My daughter is a rising junior who wants to study theater (acting+) in college. She has done a lot of school and community/semi-professional theater and attended Stagedoor for the last three summers. She is a serious voice student but not interested in a dedicated musical theater track. We are at the beginning of our college process, and while I find reading the various threads and posts helpful, there are some basics I don’t really understand. I would appreciate the wisdom of this group, and am grateful for your patience with these beginner questions. I know a lot about a more conventional search (we have an older daughter already out of college and I’ve taught at both university and HS levels). But so much about this is very new and unfamiliar.
Most importantly, we’d like help understanding fundamental differences and pros and cons between majoring in theater at a LA college or university and attending a conservatory style program. Do some students apply to both? (I do understand the significant difference in the application/audition process).
Is there a trustworthy source that lists strong programs in both categories?
BA vs BFA? (This doesn’t seem to depend on the kind of institution).
How can one judge real opportunities for performing at an institution? (a recent issue of “Thespian” magazine raised questions about this).
My daughter plans to apply to an intensive summer program next year. We have started research and learned about Northwestern’s Cherubs, NYU Tisch, Emerson, Interlochen, Michigan MPulse, UNCSA, Yale, BUSTI. Others we should check out?
If there is an earlier discussion thread that answers these questions please alert me to it. Thank you!
As for a start on answering your question about pros/cons of conservatory vs not, or BFA/BA - it really depends on what you are looking for in a college experience. Does your D want to do theater EXCLUSIVELY - or are they interested in something more rounded? One of the key things to learn is that there are MANY paths… you need to find the one that feels right for your kid
As for lists… I don’t think there really is one “perfect” list… or if there is, I have never seen it. But tbh - that’s not different than “regular” college rankings- if you went to the overall parent’s forum right now I bet you could find a thread arguing about Harvard vs Stanford vs whatever. What I did with lists was to check methodology (there wa done a couple years ago written by students from a particular college, low and behold their was number 1 - shocking) and then to looked for schools that showed up on multiple lists.
Performance opportunities- this is a good question to ask during tours/interviews. Some schools guarantee, some do not. Yet another question to ask yourself is- are you looking for a program that focuses on process (training) or result (performance- being in the max # of shows).
And finally, summer programs- I think they are fantastic- b/c they give a kid a chance to “taste” what college level training is about (which may not be something they have experienced). CMU has a great precollege program you might want to add to your check out
The VERY best advice I can give you is to keep an open mind as you look - decide on what YOU (plural, meaning your family/kid etc) want the college experience to be- and head in that direction.
Not all BFA or BA’s are created equal. Take a close look at their course listings. My daughter wanted a BFA got into a highly respected one but ended up going the BA route. I can message you with info if you’d like.
Many of my daughter’s GE classes were met through the theatre department’s classes. All of her math, history, english/writing and econ GE’s she took in the theatre department.
Theatre Design = math
History = Theatre History
English = Playwriting
Econ = Art administration.
Socia Science = Can’t remember name of class but it involved society and theatre and she took theatre to public schools in the area. Also another class on sexual assault and theatre.
So I agree that in a BA you have more gen eds, many of them can be satisfied through theatre courses
Here’s another thing that my daughter discovered that a BA may offer over a BFA. She was exposed to the other areas of theatre that I am not sure she would have if she had chosen a BFA. She discovered (besides her love of acting) the love of stage managing. She will graduate with skills that she can use to supplement her income while looking for acting jobs that are still in the theatre realm. (house managing as well). She is hoping to use these skills in place of waitressing, dog sitting, nannying etc. in between gigs.
These responses are all very helpful and I will follow up on suggestions. I know that I get overwhelmed when reading about scheduling multiple auditions at Unfiieds and realizing that she needs to discern what kind of program she wants well before the end of junior year if she wants to go this route. We will keep reading and learning.
I have heard that the NACAC Performing Arts fairs can be useful–have folks had a good experience with these?
It’s really great that you are starting now when your daughter is a junior so she will have time to review different programs and really think about what she wants. When we started my this process my daughter’s list of schools was so ridiculously long it was overwhelming. She had BFAs, BMs and BAs - Acting and Musical Theatre. It was clear that she really needed to narrow her focus so we sat down and talked at length about what she really wanted out of her college program- what would meet her needs, prepare her in the best way possible and make her happy. Since she attended a dual enrollment high school at our local community college she had already taken a great deal of college level GE. She really wasn’t interested in spending a lot of time in college taking more GE when what she really wanted was to focus on intense training. So for her a conservatory type of BFA quickly rose to the top of her wish list. In the end she felt that was the best fit for her. It helped to hone her list considerably and that is the type of program she will attend with just 27 units out of 137 consisting of GE. It was the right fit for her, but definitely not for everyone so it really is important to consider what it is the priority for your particular student.
I have a raising senior, and the list building began during Jr. Year. In that year, I leaned so much from reading threads, but to recap the year, I wish:
I started running the finances of retirement and kid 2 in college way earlier, and run the net price calculator on each school before digging into the programs.
I accepted that Theater Kid wasn’t ever going to care about standardize testing for merit money. Ever.
Theater kid was growing up and changing thoughts about BFA/BA, and well, just changing. No amount of list building to be prepared early was ever going to hold up to the maturation process. I’m sure future evolution of list due to self discovery will be needed.
They do have a way of changing in the middle of this. My kid went from looking at rigorous BAs to wanting a conservatory-style BFA from fall to early spring.
Head spinning, @Jkellynh17. While I’ve read this in a thread, to really think about the last minute work that it took to pull it off is crazy. Yet, you’re here, still living, to tell the story.
It is so true that priorities and preferences change during the process. A few schools at the top of D’s list fell to the bottom for various reasons as she went through auditions and learned more about the programs. And a few she wasn’t too excited about rose to the top. It’s a learning process as they go along, finding out what is most important in location, curriculum, instructors and environment. I really found out going through this with my daughter what everyone means when they talk about fit. What looks amazing on paper or on a web site doesn’t always translate to a good fit.
My D’s list also evolved with time. We were fortunate to visit all potential schools (but one) before applications - and that helped narrow the original list considerably. And from there- Her opinions on schools also changed during auditions - I think you can tell a fair amount about a program (attitudes, priorities etc) via their audition process. Several schools shot up, a couple dropped like a stone. What stayed the same were our “must haves” for a school/program - which helped keep eyes on the prize as the whole thing unfolded.
My D is a rising Sr. this year and we will be in the thick of auditions and interviews. She was fortunate to gain artistic acceptance to Belmont University BFA theatre and LIU-Post BFA theatre after auditions at SETC this past spring as a junior. We were pleasantly surprised as we can now focus on more “reach” schools. She just completed three weeks at UNCSA participating in intro to stage combat through the National Stage Combat Workshop. UNCSA also has a summer drama camp. Price is quite reasonable compared to some places like Interlochen, NYU-Tisch etc… She loved the course and had the opportunity to work with several fightmasters who have worked on Broadway and in film/TV. She has been accepted to the Theatre Performance intensive at the Stratford Festival later this summer. It is audition based but they have a non auditioned program as well. Both of these programs are less expensive together than BUSTI or NYU. I will update again after she completes the course at Stratford. I think these are two excellent summer opportunites. Worth a look for next summer.
@TNTheatreDad thanks for the info on summer programs at UNCSA. My daughter is a BFA drama major there and loves it. However I didn’t know much about the summer programs. Thank you! Congrats on the early acceptances and good luck during auditions.
Thanks for adding Stratford to the list–I look forward to hearing about your daughter’s experience. My daughter will visit the festival in September with her class and we will see if she can talk to someone there about the program.
