Good to hear about Molloy/CAP21. Thanks for the first hand feedback.
UCF is pretty supportive. They really care about the students and are great about including minorities if that matters (casting is generally color-blind and there recently was a trans actor in a lead role in the fall musical). Self-care is brought up a lot by staff, especially to the freshman. They also recently adopted the Chicago theatre standards for sexual harassment.
My daughter goes to TCU. She has not met any divas yet. She talks one-on-one to a teacher at least once a week. She has not heard of any backstabbing but she doesn’t spend 100% of her social time with the theatre students. There are a few upper classmen that have reached out to answer questions and help her.
One of the reasons she chose the program is the class sizes are small and when she sat in on classes she felt a family atmosphere. The head of the department is extremely approachable. They do senior buddies and department dinners at faculty homes to create cross-class and faculty conversations.
@VoiceTeacher -thanks always appreciate your input.
In that vein, IE finding the exceptions, the less supportive school that im sure most of us dont want our kids to attend, there are ALOT albeit OLD posts on CC about nightmares at Millikin, I am wondering if there are any more current thoughts as the ones i read are all several years old…
Here are some thoughts on Millikin… Many alumni seem to be working and successful in the business. On Facebook, the “Millikin University School of Theater and Dance” page highlights many recent alumni accomplishments and is updated constantly. Kids in the program seem to be very supportive of each other and work ridiculously hard on their craft and are quite diverse. In addition to main stage performance opportunities, students can work in the student run Pipe Dreams Studio Company which puts on different shows all year. They also can participate in Shakespeare Corrected which puts on plays each year with Decatur Corrections. Each year in New Musicals Workshop, students get to work with professional writing teams on their new projects. Kids get to see how musicals are developed from the very beginnings. Finally, Millikin broke ground last year on a new Theater Building that will be finished for Fall 2020. “The $25 million facility will include a convertible theatre in addition to well-equipped studios, classrooms, design labs and public spaces for the School of Theatre and Dance”
This was on my daughter’s short list (she is a HUGE Milikin alum Sierra Bogges fan) until we read some of the horror stories that are out there. I would love input from current parents as she has removed it from her list due to the stories as you are right, @NYYFanNowMTdad , those are several years old and could be irrelevant now.
@carriemc95 I am a current parent and you can consider my comments above as coming from me as such. It is so terribly difficult to get into any audition MT program that I certainly would hate to see anyone taking a college off a list because of 10 year old comments on this forum.
Millikin.
Not a fan for MANY reasons … one of the main (but not nearly the only) is that my daughter BROKE HER FOOT during the dance portion of her audition and they couldn’t have cared less about her.
Like … seriously didn’t give a crap and made ZERO moves to help her, get her a chair, direct us to the nearest ER. Zip. Zilch. Nada.
Millikin: I do know of a few that leave after Freshman year due to how they were treated there. But, I also know of freshmen there right now with no complaints; however, the unhappiness usual begins second semester.
Casper College in Casper, Wyoming is the epitome of caring & supportive. It’s an Associate’s Degree Program in Musical Theatre & my daughter is a freshman there. The program head, James Olm, told my wife that his belief is that students should be cherished & it shows. My daughter’s roommate from her dormitory, (also a college theatre major), had to go to the local emergency room & my daughter said that Mr. Olm showed up, (quite unexpectedly), to check in on her. Both my daughter & her roommate are from out of state & it was good to know that someone from the college is keeping an eye on them. The dance program at Casper College is intertwined with the Musical Theatre Program at Casper. The Dance Faculty ,(Jody & Aaron), have been great as well! My daughter has never had a problem with acting or singing, but started dance lessons at the beginning of her high school years. With Jody, (the dance department head), my daughter has progressed in her dancing ability to become one of the more advanced students in the dance classes. My wife & I are very happy that my daughter loves this program.
I think what @VoiceTeacher said is absolutely true. It might be easier to eliminate those that aren’t but I will jump in here and say that Ohio Northern has been an absolute dream for us. Our D is 2000 miles away and this was a BIG concern for us. We couldn’t be more happy with the care she is getting there and the relationships she has built. She’s getting an excellent education, great training and feels she is valued and cared for…triple threat LOL!