<p>theatermom- thank you for giving me some hope! I really want to go to UM, but I've only recently started getting involved in musicals myself. I have 12 years of piano, violin, and dance training (I wouldn't say I'm qualified to be a dance major though..) and I started voice and acting lessons about a month ago. All I keep hearing is that I will probably not get accepted to UM or the other schools I'm auditioning at (Cernegie Mellon, Syracuse, Ithaca...) but instances like your daughter's give me some hope!:) I realize I'll have to work hard to improve/catch up, but I feel like I have a good musical background. I've picked out monologues and 1 of my songs so I think I'm doing good by not procrastinating like I tend to do:) Also, thanks for posting how not everyone getting accepted is already a professional, too. If that was the case, that would be devastating. I'm just hoping that I'll show potential or something at auditions (especially UM,<em>sigh</em>) and will be able to study MT in college. Thanks and good luck to everyone else on here who posted stuff too. It's a scary time, but exciting as well!:)</p>
<p>I haven't posted for awhile, just caught up with reading this thread, and wanted to chime in.</p>
<p>Going back to some earlier posts about kids who enter MT programs at a supposedly "professional" level. Instead of thinking about a talented MT kid, think about a kid who's a physics whiz -- perfect scores; prizes in local, state and even national competitions; possibly a fabulous internship based on her/his high school credentials. Would anyone suggest that such a student should just forget about college and plunge straight into the professional world? Would anyone suggest that the reputation of the college, and the physics program, that such a student chose would be skewed upward because of the presence of such an accomplished person (and others like him/her)? I can't imagine that either of those would be the case. Whatever passion/talent/aptitude a high school graduate has, there's a vast amount to learn at the collegiate level. And the schools and programs that do the best job of educating the most outstanding students deserve their reputations. </p>
<p>And note: they may or may not be the ones that get labeled "Ivies."</p>
<p>My D, as some of you know, is an MT freshman at College of Santa Fe. CSF doesn't generally make the MT Ivy list, but it's certainly a very well-respected, program and my D's absolutely loving it. We were just out there for Family Weekend and had a fantastic time. It's a tiny school, very arts-oriented, doesn't have any big-school rah-rah stuff, so it's not for everyone -- but the kids it suits, it suits very well, and my D already feels that she's growing tremendously in her MT studies. (She also, btw, loves the non-MT interdisciplinary core course that she's taking.) She went to a large public HS that -- how lucky we were -- has an excellent choral program and produces two consistently excellent musicals a year. She also went off to college with 7 years of private voice lessons. (As you can surely guess, singing is her strongest MT suit.) Her voice teacher at CSF keeps praising her "beautiful training." BUT did that beautiful training mean my D had nothing left to learn about singing? Omigosh no!! Just like rossji said, her voice already sounds richer, stronger and more open, and she's incredibly thrilled. She's so excited about learning all that CSF can teach her about MT and other things -- and isn't that what college is all about?</p>
<p>Brava! Great post! All of these students and parents (including me) need to learn and accept that different programs work for different students. As long as the students are learning and working realistically toward a goal or profession, we should not judge, but be grateful, as each of these students will likely enhance the life experience of many others (sorry for the philosophical rant, but these kids really do help us all by their efforts and future performances, at whatever level).</p>
<p>vocaldad</p>