<ol>
<li>I love musical theater and I would be happy majoring in it but...</li>
<li>Academics are very important in my life and as a whole BFA/BA MT schools aren't very strong.</li>
<li>I want to be at a medium-sized school in a city with old buildings (with a couple of exceptions).</li>
<li>I'm a senior at a public school in a college town in the Northwest.</li>
<li>Colleges are silly and when you email them to ask if they offer musical theater opportunities, they respond with confusing emails that twist statistics around.</li>
</ol>
<p>I know this isn't the be all end all, but what do you think about the musical theater opportunities at these schools? (I know they don't offer an MT major).</p>
<p>Amherst
Brandeis
Brown
Colgate
Columbia
Duke
Hamilton
Lehigh
Middlebury
Princeton
Trinity
Tufts
Union
Vassar
Wesleyan
Yale</p>
<p>Any other suggestions? I'm definitely still figuring out my list - I know I'm kind of missing true safeties...</p>
<p>I already know about Northwestern.
Oh and in case you're wondering I have a 2320, a 4.0 UW, and I'm a full IB diploma candidate. I'm more confident in my ability to get into schools academically than by audition.</p>
<p>you could go to the websites for each of these schools, look on the theater department websites to find: the courses offered and productions presented. You should also look under the student life section and click on whatever information you find regarding student clubs to see what they’ve put on and the student contact information if any for the club leaders. Also check out the voice and dance opportunities at the schools.</p>
<p>Thanks! I have already done all that. Also, I’ve emailed most all of the schools asking those questions. My problem was that everyone gave me statistics, not a quality assessment. This thread is by no means my only evaluation of the schools, but rather a way to hear some peoples’ opinions. These are near impossible to gain from looking at the marketing materials from the colleges themselves.</p>
<p>I agree with SDonCC…that is how to go about it. </p>
<p>You truly don’t have safeties and that is a mistake. For safeties, take a look at Muhlenberg and Skidmore.</p>
<p>Some schools on your list do have MT opportunities and some just are not well known for theater honestly. I never hear of Union, Colgate, Hamilton, or Lehigh when people talk about theater and MT. Or Duke really either.</p>
<p>You say you want a city but Colgate, Hamilton, and Middlebury are are the opposite in terms of setting! Amherst, Lehigh and Wesleyan really are not city-like either.</p>
<p>You do have some good options on your list such as Brown, Yale, Tufts, Middlebury, Brandeis, and Vassar.</p>
<p>I would encourage you to truly examine USC and Northwestern. Perhaps UNC-Chapel Hill, Emory, and Boston College.</p>
<p>I cross posted with you. But truly SDonCC has the right idea as your questions would begin to get answered…look at the theater department…examine the production season…look at extracurricular groups on campus and if there are theater and MT organizastions that put on student run productions…see about voice and dance classes. Examine all theater courses offered (see if any are MT oriented). It really is available on most sites. I just looked at Yale’s site today for another thread on the MT forum (see my reply there) and there is tons of information there. Call a theater department and ask if there are current students you could contact and then ask these students specific questions.</p>
<p>A good safety is Drew in NJ but near NYC. Semester on Broadway opportunity, take a look at their visiting theater faculty and lecturers- Fantastic!</p>
<p>All right. Thank you so much!
Soozievt- what in particular constitutes a safety for you? Is it the acceptance rate? Because Muhlenberg’s is 45%, Skidmore’s is 42%, and Trinity and Union’s both are 41%. In your opinion, does that 1-4% difference make Muhlenberg and Skidmore safeties and the others not? I am aware that the theater departments at some of the schools on my list are less strong. These are the schools that felt right when I did research or visited, regardless of their options or programs.
Again, I really appreciate all of your help. This is such a big, scary process and I’m so lucky to get help with everything.</p>
<p>Acceptance rate is a factor but not nearly the only factor in assessing academic odds of admission. (keep in mind that I do not know you and just have your total SAT score, GPA, and that you are an IB diploma candidate and there is much more I would need to review to make an assessment for you personally) When you pick colleges for your list in terms of academic selectivity, you have to examine the data for those schools, such as the mid SAT or ACT ranges of accepted students, percentage of admitted students who ranked in the top 10% and/or top 25% of their HS class, average GPAs (unweighted), required or recommended high school curriculum, rigor of your chosen curriculum in the context of what your HS offers, percentage of applicants accepted (selectivity), and so forth. So when evaluating your chances at admissions to various schools in terms of academics, you have to assess if your “stats” fall within the ballpark of admitted students, as well as looking at their acceptance rates. It is very important to factor in the acceptance rate and not to just examine the stats of admitted students! For example, for colleges that accept less than 25% of applicants, it is not enough to fall in the ballpark of admitted students’ stats, as such schools do not accept everyone who has the qualifications to be admitted, but rather admit a very small percentage of such students. While an applicant must have the stats in the ballpark for a specific college to even be considered, that alone will not get a student into highly selective colleges that have low acceptance rates. Then, other factors must be weighed such as strength of extracurriculars, achievements, recs, essays, and so forth.</p>
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<p>First, I honestly did a quick perusal of your post and list and did not put time into looking up each school and gave general comments, because I just don’t have time to do that kind of individual assessment on a message board.</p>
<p>Here are some basic stats for the four schools you mention:</p>
<p>TRINITY:
accepts 41%
Class rank: 68% from top 10%, 93% top 25%, 99% top 50%
Mid SATs: CR 590-680, M 610-690, W 610-710, CR/M 1200-1370, total 1810-2080</p>
<p>UNION:
accepts 41%
Class rank: 58% from top 10%, 84% top 25%, 99% top 50%
Mid SATs: CR 590-670, M 620-700, W 580-670, CR/M 1210-1370, total 1790-2040
Avg. GPA: 3.6</p>
<p>SKIDMORE:
accepts 42%
Class rank: 39% from top 10%, 74% top 25%, 94% top 50%
Mid SATs: CR 570-680, M 580-670, W 580-680, CR/M 1150-1350, total 1730-2030
Avg. GPA: 3.4</p>
<p>MUHLENBERG:
accepts 45%
Class rank: 41% from top 10%, 84% top 25%, 96% top 50%
Mid SATs: CR 560-660, M 560-660, W 560-660, CR/M 1120-1320, total 1680-1980
Avg. GPA: 3.3
**Test Optional school</p>
<p>Based on the little bit I know about you, Trinity and Union may be safeties for you. However, even though Skidmore and Muhlenberg have similar acceptance rates to Trinity and Union,the profile of admitted students is not as high and these are even safer bets that Trinity or Union. Perhaps picking one of these as a sure bet, if you like them, is a good idea. </p>
<p>That said, Skidmore and Muhlenberg’s theater departments are much better known than either Trinity or Union’s. I’d likely pick Trinity’s theater program over Union as well. Muhlenberg and Skidmore have MT opportunities as well.</p>
<p>I would add Wash U in St. Louis to your list! It has old buildings (beautiful campus!!), medium sized city (and borders one of the country’s largest urban parks with a zoo, a lake, a museum etc.), and has MT classes in its curriculum. Very supportive professors who are working theater professionals! Never cited here as “known for theater,” but personally, I think the “big fish in a small pond” experience can be very beneficial: imagine all the competition for roles at schools “known” for theater. I was told that auditions at Skidmore last for days because so many students try out! </p>
<p>I think that all four of those schools in above post could be considered safeties; my D was offered merit aid at Muhlenberg, got into Skidmore (based on our Naviance, I have no doubt she would have gotten into Trinity and Union) and comes from the Northeast (more geographically competitive than you!). However, I had her apply to UNH just to play it really safe! (I don’t want to post her stats publicly, but you can pm me if you want more info).</p>
<p>My recollection with Wash U is that it offered voice lessons through the music department and all kinds of dance except tap. Can’t remember frequency of either department or student-sponsored musicals. Pretty sure that its theater department offers tracks for majors (eg, acting, directing, theater studies, etc.); no MT-track,but definitely some specific MT performance courses.</p>
<p>what about Macalester? Minneapolis is a great city for theater! Macalester doesn’t have MT courses, but I see the theater department is putting on Cabaret this fall. It’s a small campus, but really pretty (I thought!). It has dance courses, and voice lessons through the music department… There is a student-run theater group as well, but the website doesn’t give more information. My kids each sat in on a class and both came out having loved it – they said the Mac students were very engaged and thoughtful in discussion.</p>