Musical Theatre Class Size

Class size is a huge factor when it comes to choosing a college to attend. Does IC accept a lot of Freshman into the program, creating a large class size, or is it extremely competitive, creating a small class size? What is the average number of Musical Theatre majors in the program?

Every year is different, because it depends on how many students offered admission decide to attend. Colleges call this “yield.” Ithaca is currently a hot college for MT thanks to the many recent successes of IC alums. The previous two years had unexpectedly large entering freshmen classes for this reason. I haven’t heard anything about the group entering Ithaca this fall. Certainly admission is very competitive.

My D’s class (rising junior) has 22 students in MT; the rising senior class has 21. There is attrition the first two years…my D’s class started with 26 kids…they lost 4. As a comparison, the incoming freshman class at UMich is 23 this year. Don’t mistake class size with competition. Ithaca accepts about 3% of the kids that apply for MT. There are threads on how many apply versus how many get accepted, but GENERALLY speaking, the three schools who take a higher percentage of kids who apply are BoCo, Rider and NYU Tisch, just b/c their incoming classes are 50 - 65 kids. In my D’s year, BoCo accepted 18% of the kids who applied…but that doesn’t mean it’s not competitive. It is VERY competitive. Hope this helps.

…and just got confirmation that the rising sophomores also number 21.

What is the typical balance between M & F?

It’s rarely exactly half and half…some years it’s more girls, some years it’s more boys. The current sophomore class has 5 more boys than girls. The current junior class has 13 girls and 8 boys (so 5 more girls than boys).

So the third-hand information we heard (so don’t quote me on this) that offers were made to 15 boys and 7 girls this year…so far…seems consistant with past years?

@monkey13 Are the Acting BFA class sizes about the same as the MT class sizes? 21-22? D was accepted into Acting. I know the Acting and MT students work very closely together, much like CMU. Thank you!

@HappyDancer98, we heard Catherine is striving for the same numbers in Acting as MT. Over the past few years, Acting class numbers have varied wildly. Last year’s graduating class had (I THINK) 9 kids. The current juniors have 30 or a few less than that. The problem has been that recently, more people are saying yes, and until this year, Ithaca did not have a WL. So fewer will be accepted this year, in an attempt to get an Acting class the same size as the MTs.

I think this year they have made offers to 9 girls and 9 boys for MT. This is an estimate.

Thanks @monkey13 - my D is happy to be on WL.

Congrats to your D, @deelight! It is a FABULOUS program! Break legs…fingers crossed for you!

@monkey13 my D is still in limbo. Portal is still active and no WL letter. She auditioned for MT at NYC unifieds. Have all offers been delivered? Is there still a possibility of good news?

@livetoday, I am assuming if your portal is still active, and you haven’t rec’d anything, then you are still in the running! I don’t think all decisions have been made. Break legs!

Thanks @monkey13 - it’s been a crazy week. Ithaca is amazing, my D loved Catherine.

Catherine is the sweetest woman…and so talented.

Hi so just to clear things up I was accepted into Ithaca’s MT program this year and am able to see the others accepted on the portal. currently there are 19 boys and 9 girls who have been accepted into the MT program

@icmt2020 Congratulations! My son is one of the 19 boys!

I think those numbers are wrong…the schools said they accepted a few over 18 for MT (boys and girls). A few have declined and they are going to the WL. They are trying to keep the class around 18-20 for MT, similar size for acting. Congrats to you all! Let me know if you have questions!!!

The picture I just saw of the Ithaca BFA MT 2020 Class has 18 kids - Looks like 10 boys and 8 girls. My S was recently accepted off the BFA MT wait list, but was accepted for BFA Acting because the BFA MT class was full and they had room for 1 more BFA Acting student.