Hi Everyone! I’m currently a rising sophomore at Drake University and I’m a current BFA Musical Theatre Major. While I can say that I have learned so much for my first year that I wouldn’t have learned by not going, I’m always thinking if Drake if right for me still.
The search for the right MT college my senior year was not what I hoped it would be. Drake was at first my safe school, and it’s now where I’m going.
It’s a mix of the people there that make my environment feel toxic, especially some people in the department. Like for a normal school it’s easy to exclude them but it gets hard when you spend the majority of your time with them in classes and rehearsals. To me, it feels just like high school sometimes. They get too dramatic, and exclude people in public settings like there an object at times. Just calling names and pushing around. It got me very depressed at times just by not having anyone to call close or dependent on, and basically feeling alone at times with no one to go to and trust.
Another thing for me is the switch of professors. Before even coming to the school, the main professor left the department, and At the current moment we have three definite professors for the entire theatre department next year, including the BFA’S, BA’S and even minors. Technically we won’t have a definite new professor till my junior year and a definite group of people till my senior year or when I graduate. Including with one of my favorite professors leaving the department. We had a close pact and I thought it could work but idk.
Another big for me is the dance emphasis is low and students have to spend their independent money to even just take classes and learn. The professors say that it’s gonna grow soon but still the same, nothing will happen till my junior, senior year, or even again after I graduate. In my mind it feels like a waste for that especially that is what I was looking for in my curriculum and what I’m paying for.
At this moment I still am enrolled with the program still, I just don’t know. What is the best decision?
Leave, take Gen Ed’s, raise my ACT and SAT scores because I’m expecting to go back as a Freshman if a BFA, and try again and try to transfer.
Stay in the program and just try to transfer while being there.
Like my mind is saying that It would be better to transfer but I also don’t know if the best choice is stay or go?
I need y’alls help and opinion!
Thank you again!!
Hi @MtBoy109 I’m so sorry to hear that your first year experience wasn’t what you hoped for. I hope that one of the students or parents of students who have transferred will weigh in. My son will head off to his freshman year this fall. While I and I’m sure every other parent on here is excited and believes their kid found the right spot, this is the small fear in the back of our minds. (Particularly when sending our kids to places far from home.)
Not having a transfer student, I don’t have any experience. I have seen people talk about transferring - and you’re right, you probably will have to start over as a freshman in a BFA program - but will be considered a transfer when it comes to scholarship dollars. So the financial impact could be significant. Additionally, most schools will have their rosters full for next fall. I think you could contact some schools you’re interested in and see if there is still a transfer opportunity for fall. If not, you’ll need to weigh staying for another year and seeing if you can work it out there or possibly taking a year off and auditioning for the fall of 2019. If you are dead set on leaving the program, it might be better financially to take a year off - work and save some money - while auditioning for fall 2019.
One smaller, less well known program is University of Minnesota Duluth. This was one school my son considered a safety school. They are audition, but because they are less well known, they don’t have quite the same level of competition as the big name schools. They do have a strong BFA curriculum, great facilities and faculty, and everyone we met there was very nice - including a number of current BA and BFA students. (There were a bunch of current BA students auditioning to try to get into the BFA that my son met during the audition process.). If I remember right, I think they have an august audition. You could take a look at their program and contact them and see what the possibilities are there. Maybe someone else will have other ideas for schools that consider transfers over the summer too.
Best of luck!
“It’s a mix of the people there that make my environment feel toxic, especially some people in the department. Like for a normal school it’s easy to exclude them but it gets hard when you spend the majority of your time with them in classes and rehearsals. To me, it feels just like high school sometimes. They get too dramatic, and exclude people in public settings like there an object at times. Just calling names and pushing around. It got me very depressed at times just by not having anyone to call close or dependent on, and basically feeling alone at times with no one to go to and trust.”
It’s the nature of the beast. Some majors are very competitive at some schools. Your back can end up looking like a piece of swiss cheese from all the knife wounds. Changing schools may not make any difference there. Make an effort to make friends from other majors.
I’m the same age as you are, a rising sophomore in a BFA MT program. I definitely feel for you and this is a hard situation!
Obviously, transferring for you at this point will be difficult. Maybe spend time this summer researching as many different programs as you can, looking for one that will work with you as a transfer to try to accept as many credits as they can, and will work with you on trying to lessen the financial burden.
I feel like there’s always going to be some sort of petty drama going on in an MT program no matter where you are, but if you feel that your environment is toxic you’re not going to be able to be vulnerable and grow as a performer in classes. If I were you I would probably research and plan as much as possible over the summer, then go into the fall semester with an open mind. Maybe try to take some of the incoming freshmen under your wing and be like a big brother to them, and you might even connect with some of them? And I definitely think you should also try to make friends outside your major, which is easier said than done, but joining different campus organizations might help!
Good luck and I hope you find a place where you’re happy!
For what it’s worth, I know that Hartt takes transfers. My D is going to go there for acting, and on the accepted students FB page, there’s a boy transferring into the Hartt acting program from another BFA program. So presumably they take MT transfers too. Hartt makes a big point of emphasizing that the teachers are very invested in every student, so it’s a caring environment, and all the posts here on CC about Hartt say that the theatre kids all get very close and are like a family. So definitely NOT the “toxic environment” you’re currently experiencing. I don’t know anything about the dance training, though - you’d have to look at the curriculum on the website.
Good luck!
I think Missouri State has a 3 & 4 year programs so I assume they take transfers. (very affordable and the tent theatre is excellent)
I believe that most schools will consider accepting transfers. However, many BFA programs will have transfers start in the performance sequence classes with freshmen, and requires students to move through a four year sequence together. So, even if a transfer student comes in with general education credits it could take four years to complete the program.
You may want to look for programs BFA, auditioned BA, BM that have enough flexibility to the course sequencing that you could still graduate in a total of 4 years.
Example 1: when I went to Syracuse (years ago) transfer students were in our freshman core groups through the first year of training, and continued with us in scene study the following fall, but they could do their evaluation to move to upper level classes in the spring of their 2nd year… and most transfer students graduated a year ahead of us even though we spent our first year and 1/2 in classes together. I graduated many years ago, so not sure if this is still the case.
Example 2: I now teach in an auditioned BA program. We will accept some of the classes taken previously in transfer, so depending on prior training they may be in some classes with the freshmen and some with the sophomores. The course sequencing has just enough flexibility that most transfer sophomores can graduate in 3 years (although some need to take summer classes to do so, and some choose to stay for 4 years). However, a junior transfer is still going to need 3 years to complete the program sequencing.
Generally speaking the more rigid the training sequencing structure in a program the more likely it is that it will take 4 years to get through the program, regardless of prior education or training.
If you hope to graduate with a total of 4 years in school, ask the programs that interest you if this is possible. Every program will handle it differently.