We visited this week. Loved the school, the people, the students. Even met a Dean in the business college while in the library and he took the time to walk us through new Entrepreneurship space–he was enthusiastic and welcomed MT kids to use the space and all the programs available outside musical theater, while clearly understanding the intensity of the MT schedule. The dance major who took us on our tour minored in Business, which many of the schools don’t allow for. That is very appealing to me as a parent who knows how competitive this field is. The MT faculty we met were just wonderful. The theater class building is small, but honestly, I think it’s important to look past the bells and whistles. Lots of students around working on their Senior Show Case.
The dance space was huge, for those who are looking for dance intensive. I have older kids too and have looked at lots of colleges over the last 8 years and this campus is in the thick of the curve. Nicer than some and not as fancy as others. Though, I can honestly say the freshmen dorm rooms are bigger than standard dorm rooms.
My D has friends who are accepted to LIU and chose it over other offers. Now her friends also attended the summer mt honors institute there with my D last summer, so they were familiar with the program but they love Dave Hugo and so did my D . Cara gagano (sp?) is so nice also.
Location was the factor I didn’t let her audition there but that’s a personal thing and some people might not care. I also thought housing off
campus would be a problem which others that live there have already stated. Otherwise we had no
Issues. The dorm my D stayed in was typical , hall bath, no frills but it did have AC!
Now I stated earlier that my daughter’s roommate was from the area and her parents said the college does not have a great academic rep. But a lot of schools with MT have the same problem so …
@theaterwork could you elaborate more on what you said about location? That is one of my concerns about this school. We are scrambling to fit in visits this month and and keep going back and forth about whether we should just take a trip out there to check it out or just go with one of her other choices.
@Onourown lol I don’t mean it’s a bad neighborhood or anything. It’s very nice there. I just didn’t want my kid on Long Island! Traffic etc. I just don’t like driving there and that’s just us. We wouldn’t have flown because we live within reasonable driving distance. I mean if she loved the school and she was crazy into it then I wouldn’t have let that nix the deal . I also believe financially it might have been expensive for us? Can’t recall but I think that was a factor too. I found the campus to be fine and I like older buildings so I like that it used to be the Post estate.
Have you visited at all or did you audition at Unifieds?
@theaterwork She did a walk in at Unifieds in Chicago, so it wasn’t on her original list and we really knew nothing about it. Dave Hugo spent over an hour talking with us after and it was interesting hearing all that he had to say with what they were doing out there. Personally, I am thinking it will be a major pain to get in and out of there with traffic, but I have never been there so I am guessing,lol…so I have been putting off the trip to check it out. AND…although my daughter does have some good options, she is waitlisted at her favorite school so we are trying to visit and be open to her other choices. Waitlist hell is its very own animal that we didn’t really prepare ourselves for. So ready to move forward!
My D was really and truly NOT into LIU after her audition because it seemed so laid back and she was afraid the program might not be a serious one. I didn’t want her to go there just because it was the best one financially. I wanted her to feel it was THE ONE. So we visited.
She came away ready to commit to the school, no doubts.
Academically, it does have lower admissions standards than some, but that doesn’t mean the education received is lesser quality. As I’m sure you know, with education ( as with life) you get out of it what you put in to it.
Driving to Long Island is tedious, stop and go traffic depending on time of day. But making that trip a few times a year is not a big deal to me. Kids can get to Manhattan by train from Hicksville (6 miles away) for under $20 round trip if they want to spend a Saturday in the city.
@daughtersdreams I am so happy to hear that she really liked it. I agree with what you said about getting out of it what you put in! Thanks for explaining on the other thread about why they aren’t required to take as much dance. It makes sense. That is why he told us he is looking for students who would go above and beyond the requirements. I really think there is alot of opportunity there.
@Onourown I was apprehensive about driving to Long Island as I usually take a train into Manhattan… but I have found it reasonably easy despite getting stuck in traffic at rush hour. The program is very well thought out. After hearing many schools’ approaches - I think this one is very versatile in that it is definitely based on the MT genre but the acting focus is relevant beyond MT.
@bisouu LOL…you cracked me up this morning. Just remember, some of us are barely functioning on the last bit of brain cells left after this traumatic process, and the thought of one more thing is enough to tip the scales, lol. Of course I am talking about myself as I won’t speak for anyone else, but this mom is over it! If I could have about 2 weeks rest, this most likely wouldnt even be a discussion…sometimes I feel its a miracle we even got this far,lol.
@bisouu you have to put yourself in someone’s shoes who lives in a rural or semi rural area . My area is not really rural as we live near D.C. & I drive in traffic there periodically. I , however, do not live in a large city like NYC or LA so driving in massive traffic, where it seems all common sense has gone out the window, is not an everyday occurrence for me.
I am not saying I wouldn’t let my D attend there JUST because of traffic. There are other factors in our decision to not audition @ LIU. Location was just an additional consideration we saw as a negative about the school. Just our opinion.
@theaterwork I agree, it is more of a pro’s and con’s list in consideration. For us, it is facing the traffic headache at the tail end of a 8-9 hour drive. We live in an area where snowfall is measured in feet, not inches. Alot of people are hesitant sending their kids to colleges around here because of the weather, but our schools rarely even close because of heavy snowfall. It’s just something to factor in, not a dealbreaker.
@Onourown I grew up in up-state New York maye 10 miles from Lake Ontario, so Syracuse was nixed by me immediately! I want my D home for Thanksgiving - not stuck in in airport LOL!
I now live not far from @theaterwork in a rural area and though I don’t relish the drive across PA and NJ to NYC, I don’t mind driving in the city. I find it kinda fun actually- there are always interesting people to watch as I sit in gridlocked downtown Manhattan, and since lane lines are virtually non-existent, and no one pays attention to them anyway it’s like an amusement park ride of bumper cars! #creativedriving
@missnypizza Accepted student day at LIU was a good experience. We focused mostly on the theatre department because the program is more focused than some and we wanted to really grasp what it is about. It is a serious acting program and the students come out prepared to act in other genres - not just MT. Dance is really up to the student how much time they want to devote - there is a good amount of dance available although only 3 classes are built into the MT program. Similarly - other than private voice lessons - no additional music classes are built in. Many schools include music theory, sight singing, keyboard but not at LIU; it is available - but not required.
It does sound very rigorous - the program is somewhat unique with the Suzuki movement based training. Regardless of whether this is the option my D chooses, I found it very impressive and think it is a very good value for the training. My D wants to understand what it “feels like” to be on campus at a suitcase school on the weekends. She knows that the theatre, international, and some other students stick around on weekends but wants to spend more time on that issue. We are planning on going back for freshman showcase next weekend and hopefully I will have more to share.
@Eliza806 To get a feel for what LIU would be like, I would start with the assumption that many of the MT students do come from other parts of the country and that they will likely have each other socially on a full-time basis. That of course works both ways. You can view it as either having the camaraderie of a small close knit group, or that it may be a bit stifling.
There are going to be limited opportunities to meet other students in the school due to the nature of the program. Normally, on a big campus with a population that stays on campus, the opportunity to meet and integrate with other students would come from meeting new people in the dorms, attending parties/gatherings on campus, and by going into areas adjacent to the school where students gather.
LIU is both a commuter school and a suitcase school. Many students commute and don’t live in a dorm, at all. By saying it’s also a suitcase school, you also have a certain percentage of students who dorm, but only on a part-time basis. Their plan is to pack up and go home to their families/ friends on weekends.
According to their website, only 20% of the students dorm at all–so you have about 1,100 students signed on to live in the dorms. The big question is, how many of those students actually stay on campus for the weekend? Because if that number begins to drop a lot (because of the “suitcase” nature of the school), then you are talking about very few people staying for the weekend on a relatively large campus. And there is absolutely nothing at all adjacent to the campus where students gather. I’m sure that many probably head into the city if they are going anywhere at all.
So to me the thing to mostly research is what percent of the students that are in the dorms sty for the weekend.
I know this is 10 years ago, but I never got that feeling that my D would be alone on the weekends. She dormed there and we lived here in Florida. I don’t even think I realized it was considered a “suitcase” school but maybe because she was in the small knit dance BFA group, she always had that group around. Luckily my oldest D lives in Astoria, Queens so if my youngest goes there, she has someone fairly close by to escape to if needed. I’m truly hoping this program with all its quirks and flexibility ends up being a diamond in the rough. Any other thoughts? Please send them my way. Thank you all for your support.
Thanks @uskoolfish - we hope to find out more about the feel of the campus on weekends. I have spoken to a couple of moms - on here and elsewhere who have said that their Ds had plenty to do on the weekends and didn’t feel isolated. Also that they were so involved with the theatre activities that there wasn’t a lot of time to be feeling that the campus was deserted. But what feels fine for one student may not for another, so hopefully we will get more insight this weekend! @missnypizza will keep you posted
@winnieroot or anyone else - do you have any information on the interaction between the BFA acting and BFA MT programs? The curriculum is very similar but do they take the classes together or are they kept separate? Do they have any history of transferring from one to the other? Do they audition for the same shows?
@waitingforlife It seems that Acting and MT are almost the same, except that mt takes 2 more semesters of voice and haas more dance classes. And Dave Hugo has talked about some Acting students who transferred to Mt, so it’s definitely possible, because they take a lot of the same classes! And I think that they work together on most shows