It’s also good to remember that everyone matures into a performer at different rates and that growth should be constant. It is also my opinion that schools that take a fare amount of kids that are, for all intensive purposes, semi professionals or professionals, really are taking the easy road. Programs have no way to know in three minutes if a kid who has had limited exposure (performance, lessons etc) because of where they live or because of finances has the almost super human dedication that it takes to make it in the arts.
So many great posts on this thread. I agree that the school maters, but I also think there’s way more than the 10 or 15 schools everyone fixates on as the “top” that have good, solid, quality training and the connections to help kids succeed in the theater world. I also agree that a lot of it depends on the kid, their drive, their maturity. I don’t think it’s really any different than any other kid looking at colleges. There’s always those elite schools, the ones everyone knows about and views as the top in whatever field it is you’re looking at pursuing. Then there’s the myriad of other programs that can get your kid to the same place. For example. I mentor a high school robotics team. Now, when you talk engineering, everyone knows MIT, WPI, RPI, schools like that that all our kids shoot for. But you know what? Our team has four awesome young mentors from Clarkson and they are all excellent at what they do. Or take me, for another example. I’m a lawyer. I went to a state law school. Saved a ton of money and stayed out of debt. And I work alongside grads from Harvard and Yale that make the same amount of money I do.
The long and short of it is that there’s more than a handful of schools with good MT programs. I’m trying hard not to get caught up in the names, and to make sure my daughter doesn’t, either.
This is a great topic but no set answer. As a parent of a kid that said no to one of the Holy Trinity to go where he felt he belonged, let me just say that I think the school matters for about a year. It may get you in a few more doors. But I also think the training is top notch at many schools and that an actor with talent and drive will succeed no matter where they went. Talent is talent.
Another tricky part of the whole equation is - we never get to know what happens on “the road you didn’t take”. Would results be/have been better if any given kid had attended any given school? Outside of Hollywood it’s hard to get the space time continuum to show you another path…
I think @MTDadandProud hit the nail on the head. The name of the school you attended may matter for a short time, but it is really about the training, and what your student does with that training. I spent countless hours (most often in the middle of the night) worrying about pretty much every aspect of the process, and I still wonder “what if” every now and again, but my D is happy. She is learning and growing. She feels like she is in the right place for her, at this time. In the long run, I have to believe that counts for something. There are so many factors involved that all you can do is make the most of the hand you are dealt and if the whole hand stinks, you have the option to fold it and either transfer, take a gap year, or choose another option completely. There is more than one path.