<p>Is there any advantage to the audition MFA of Western over the non-audition BA of Tulsa? Tulsa offered D academic and MT scholarships, academic at Western. Thanks for your thoughts and for all the contributors on this board over the years.</p>
<p>I doubt if anyone’s going to know much about Tulsa. My daughter also had that offer but went elsewhere and we canceled the visit. It seemed like a good school that tries very hard to give desired students what they need and want in terms of classes and it was certainly nice to be recruited.</p>
<p>My D and I actually visited U of Tulsa. The campus was one of the nicest we have seen. Gorgeous buildings, dorms and apartments for the students complete with outdoor pools, huge expanses of lawns with fountains to “play in” and power/ethernet outlets right next to the lawns for outdoor studying, brand new performing arts center. The problem was that we could get very little info about the actual MT program. We visited on a Sunday, and an admissions counselor came in to talk to us, but nobody from the department could talk to us. We emailed the MT head and asked for a 4 year plan, but got no answer. The school has alot of $$, but isn’t too upfront with MT info.</p>
<p>ooh ooh I know about Tulsa!</p>
<p>D and I visited during an audition weekend and we were royally treated and entertained by the theater kids all day. They impressed me more than any of the other kids at auditions we went to, actually. (and we did not actually even go to auditions at the school she picked - long story, those who follow me here know it) Theater kids are always very communicative, fun, outgoing and well spoken, but these kids were just exceptionally that way and also it was clear they’d had a really good general education - they were so thoughtful and just smart. No doubt this was just a good group but it’s clear they are happy there and well educated.</p>
<p>It is a <em>great</em> program, in my opinion. It is exactly the kind of MT program I like. Wonderful toolbox approach, wonderful guests (they’d just had someone there like Patti LuPone or someone of that stature) good internships, good connections and I’m pretty sure they either did a showcase or if they didn’t they had something else they considered to have better results. I don’t remember know what it was but I liked it, everything was very intentional as to getting them off to the best start possible.</p>
<p>It was one of the few schools that would have let D do a minor in costuming.</p>
<p>It is an expensive school because it’s private but it’s in line with the other private schools here, about the same as TCU, Southwestern, etc. They have a pretty high academic standard so the better your scores the more money they offer. They offered D an okay amount but she got better from elsewhere, academcially.</p>
<p>HOWEVER, their theater department doesn’t have a ceiling on how much scholarship they offer. Her offer from them was three times what it was from any other department.</p>
<p>Both D and I adored the program. We didn’t even look at the rest of the school though, lol. My daughter’s ballet teacher is an alumni and she loved it there.</p>
<p>I would highly recommend looking closely at it. It’s almost a BFA program right now and they were talking about possibly becoming one in the future.</p>
<p>Ultimately, a better financial aid offer and family being in town sent my daughter to St Edward’s in Austin, but Tulsa is one of those overlooked gems, in my opinion. </p>
<p>4inoregon, sometimes it would take a while, I noticed, to get info back from U of Tulsa and that was across the board, it is something about their system I guess. But Machelle Dill was very good about answering my questions and my D really enjoyed her audition there.</p>
<p>Glad you had a better experience than we did. We tried really hard to like them, as it was our favorite non-audition, but the lack of communication was not a one time deal. We sent an email asking to contact a student that we could talk to, and got no response at all. Then we sent some questions (how many students enrolled in MT, how many shows, 4 year plan, etc) and got no response. I told the admissions counselor about it, and got an email that said “sorry, I’ve been busy with a show. I’ll answer on Monday”, then never heard back. Finally, we sent in a scholarship DVD, which apparently was lost (but DVD’s to other schools sent on the same day, by Fed-ex, arrived fine). By that time, we were done.</p>
<p>Yeah - we had slow responses back from them pretty much in every department several times. I don’t know why. But they got back with us enough that we managed to get the audition. I don’t blame you for being frustrated, it sounds like you just got snake bit in addition to the usual not spectacular response time from them.</p>
<p>Once you actually get them they are great though. And had the money and some other things not having to do with the school been different it would likely have been her decision.</p>