Questions about Ithaca!

College Majors Musical Theater Major
1

Hi,
I’m interested in applying to Ithaca for either their MT or Acting BFA program. I want to know more about the program from a students point of view, so I’m hoping a current Ithaca student or recent grad could help me answer these questions:

What do you like about your school’s theatre program?
What do you dislike about it (or the school in general)?
What is the vibe like between students in the major? Is it a family atmosphere or is it very competitive?
Does your school have a showcase for graduating students? If not, do they help you enter the profession another way?
I know some schools evaluate actor’s progress throughout their time at the school, and some even cut students from the program every year. Is there an evaluation process at your school? If so, what does it involve? Is it common for students to be cut?
What other schools did you apply to, and what schools do you wish you had applied to?

I know there are a lot of questions, and if you have time to answer some of them I would be so thankful!!

2

I don’t know that there are any current Ithaca students on this board. There are a number of Ithaca parents, though. My D is a junior MT at Ithaca, and I can answer some of your questions.

I know my D loves the training at Ithaca. The acting, voice and dance training are all stellar. The 3 things she really dislikes about it are the location, weather, and food. She said the food is awful. She calls the weather “the tundra.” And it is far from everywhere and difficult to get to. These are all real considerations, especially the location. The other thing she dislikes about the program is the fact that they just instituted a “core curriculum” requirement that is very difficult to comply with b/c of their incredibly heavy schedule. She is taking her first gen ed requirement this year, and thinks it is a waste of time. But, Ithaca is basically a conservatory. They only end up taking 4 classes over 4 years that aren’t related to MT. Acting majors have much more flexibility in their schedules.

The kids within the major are VERY close. The MT and Acting students take classes together, and often the professors don’t even know which kids are acting and which are MT in their first year. They all have to audition for all the musicals and all the plays. The acting majors go to London the first semester of their junior year, and the MTs go the 2nd semester of their junior year, so they are split up their entire junior year. Ithaca fosters a non-competitive environment. Kids who are divas/competitive are reprimanded and/or kicked out if they don’t change their behavior. It simply is not tolerated. Every freshman coming in is assigned a senior “Big,” who takes them under their wing and mentors them for the entire year. So the entire MT and Acting classes over all 4 years are close, but special bonds are formed between the freshmen and seniors.

Yes, they have a showcase in NYC. Everyone does it. They also send seniors to NYC for 10 days or so in their senior year to network with the many Ithaca grads in NYC. The alumni are very involved and very helpful. Jeremy Jordan was there this year helping the seniors. Ithaca also has a very strong theatre arts program, so there are a TON of graduates working as stage managers, directors, lighting designers, etc.

Ithaca has a review process every semester for the first two years. The kids have to do a scene (an acting review) and sing for both the acting professors and the voice professors. They are then either continued, put on artistic probation, professional probation (attitude), or both. They can - and do - cut people. Last semester, one girl from the Acting program was cut (out of 25 or so kids). No MT kids were cut (there are 22 MT kids in that class). The cuts do not come out of the blue. The kids are given numerous warnings. If you get cut, you don’t have to leave the school, just the BFA program. It does not happen often, but it does happen.

You are going to get many different answers for the question re: where else they applied. Everyone is looking for something different. My daughter’s top choice was Ithaca ever since she first visited campus in her junior year. She applied to 16 schools, and also got into the BFA/BM programs at BoCo, NYU-Steinhardt, Tulane, and OCU. I think the ONLY other school she would have considered going to is CMU. CMU and Ithaca have very similar curriculums, with a very heavy emphasis on acting. She does not wish she had applied anywhere else.

Hope this helps.

3

Neon (you don’t mind me calling you “Neon”?) –

I’m going to purposely not read Monkey13’s response before I reply to give you the best, unbiased answers possible. Plus, I know M13, and it will be fun to see where our responses contrast. I’m a parent of a sophomore MT’er, and now that school has started I’m not sure how many students will respond for once the semester gets going it’s an “all-in” type situation regarding their time and attention.

What do you like about your school’s theatre program?
The full time staff and structured curriculum make this a great program. Yes, acting is first/foremost, but music and dance taught by professionals (vs. graduate assistants, adjunct profs.).

What do you dislike about it (or the school in general)?
Winter in Upstate New York.

What is the vibe like between students in the major? Is it a family atmosphere or is it very competitive?
Family with a capital-F. My son now refers to Ithaca, NY, as “home”. I’ve asked him not to do that in front of his mother. Serious.

Does your school have a showcase for graduating students?
Big “YES” on the showcase. A lot of schools have showcases, but urban legend has it that the Ithaca College is what the casting directors and agents personally to vs. sending an underling to other to. Emphasis on the “urban legend” part of that sentence.

If not, do they help you enter the profession another way?
I was going to skip this question, but I feel compelled to add that the mindset at IC is getting work as a performer is a given. Notice I didn’t write “…be a star on Broadway.” From fall of the freshman year onward there is a collective attitude of “What do we do next to get work?” These kids are not climbing the steep hill to professional work alone. The groupthink is strong with these guys. Also, it was a teacher that pulled him and a few others aside last spring in response to a casting call for a movie filmed this summer in Upstate NY. She thought he was the type they were looking for, and sure enough he got the part.

I know some schools evaluate actor’s progress throughout their time at the school, and some even cut students from the program every year. Is there an evaluation process at your school? If so, what does it involve? Is it common for students to be cut?
There is a semester-ending review of the performers. Think college auditions but instead of two minutes solo think five minutes with another performer. Students have been “discontinued” because they don’t show improvement in areas which has specifically requested from them. They aren’t looking for “good” or even “great” from students, they are looking for “better” (I hope that makes sense). Whether discontinued or the student taps-out for their own personal reasons, the attrition rate is approx. 10%.

What other schools did you apply to, and what schools do you wish you had applied to?
Go to #4 of this thread - http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1676940-the-process-our-year-plus-long-odyssey-getting-into-a-musical-theatre-program-p1.html

The question you didn’t ask – What was the best evaluation tool you used in deciding where to attend school?
Auditing a sophomore scene study acting class. Granted, this is so much easier written than done, but when my son did this it was a definite “yes” or “no” on whether he wanted to go to school there.

These were a very good set of questions, and I hope my answers are helpful. Best of luck to you!

4

My son is a rising junior at Ithaca. He started off as a Musical Theater major, but he didn’t enjoy his classes in the School of Music (at Ithaca, MT is a double major in Acting and Voice, the latter being in the music school), and he decided he wanted to broaden his training. So he switched to Acting at the end of freshman year. I should note that it is easy to switch from MT to Acting, but almost impossible to do the opposite.

A big strength at Ithaca is that the MTs and the Acting majors are commingled in the theater classes. I doubt the faculty pay attention to who is which. Some MT schools teach acting separately to MTs, and this is really not a good idea. Look out for this when you are researching schools. You don’t want to be learning Acting Lite.

My son chose Ithaca because it was the best school he was admitted to – you have probably already discovered that it is a “hot” school at the moment! I think he likes the town of Ithaca, hates the weather (but they aren’t outside much), and isn’t wild about some of the college’s bureaucracy, which he thinks could be a lot better run. I should add that I have only heard great praise of the teachers and the director of the theater program! He feels he is getting terrific training.

Many of the students feel that there is not enough film and television oriented coursework. There is a film program at Ithaca, and some students can find time to act in student films. Don’t count on having the time, especially if you are in MT.

Regarding the showcase, I believe all or almost all the graduating seniors, the past two years, were able to get agents after the showcase. More importantly, I have heard a lot of success stories about how they are progressing in this difficult profession. Ithaca grads are working in regional theater, national tours, and even on Broadway (check out Kathryn Allison '14, currently on Broadway in “Aladdin”).

Ithaca is expensive. They do offer generous scholarships and financial aid. Some of the scholarships do not require you to fill out the forms to apply for financial aid (this is fairly rare). They do not require the SAT but I have a suspicion that high SAT scores result in higher scholarships.

What other schools did my son apply to? A total of nine schools, many of which are schools that anyone would consider to be “Top Ten” plus a few others. After he got his first admission (to a different school from Ithaca) he withdrew a bunch of his applications, because he preferred Different School to some of the other ones he had applied to. Most of his auditions were at Unifieds in New York City.

One other piece of general advice: Do not be concerned with casting policies. As a high school student, you may see with alarm that some schools don’t even let you audition for shows for the first semester, or first year, or even first two years. Do not factor this into your decision-making process. It is probably a good thing, not a bad one. You will have plenty of performing in your classes anyway. The first semester of college is overwhelming for everyone. Add in the grueling BFA schedule, and the fact that you are no longer the most talented kid around, which is more of a shock than you would expect it to be – your classmates will be “crazy talented” and every single one of them will be feeling intimidated by everyone else, but working hard not to show it. So you really do NOT want to be cast first semester.

Best wishes to a successful end to your audition year!