Rider info

College Majors Musical Theater Major
1

D has the friend I mentioned we were helping to navigate the process since her mom is AWOL on it.
The friend has been getting emails of interest from Rider since unifieds.
Does anyone go there who can give her the feel of the school. I can’t tell her anything. Is it known for being strong acting, or dancing,etc…? Is it competitive? A nice place? Good program?

Anyone have any first hand knowledge good or bad? Feel free to pm me!

2

PM me; I can put your friend in touch with my son who is a senior MT

3

@mtmcmt I just responded to your PM. Check your inbox.

4

@mtmcmt My daughter is a sophomore at Rider in the MT program and she would be happy to answer any questions you might have on behalf of your daughter’s friend. PM me with any specific questions and either I or my daughter would be happy to answer them.

5

@cellomom51 Hi, thanks, but D’s friend did not get in. I think it was her low grades. My D did get in, she applied late after Unifieds. I have heard good things about the program.

6

Bummer for your daughter’s friend! If you or your daughter have questions about Rider I’d be glad to answer them or ask my daughter if I don’t know the answer. Sarah loves the MT program and believes she is getting great acting, dance and vocal training there. A lot of performance opportunities every semester and a supportive (not very catty) environment. It’s also close enough to NYC that the kids can go in for shows, auditions, etc. and the lab/master classes are full of great people (Norm Lewis, Sutton Foster, etc. plus the choreographer and a number of actors from Hamilton).
Good luck to your daughter with the decision process!

7

My kiddo just started at Rider and will be happy to give feedback as she goes through the program:)

8

Current Rider MT here :slight_smile: We have students whose strengths range from being lifelong dancers to singer-songwriters, from multi-instrumentalists to actors who nail Neil Simon/Anton Chekhov/etc. I will add that dance is particularly emphasized here. However, we train to become triple+ threats.

Rider has an amazing collection of resources at its disposal, including:

  1. the university’s innovative popular music studies program – which encompasses everything from pop, jazz, rock, and country vocal performance to actual music recording technology and business
  2. the arts administration major/minor and the musical theatre BM in music direction
  3. members of our voice faculty, including Mariann Cook and others, who specialize in contemporary voice training and voice science (students of course also receive training in legit vocal technique)
  4. Westminster Choir College’s opera productions and classical training
  5. Robin Lewis and our other dance faculty who truly produce professional and multi-stylistic dancers
  6. an acting curriculum that utilizes Alexander, Michael Chekhov, Shakespeare, and tons of song analysis
  7. a huge and very competitive pond in terms of talent, student body, and casting, but a definite feeling of community

Rider MTs perpetuate the “work hard, play hard” ideal. A lot of us have jobs, minors, or even second majors (Many enter with a lot of AP or college credits, making this possible with our massive 121-credit-baseline degree - and many of us still choose to have 20+ credit semesters.) We act in university productions and ensembles but we also tend to have individual projects such as albums, record deals, professional productions/contracts, original plays, choreography, student-directed cabarets, and more. And we’re constantly taking the train into New York to see the latest on Broadway.

Visit the Rider MT Facebook page for info on what the school and our graduates are doing!