International Students Taking MT

<p>Hi! I'm glad I found this forum; this place is really informative.</p>

<p>Anyway, I'm currently a senior in the Philippines and I will be taking my freshman year here. At first, I was preparing to study abroad but lack of planning and decisiveness ultimately led me to not submitting any of my applications. I will be trying again this year though (applying abroad, but now as a transfer student) and I swear I will stick with it and prepare better.</p>

<p>I'm determined to become a MT major and I've begun listing schools to look at. (Thanks to the threads here, I get a lot more insight on them.) I was wondering, are there a lot of international students in MT? Asian students, specifically?</p>

<p>Also, I'm trying to decide what course I should major in for now, during my freshman year. I really want to pick a course that will help me not only as a performer but also, as bad as this sounds, look good in my application as a transfer student to MT. (There are no musical theater courses in the Philippines. Musical Theater isn't very popular here, actually.)</p>

<p>I have two choices. One is BFA Theater Arts in Ateneo de Manila, but the course is still pretty new and I think there's more concentration on LA during the freshman year. There are a lot of musical productions in the Ateneo though. From what I've heard, auditions are open to all. The other is B Music, Vocal Performance in the University of the Philippines. The concentration there is more on classical forms. I haven't seen any musical done recently on campus though.</p>

<p>I think the latter will help me more musically but considering I have a voice teacher to turn to and can take music theory extension classes in a conservatory, I keep on thinking whether I should pursue it or not. The attraction of BFA TA to me is one, I really like the campus and two, there are teachers there, actors, who can help me find the right monologues and help me polish my acting (I still need to learn more about this).</p>

<p>But one of the factors that will play a big part on my decision is this: Which course would actually stand out more in an application for musical theater?</p>

<p>I'd really appreciate any insight given on the matter.</p>

<p>Thank you so much,
Laura (Lawin)</p>