<p>I do consider myself fortunate that my S is also talking about the price of each school and wondering what the net cost (after aid/scholoarships) is going to be. He said something about not wanting to be saddled with loans while trying to "make it" on the big white way. Smart kid.</p>
<p>Don't know about anyone else, but we only heard from one financial aid office. I guess that all happens in April.</p>
<p>Wonderful discussions on this thread!! I wanted to share something my husband discovered on his NCSA trip. Parents are not allowed to visit classes with their children (this is the first time he had heard this but understood) and no prospective student could visit a drama class until they were accepted. Many emails had been sent and responses received to set up each of these college visits and nothing had been shared about this. Their policy is to "just trust us". Needless to say it was an expense detour from the three other campuses and quite a disappointment. Our son was allowed to visit a dance class but was greeted by a professor with "I don't allow students to observe my class................just kidding"........campus visits are VERY VALUABLE!!!!</p>
<p>My D is also faced with the dilemma of having 2 BA's as well as 2 BFA's to choose from so this AM I printed out doctorjohn's questionaire concerning BA VS BFA, for her to do some serious soulsearching on the matter in order to make the best decision. Here's the link, as it sounds like of few of the kids might benefit by revisiting it. Unfortunately, what it doesn't get into is if the BA's you are accepted to aren't in the performing arts, then the kids have the added problem of making sure that they have a suitable minors or clubs for their creative energy. Hope this helps somewhat, and hats off to doctorjohn!</p>
<p>The UMichigan, CMU and CCM visits were AMAZING and very informative. They observed a variety of classes, of which some were conducting master's lessons. Our S got to connect with a summer roommate from Stagedoor Manor auditioning at UMichigan in opera, who landed a spot in the summer program. The reception was VERY welcoming and my husband enjoyed observing classes with him. It was a reality check to see the incredible broad talent and observe professors and student interation. IT is a big decision, which will affect the rest of one's life so I thank the admission and drama/musical theatre departments for taking the time to schedule these visits for juniors.</p>
<p>I have never read this post, so it's taken a million years to write on it! If you're still reading it then wonderful!
From my experience through visiting schools, speaking to professors, broadway voice teachers/musical directors, students who have attended, sutdents who were cut, and speaking with informants form the acutal schools this is what I've learned.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon: An excellent acting based program. This is commonly known as one of the top schools because of the small number of students it accepts and how many of its alumni are successful. The facilities are remarkable and the teachers are top notch. The vocal department headed by Mr. Klein will make you extremely versatile and will push you to the edge. Carnegie works its kids hard, so be prepared.</p>
<p>CCM - An excellent singing based program. CCM does not only take "pretty" people so whoever wrote about that notion is wrong. They focus more about the business it seems and about maintaining healthy vocal quality. The facilites are also beautiful. The program is a cut school, meaning siyonara if they think you don't have the talent and then you're stuck starting all over again. The teachers are EXCELLENT, BUT from what I've seen of the students they are very different from other programs. There was a lot of cliche musical theatre kids, not a bad thing, just not for me. The area surrounding the school was kind of scary!</p>
<p>UMICH - I honestly do not know enough about this program to speak! I however do know your grades better be good.</p>
<p>BOCO - LOOK INTO THIS PROGRAM! One of the only schools I know to give a lot of scholarship money, which helps us poor kids out! A great school in a great city. Awesome training and tons of alumni. Nice people and all different types. It is a very small school. You can take classes at surrounding colleges though including Berklee and Emerson! The also take more MT majors then your average elite school! I have heard some things about their facilites, but overall I think it is a wonderful program!</p>
<p>Ithaca - This program is never spoken about and I can never understand why? The take no more then around fifteen students and the program is EXCELLENT! I have seen the campus and I found it beautiful. Also the theatre is breath-taking, with a fly system and all! The school is also righhhht by the city! </p>
<p>I consider these programs to be among the top 5 for the alumni turn out onto Broadway, what the students have to say, and what many professionals in the field have told.</p>
<p>Overall I think it is about constructing you own program. I am trying to pinpoint my strengths and weaknesses and find a program that will keep my strengths intact and growing and completely destroy my weaknesses. If your s or d or you haven't received any acceptance letters yet don't worry! You will get one, and if not many people working on Broadway didn't go to college and some didn't get in! It's all about how much heart you have for it. Keep your dreams alive because anything is possible.</p>
<p>Also great programs include:</p>
<p>Syracuse
NYU
FSU</p>
<p>(and most of these I do not know very much about so please do not shoot me for not including them. They could be the most renown programs in the world, I simply do not know.)</p>
<p>Penn State
Elon
Baldwin-Wallace
Emerson
Webster
The Hartt School
Otterbein
Point Park
UMiami
Marymount Manhattan
U of Oklahoma
U ARTS
UCF
AMDA</p>
<p>all i can say is, i am sad that i didnt get to witness this post last year, cause this drama would have had me on the edge of my seat. : ).</p>
<p>LOL, bwaychic!</p>
<p>
[quote]
BOCO - LOOK INTO THIS PROGRAM! One of the only schools I know to give a lot of scholarship money, which helps us poor kids out!
[/quote]
</p>
<p>NEVER knew this! makes me feel so much better thinking about the future!</p>
<p>BoCo doesn't give out money widely...that's a deceptive statement. That having been said, most of the schools on that list will give BIG scholarship to students at the top of their admissions lists if those students express need and difficulty choosing between a school and a "rival" school because of financial reasons. UMich is an exception b/c their scholarships are based overall strength of applicant as well as talent - but they, too, have some BIG scholarships to give.</p>
<p>Some things to consider when making choices & some financial considerations.
1.)Are you a city mouse or a country mouse? Many love to visit the city, but not live there. The opposite is also true.
2.) When you visited the school and the department, did you feel that the people were there for each other & supportive of each other or were you aware of a definate tension and competition between them. You need to be in a place that you can grow. Fertilizer is not the only thing needed for growth.
3) Who teaches the classes? Profs. or grad students?
4.) What are your chances to perform? Do grad students get all the roles?
5.) Financial aid is great, but if the school starts out at $47,000 you may still not be able to afford it WITH financial aid.
6.) Some "poor kids" get great financial aid packages but once they get to school they find that they don't have any money to hang with the rich kid crowd. This is a reality that many do not understand. It's no fun to be hanging back at the dorms when all of your friends are going into the city for the weekend.
7.) A conservatory is a great place to train, but training is not necessarily all the next four years are about.
8.) You can make a big school small by getting involved in clubs, greeks, etc. You can't make a small school big.
9.) When you go to a big school, you don't really ever need to leave the campus. Everything you need, from first class entertainment (concerts, broadway shows etc.) to the finest in hospital care are all at your disposal for a small price. A small school in a great city like Boston may have all of these things too, but they come at a big price. Students get a discount, but nothing like on a big campus.
10.) Transportation matters... You may think that you are going to be so happy in your program that you'll never need to go home except for maybe the holidays. This is great, but what if you get sick or your room mate turns out to be a drug dealer or you have three room mates and are an only child and dorm life just doesn't suit you? You may want to go home for the weekend or have your parents come to visit or see you perform. My D goes to school in Maryland and we live near Boston. Flights from Boston to Baltimore can be had for $100.00 & take one hour. They are also available ten times per day. Not so if we were traveling to CCM or CMU. An emergency trip could cost you $600-$1200.00! Just some things to consider.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>CoachC -
Re; scholarships - do you think that if a school awards a HIGH academic scholarship prior to any notice of a BFA, that it is a "good sign"?</p>
<p>While waiting for him to respond, I would have to venture a "not necessarily." At OCU, for instance, they have a sliding scale for an academic scholarship that tops out at approx 50% of tuition based strictly on your ACT/GPA. It was automatic. S was accepted in the school and had that in hand 2 months before he even auditioned for the MT program there.</p>
<p>Mainstage, I agree with WMonMTDad's example. You must be talking of a school with a two pronged admissions process where one can be admitted academically to a school separately from the BFA admissions process. The scholarship was given for academic acceptance and conceivably the student could attend the university without getting a BFA offer of admissions. </p>
<p>My own daughter's schools didn't work this way. Their admissions to the BFA were intertwined with being admitted to the college and the notification of admissions was all in one...she was either admitted to the college/BFA or not. The scholarships came around the same time. But for a school that academically accepts you first and offers a scholarship, I believe that scholarship would be like WMonMTDad says, a scholarship to attend the university regardless of the BFA component.</p>
<p>I also do not agree with the statement about BOCO being any more generous with scholarships than other schools. My D did get a really nice scholarship from BOCO but that can also be said of several other schools that gave her a scholarship. In fact, NYU gave three times as much, Syracuse gave twice as much, CMU gave twice as much, Ithaca offered the same, and Penn State offered 1/3 as much. However, such scholarship results are going to differ from person to person. So, one can't conclude that BOCO gives more than others cause it happened in your case (see my D's case as to how that wasn't the highest offer) and so on.</p>
<p>And to elaborate on that...at Belmont, the univeristy pended the app and wouldn't even finish processing until after the audition and acceptance into the program. As a result of the fact that we couldn't audition until February he didn't even get considered for any of the univerisity's biggest scholarships, much to our chagrin. That was mitigated just a bit by receiving a letter two days after acceptance that he did receive an academic merit scholarship similar to what he received at OCU.</p>
<p>BoCo's financial Aid office told us that female MT candidates were less likely to get the big scholarships, simply because it's there's so many of them. It's a pricey school!</p>
<p>Thank you so much.<br>
One more question on the subject......do you think that the admissions office notifies the theatre dept. that they have made such an offer (i.e. wonderful academic scholarship)?</p>
<p>I don't know. In general I would think that general financial aid is not something that would go to dept. Hoever, I would guess that the dept does have access to most of the student's app and thus would be aware of their academics. Others have noted that some audition schools weight academics heavy while others use it as a tie-breaker. For some, academic achievement coupled with heavy ecs/performance time is an indicator for work ethic and time management skills.</p>
<p>When S completed his audition at OCU and was in the interview with faculty he said they did have a question about his high scores vs performances, so they obviously had access to his admit package at that point. To my knowledge it did not come up at Elon or Belmont.</p>
<p>What do you think about programs that are not located close to NYU or Boston,etc.? Do you think to be far from the ACTiON is a bad idea. My D loves to visit the city but is not so sure she would want to get her college training in one. She is a skier and a hiker and loves green spaces however to be unchallenged in a program would be for more terrible than to live around alot of concrete. She would like to have great training but be in a liberal arts university setting.</p>
<p>mhappiness, </p>
<pre><code>It sounds like she's a country mouse, but living in Boston lends itself very well to country activities like skiing and hiking. You can be in the mountains from down town Boston in a couple of hours and when we were at BoCo two weeks ago they had trips being offered on their bulletin board. The thing about schools like NYU, Emerson, BoCo, Marymount is that they don't offer the "bubble" of the campus life as do schools that have an enclosed or separate "campus." My D's goal is to work in the city, but live in the country and she definately wants the whole campus thing.
</code></pre>
<p>K</p>
<p>sarahsmom42: thanks so much for your post yesterday (#90). It had a lot of helpful things to consider. I'm going to have my D read it. </p>
<p>Also, WMonMTDad, thanks for the OCU info regarding scholarships. I had not read that on this board before.</p>