<p>Question: I notice that MTtwins has twin sons getting accepted to some of the same schools for MT, and I think Emerson accepted twins last year or the year before. This makes me think that MT programs don't care if they accept kids from the same town...true? My D and her best friend (who live in the same town, go to the same camp - Stagedoor - and go to the same high school) are both applying to many of the same MT programs, and there is a worry that the schools will not want to take 2 students from the same small town. These 2 girls are different as night and day re: voice type, character type, etc. My feeling is that the schools won't care where they are from, and if they have what the schools are looking for, they will be accepted. If they don't, they won't. Given how different they are, I can't imagine the schools would even notice they are from the same town. Am I deluding myself? Any advice would be helpful, particularly those who have been through a similar situation before, or have twins/siblings who are going through the process. Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Maybe it depends on the school but I don’t know that it really matters. In my D’s class of around 14 at PSU, there are 2 girls from the same high school in CA as well as one more from another high school about 10 miles away. I really wouldn’t think programs would look at anything other than the audition, and type.</p>
<p>I’ve seen the same happen here and my theory is that they’ve been receiving similar opportunities, training, hopefully same good class standing and they really don’t notice/care that they are from the same hometown…it’s not about where you are from, but where you are going after all!</p>
<p>I would think they are not even paying attention to that type of info…</p>
<p>Interesting. Twins are a unique situation, because not only do they compete against all the other wonderfully talented students out there, but they compete against each other. </p>
<p>We were cautioned by many people that there was no way our boys would ever be accepted together. And it remains to be seen if they’ll attend together. That’s their decision to make later. I will share that early on, we debated many approaches, from vastly differing headshots to auditions on different days/times. What’s funny so far is that two of the three schools where they’ve been accepted together are schools where they auditioned back-to-back and the other they auditioned within an hour or two of each other. </p>
<p>In the end, I’m not sure hometown matters much. If the school wants you, they want you. As for twins or siblings, perhaps some schools see the “possibilities” they present for certain shows or casting choices – while other schools may have such small classes that they cannot use two of the same type. We went into the process knowing that and my sons just chose to plow ahead. </p>
<p>In following the college paths of students in the classes above my sons, we’ve observed that many colleges have taken multiple kids from our area including some kids from the same and/or neighboring high schools (granted, we live in LA – so perhaps the schools aren’t aware of the proximities of the various suburbs). I also know of one school that admitted a younger MT sibling of a current MT student. </p>
<p>These are just my newbie opinions, but ultimately, I think there are so many admissions criteria involved that I wouldn’t put hometown too high on the list. </p>
<p>(Fun fact, in our “travels” to various auditions and unifieds sites, we’ve heard there are FOUR sets of twin boys and one set of twin girls auditioning for MT this year.)</p>
<p>Identical twins can be a fun thing for a director…especially a nice fast-paced farce or…all kinds of things-- I think they may actually help each other. (Not that I know a thing!)</p>
<p>If two applicants are fully qualified to the schools’ academic profiles, have a great audition, and each person has the [insert indefinable qualities the school wants], then hometown should have NOTHING to do with the acceptance/denial of one or both! I know of 2 kids from our city who are both happily attending Baldwin-Wallace, another 2 at IU, 3 (in different years) at the school my d attends. </p>
<p>Has someone put a bug in your ear that this doesn’t happen? There’s enough insecurity to this process, and stuff we’ll never know about they WHY our kids are/aren’t accepted at a certain program. Locale, and quantity of people from the same city, shouldn’t be on your list of worries. I’m sure you have enough. (I know I tried to overthink the process last year…and things ended up beautifully for my d.)</p>
<p>My Ds HS had 4 at NYU at the same time- two in one year of MT and the other two in another class for Drama. It doesn’t seem to matter…</p>
<p>Thanks for all your thoughtful responses! I agree with all of you (although I’m glad I don’t have to deal with the twin issue…it seems overwhelming to me). Mommafrog, one of the girls seems worried about it, and I wanted to calm her fears. I think the schools are going to take who they want/need, regardless of location, period. It’s funny, b/c my older S, who is a sophomore in college for things totally unrelated to MT, attended an info session at Amherst College, and the admissions officers were begging the students to find them someone from North Dakota. Apparently, they wanted students from all 50 states. So, in that case, given 2 equal applicants, they would care about where the student is from. And maybe even give an edge to the student from North Dakota even if the applicants were not equal. But for MT, I think it comes down to talent and type.</p>
<p>I think for MT programs, one’s location/hometown/school is not a factor and same with having more kids from the same community. Diversity of geographic location is more of a factor for some universities at large, but not for the MT program itself.</p>
<p>Our mid-sized city has been consistently sending people to UMich’s MT program for several years, and I’d think if they were seeking geographic diversity that wouldn’t happen, so I agree with the above posters. </p>
<p>I think type overlap is a much bigger problem at the most selective schools. If they already have a tall brunette mezzo, they likely won’t take a second.</p>
<p>I’ve never seen a comment, or any evidence, from a theatre program espousing geographic diversity. I doubt that it happens, or matters. </p>
<p>Anecdotally, re: twins, I think every set of twins I know of who were studying theatre, ended up in the same program. A good opportunity for a production of The Boys from Syracuse!</p>
<p>FYI: CCM has 7 (of it’s 72-ish) Musical Theatre Majors from the Kansas City Metro (mostly from the Kansas side-but we’re all one big metro.) One guy was in the same Youth Theatre program as my son and the two had done many shows together. It works great for carpooling 10 hours.</p>
<p>I want talent - period. If they are both from the same school - fine. In fact, if we get several people from the same school that are all really talented, we will try to arrange a recruiting trip to that school. If all things are completely 100% equal and there is a student from Alaska and we have never had a student from Alaska, then it might be a deciding factor. Why? For me it would be because that person may bring a different viewpoint on life because of their hometown, especially when we’ve never had anyone from there. Diversity of ideas is a very good thing, but at the end of the day talent trumps everything.</p>
<p>VT</p>
<p>I do see a lot of people in different classes from the same town. I have a friend who now attends CCU because I went there. She probably wouldn’t have auditioned or attended if I hadn’t told her about the school. If someone really enjoys the school and is happy there, they go home and tell their younger theatre friends to apply, and they often attend.</p>
<p>I have never heard of such an element as the same small town entering into a conversation about accepting a student. This should not be a concern.</p>
<p>I have a niece from Alaska who attended a well regarded BFA in Acting program and I highly doubt she was admitted due to being from Alaska. However, if we were talking about elite academic colleges, geographic location plays a part as such schools value a wide diversity for their student bodies. Geographic diversity is not a factor in BFA admissions, however, in my view.</p>
<p>There were 3 girls from my D’s small-town high school admitted the year my D enrolled (my D and identical twins) and 1 boy from our school admitted the next year. I don’t think it makes any difference where you come from. Our little town only has one high school and my D happened to be in a class with very talented kids, both musically and academically.</p>
<p>Now that I think about it: no twins, but we’ve had a few sibling situations in our department! So I don’t think it hurts, at least. :)</p>
<p>My daughter and a high school classmate were both admitted to the Syracuse MT BFA program 4 years ago and both accepted. We were so surprised that they admitted two kids from the same high school class but they did and we heard that this is not an unusual practice across the country in these types of programs. They’re both about to graduate in May!</p>