<p>Does anyone happen to have a list of schools that cut their students after the first year (or 2nd, or ???) ? I searched this forum and have read many, many posts, but have yet to find more than University of Arizona mentioned as cutting (out of the schools I've researched thus far).</p>
<p>I was concerned about University of Oklahoma as their website info seemed ominous. I called the school and was told that they DO NOT cut. The language on the website still makes me nervous. Further insight?</p>
<p>We visited OU this summer and nothing I saw indicated that they cut. They only admit a dozen or less kids in MT and less than 50 kids total for the entire regular theater program which includes tech, production, design, etc as well as acting.</p>
<p>If they cut down from that small of a group they’d be having to pray for plenty of auditionees from outside the department just to fill the parts! lol!</p>
<p>It’s extremely hard to get into but once in, though they do evaluate regularly for adequate progress, that’s not the same thing as a cut. Most of the schools we have looked at do evaluate the students yearly and if they clearly are not interested in working hard, are failing classes, are not dedicated, or simply not progressing (as rigorous as admissions are I doubt that happens often) that will have to be addressed. But, that’s all done on an individual basis: it’s not like there’s 20 kids and there’s an arbitrarily decided number of ten of them who will have to go, no matter how brilliant they are or how well they are progressing. I could see one of those tortured artist types (I hope that stereotype just totally DIES OUT one day, lol) who is the most brilliant artist anyone has ever known but with terrible self destructive tendencies, ending up not passing their evaluation if something like substance abuse got out of hand. Not that I know of that happening but knowing creative people, I bet it does sometimes. Anyway, that’s not the same thing as a cut program either.</p>
<p>If your kid is good enough to get into a competitive program and loves it and works hard I doubt they’ll have any problems with reviews. (if your kid is good enough to get into a competitive program but doesn’t because they already had enough who looked like him or her, and goes to a non audition program, and loves it and works hard, they’ll do fine too. )</p>
<p>Some schools start out with both BA and BFA in the same classes and only in sophomore year can they decide and be accepted into the BFA program; that’s also not a cut. (and I sort of like that approach as it gives them a while to decide what path they really like. Texas Tech, which believe it or not has a really well supported and accredited theater program though you don’t hear of it much, does it that way. But it seems less common than going into BA or BFA from day one.)</p>
<p>Over the years, I’ve heard first hand experiences with Millikin and BOCO. Not true ‘cut’ programs but after the first and/or second year, students can and are ‘redirected’ to other degree programs. And, these are not kids who are making bad grades (at least not the ones I know)…they were all very shocked to find themselves redirected.</p>
<p>CCM (Cincinnati)- we know 2 people who were cut from the program although it has been a couple of years. Don’t know what their current policy is.</p>
<p>In looking at the issue of “cuts”, keep in mind that this term is often loosely applied to different concepts so it is important to ask very specific questions of a school to make sure you understand exactly what its policies are. There are some schools that deliberately matriculate more students than they intend to keep and at the end of the freshman or sophomore year, cut back the class size to a predetermined number. A student can be cut regardless of the student’s level of performance, commitment and even grades, simply because the student falls blow the cut number compared to other students, usually based on very subjective criteria.</p>
<p>There are some schools that require students to re-audition after the freshman or sophomore year and the student is competing all over for the available spaces, including at times competing against new applicants and internal transfers from BA programs. </p>
<p>Then there are other schools that use juries as a litmus test of whether a student can advance to upper level classes. Some of these schools give a student a second chance to remediate their performance and take the juries again. Others don’t.</p>
<p>Ask questions, including the time line for a student being informed that he or she is “cut”. Be an informed consumer.</p>
<p>Most competitive schools have reviews of students every term, with annual potential for a student to be asked to leave. This is different from a formal policy of cuts, as MichaelNKat says above. A formal cut policy WILL result in a group of students being eliminated from a program (but it will be based on performance, commitment, grades, etc–not randomized!). The approach at the “non-cut” programs is to let students know that their work is not leading them to likely success in the professional acting/MT world. At CMU, this is typically a notification to take a year off and, if still committed to finishing the program, show improvement in the areas identified as weak. Some of these students do come back, but some take this as the “heads up” that the demands of the program are not for them, and those transfer out.</p>
<p>BoCo doesn’t cut to a number…they do sophomore promotionals, and my D said no one was surprised or blindsided by the warning they received at midyear.</p>
<p>About CCM
CCM does not cut, but they evaluate each student “boards” twice a year your Freshman and Sophmore years. The Boards are used to determine how the student is progressing and help him in the weaker areas.
According to Prof Hess, who spoke to us directly, the students who are “cut” are students who have not been going to class and who are not trying at all.<br>
Although all of these kids are highly talented, not all of them can transition to college life and the freedom that comes with it.
I know that someone will say that they know someone… But maybe that someone doesn’t want to really say why. Finally, as at all schools, many kids realize that this isn’t what they want to do, and they move on.</p>
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