Musical theater and the college essay!

<p>Hi, I'm applying to various schools for drama/musical theater and im in the process of writing my college application essay(s). I was just wondering, to those of you who are applying or have already been accepted to school for musical theater, did your college essays have to do with theater? I know it doesn't have to, but would you suggest that it does, or does it not matter? If i do write about my theatrical experiences, I don't want it to sound cliched. Suggestions/advice? HELP!</p>

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<p>Hi Lucie55......it appears that our CC experts are too busy playing with smileys and html tags/codes to answer your question right now. :rolleyes:</p>

<p>Seriously though, I'm no expert at this, but my daughter is currently working on her apps and essays. And depending on the topic of the particular essay, she has included music and theatre experiences in some of hers.</p>

<p>Perhaps one thing to keep in mind is that some of the essays are meant only for the college admissions and will never to be seen by any of the music/drama dept personnel. For these there may be little or no advantage to include music/theatre related information. On the other hand, some essays are specifically for, and go directly to, the school/dept to which you're applying. For these essays, depending on the specific topic, I would think your music/theatre experiences would be very relevant and beneficial to include.</p>

<p>Regardless, I suspect the best subject matter for your essays will be something you’re very intimate with, passionate about, and can articulate well. Good luck with your essays…..I know they can be a real pain in the :eek:</p>

<p>Hey, SrMoment -- maybe they were all busy as you say - or maybe, they just wanted to give you a chance to post such a good answer :)</p>

<p>Lucie55,
Sorry nobody answered you for a while! You got some great advice above. One thing I could add is that the way my daughter did it was to research all her school essay requirements before writing any essays. She put all the essay prompts in front of her and decided which ones overlapped and which ones required a different sort of essay. Then she made a list of the essays she needed to write. Some of them were used several times; some of them only for one school. Some of them were based on P.A., and some were on other subjects. I suspect that some of the schools appreciated her showing other interests/passions outside of performing arts, but she definitely used her essays about the performing arts for many schools.</p>

<p>Thank you so much for your advice! i appreciate it. I think i am going to use my essay after theater after all!</p>

<p>Post #11 (by soozievt) on the thread linked below might be of particular interest to you. The main idea of the post is that college essay writers should start, not by choosing topics, but rather by identifying personal traits they want to get across to colleges. Only after these traits are identified should one think about topics, situations or events to write about in which those traits are demonstrated.</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=237255%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=237255&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>My D wrote about a favorite (band) teacher who had just retired, saying that he had taught the students more than just music. By listing the intangibles that she learned from him, she let the readers know that she valued those traits and implied that she possessed those traits, i.e. respect for others, teamwork, work ethic, self discipline, etc. Just one idea.</p>