Hey CC’ers. So we are faced with the decision to attend either MPulse or S.T.A.T.E @ Penn.
For those of you who have experienced either one (or both perhaps) please share any advice you may have. My daughter is a rising senior and did the Pace Summer Scholars MT program last summer and loved it. She is applying to both UMich & Penn State next year… I wish she could do both but the cost does not seem justifiable to me.
Thanks in advance!
@El-Cee My D attended STATE last year and loved it. She learned so much and had a great time at Penn State. It was over the 4th of July and there was an awesome festival there. They also have an option to film your pre-screens which was a great time savor in the whole PreScreen audition process.
I don’t think you can go wrong with either. Our D attended mPulse some years ago. Had a good experience. One thing we didn’t really realize was mPulse covers many different arts disciplines so there were other students there from around the country in various instrumental music disciplines, I think maybe voice, etc… also. So that was kind of neat. Of course the training was great. And the friends made there are still friends to this day. Living in the dorms and using the same facilities and taking classes from Michigan faculty as you would when in school were all great things to do.
Penn State did not have an MT camp at that time. However, Penn State was D’s favorite program and biggest heartache during her audition process. So she may have chosen it over mPulse had it been available. She really loved that program. But both are great schools and great programs with many similarities.
Thanks @SAS0792… did the prescreens actually come out “usable”? That would be a huge benefit. It’s early in the summer to do those but would sure be nice to come out of there in early July with that under her belt.
@El-Cee Yes! We used them for all the Pre Screen schools we could. I think we still had to do 2 or 3 more videos for schools that wanted a second monologue, a close up shot and a Shakespeare piece. My D was even able to take the 1 min cut and make it fit some 16 bar requirements. It took her being pretty prepared with her material before July but she did it and put her ahead of the game when submitting the prescreens. More than one school pointed out to her that she was the first one to get her material in during this whole process.
My daughter is leaning towards STATE based off feedback her voice teacher gave her and carefully looking over sample schedules. She thinks the STATE program meets all her needs, plus it’s half the price so that gives her some coaching money to work with. I’m proud that she is thinking rationally and not being blinded by the fact that UMich is one of her dream programs.