<p>Just thought of another one - are there study abroad programs? Where, and how do they work within the curriculum?</p>
<p>I’m consolidating these questions…they are great!!! I’ll post and if we want to add to them that would be awesome! Thanks CC’ers</p>
<p>@cheeseheadmike, that sounds like a great day’s schedule – they’re really rolling out the red carpet for her! A good friend’s D graduated from Drake’s MT program and was very happy there.</p>
<p>Hey fellow CCP’s - just got back to the hotel after a visit with the Drake MT director, my D, and three freshman MT students. It’s a terrific program that people should include in their college search.</p>
<p>I want to thank all of the posters again - the director said “Wow, you ask way more questions than most parents.”</p>
<p>I can’t wait to hear about D’s impressions during our 5 hour drive home tonight.</p>
<p>I’ve got an idea for another thread if anyone would like to participate: “Accepted schools campus visit report” It might be a wealth of first hand information from a P’s perspective. What do ya’ll think?</p>
<p>Thanks to @MTMommaJAA for volunteering to consolidate the list of questions. It will help everyone.</p>
<p>Not trying to do you out of a job @MTMommaJAA, but I have a visit tomorrow…</p>
<p>School Visits</p>
<p>Get an MT department tour
Try to see a show
If you can eat in a dining hall on your visit, do it.</p>
<p>Productions
How many productions a year?
Who can audition for what ? (Musicals, straight shows, operas).
Can Freshmen audition?
Do undergrads compete with grad students for casting?
Is there guaranteed casting?
Are they required to audition for shows? (some scholarship offers may require the student to audition for every show).
- Regardless of Freshman performance opportunities, will there be plenty of opportunities to perform in the program? Are there student-directed shows?
For students not cast in the MainStage productions, what other performing opportunities exist during the year? (Cabarets, student-directed work, etc.)
Ask about Senior Showcase, particularly if there is a selection process for seniors to be a part of that showcase.</p>
<p>Faculty
Ask about numbers of faculty as not all websites are up-to-date.
How are you keeping up with current MT trends? Is there ongoing training for teachers and opportunities for their growth? Sabaticals?</p>
<p>Class size
How many students are in each theatre department class?</p>
<p>Schedule/Curriculum
What is a typical day like for an MTer?
Maybe also ask to see a sample schedule and/or curriculum guide.-
If you haven’t done it all ready, ask for the four-year curriculum plan so you can compare it to other schools’ plans. You might be surprised.</p>
<p>Voice
How many hours of voice?
How are voice teachers assigned?
Who is teaching voice lessons (I’ve heard some schools have under-grads doing it.)?</p>
<p>If piano is required, do they test for level as well</p>
<p>Dance
Do the students dance daily, and for what duration?
How many hours of dance?
Do they level students for dance or are they required to start at a beginning level?
Can they take extra dance if they can fit it in? </p>
<p>Tech
What kind of tech requirement is mandated - how many tech hours are required in order to graduate as an MT major? </p>
<p>Business
Do you teach the business aspect of this career?
How are seniors prepared for the transition to the real-world?
Are there internships?
Are there “business of the business” classes? </p>
<p>Master classes
What if any master classes does the program hold? Who has led master classes this year?
Are guests artists/directors/agents brought in for master classes? If so, how often? </p>
<p>Study abroad
Is there a study abroad program</p>
<p>Evaluations
What type of evaluations/assessments/juries are done on the students and how often?
Is there any cut program? </p>
<p>Charging
Are there additional expenses for MTs outside of tuition (required software, dance wear, accompanists, etc…).
Are there extra charges for mandatory voice lessons?
How is Showcase financed?</p>
<p>Academic support
How is the academic support, tutoring, etc. (for non-performing arts classes and even some acting and MT classes, whch can get academically tough like theater history, etc.)
Transfer credits? AP credits</p>
<p>Mentoring
Is there a system that assigns a professor in the program as a mentor or advisor so they connect with an adult? Are there enough advisors so your D will feel there is a true interest in her well-being by a caring adult who understands the nuances of the program?
- Is there a mentorship program for the upperclassmen to help acclimate the new students? Do the MTs feel they have been welcomed and helped by the older students?
Do you support the students when auditioning for summer stock.</p>
<p>Campus
Is housing guaranteed all four years?
When dorms are closed for break and you have to be back early for production rehearsal how is housing handled?
Safety?
Is it largely a commuter campus?
Do a great deal of students go home on the weekend?
What kind of transportation is available to get to town/stores if they are not in walking distance?
What do the students do on the weekend?
Is the school social scene ruled by fraternities and sororities?
Is there time to participate in campus organizations and activities outside of MT?
Religion
what is campus ministry like?
Are there churches nearby or on campus?</p>
<p>Health and Fitness
Health Center…where is it, what are the hours, how often is there a doctor in the house?
If school is far from your home, does the faculty recommend health professionals in the area if your child has an illness (i.e., doctor who works with singers)?</p>
<p>Fitness center hours…</p>
<p>Questions for students – not Faculty
What is the best thing about going to school here and what is the worst thing?
What is the drinking situation on campus? Do the MTers indulge in underage drinking?
How’s the food?
Does the director know every student from the moment they step foot on campus?
Does it take them a semester? A year? More?</p>
<p>The only think I would add is don’t ask a question that can be found on their website :)</p>
<p>I thought that @bisouu - I am going to print out the list with spaces for answers and put in all the answers I already know - It will make a great document to use when we are making final decisions</p>
<p>Looks Great! @Pondsk8er</p>
<p>@bisouu…I just noticed you broke a 1,000 posts! Congrats!</p>
<p>I added “How is showcase financed?” because when we were at Carnegie Mellon, the seniors were selling snacks and asking for donations to pay for the trips to NYC and LA.</p>
<p>Showcase . . . not all schools take <em>all</em> seniors. It might be good to add that back in. There were other showcase questions posted that look like they were missed. ?? (I’m reading fast at lunch so I may be missing?)</p>
<p>Love this - we are planning some visits later this month to help make decisions - and this thread is FABULOUS!! </p>
<p>@kksmom5 - I did leave in the - not all schools take all seniors to showcase question, but I put it with casting for productions, and put financing of showcase with - other hidden costs they didn’t tell us about - </p>
<p>I have to say everyone on this site is just terrific. This is going to be so helpful for everyone making decisions. Thank you! </p>
<p>Great list of potential questions, but in the end, yiur child needs to ask what matters most to him / her. Our son last year was accepted into 4 programs, including 1 on April 1 and 1 in May - off of a waitlist. He knew immediately he wanted to go to BoCo, acceptance on 4/1, so his final decision-making took no deliberation. However, prior to his final 2 acceptances, he was torn between 2 schools, and he was trying to figure out how he would decide between them. He was planning a second visit to both schools to try to decide, but he was most focused on the fit for him, which was very subjective. Now our daughter is going through the process for dance, and she doesn’t seem to have a single dream school. While participating in classes as well as her perspective on the dance professors are 2 key factors (she has some experience with some of the instructors from dance conventions and choreography work some have done for her dance company), she is also very focused on the campus environment (size, urban or traditional campus, the city) and many other overall factors outside the dance program, as she tries to assess what is most important to her. While she’s trying to figure out what will be the best fit for her, to be honest, she doesn’t really know what factors will be most important to her happiness and success in college. In the end, I think it is likely to come down to her gut, and she may not even be able to articulate why she made her choice. We’re by her side to help her, but she needs some deep introspection. To help her, I’m going to share the above list, so she can figure out which questions might help her with her decision. </p>
<p>I’ve seen “Can freshmen audition for mainstage shows?” mentioned in a couple of posts as a question to ask in this thread. Very good question, but keep an open mind and listen to the answer if you think freshmen not being able to audition is a deal breaker. No matter how talented and experienced your son or daughter is, keep in mind they are going into a program where ALL the kids are talented and the upperclassmen have 1-3 years of college education and experience under the belt. Performing is important, but adjusting to college life (away from home), adjusting to the rigor of the MT or acting major, etc. is more important. Believe me, the difference between what you send off to college in August and what you get back in May will astound you in many ways (mostly good!). If they are ot permitted to audition as freshmen, ask about student productions, etc.</p>
<p>Another question: When do you hold auditions? </p>
<p>During our meeting yesterday Drake mentioned that they audition for the entire year’s worth of shows on the first weekend of school. That way you’ll know what your performance schedule is for the school year, and you can see where you might have holes that can be filled with outside productions of other work. That’s their reasoning, anyway. I know that there are other schools that do this too, but I’m not sure how I feel about it.</p>
<p>UCI does this…if you have an off day you are out for the entire years performances…that was one of the many reasons we chose not to apply there.</p>
<p>Bisou, that is very wrong, Although, I can see why one would think this is the case.</p>
<p>The fact is often students give a horrible audition and still get the part leaving everyone else aghast. I’m pretty sure this is not only the case at UCI. Frequently, the programs have a pretty good idea who is getting what part during the planning of the shows and fill a few holes with the shortest Freshman or whatever and yes, obviously, someone could blow them away with an excellent audition and be something of a shake-up but it’s not as though they go into the annual audition with no plan at all. They already know most of the students. </p>
<p>When we went on the tour of UCI, the docent explained this to us fully and that is what she said. Now granted she could be giving out false information. She told us that that all the directors of all of the shows are in a room and you enter the room and audition for all of them all at the same time for the entire show season. Not sure how else we could have taken this information to mean. They are called Mega Auditions and you can check them out on their website. Not sure why they bother to have the kids audition if they already know who is going to play what role. The docent also explained that the MFA students are the ones who are normally cast in the shows…I wish we had had a better docent because she wasn’t very encouraging to an incoming freshman candidate. I thought this would be a great option for my daughter but she ruled it out after our visit.</p>