<p>I'm new here, so excuse me if this is similar to another thread. if that's the case, please point me in the right direction.</p>
<p>Here's my situation: I'm a junior in high school. I love performing & musical theatre, but I'm more interested in acting for stage and film. Drama is all I've ever done since starting high school. That's the problem though-- I haven't felt called to any other subject or field because I simply haven't explored other things. Everyone tells me that exploring is what college is about, but I feel like with acting, you should know before you apply whether you want to pursue it. In any case, I want to double major or make acting my minor. So I'll need a school that makes that doable. In short, I'm passionate about acting, but I feel like I haven't had a chance to discover other passions. All I know is I want it to be a part of my life from here on in.</p>
<p>My first question: what are the different ways I can pursue acting in college? I'm clueless when it comes to BAs, BFAs, and MFAs. I'm not interested in conservatory programs.</p>
<p>Next question: can someone provide me with suggestions on selective schools that also have solid acting programs?</p>
<p>Here are some stats, to give you an idea of how competitive an applicant I am:
SAT (best score, combined): 2230
SAT (superscore): Math 760, CR 800, Writing 720
APs (so far): 5 in Chem, 5 in APUSH
***currently waiting on AP English Lang&Comp, AP World, and AP Calc BC
SAT IIs: US History 800, Chemistry 730
GPA unweighted: 4.0
Top 1% of my class
Extracurriculars: co-captain of the competitive speech and drama team (this year I was the state champion for one category and also one of the top 5 MVPs in the league), school plays & musicals, VP of fashion club
Activities: one of a few leaders in local youth group, altar-server since 5th grade, lectoring at my church</p>
<p>I'm not founding charities or competing in national events, but I think I'm a decent student.</p>
<p>Also, here’s a list of colleges I’m looking into and what I think:</p>
<p>Vassar-- my friend goes there and loves it. my only gripe is that I love the idea of a location near interesting cities, preferably ones with theatres and entertainment nearby.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon-- may be too intense for me. like I said, I want to double major, and Carnegie Mellon’s program is tough.</p>
<p>Brown-- I actually don’t know much about their acting, but I loved the description of the college otherwise.</p>
<p>Boston U-- I only found out today that they’re supposed to have a solid theatre program. can anyone fill me in on that?</p>
<p>Rutgers-- I visited Mason Gross, and that place is hardcore. I was daunted by their conservatory program (they accept 20 out of 700-800 applications a year!). But I’m confused about whether their BA program is just as hard to get into.</p>
<p>Northwestern and NYU also have great theatre programs, and both are also located in great cities (NYU for sure). With your scores, you’d definitely have a decent shot at both. Unfortunately I don’t really know about the theatre programs at the schools you mentioned, but I do know that these two are very solid and very selective.</p>
<ul>
<li>“the chances of financial aid are slim and none for me, I believe. my parents both make good money as nurses.”</li>
</ul>
<p>Butterflies, if you think you are not eligible for financial aid, have you discussed with your parents what they are willing to pay? $50,000/year or more for all 4 years?</p>
<p>thanks for the further advice guys, but i wanted to delete because by the time i found this one again, i’d already started another one going. so now i have two threads going on the same board-- yikes. I haven’t talked to my parents about money specifically (I only started researching intensely this past weekend), so I’ll tackle that soon. and to whoever said yale, I say goodness. out of my league!</p>
<p>Your academic qualifications sound spectacular - I think you should consider Yale as your top choice, given their legendary theater department. They don’t have separate undergraduate conservatory, but the program is very strong. We are NJ residents, and my son might apply to Mason Gross. He isn’t anywhere close to your league as a student, but I think to qualify for MG, you need to be accepted into Rutgers University for general admissions. Rutgers has numerous divisions, some more selective than others, and so you probably wouldn’t have any difficulty qualifying academically. MG is an audition program, though, and so your audition will determine whether or not you get in.
I think Brown has a pretty good theater program, and Providence has some good local repertory companies. Catholic University in DC has a good theater department. I went to Barnard many, many years ago, and its actual theater department was nothing special, but it’s in NYC and there were lots of performance opportunities. It has probably evolved since then, given the expansion of the Graduate School of the Arts at Columbia - lots of MFA candidates directing or writing projects around campus. Columbia College has produced some wonderful actors, but they usually major in English with a theater concentration; Columbia has a heavy load of core requirements, which discourages serious actors sometimes. I haven’t researched it recently, but Tufts used to have a very good theater department. They are a short train ride away from Boston. Harvard isn’t specifically known for theater, but there is a good repertory theater in Cambridge, and it’s Harvard (with vast resources), and offers almost everything.</p>
<p>Butterflies, I think you are underestimating your stats. You have a shot at any highly selective university. It’s great to keep an open frame of mind and not to get yourself sold on a particular, extremely competitive school, but don’t sell yourself short. </p>
<p>Does anyone have any comment on the theater arts program at Penn? As far as location and other academics, that fulfills your criteria.</p>
<p>thanks for the encouragement, it’s just that I read about other high schoolers around the world who are out winning national awards and honors and gets 2400s that I get discouraged. but that won’t stop me from applying for any of my reach schools. you’re talking about Penn State, I assume? the only Penn I’ve visited is U. Penn, which was beautiful and in the right place–but when I asked the tour guide about theatre at that school, he couldn’t tell me a thing. though I guess that doesn’t mean nothing’s going on there.</p>
you’re talking about Penn State, I assume? the only Penn I’ve visited is U. Penn, which was beautiful and in the right place–but when I asked the tour guide about theatre at that school, he couldn’t tell me a thing. though I guess that doesn’t mean nothing’s going on there.</p>