<p>Now that we are at the point of actually applying to schools, and knowing that after a couple more months, it will be too late to add another school, I think we want to find one more school to apply to that is more of a "fit" school. By fit I mean less selective than the top tier "reach" schools.
My D is applying to 14 schools. Two of these are slightly less selective than the top schools, but they are still audition schools and we have to be conscious of that. We have a non auditioned safety, but it is a BA and my D doesn't really "love" it... I know the advice is "love thy safety." She just really wants a BFA.
I'd like to add one more BFA, that is on the eastern half of the country and is either not incredibly expensive or offers good merit aid for strong students. The school should mainly have a smaller applicant pool so that admission rates are higher.
Next, my D has taken a good number of acting movement classes and loves training in this way. She wants to be sure her schools have enough classes in movement and good teachers for movement. She likes Chekhov, Williamson and Viewpoints techniques.
We are considering adding one of these four schools to our application list: Texas State, Coastal Carolina, George Mason or Elon.
Can any of you speak to their movement programs? And verify that they are actually less selective? Or is there another program out there I am missing? Three of these also offer auditions in the fall and that would also be really helpful as our January/February times are looking pretty tight.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.</p>
<p>Sounds like your D is very focused. I’m imagining she’s not thrilled with the idea of a non-auditioned program, and that sometimes is right for certain students.</p>
<p>Around this time of year 2 years ago, I realized when people asked my D where she hoped to go to school, she would say “A BFA in theatre on the east coast.” That was when I said she should apply to the University of Rhode Island as a safety. It’s a very nice program, not hugely selective academically, and has nice scholarships for strong students. An easy train ride to Providence, Boston, and even NYC. She did apply and got in EA - that was a comfort through much of the rest of the process.</p>
<p>Check out Syracuse University and their drama department. I wouldn’t have been able to go here if they didn’t help me enough with financial aid. The drama department here follows a very rigorous and serious curriculum that really tries to bring on the artistry within yourself rather than to throw information at you. And they have a very unique relationship with the Syracuse Stage (a professional theatre) which allows students to be surrounded by a professional atmosphere. I’ve never heard of any other drama department at a university like this one. And on top of that they have incredie opportunities available such as spending a summer in LA meeting casting agents, or a semester in NYC meeting casting directors, pro actors/directors, and also a semester in London which gives you the chance to perform at the Shakespeare Globe Theatre.</p>
<p>Thanks. She is planning to apply to Syracuse. Their program is excellent, and very selective.
Maybe I should list where she plans to apply: U Arts, Muhlenberg, Carnegie Mellon, Rutgers, Fordham, NYU, Juilliard, SUNY Purchase, Boston U, Syracuse, Ithaca, DePaul, Northern Illinois and NCSA.
Emmybet, I looked over URI, and the faculty for movement looked a bit light. But thanks for thinking it over</p>
<p>I’m a tech mom, so admittedly know less about acting programs. But how about Coastal Carolina University? We are looking at many of the same schools as you, but for tech, and Coastal Carolina is on the list. (As is URI, which may not have the strongest program, but my son really loved the feel of)</p>
<p>I have the impression that Coastal is great for movement; they have that physical theater program that seems relevant. I’ve heard wonderful things about their theater program in general, too.</p>
<p>Coastal’s movement program seems really strong as does their acting program. They do some auditions off campus but don’t go to Unifieds, which can mean that they have a smaller pool of applicants. People love it. </p>
<p>My D is at Hartt, whose Acting BFA was developed and is led by two former NCSA deans-- there are a lot of similarities between the programs. Viewpoints is big at Hartt, and the movement training is diverse and strong. Hartt is also strong on classical training. It has been a wonderful experience so far.</p>
<p>Coastal Carolina isn’t a Unifieds school, but they are in Chicago during Unifieds. They require a prescreen video for on campus auditions but not for Unifieds, as it is primarily a prescreen for an invitation to audition on campus. They do not audition as many as some other schools, but the classes are small. I believe this year the freshman MT class is 14 and the Acting/PT class is 10, so still a selective program.</p>
<p>Monica Bell teaches the Suzuki class and the Viewpoints class at CCU. Here is a link to her bio.<br>
[CCU</a> Department of Theatre](<a href=“http://www.coastal.edu/theatre/html/faculty/monica-bell.html]CCU”>http://www.coastal.edu/theatre/html/faculty/monica-bell.html)</p>
<p>Acting majors may attend the Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy for one semester if they choose. Physical Theatre majors spend their senior year there.
[Accademia</a> dell’Arte - European Theatre, Vocal Arts and Dance](<a href=“http://www.dell-arte.org/]Accademia”>http://www.dell-arte.org/)</p>
<p>^The physical theatre training at the Accademia dell’Arte in Tuscany is fabulous. Many CCU theatre students train there, as austinmtmom mentioned.</p>
<p>My son attended BU and spent his semester abroad at the Accademia (often abbreviated as ADA). He absolutely adored it.</p>
<p>In addition to the actual “movement” training an actor would receive at CCU, most BFA Acting and BFA Physical Theatre majors take dance classes throughout the four years. BFA Actors are required at least ballet and/or jazz, and Physical Theatre majors are required in their curriculum to take Ballet 1, Jazz 1, and Tap 1- and the higher level dance classes are also encouraged. These classes are taken with their fellow BFA musical theatre majors in their class. I mention this specifically because we also just added two brand new dance faculty and CCU, and actor majors are reaping the benefits of their addition as well! <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/coastal-carolina-university/1512574-ccu-welcomes-two-new-dance-faculty.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/coastal-carolina-university/1512574-ccu-welcomes-two-new-dance-faculty.html</a></p>
<p>dramamom, take a look at Point Park University, especially if you are going to be in Pittsburgh to visit CMU. I think it fits the criteria in your original post. The aid is generally good, the cost of living in Pittsburgh is favorable. The program is very good, but they accept more students than some of the others.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your input. College search, I would have thought Point Park was a more selective school? Do you know how many they audition?
We like the extra dance at CCU, and we did read Bell’s bio. My D’s teacher has warned her to be careful with Suzuki training; it needs to be skillfully meshed with the other movement styles. It is quite a different technique, lower body oriented, and she has seen some unfortunate results in actors when it’s not blended well. I guess we should formulate some questions for Professor Bell! CCU keeps coming up in these responses.</p>
<p>Your list looks a lot like our list looked last year. My daughter applied to 14 audition BFA programs – Juilliard, NYU, Rutgers, UNCSA, Purchase, BU, U of Arts, CCM, CMU, Otterbein, Depaul, Hartt, Ithaca and Syracuse. </p>
<p>Any audition school is selective but I don’t think Point Park is as selective as some of the high end selective schools. I think its probably around where U of Arts is in terms of selectivity. I think Hartt is slightly more selective than U of Arts but again this is all very hard to say based on anything but anecdotal evidence. For what it is worth, my daughter ended up getting into UNCSA, NYU, U of Arts and Hartt and was wait listed at Syracuse. Unfortunately, a lot of this is just a crapshoot.</p>
<p>Other East Coast schools you might consider are Pace and Marymount. We had heard a lot of good things about Marymount from a teaching standpoint but did not apply because of some concerns raised on this board about performance opportunities. A couple of the CC Moms from last year have kids going there and they are very positive about the program.</p>
<p>Don’t personally know much about it, but some people here on CC really like it.</p>
<p>Pace and Marymount both have great acting departments, but the academics are very poor. Marymount has a much smaller applicant pool as the school itself is a small liberal arts college - although I have heard some people describe it as ‘an extension of High school’ which doesn’t sound too great. I’ll be applying to both as safeties (as they are in New York, my favourite city) but I wouldn’t see them as a ‘fit’ school for your D.</p>
<p>Marymount is much less selective artistically than Pace. And, yeah, academics at either one are kind of a joke. The main attraction seems to be NYC.</p>
<p>zoenatasha, one thing I learned in this process is that there are no safeties when it comes to auditioned programs. Even Marymount, just glibly characterized as “much less selective artistically” is pretty darn hard to get into. Look at the size of their freshman class.</p>
<p>I am adding my voice to no auditioned school should be considered a safety. And in quite a few programs, the liberal arts side of a school is quite different from the BFA/BA program and needs to be looked on as such. If your child is interested in a BFA program, their classes in the rest of the school will be quite limited. In addition, you get out of a program what you put into one, and many have had a wonderful BFA experience from MMC and Pace as well as other schools who have weaker liberal arts programs than they do BFA programs. </p>
<p>Elon is very competitive, it should never be considered a safety. Much of their class is pulled from their EA/ED applicants. This goes for theatre as well.</p>
<p>You are right, there are no safeties in auditioned schools. But you can separate them into “reach” and “fit,” and the difference is how many kids audition. If 800 audition and they take 20, your acceptance odds are 2%. If 400 audition and they take 20, your odds are 5%. And I think the reaches take significantly more than the 20 because they know all the kids are not going to say yes. So the odds are actually over ten percent. We’d like another of those schools with movement faculty and movement classes my D approves of. :-)</p>
<p>thanks photomom, I think we were posting at the same time. My D doesn’t care at all about her gen ed classes. The fewer the better. She is an excellent student but just wants to focus on all things acting.
Does Elon have rolling admissions? or when you say EA/ED is it one of those binding early decision type of situations? She has the academics to get in there I am pretty sure.</p>