record is limiting the BFA programs to which they can apply. A student is going to have more options if he/she has taken challenging courses in high school, gotten good grades, and has prepped for the standardized tests to do their very best they can do. A weak academic profile is going to limit the options. When it is this competitive of a process, an applicant needs to have a good academic profilie and have the artistic skills both. Also, there are some good BFA programs that are within academically selective universities. These programs have not been options for some students I know who have a weaker academic profile.</p>
<p>Now that's good stuff! Thanks!</p>
<p>I want to clarify one thing. I can imagine some people thinking...."wait, I didn't do everything Susan mentioned in her post and I still got into a BFA program!" Well, that's right....there is no formula and no "must have to have done," to get in. I am sure there are anecdotes after anecdotes along the lines of: "I never went to a summer program," "I never took any acting lessons," "I had no training in dance," "I had hardly been in any shows or I was only in school shows," "I didn't take the most challenging courses offered at my high school," "I only had 2 years of a foreign language," "I had a 3.1 GPA," "I only had an 1100 CR/M SAT," "I can't sight read and never studied music theory," "I can't play piano," and so on, and all that is very possible and the student still got into one or more BFA programs. In fact, I know examples of all these situations indeed. What I was saying in my post were things that can only be BENEFICIAL or increase one's odds....the academics, the training, the production work, etc. etc. in my post. There are no "shoulds' for the resume. But there are things a student does that can benefit their academic and artistic growth which in the end, can only help, not hurt. If a piece is missing in the profile, then maybe something else makes up for it. A weakness here or there can be compensated by strengths in other areas. Those who are strong in academics, singing, dancing and acting just have increased their odds, that's all.</p>
<p>The only thing I can add to the good advice given above is to also support your daughter's enjoyment of activities and interests that are not MT related. While certainly most of her time outside of high school classes will involve MT related stuff, it's so important for kids her age (and older) to have balanced lives and to be well rounded. Not only does too much hyper-focusing on MT create a lot of stress and potential burnout at her age but, in addition, diverse interests and experiences are important to the growth process (and also give a kid more life resources and experience to bring to the performing process). So, make sure she takes time to relax, to chill with friends, read some good books, go to the movies, go to a museum, and even be a lazy kid from time to time. It's all about perspective and balance.</p>
<p>I agree with MichaelNKat. NOT everything your D does needs to be centered around musical theater. Some of the strongest BFA candidates I have seen have activities, achievements, and interests beyond musical theater. While they are very passionate and experienced in theater, that is not all that they are about as people. They are interesting candidates beyond their theater skills. Not everything they do is to get into college. They may be very focused on MT, but have some well rounded "other" interests and things going on in their lives. While it makes sense that they have MORE in the MT basket, they don't necessarily have 100% in it.</p>
<p>Another really good point that MichaelNKat made in his post is that diverse interests and experience are important in the growth process and that as a performer, one can draw upon life experiences. I really agree with that and would add that knowledge of the world, such as that which is gained in academic classes, also helps as an actor. Having experiences outside of theater and having an education and broad knowledge base can enhance the work of a performer. It is not enough to just know theater skills. The work of an actor really requires life experiences and wordly knowledge. </p>
<p>Add to that....it is very difficult to get work as a professional actor and even if you do, it is not often ongoing and one is always job hunting and there can be lulls. Skilled MT performers should certainly GO FOR IT and I know my D surely is working toward that goal as well. But she (and she is NOT unusual this way) has other skills, both related to theater and not, she can do to get professional work. She is more than a performer, in other words. She need not waitress (nothing wrong with that but just commenting). So, an education, as well as other skills beyond singing, dancing and acting, will be beneficial to have in one's pocket. </p>
<p>However, even as a performer, it is very beneficial to be educated and wordly, and not just skilled.</p>
<p>mrdutt - I think the only problem is you started reading this site too soon! I'm kidding...it's great to get all the information available up here, but I think it certainly adds pressure when you're reading about how difficult it is to get into a good MT program. I started reading the site too late (around the summer before my daughter's senior year). I think that the ideal time would be beginning of the Junior year. That way, you get to watch a whole grade's effort to go through the process. You'll get to do that twice. Just also observe the panic around acceptance time and you'll see why I say it's not easy to sit through this a few times! Sounds like your daughter is doing everything she should be. Like everyone else said, keep up the grades, starting piano is fantastic, don't worry yet about audition material (except to start reading everything she comes across and if she likes it, bookmark it). Maybe consider a summer program between Sophomore and Junior year? Just keep it all fun and a learning experience. No pressure yet, there's plenty of time ahead for that!!!</p>
<p>Summer programs can be a great way for a student to get intensive training and explore MT in more depth. Some programs can also be an important opportunity for a student to test the waters to see if life in a BFA program is for them and to get an idea of the level of competition out there for admissions to BFA programs. A summer program should not, however, be viewed as a "leg up" for admission to a particular school associated with the program. A student should do it only if there is a real interest in the value of the learning experience and the joy of being immersed in an intensive program for 4 or 6 weeks.</p>
<p>MrDutt, I agree with whats been said above and I would say look over the academic sitiuation. My S did not take AP classes, because he did not have the time, he was able to ace his regular classes without alot of stress and he got a nice academic scholarship even without the AP classes. With the cost of these programs it really helps! Also community service can be really important in getting into some of these schools, maybe not so much in an MT program, but in many cases you have to be accepted into the school before you can try for the MT program.</p>
<p>mrdutt, your original post asks what we would do differently if we had it to do all over again. In my case, I would start sooner visiting colleges. I don't mean big expensive trips, but whenever you're in the vicinity, I would make time to at least walk around campus. My D and I made one "road" trip north to visit three schools the summer before senior year. All three were on the same highway. We had plans to go south to visit a few, but she decided she had found her dream school the first one we visited (OCU) and only half-heartedly viewed the other two. She did not see any point in going south since she was determined to go to OCU. Luckily, she got in. You have a few years to make visits, and my advise would be to start soon--and have fun!</p>
<p>Agree on academics being important. Those AP classes pay off in more ways than you can imagine. My son is entering second year of college with enough hours to be classified as a junior, and he is getting to take many classes in his major and fewer of required gen. ed. courses.</p>
<p>Training is important in all areas - get into dance, etc. Resume building does not seem all that important.</p>
<p>PS - another thread is talking about piano - I think piano is another area in which MT kids should train (voice, also, of course).</p>