<p>Stringpop, you know me from the Music Major forum. My youngest daughter is an actor/playwright and went through this two years ago. She was primarily looking at BFA programs but she ended up choosing Fordham Lincoln Center (an auditioned BA program that is very BFA-like.) PM if you want!</p>
<p>We were just at Emerson this weekend. Emerson no longer has a cut policy for BFA acting as well. No cuts.</p>
<p>Thanks for the additional names (good to know about Emerson’s change on cuts), everyone, and for the generous offers to answer questions – which I’m sure I’ll have in abundance as this whole things progresses. </p>
<p>I have a couple of thoughts on this. I would advise to add more middle tier BFA’s if she really wants a BFA. My daughter was pretty disappointed with all of the rejections from the top-tier BFA’s. I would say that the entire process was more competitive than we realized. First of all, many of the programs take only 10 girls, and when you consider the number and quality of the applicants, the odds are not in their favor. The process is even more competitive for girls than boys. I would say that my daughter was a pretty good at auditioning. We did hire a coach and she did get into a few BFAs, but not the ones she really wanted. Her experience with plays and parts was probably a little light. She really didn’t decide to do this until she was a Junior in high school. She had parts in all the high school productions, but not many starring roles. In high school, I think her height worked against her in casting. The boy who seemed to always be cast as the star was much shorter than my daughter. Anyway, my point is that a lot of these kids have professional experience. I apologize if I’m out of turn–your daughter might be talented and experienced, and highly prepared and able to get into all of the top-tier BFAs. If so, go for it. I just wish that we had had fewer top-tier schools, more middle-tier schools and more realistic expectations.</p>
<p>Also, make sure you have a both large and small schools in the mix and schools that you can afford.</p>
<p>I would also add that unless she has very strong academics, I wouldn’t bother with Northwestern. My daughter is a National Merit Finalist, 2320 SATs (800 Writing), 790 Math 2 Subject test, and she didn’t get into Northwestern. If your daughter has those kinds of stats, I would advise to apply as a math or science major and then change majors. Northwestern is recruiting girls for their engineering and science programs, but not so much for theatre. I would just make sure that she can get into the highly academic programs before wasting time on those. The application process tends to be more burdensome, so its all a cost benefit analysis. </p>
<p>A note about Fordham–there is nothing safe about their program. My D was being heavily recruited for academics (great scholarship), but she did not get accepted into the acting major. Their BA is like a competitive BFA. </p>
<p>I hope this helps. Good luck!</p>
<p>Hi,
Txdramamama, I was interested in your last post. My daughter will be auditioning next year, and she too is aiming high.
In your opinion, what are some good “mid tier” BFA programs on the East Coast? She has Montclair State on her list, which I think would be one.
She is also doing college auditions in June at the International Thespian Festival, where she has the opportunity to be admitted for talent at whatever colleges see her that like her. So, I am hoping she can get a good safety there as well.
Anyway, I am interested in your opinion in those mid tier options around the east coast. </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Many thanks, txdramamama. That advice makes a lot of sense, and I am taking it to heart. So the search for somewhat less selective places as well as no audition ba schools is definitely a priority. And, yes, Fordham is definitely in the super selective category for us. </p>
<p>Montclair is often referred to here as a “slightly less selective” BFA, but it is not. Any school that goes to Unifieds has hundreds of applicants for around a 20 person class, and Montclair’s acceptance rate is very low. Slightly less selective schools tend to audition more like 300-400 for their <20 spots. Still below 20% acceptance rate, but better than single digits. </p>
<p>Often these schools are not as well known because they don’t go to Unifieds, and because they are not on the usual national lists of schools. We have started threads to let people know about them - if you search for non-audition BFAs, or BA-BFA schools, or even “slightly less selective” (a term we use here, rather than “mid-tier,” since these BFAs are still as selective as most top-50 colleges and universities, so at least artistically they are still “top-tier”) you can find some lists. Many of them are much less selective academically - although many have excellent Honors Colleges - and offer terrific scholarships. Many are at state universities, which tend to be cheaper as well.</p>
<p>I found it interesting that a lot of terrific auditioned BFAs are at schools that otherwise have predominantly education, nursing or business majors - what a lot of us would consider “pre-professional” programs. Then I realized that a BFA training program has a lot in common with those others, and it’s not so surprising. </p>
<p>I would say that my daughter’s school, Adelphi University on Long Island, is a good example of a slightly less selective BFA, at a slightly less selective University, with lots of nursing, education and business students but also excellent arts programs, with a very rigorous stand-alone Honors College, and terrific merit scholarships. </p>
<p>Thanks so much for your taking the time to respond, and for your advice! It’s really great to hear from someone with serious professional experience. And, yes, you are right, it is a lot of colleges! Have no fear, the list will be pared down in the next few months, and could well see a set of some different names altogether as she learns more about schools and what she’s looking for. I only mentioned Meisner because she’s been exposed to it and has benefited from it, but like I said, she is not wedded to anything in particular. What you say definitely makes good sense, and I will have her review teacher bios carefully. She is, fortunately, working with a college counselor whose frequently repeated mantra is “college is a match to be made, not a prize to be won,” so that’s the journey she’s starting on. She’s looking for a good fit – for her – a supportive place with great training and where great learning happens above all else, and while her direction – like anyone’s – could certainly change, at this point, I’m aiming to support her as best I can in her search. </p>
<p>(btw, I’ve done this myself, and on this very site, so no worries, but i’m a pop not a mom 
</p>
<p>Northwestern doesn’t make it easy to transfer from one school of the university to another. I think the idea of applying as an engineer and switching to drama is not likely to succeed.</p>
<p>Once the school requires an audition, it is never to be considered a safety. What I have found is as parents and students start to learn about the “other” programs (ie…not the well known ones), there is a tendency to think of them as easier to get into. The school itself may be less academically challenging (for example, University of Hartford, Montclair, Shenandoah) but passing the auditions is tough and the odds are not great. No auditioned school should ever be on your safety list. Ever.</p>
<p>As Prodesse states, it is very hard to transfer into a BFA program, so will not even take transfers. </p>
<p>I have two kids, who are at two different theatre BFA programs, neither ever had professional experience, both were very active in community theatre and they worked very hard on their auditions. </p>
<p>Your D’s choices are so varied in size, location, program. It would be very helpful if she could visit a few of these very different types of schools prior to the summer over the next few weekends and have her talk to some of the students and get a feel for what the student body feels like. She is going to get a gut feeling from being on certain campuses as to whether she wants to be in a small acting program in a large university or a small college that has a reputable acting program. When it comes to the BFA programs, or an auditioined BA, what matters is the audition and choosing between the schools you are accepted to which is a crapshoot. It would help to have her read through a lot of the threads on this forum which describe differences between various programs to decide if she really doesn’t see her self at a few of the schools or if certain schools are rising to the top of her list so that she could possibly choose to visit those few and try to tailer her monologue choices towards those schools and make those the focus of her application strategy. She will probably have her first meeting or visit at Unified’s with a list like this and choose to visit only after getting accepted. Most of our visits were during auditions. We planned the audition schedule around maximizing visits to schools by auditioning in person. But with a list like this you’ll have to do a lot of the auditions at Unifieds. If you spend some time in the theatre/drama section of this forum, you’ll see that for many of these applicants no matter how hard you try to focus on your top choices, its sort of like a Harry Potter House selection, sometimes the “right” school that is not on your radar chooses you. Bottom line, she needs to do some deep soul searching and intense research of the differences between many of these programs. Organization is key, keeping lists of her impressions of each school from reading various sources is important because she will learn many things about each from different sources. She has a lot of time to do this even tho it appears to be daunting right now, figure out how you can help her with keeping track of deadlines, audition dates and materials needed for each school. Let her decide on her own to eliminate schools even if you think they are good for her, its often an intangible which makes it or breaks it for a school. Best of luck to you. We’ll be here to guide your journey.</p>
<p>I usually post on the MT board but wanted to add my two cents here to completely agree with what txdramamama said about the competitiveness of this process. We went to Rider over a year ago to see “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and the lead male, a freshman, had already been on Broadway in the revival of “Kiss Me Kate” and one of the girls had played a leading role in “A Cinderella Story” with Hillary Duff. I think I recognized her as the shorter of the two stepsisters in that movie. </p>
<p>All the other kids in the playbill had regional credits on their resumes. There was not a single kid in the show, unless I’m remembering it wrong, who didn’t have credits beyond their college and high school. I couldn’t believe my eyes when reading the playbill. I said to myself, “she’s not getting into this school.” And she didn’t. Now granted, those credits were probably summer stock productions and the kids were probably juniors and seniors so of course they would have gone out for summer stock and would have the skill set to be granted great roles in summer stock theatres, but still - insanely competitive.</p>
<p>I was blown away by the level of talent displayed in that show.</p>
<p>My D decided that she would only be wililng to go to school in Boston, NY, or Chicago, so that helped us pare down the initial list a lot. She auditioned for 10 of only the top tier schools in those cities, and wouldn’t even consider “slightly less selective” schools. Then, right after the auditions process, I started feeling ill, thinking, holy moly, what if she doesn’t get in anywhere, why didn’t I push her to audition for “slightly less selective,” it is going to be catastrophic if she doesn’t get in anywhere! The only reason I have no remorse is because she got into 3 of the 10 auditioned schools. She was waitlisted at both of her non-audition schools (Skidmore and Muhlenberg), and I thought, based on our school’s Naviance statistics, that they were her safeties! In any event, I feel lucky, relieved and grateful that she has some admissions to choose from, but it’s true that this whole audition process is more competitive than you realize going in, so make sure you throw in some “slightly less selective” schools and a few definite non-audition safeties. Maybe Bard (which doesn’t require an SAT), Muhlenberg, Sarah Lawrence, UCSD for BAs, and for BFAs I think that Marymount Manhattan and Point Park might fall in those categories, though I’m not sure because my D only looked at the top tier schools and I never did too much research beyond those schools. </p>
<p>Marymount and Point Park are audition schools, cannot be considered safe. Your safety list can never include any school that requires an audition. That is what makes it so hard…</p>
<p>My daughter’s strategy was to pick a safety (that she could live with) that had rolling admissions–she chose Temple, and had her acceptance by mid-autumn. Some people posted here that they had to audition into the theater major at Temple, but my daughter was accepted into the Theater department directly without an audition (possibly because we are local and they were familiar with her?) Temple remained on her short list through the whole process, so it was very comforting to have that during the rest of the very grueling year. </p>