MT Transfer HELP!

<p>It’s true that I mistook interpreting that the OP wanted a regular college campus and not a city campus. That said, she wants a school with a diverse array of students and not just theater students. However, Emerson is no different in this respect than Marymount Manhattan. Marymount Manhattan is NOT just a theater school (either is Emerson). MM has an array of majors, including many liberal arts and business majors. If anything, they have more diverse majors than Emerson which is primarily an arts/communications school. Further, the OP is enrolled in a BA program, which means she must be taking classes outside of the theater major. So, if this is the main thing she wants to change about her school, Emerson would not be that different in this one respect. Perhaps she might like a university or college that has an even broader array of majors and types of students than either MM or Emerson offer. </p>

<p>^^I’m sure you are right (though I know nothing about MMM). Only mentioned Emerson because she did but also because the comment about “if you want a campus, Emerson would be a poor choice” I thought might be missing the mark of what she was saying in the OP. :slight_smile: If you like an urban campus, it’s an awesome choice. </p>

<p>Mostly I think it’s too soon to abandon ship. I do think adjusting to college life in NYC is harder than the average adjustment but people do adjust. (Or they bug out if they can’t.)</p>

<p>kirasinger, Did you work with a coach the first time around? To help you pick material, review the list of schools to apply to, and prepare you for auditions? If you decide to move forward with a transfer, I highly recommend you do so. Also, if you are going to transfer, you may want to consider only taking academic classes next semester as many schools do not allow major classes to transfer. Make sure to pick a non-audition school as a safety again. And don’t wait too long to apply - some merit scholarship deadlines are as early as 11/1, 11/15 or 12/1!</p>

<p>Yes, I did. Hopefully, when I break it to my current vocal coach, she will give me some selections for audition songs. And thanks for the advice-- I will start planning for those scholarships soon!</p>

<p>And yes, I didn’t realize Emerson was a city-campus school. I will definitely continue looking into JMU and Wagner. And soozievt, is American U/Catholic selective BA programs?</p>

<p>American is an auditioned BA program. Catholic is an auditioned BM program. </p>

<p>Kirasinger17, UNH would be the complete opposite of what you have now, though it is not too far from Boston. If you want MT and be not too far from NYC but have the campus experience, Hartt, Wagner, Rider, and Montclair are your best bets. (My daughter goes to Montclair and loves it if you want any info.) But I agree that it is so early in the school year and you might feel really differently after a few months. Adjusting to college and finding people that you can connect with sometimes takes time (though I will admit that my daughter got into MMC and we spent a day there during the decision phase and she really did not like the vibe). </p>

<p>UNH has a BA in Theatre (concentration in MT or Acting) which seemed to be of interest. That’s why I suggested it. But absolutely it’s not going to school in Manhattan but neither are Hartt, Wagner, Rider and Montclair though yes they all are most certainly closer to NYC and good schools to consider. I know Wagner offers a BA. Do the others? </p>

<p>The OP seemed to be concerned about wanting to be around a diverse array of students and not just theatre students. Isn’t Hartt’s program a BFA pretty much it’s own thing within the U of Hartford umbrella? If so, perhaps that’s not a good bet.</p>

<p>What I like about the BA programs I’m looking at is I can still have options to get great training, but have in under a BA degree. I like how JMU gives students the opportunity to take more dance/acting/singing classes, but also have the general education courses and a flexible degree. It’s different for everyone-- I’m am of course not saying that I would be miserable if I had a BFA! </p>

<p>Does anyone know more about UNH? I hadn’t much about it until it being brought up on this thread.</p>

<p>I live in NH and have never heard much about UNH for theater. (They do have nice facilities apparently, but no well-known grads as far as I know.) I do hear good things from time to time about Plymouth State. My son worked with one of the directors from there and thought he was pretty good. </p>

<p>Montclair does have a BA option. And though my daughter is in the BFA (and BFA programs can be very insular), she has made a big effort to make friends and even live with people outside the theater department. It can be done. </p>

<p>And ditto what Jkellynh17 said (we live near each other :wink: ). In fact someone in my daughter’s program transferred from UNH to Montclair due to not being happy there.</p>

<p>Calliene, I thought MSU only has a BFA MT program or an MT minor, not a BA MT-- correct me if I’m wrong!</p>

<p>You are absolutely right. BA Theater with MT minor.</p>

<p>My son is a freshman, BFA Acting at Otterbein. It is a small program and the BFAs have almost all of their classes together, but he has made many non-BFA friends and his room mate is a Marketing major. I’m not sure Otterbein would meet your criteria, but I do believe there are programs out there where you could find a diverse group of friends.</p>

<p>@Jkellynh17 & @Calliene, I’m surprised you haven’t heard much about UNH for theatre. They have a great department and have for years. Beginning this past year, they also required an audition for admission so it is in demand. No, it’s not a BFA like one can find up at Plymouth but with all due respect to Plymouth (which is also a nice program my friend’s son is in it now), their program is not very well known outside of New England. I’m not sure how important it is to be known. I’m not sure how important UNH being known or not known is either.</p>

<p>There have been some mighty talented people coming out of UNH theatre. I think if you did ask the department, you’d discover that more than one UNH theatre grad is in the biz. Are there famous and well known UNH grads on stage or film?, maybe but I have no idea because it’s not something that I track or if I did know, I forgot. If someone who is considering the program and they care about that, they should ask. One “not well known but certainly working” person I can think of is Stephen Tewksbury who is right now in the Broadway cast of Kinky Boots and he was also on Broadway in Miss Saigon and did the Les Mis tour. He’s one that comes to mind but I know there are others as well as very talented people that work regionally. Though I do not live in New Hampshire or anywhere near it, my daughter auditioned for summer work at some New England area theatres and ran into some current UNH theater students. They were good. I doubt she ran into the only 3 good ones in the entire program.</p>

<p>A sample of one unhappy student leaving one school’s program for another shouldn’t be the basis for deciding on the merit or lack of merit of a program. I doubt any of us have kids in theatre program where absolutely no one has ever left because they were unhappy. I know I don’t. </p>

<p>This isn’t supposed to be a commercial for UNH. I have no horse in this race. I only brought it up as something to consider because it is a respectable theatre BA program on a lovely campus with a large residential population that sticks around on weekends, with all of the rah rah sports, Greek life and excellent food, that someone who does value the ability to get to NYC or a major metro like Boston… could find interesting. That’s all. </p>

<p>@halflokum‌ , thanks so much for your input! I’ll give it a look. I did hear Wagner College’s program was good as well, so if anybody knows about that one please PM or comment!</p>

<p>Thanks everyone for all your information! Feel free to post any more you know :)</p>

<p>You are right, halflokum, one or two unhappy people that we may have heard of does not define a school, and certainly if there are people here who have heard good things about UNH theater, please speak up! I’m sure there are people there who are happy. I think that jkellynh17 and I were just saying what we had heard, which the OP requested. Neither of us know the school first hand.</p>

<p>And kirasinger17, we sent a few days at Wagner, too. We saw a great production of RENT, the people were nice, and the campus is utterly gorgeous. There is a fantastic dance teacher there that my daughter took some classes with when she was younger. In our case, my daughter chose not to go there because they made it really clear that they are a liberal arts school first and foremost, and she wanted more of a conservatory style program with fewer gen eds. But it might be exactly what you are looking for and perfect for you. </p>

<p>Thanks @Calliene. I did understand where you guys were coming from with respect to UNH. I’m less concerned with people reporting what they have heard about a school (which is completely fair game and good data if understood in context) than I am about impressions drawn from what is not heard. My feeling is, so what if a school isn’t talked about in CC? There are so many schools that are really hot right now (Rider, TSU and perhaps Montclair? to name a few) that as recently as 3-4 years ago were rarely discussed in CC. Hotness in CC is not a barometer for anything other than, how hot is this school among the people that regularly post in CC? Schools that nobody seems to talk about here right now include: UCLA, U MIami, Temple and were it not largely for Momcares in the last few years, Northwestern. Does that mean these schools do not have GREAT programs??? Um. No.</p>

<p>Actually nobody really talks about Wagner here either. I wish they would. Sounds like a cool school. I bet the view is awesome! </p>

<p>Although I now live and teach in VA, I am from NH (where my parents still live), still work up there professionally in the summers, used to teach at Plymouth State (before coming to JMU), and am still connected to faculty at Plymouth State (including my mother and other colleagues in the school whom I continue to work with on professional projects), and have worked with students, faculty and alums of both UNH and Plymouth State. </p>

<p>Both Plymouth State and UNH are BA degree programs. Both are now auditioned programs… Plymouth State has been an auditioned program since the early/ mid-2000s, UNH much more recently. The overall environments of the schools are very different… UNH is a larger university, a program where an audition is relatively new, close to the Seacoast Region, and close-ish to Boston. Plymouth State is a smaller university in a much smaller college town. Plymouth State University is smaller, and the program is smaller Students get loads of training (particularly in the music area of musical theatre performance, but also in acting, dance, and theatre), as well as a plethora of performance opportunities.</p>

<p>I am more familiar with the program at Plymouth State, but I know, and have worked with successful graduates and faculty of both programs. </p>

<p>I know that Plymouth State accepts transfers students into the programs, UNH likely does as well.</p>