<p>My S has been accepted in the MT program in above 3 schools. Point Park and OKCU are more beneficial financially, but when we visited OKCU we were not too impressed with the surrounding area outside campus. The campus is wonderful and the staff and others we met were all wonderful. As far as the MT programs in the schools, which is best? How safe are the environments around school for the 3 schools?</p>
<p>My D is a student at OCU and I visit once or twice a semester to see various shows. After nearly 4 semesters there, I don't recall her mentioning any security problems. She is either on campus or drives her car to other areas of town for entertainment. I'm like you though--the first time we visited I was not impressed with the neighborhood, but now it doesn't bother me. As for which MT program is the best, I can't say because I know nothing about the other schools. I will say that my D has made great progress and is very happy there. They have the magnificent new music building and the newly expanded and renovated dance building appears to be almost finished. They are also opening a new co-ed dorm in the fall where my D is going to live. I think it is going to be available to freshmen, too, but I'm not sure. The weather at OCU is probably warmer than the other schools. :)</p>
<p>mtmomzz - What a wonderful problem you have! All 3 of these schools are excellent choices. We visited all three more than once, my son auditioned for all three, and he was accepted into MT at 2 of them. Here are my observations:</p>
<p>OCU - The best musically of your 3, and the degree is a BM rather than BFA (more music courses). The faculty is wonderful, and my son had a great summer camp experience. I understand that the new music school is fabulous, although it was under construction when we were there. We know many happy students there. I wouldn't be too concerned about the surrounding area. The campus seemed very safe to us.</p>
<p>Ithaca - The best for Acting of your 3 choices. My son was very impressed with the acting in a play we saw there and knows several talented alums. I believe that dance would be weakest of your 3 choices. The town is very nice (but gets cold). I would assume it is a safe environment. It is hard to travel there (prop plane if you fly into Ithaca, but bigger airplanes into other nearby cities).</p>
<p>Point Park - My son was really impressed with the dance he saw there. Very likely the best for dance of your 3 choices. (OCU has a great dance program under a separate school in the university, but the MT students don't take quite as much dance as the MT majors at PPU take). The acting we saw there was also very good. Their playhouse is very nice and seems to be in a good part of town. Otherwise, the campus is in a couple of buildings downtown. I'm not familiar with the safety of the downtown area, but Pittsburgh itself was a great city to visit, in our opinion.</p>
<p>Good luck on a difficult decision! I recommend that you compare the curriculums to see what appeals the most.</p>
<p>The neighborhood around the school is somewhat transitional, mixed storefronts on the south (Blackwelder) side and middle class residential on the north side but I didn't really find it bad in any way. It's within a few of miles of the State Capitol complex (great view of it from the administrative conference room) to the NE and the downtown/entertainment area to the S. During the audition day at OCU there was the usual parent's forum. Part of that presentation was a discussion about campus security and they gave everyone a copy of the annual security report. </p>
<p>All that said, the report did show an increase mainly in some of the property areas (vehicles break-ins, thefts etc). While the increase was noticeable I think within the context of the student population, size of the campus, etc it struck me as not being a big deal. Students are required to live on-campus until they turn 20 with almost no exception short of living with parents locally and they seem to police the grounds thoroughly. It's not a huge campus. (Funny story, our student guide for the campus tour that day actually played down the crime report when asked. Said when she came to OCU her mom had gotten her one of those single-use pepper spray canisters. She said you could get the refillable ones but they cost more...and her mom had told her that if she needed to get a refillable she'd be coming home anyway! Never been used)</p>
<p>Their crime stats are available online...
<a href="http://www.okcu.edu/students/police/2006-7%20Crime%20Statistics.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.okcu.edu/students/police/2006-7%20Crime%20Statistics.pdf</a> .
I would assume the other schools are as well and this would be easy to compare.</p>
<p>The new Bass school (Music) building is in it's first year of use and is amazing; the new Dance school building should open in the Fall or shortly thereafter. If the Bass building is any indicator it will also be top-shelf.</p>
<p>My S has never expressed any concerns regarding safety and I know he's out and about at night (on foot), with work, rehearsals and for social things.</p>
<p>WMonMTDad-
I and my D are of the understanding that students have to live on campus until age 21, which takes most of these kids through part of their junior year at least. </p>
<p>There are some beautiful, expensive, historic neighborhoods very nearby but not on the main drag so you don't see them when driving to the school.</p>
<p>21 is correct. I couldn't remember for sure so I erred young, but I do recall they mentioned jr year.</p>
<p>Are those the neghborhoods on the north side? We passed through several when we tried to take a shortcut from the Hawthorne Inn one trip. They were very nice.</p>
<p>Cetainly you have much more experience at the school than we do. No problems, right?</p>
<p>The neighorhoods around OCU are kind of scary, but I think you'll get that in any low-income area. And really, other than driving through a couple blocks of the neighborhood to get to or from Classen or Penn, there's no reason to go through there anyway. In general "destinations" would be the mall or Walmart, which are both safe. And as far as walking across campus goes, security recommends walking with a buddy after 10pm, but I've never seen any non-students at night out there anyway. And security will always help you if you call. </p>
<p>And if you're looking for a place to go trick-or-treating, or something like that, Nichols Hills (about 10 mins away) is beautiful, and there's a really nice neighborhood down by Western and 16th (about 5 mins away).</p>
<p>My D has not experienced any problems. I think security does a good job. I have walked across campus after a show at night, and I was not worried. Except I did see a skunk run under a dumpster! But we have plenty of those here. It only surprised me because the school is in the middle of a neighborhood, not close to any rural area, so I was surprised to see a skunk in town.</p>
<p>well that stinks!!! there goes the neighborhood (lol)</p>