<p>Check out UCLA!! The School of Theater, Film, & Television provides a liberal arts education along with pre-professional training in a comprehensive program that combines the study of the arts, humanities, and sciences. </p>
<p>“The UCLA Theater program is for the student who sees him/herself as a scholar/artist — one who is eager to learn and wants a great university education from one of the world’s major research institutions. This education will prepare the graduate to be an informed citizen of an increasingly complex world, an original and critical thinker, as well as providing one of the best theater educations offered in the country.”</p>
<p>I am a current student, and I absolutely LOVE the program and UCLA! It’s truly an incredible place. If you have any questions about UCLA and the Ray Bolger Musical Theater Program, please let me know!! :-)</p>
<p>NU can break your heart in another way too. S was admitted to the music conservatory and L&S, but how do we swing it financially, when we are completing our eighth year of kids in college? By May, 3 D’s are done with their Bachelor’s degrees, but son had to up and get admitted to NU, with no prospect of money coming from anywhere, despite his best efforts applying for a ton of scholarships. I stopped feeling sorry about the situation, when the parents of one of my little customers told me their financial planner says they need to have $264,000 for their little one-year-old by age 18, to send him to a state school. Bah.</p>
<p>You could check out Boston College. They do one mainstage musical a year and usually at least one other student-produced musical. Being in Boston also allows other opportunities to get voice training, dance training, etc., if your child wants more than the school offers. Their website has a lot of good information about past shows, etc.</p>
<p>Sadly that situation isn’t unique to NU but is equally applicable to all highly-selective schools. I guess the best thing is to give birth to ALL of our children on the same day, to qualify for maximum FA during college years… Or maybe convince older kids to take gap years so they all start college on the same day?</p>
<p>The price of higher education has gotten truly insane.</p>
<p>MomCares…
Ha! Your post reminds me of how our younger daughter, who is 2 years younger than her sister, likes to remind us that she saved us money by graduating high school a year early because the girls overlapped in college for more years that way and so when D2 entered freshman year of college, D1 was only a soph and her FA package shot way up. </p>
<p>Anyway, back to the OP, you have gotten some very good suggestions. NU is a good option but not on the East Coast. But in the Northeast, I would look into Yale, Brown, Brandeis, Tufts, Boston College, to name a few.</p>
<p>This is great! I didn’t know about BC and American doing musical theater–we’re checking them out right now! I’m from DC and find it much less terrifying to send my kid there than NYC She has a voice/acting teacher who is very big on Carnegie-Mellon–I’m surprised nobody has mentioned it. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>^^^ CMU is strictly a conservatory program and you mentioned in the OP specifically that you were not looking for a conservatory program. Given the extreme difficulty of being admitted and the very high level of focus on the craft within what is arguably the best pre-professional program in the country, this is not a program that most people interested in a BA-type program pursue. I am pretty sure that you can’t get cast at CMU if you are not in the BFA program. I think I recall reading in the CMU sub-forum that straight theatre BFA’s can’t even audition for musicals. Here is the program description of the Drama Minor - note that non-majors will only be given crew opportunities in productions:</p>
<p>I’d have to heavily recommend Emory and Henry in Virginia. It’s a small liberal arts school with probably the best pre-professional musical theatre program of its kind in the country. I am actually in the same boat as your daughter (I want to pursue MT professionally, but am also into history and writing). They have an internship program with the state theatre of Virginia, an equity theatre, which can earn you equity credit, professional experience, and learn from professionals. In addition, the school has a very high academic reputation, and is generous with aid (most students get at least 18,000 a year easily). Plus, the history program is killer. I’d recommend you look into it. (Plus, if your daughter is outdoorsy, it is 5 minutes from the Appalachian Trail, rivers, mountains, etc and is probably the most beautiful college I have ever seen.)</p>
She has a voice/acting teacher who is very big on Carnegie-Mellon–I’m surprised nobody has mentioned it. Any thoughts?</p>