<p>My son and I are attending the NACAC Performing and Visual Arts College Fair in Boston tonight. How can we make the best use of this time? What are the key differentiators in evaluating programs? My son is a junior and wants to go for MT. He has good grades (top 15% of his class and hopefully rising) and good test scores (top 10% based on PSAT as a sophomore and hopefully rising). He's looking mainly at East Coast schools with a few Midwestern ones. He thinks he wants to be in or near a big city (although I'm trying to get him interested in Ithaca). Are these fairs an opportunity to make contacts at the schools that can be helpful in navigating the path to admission? Thanks for any suggestions.</p>
<p>We are in the same boat, but I attended the PVA fair held last week in Houston without my daughter. (It was the night before the PSAT...) I would recommend arriving early, targeting schools your are interested in, and heading directly to their tables. As the result of being early and heading toward the back of the hall immediately (the schools were arranged alphabetically), I had the opportunity to be the only person speaking with the reps from Northwestern, NYU Steinhardt, and UMich, for example. Depending upon how early you are in your research, the most important distinguishing factor is the degree or the degrees offered by each program, e.g., BFA, BA, or BM. They were all quite helpful and some incredibly vocal about distinguishing their programs. Most of the reps were from the admissions department of the school and some were even assoc. deans of their respective schools. You can definitely get on mailing lists and gather info about various summer programs as well. We were also encouraged to set up an interview when my junior daughter visits a campus later this week. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>WellMeaningDad -- these fairs are a good way to begin making your son's list. But I strongly suggest that you try to plan a visit to as many schools as you can manage. Actually spending time on-campus when classes are in session will give you a much better feel for the school than talking to admissions staffers. Some theater departments will even allow you to observe classes, or offer you tickets to a production.</p>
<p>Please tell your son that he shouldn't choose his school based on its location. My D is now a junior at Syracuse -- a bigger town than Ithaca but definitely not a Big City. She has classes all day and rehearsals all night and all weekend -- no time to even participate in other campus activities, let alone city life.</p>
<p>We attended this college fair a couple of weeks ago in our area and I strongly suggest attending. In the midst of the long list of essays to write, apps to fill out, auditions to schedule and other very mundane clerical type work, speaking with the enthusiasic and knowledgable college reps was very rejuvenating and inspirating.</p>
<p>My daughter did the PVA College Fair last year (her jr. year) and again this year. Her goal last year was to talk to the schools and become familiar with different programs. This year she is deep into college apps but went to talk to people at the schools where she is applying and get a better feel for the programs.</p>
<p>The biggest surprise of the evening was that she came home just raving about a school that she had previously delegated to the "not interested" pile. If they were at the fair last year, she totally missed them. (Wish these events were longer, it's too hard to get in everything!) You never know what you will find so going to open houses, events like the PVA Fair and visiting a campus are extremely helpful. You could get there and love it, or... you could hate it!</p>
<p>Anne1244 -- thanks, we had a similar experience by accident. We arrived a little early and were able to spend some quality time one-in-one with some of the scool reps before the thundering herd arrived. </p>
<p>onstage -- thanks, I hear what you're saying about location. In fact, I snagged some Elon literature while my son was talking to the Emerson rep. Any suggestions on the best way to influence him without alienating him (I need to keep the lines of communication open during this critical time)?</p>
<p>Enjoy... -- thanks, my son came away from the fair very enthusiastic about investigating these schools and visiting them. Part of my frustration prior to last night was getting him to take ownership of the search process -- I think attending the fair may have done the trick!</p>
<p>mtfamily -- thanks, my son had a similar experience (again, by accident). The first table my son was attracted to was the Chicago College of Performing Arts (CCPA). Shame on me, I wasn't familiar with this school but the Associate Dean was manning (or womanning) the table and immediately connected with my son. She was clearly an effective spokesperson for the program and the school is now on my son's "hot list." </p>
<p>Does anyone have an opinion on the CCPA program based on experience? Is it a commuter school? We're from Rhode Island, so my son will be staying there until Thanksgiving if he ends up there.</p>
<p>Thanks again for all the responses.</p>
<p>wellmeaningdad,</p>
<p>There is a poster here, motter3, who is a freshman at Columbia but who is apparently already in the transfer process. You might be able to get some info there via PM. A search of the forum for Columbia will also yield many discussions about this program. I don't know a lot personally but one issue that always seems to come up in discussions about Columbia is that they have an extremely high acceptance rate, unlike most programs discussed here.</p>
<p>Best of luck with your search!</p>
<p>WM Dad - My D has a friend that goes to CCPA and loves it. His family is on the west coast so I know he is not computing. He is a sophomore this year and we had a chance to visit with him last summer and everything was possitive. He does recommend auditioning in Chicago as Luis Perez with be at that audition which he felt that was important. Any specific questions you might have, let me know and I will ask him.</p>
<p>alwaysamom - </p>
<p>Isn't CCPA at Roosevelt - not at Columbia College? I don't know my Chicago schools - but thought those were different programs -?</p>
<p>alwaysamom -- thanks, I was referring to CCPA, not Columbia College of Chicago. But this information is helpful since Columbia was one of the other schools at the fair that my son visited.</p>
<p>Enjoy... -- thanks for the info (sounds like all positive feedback) -- we'll keep that in mind should he decide to audition for CCPA.</p>
<p>Oops, sorry about that. I shouldn't be trying to do three things at once! :)</p>