<p>D having tough time. Any pros and cons for either from experience or vetting?</p>
<p>Can’t help you with the differences in the programs, but the 2 students I know who have attended and/or vetted OCU have found the city itself very limited in opportunities both theatre-wise and just entertainment-wise whereas the students at Rider take full advantage of living a train ride away from NYC.</p>
<p>My response is biased since our daughter selected OCU – but here are some of the factors we considered regarding the two schools:</p>
<p>degree: ocu - BM, Rider, BM with plan to be a BFA in next few years. d not excited about lots of music theory at ocu but feels it ultimately will be good for her.<br>
Location: ocu - Midwestern, relatively small town, but showcases in la, Chicago and NYC because of central location; Rider- convenient to NYC. My d actually took off all NYC, Chicago and la schools from her list before auditions. Her thought is the city is where she wants to live when she graduates, not where she wants to go to school, she loves the city and was afraid being there would be distracting from her studies. At ocu she knows she’ll be able to stay focused.
dance: strong at both
Voice: strong at both but we felt ocu was stronger for mt
Acting: weakest area at both. Ocu has revamped program and its starting to pay dividends according to friend in la who has recently cast recent ocu acting grad as lead in upcoming show. rider- did not find out much
Alumni: ocu has huge alumni network in NYC and has the wondeful ocunyc program free to ocu students every spring break. Rider is new so not much alumni track record yet. But robin Lewis is well connected.
Performance opportunities: 6 main musicals/operas plus straight shows plus a myriad of other student directed or smaller events at ocu. Required to audition for most. Rider had fewer productions but still had good opportunities.
Program director: D clicked with Dr. Herendeen at OCU. Really liked Robin Lewis too . Wasn’t sure about the Rider voice person she met.
scholarship: amounts offered were generous and similar at both schools.
Intangibles: D felt she fit in better at ocu than Rider. Perhaps because we’re sort of southern/Midwestern.</p>
<p>In the end it just came down to a gut feeling and ocu was the best fit out of all the schools she was considering. Hope this helps. Your opinions and impressions of the 2 schools may be different from ours but the process of comparing these different variables was helpful to us. Seeing the pros and cons in black and white helps.but ultimately that gut feeling weighs in the strongest. good luck in your decision making. They’re both great programs!</p>
<p>My S is an MT freshman at Rider, and although I cannot comment on OCU, I can tell you about his experience thus far. When deciding on which school to attend, we sat in on a rehearsal at Rider for an upcoming Shakespeare play and could not have been more impressed with the director (who is also one of the acting teachers). He was incredibly connected to the students, and they to him and as a result the environment was open, creative, and lots of fun! It was clear the students felt uninhibited and safe to try to find their character, make mistakes, and learn valuable acting skills in the process. It was one of the many reasons my S selected Rider. The MT students take acting classes with the acting majors, and my S loved his acting class with Meade Andrews(a master teacher of the Alexander Technique)! He tells us that the students all highly praise the acting teachers, and feel that the acting training is top notch!! Although the BFA is not officially in place yet, all signs indicate that it will be by early next year as the process is running smoothly. My S raves about his vocal teacher, Mariann Cook, and says that all the MT students are equally pleased with their vocal instruction and feel they have made great progress with their singing abilities at Rider. The dance dept. led by Robin Lewis is outstanding, and my S has definitely elevated his dance level and is constantly challenged. The extra bonus of the close proximity to New York City has served as an extension of the education at Rider in our view as my S has become comfortable with the city, venturing in on his own and with friends for summer stock auditions and to see shows. He comes back from a fun day in NYC full of excitement, drive and ambition to work even harder to make his dreams of a life and career in NYC a reality. The fact that the 2012 graduating senior MT students had jobs lined up before graduation is surely a great sign that the connections the Rider faculty have to NYC and the superior talent the program is producing is increasing Rider’s reputation as the new, hot program! Many current MT students have summer work lined up as well. It is always a tough decision to face, but like others have said, trust your gut instincts and I am certain you will end up in the right school for you!! Good Luck!!</p>