<p>My D and i are just starting the college shopping process and are hoping we can glean from some of you experienced folk.</p>
<p>Can anyone recommend schools that offer an MT BFA in a non-conservatory setting. She is interested in what i would call a "traditional" college experience to some degree, but one with a strong (and competitive) program in musical theater. She is a good student (3.7 honors/ap) and at this point would like a program that is audition based. She has had training in dance, voice and acting. She really has shown little concern for size of school at this point, or location, so we are still looking all over the map, so to speak!</p>
<p>I can see that this is a broad question, just looking for ideas!</p>
<p>Hi and welcome to this board! Look right above the listing for your question (the listings are called threads) and you will see one listed as: Important:FAQ, there you will find The Big List of Schools that offer MT. Read carefully and it will tell you how selective each school is and it will also tell you which schools do not require auditions. It's a good place to start. Then you can go to the schools that you are interested in web sites and get more specific info. Then you will be ready to do searches or ask specific questions of those on here. Please understand that it is very difficult to get in these programs. Many have hundreds apply and only take a dozen or so. But don't give up hope, just be prepared. It is recommended that you select several schools to apply to and audition for, including some "safety" schools. These are schools with an MT program that do not require auditions. And Good Luck! There are many knowlegeable people on this site who are more than happy to help!</p>
<p>Take a look at the thread "Class of 2009 and 2010 - Preparing to Apply". Read the entire thread. Lots of posts from parents who have gone through the process, college counselors, coaches. A ton of info there with thoughts on how to put together a good list of schools, info on the application and audition process. A good place to get your feet wet.</p>
<p>I would like to recommend my daughter's school for your daughter, mybroadwaybaby. She's a junior MT at the University of Oklahoma. If your daughter wants a traditional college experience, she can certainly get it there (currently ranked #1 in college football!! boomer sooner!). A lot of the students are honor students, and the training is excellent in all three area. If you want more indepth information, you can email or PM me, if you like. Have fun on this roller coaster ride!!</p>
<p>I teach at James Madison University in VA. We area BA (not BFA) by audition program. Many of the students who end up coming here talk about the fact that they choose JMU because they wanted strong training AND a more "traditional" college experience. </p>
<p>PM me if you have any questions, or would like more information. </p>
<p>BFA schools to look at -- University of Oklahoma (as mentioned above) and Penn State are large schools with a lot of "school spirit" students in the BFA programs at these schools take a larger liberal arts core than students at many BFA programs. Syracuse University is a BFA program. I went there, and felt that it was a good balance of "traditional" college experiences and conservatory level training. BFA students at Syracuse take about 30 credits outside of their major. </p>
<p>Although she is most interested in a program that is auditioned based it is important to have at least one non-auditioned academic safety on her list that she would be happy to attend. After reading the class 2009/ 2010 that MichaelNKat mentions above you will get a good sense of the competitiveness of the process. </p>
<p>Welcome and good luck as you begin this exciting process!</p>
<p>I would suggest that your daughter check out University of Michigan, NYU, Penn State, University of Miami, and Syracuse. In terms of the actual training, what does she want?</p>
<p>Remember that no school that requires an audition should be considered a "back-up". Some schools may be less competitive options (higher admit percentage, pulling from a less national pool of applicants, etc...) but only a school that is an academic safety/match with no audition can be considered a "back-up". It is important to have a range of schools on your list.... some reaches, some less competitive options, and at least one true "back-up". </p>
<p>Belmont and JMU require an audition for the Musical Theatre programs. I was not familiar with Niagara, so I looked on their website... it appears that they are a BFA in performance with a lot of musical theatre opportunities and training. An audition/ interview does appear to be required for admission to the theatre program.</p>
<p>In full disclosure I teach at James Madison ;)...</p>
<p>Kat - You state "It is important to have..........at least one true 'back-up'"</p>
<p>With the competitiveness of just getting in to college in general, even if you are an academic match, what do you feel is a good number of non-audition, academic match schools to have on one's list ??</p>
<p>I have seen many people write, "I am going with such-n-such school for my back-up" and it is often the same school. I don't think everyone, even though they are an academic match, will be able to get in to that one school - there just isn't room.</p>
<p>So I am thinking we should have more than one safety. But is two enough or should we have three ???</p>
<p>If you carefully select the "back up" non-audition BA programs, I would think that 2 should be enough. Just keep in mind that selecting an extremely selective BA school as a "back up" or selecting a school where your student is at the lower end of the spectrum of the freshman profile defeats the purpose and stick with schools with which your student is a very strong academic match and that have acceptance rates that are high enough to put you in a comfort zone. It's tough enough not to go over board with the number of audition based programs; don't drive yourself even more nuts over stressing the safeties :) .</p>
<p>I agree with MichaelNKat (as usual :)). If a school is a true academic safety for the applicant than 2 should certainly be enough. </p>
<p>Your HS guidance counselor hopefully should be helpful in this regard. Many HS guidance counselors may not be as helpful with the auditioned program information (for example a super talented student who would have no chance of getting into CMU academically as an english major could have a chance as a theatre major because it is sooooo weighted to the audition), but they should be able to look at admissions history of students from your HS where the admissions is solely based on "traditional" application materials -- ie. grades, class rank, SAT/ACT scores, rigor of course load, ECs, etc... </p>
<p>I should learn, I should know by now only to say the very best things about schools. I am sorry, KatMT, if it sounded like I am anything other than a fan of JMU- my niece currently has the option to attend several schools due to a combination of athletic and academic prowess - I am encouraging her to choose JMU (she is not an MT student))! Also, I agree that a true back-up school would be one with no audition for admission. So, having said that, Niagara is exactly what your research indicated a BFA in performing arts with ample training and opportunity in MT. The audition is not for admission, it is for scholarship and placement.</p>
<p>Oh my gosh, no offence taken about JMU :) ... All students need a balanced list, and like most MT programs JMU gets some students auditioning who have "top tier" schools on their list and consider JMU more of a "second choice option". It certainly has a higher admit rate than the top level, competitive schools, and thus for a student who is in academic range can be a good option on a balanced list which includes schools with 2% admit rates, and schools that are an academic match with no audition. To me "back-up" is not pejorative, it just means a school where a student is as sure as one can be they will be admitted academically, and be able to study what they choose. </p>
<p>Thanks for the clarification on Niagara. I knew some people who went there years ago when I was in college and loved the program. Doug Zschiegner is now on their faculty. He was at Mill Mountain Theatre for years, and is a terrific director. </p>
<p>If your niece has any question about JMU in general, or would like to be put in touch with a student in her academic area of interest, let me know. A lot of students in other majors take Intro to Theatre and Basic Acting, so I may know someone who she could talk to.</p>
<p>Actormcfamous: She is not interested in a true "conservatory" program at all....so CCM and similar programs probably wouldn't appeal to her. She would like a school that offers a serious course of study in mt/theater, acting, private voice, dance classes, as well as the opportunity to take classes outside the MT realm, like foreign language, writing type classes..........i think she would like to be with a cohort of students.........she has always been of the mind that it is more fun to be having to work really hard to keep up with the the head of the class (academically and talent-wise), than to be at the top of the heap........which leads me to think that if she has the chops to make it into a tough audition-only program it would suit her. Not to say that talented students aren't everywhere.....i am sure they are.......saying that i have recently heard that it is more difficult to get into a competitive MT program than it is to get inot medical school these days!</p>
<p>She has schools like Miami, Michigan, Elon, Otterbein, FSU, NYU Syracuse on her list of possibles.......she is now looking into all the others that folks have reccommended!</p>
<p>Mybroadwaybaby - your daughter's criteria sound very similar to my own when I was applying. You've definitely got a great list of schools going already.</p>
<p>SUNY Buffalo has the advantage of a low sticker price, nice merit possibilities and a core requirement of other courses with university availability of just about anything. Most of the mainstream schools are that way. If your D likes the school as a whole, it's usually a good match.</p>