<p>I think that is what Kat meant but she called it a “school” and not a “department”. The BFA in MT at Tulane is through the Department of Music and is interdisciplinary in nature and some courses are in the Theater Dept, some in the Dance Dept. and some in the Music Dept.</p>
<p>I second what KatMT says…take tour time and see where it is that you might want to spend the next four years of your life. There are many schools out there that have a wonderful BA/BFA MT program that might not even be on your radar. Go to the top of this thread and click on any of the schools you may be interested in and there will more than likely be discussions from faculty/students regarding the program. Also, if you are a rising senior, do your research this summer and apply to the university itself in September…that is NOT too early. Get that out of the way, because there are many steps in the road to an MT audition. Start talking to teachers/instructors about recommendation letters…you will need some for most programs. Good luck and don’t be discouraged at any time during the audition season…just be prepared! They can smell unpreparedness coming through the door…lol :)</p>
<p>Yes. I meant the Music Department rather than through the Theatre Department. Thanks for the clarification.</p>
<p>Adding Penn State and Catawba to a list of schools close to the Mason-Dixon and below. :)</p>
<p>We have a BM at FSU as well as a BFA :-)</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the advice! I think I am just going to slow things down and look everywhere.</p>
<p>All4Fsu: Both my parents went to FSU, (not for anything in the arts), so I have grown up a diehard huge FSU fan. So I have been considering them my whole life, I don’t know why they aren’t on my list!!! I guess I completely forgot.</p>
<p>KatMT (just to add to the list since you had ??? next to Jacksonville)- </p>
<p>Jacksonville University has a BFA in Music Theatre and also a BA in Music with a concentration in Music Theatre. The difference between the two is that the BFA is more difficult to get into. You do have to audition for both, but many students who do not get into the BFA go the BA route. Also, the BA route has more free electives and isn’t as structured as the BFA (with the BFA, you only have one free elective- the rest of your classes are picked out for you). I am a BFA student but I have many friends who are going the BA route. We are an emerging program and I am so excited to see what happens in the future with me and my classmates. :)</p>
<p>Also- the audition for the BFA Music Theatre program at JU does NOT have a dance component. You just have to discuss your dance background. Or, if you want to be put into more advanced dance classes, you can request (a few weeks before your audition) for a dance evaluation with the dance department.</p>
<p>Also- Tampa is a BA MT program.</p>
<p>I believe at CCU you can now get a non-audition BA Theatre, and then the BFA Musical Theatre, Acting, and Physical Theatre that are audition only.</p>
<p>Thanks AlexaMT…wasn’t sure how they were handling the transition…don’t remember hearing at the audition :)</p>
<p>Hi Michelle! That’s right. I always forget that FSU is like us at JMU, except we do a BA and a BM. Hope you are having a great summer! :)</p>
<p>I think you also need to clarify if you are considering these schools a “safety” for academic or audition purposes (or both). For example, Northwestern is non audition, but is by no means a safety as the academic standards for admission are very high. Temple U may be a safety for academic admission, but as an auditioned BA they did not accept many students into the fall 2012 class. Muhlenberg College is a non audition BA (audition optional) but they accept a large portion of the incoming freshman ED and not everyone can meet their academic standards for admission.</p>
<p>Wichita State University.
Wichita is a VERY theatrical city, believe it or not. Music Theatre of Wichita is an equity theatre, producing five shows each summer. People come from Broadway to be in these shows. Also, our music conductor is part of the acting/music program at CMU! The program at WSU is also AMAZING.</p>
<p>My daughter choose Wichita out of all her choices. She is excited to start in the fall. She has been to the campus a few times now and each time the musical theatre teachers were willing to let her sit in on classes and meet with her! They even let her sing in front of one of the classes. She really feels like they care about her! We also saw their last production of Urinetown and it was really, really, really good! She is also looking forward to trying out for the summer stock programs and hopefully getting paid for acting! And to top it all off one of their past students is now an agent in New York City and was out for a workshop at Wichita which my daughter was allowed to attend. Overall she is very, very excited to attend. She did audition but it was very informal.</p>
<p>I think American University could be considered a safety for many students who have relatively high academics. The BA program is auditioned, but not incredibly selective. That being said, my d will be attending in the fall and chose AU over the 2 BFAs that she was accepted into.</p>
<p>Acting Daughter,</p>
<p>You couldn’t ask for more when it comes to Wichita. We’re only about a 600,000 population, so it’s not too big of a city, but it’s big enough to have everything you can imagine. Many, many theatres, and the best of all is the summer equity theatre, Music Theatre of Wichita, where people come from Broadway just to be in these shows. I highly encourage your daughter to audition for MTW next year. You just cannot ask for a better company. Friendly people, amazing shows, just everything is great. I’m probably going to WSU next year. I’m currently a senior so I have a year left before college, but I’ll probably end up meeting your daughter sometime!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>My opinion differs a bit from this. Yes, for students with very strong academics, American would be an ACADEMIC safety school. But due to American’s audition, it would not be an OVERALL safety school. Safety schools, in my view, are “SURE BETS” where you feel certain you will be admitted. No schools that have an audition are sure bet safety schools. However, I believe that most BA by Audition programs have easier (but NOT easy) odds than BFA programs for admission (with the exception of UCLA). Therefore, a program like American can balance out a college list made up of mostly BFA in MT programs as the odds are better. But they are not a sure thing by any means. Therefore, I advise all students to still have at least one non-audition true safety school (not all non-audition schools are safeties…just ones that are an academic safety for your own profile). </p>
<p>Best of luck to your D at American. I have a former student who is a rising senior in that program and have had a number of students who have been admitted to American’s program, though have chosen to attend elsewhere.</p>
<p>Songandstage,</p>
<p>If you really want to do musical theatre I think it’s a mistake to shy away from programs that require a lot of dance training. Musical theatre is so dance heavy right now and in order to be competitive you have to be able to hold your own at dance auditions, even if you just go in for a mover call.
I recommend looking into Wright State University’s Musical Theatre program. It’s an acting based program that is very well rounded in voice and dance training. Dance was definitely my weakest point starting school. At Wright State I was able to take as many dance classes as I wanted and needed and improved significantly.
And if you’re worried about academics, WSU’s pretty easy to get into academically. I definitely wouldn’t consider it a “safety school” as it’s been pretty competitive the past few years. But if you want to be competitive I think it’s best to seek top notch schools with one or two safeties as back up.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>soozievt, do know of any students who were accepted by American academically but rejected from the MT program? While I would normally defer to your experience and knowledge, my D, who was accepted into American’s MT program last year (and just switched out of the program to a different major) reports that it’s generally understood by students in the program that the audition is a formality and that anyone who qualifies academically and auditions for MT will be accepted as an MT major. Since the school purports to have a serious audition process, I guess it can’t be called a safety, but I think it’s safe to say it is “safety-ish” for anyone who isn’t completely untalented.</p>
<p>MommaJ, I don’t know a wide enough sample of people who applied to American for MT. I have had several advissees who applied who got in for MT. I haven’t had anyone accepted academically but denied for theater / musical theater at American. I had someone admitted for January (he is going to BOCO though).</p>
<p>Generally speaking (not just about American), I think the odds at BA by audition programs are better than for BFA programs overall (big exception would be UCLA). Of course it varies from program to program. And there is of course, the academic odds at each school too. Perhaps the BA in MT program at American (academics aside) has better odds than Wagner or Marymount, for example. But the academics to get into American are harder than Wagner or Marymount, which both offer a BA with MT. </p>
<p>But I never would consider American a safety school because it has an audition. It is “safer” than most BFA schools, however. Academically speaking, it is a safety for some students and a reach or match for some other students. </p>
<p>For someone who is primarily seeking a BFA in MT, I suggest having one or two BA by audition schools on the list and one or two BA non audition schools (one of which is an academic safety as well), because the BA by Audition schools are sort of a bridge between the highly competitive BFA in MT programs and the non audition schools. Schools like American are in between those two sets of “odds” so to speak. </p>
<p>But it is good to hear a first hand account such as yours that those in the MT program at American don’t know of many who didn’t get into it who were academically accepted.</p>
<p>By the way, I recall in my D’s cycle (HS class of 2005), there was a member on CC’s MT Forum, whom we ran into at a few auditions, who did not get into any of the BFA schools she applied/auditioned at but got into American for MT. I also had a student two cycles ago who did not get into any BFA in MT programs (which was what she was mainly seeking) but got into American for MT and then got into the BFA for Acting at Marymount and chose Marymount. So, this gives some inkling that if one is not competitive for BFA in MT programs, they still might get into American for MT (if they have the academics).</p>
<p>My D, who just started at American MT, reports that a couple kids who auditioned for MT were offered Theatre Arts instead. So I think the consensus is, if you qualify academically (which has gotten more difficult in the last couple years) you will most likely be offered a theatre spot somewhere at American. It is a small department - about 10 MT and 10 Theatre Arts in freshman class. Most theatre kids double major in an unrelated field, which is the appeal for many of them. D is loving it - so far. She is in the theatre residential college and they have already planned outings to 5 plays/musicals in the DC area and 2 trips to NYC this fall. Also, many opportunities for internships. She did community service at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre during Welcome Week.</p>
<p>I am looking at the handy dandy spreadsheet of the schools that D is looking at, which are mostly in state (Texas) public schools, a few private Texas schools, and Oklahoma (you know which ones! Public and private)</p>
<p>Unless I missed something, none of the schools I have listed offer an auditioned BA program. There are auditioned BFA’s, and there are also non auditioned BFA’s, and non auditioned BA’s. (all of the non audition for admittance schools do audition for scholarships though).</p>
<p>soozievt, Should we try to find an auditioned BA program also or is she covered with what she has found? She has both MT’s and regular acting programs on her list, because some really great schools with excellent drama departments just don’t have MT but are still worth consideration, and have good music and dance available and do put on musicals. One of those would be a fine choice for her too.</p>
<p>There is some thought that she might be somewhat more of a BA than a BFA kid, though it’s becoming more and more obvious that every school’s BA or BFA program differs widely and you really have to just analyze each one individually. But if she were lucky enough to get into one of her top choice MT programs at a school she loved, it was affordable for us, and it was a BFA, those factors would outweigh her slight leaning towards BA. She’s ready to fall in love with whoever accepts her and we are only applying to schools we are sure she’d like, so I’m not terribly worried about the BA or BFA thing, but your mentioning it made it occur to me that we don’t happen to have one of those on our list!</p>