<p>My senior year is weeks away and I've hit a roadblock for my scheduling. I plan on going to an out-of-state college (my highest preference being UCF) and I would like to major in theatre/drama for my BA. My mom and I have been constantly discussing the issue of whether to take Spanish 5 AP or Musical Theatre 2. My unweighted GPA is about 3.4/3.5, my elevated GPA is 3.9 (UCF's system) and my weighted GPA is 4.1. I have taken GT/AP classes all throughout high school, and have done fairly well in them. However, I think that taking a theatre class my senior year looks better for my specific major (even though I will not be pursuing Musical theatre, rather theatre itself), but my mom believes that taking an AP class will look better. If you have any advice/suggestions, please help!!</p>
<p>Totally just my 2cents, here! The AP you are deciding on is Spanish, and language in high school is a progression, for sure. So it makes perfect sense for you to take the AP Spanish 5 as a way to finish that progression, and show that you are committed. If it were another AP, say AP Government, I’d say take the MT class, because AP Gov is not necessarily a continuation of AP US History. I believe colleges like to see kids who stick with something and see it thru - also, the AP class will help your GPA.</p>
<p>You haven’t mentioned what/how many shows you’ve been in throughout high school, but if you do have experience there, that will show them that you are interested in theatre.</p>
<p>Normally, a high school will send a bio of their school along with your transcripts. The bio usually included the AP’s offered at your school, so colleges can see what was available for you to take. It does not include the entire list of courses, so the college won’t see that there was an MT 1 & 2 and wonder why you didn’t take them.</p>
<p>I’m beginning to think the most important thing to maximize in HS is foreign language. You can get the most advanced credit for it in college of anything, and it often is required, so placing out is really great. Does UCF have a foreign language requirement? If it does, I say take the Spanish. You can use your AP test results to place out, or, as at most schools, take their placement test and get 2-4 semesters of credit. If they require FL, you’ll be really glad you did.</p>
<p>Thank you for your advice. You mentioned that you didn’t know how involved I am in theatre and that would’ve been something great to include. I am very passionate about theatre so far just inside of high school I have done 5 shows (fall and spring 10th grade, and fall, winter, and spring 11th grade). I also am the senior president for my school’s International Thespian Society and a Senior Thespian Officer for the state’s Thespian society. I have also taken a theatre class every year of high school (9th- Theatre 1, 10th- Advanced Theatre, 11th- Musical Theatre 1).</p>
<p>Also, UCF requires a 2 year consecutive foreign language requirement.</p>
<p>Well, there you go!! You already have shown a love for theatre, by being in shows and taking classes, al well as being involved in after school theatrical opportunities.</p>
<p>AP Spanish 5 all the way!!</p>
<p>What does UCF look at for admissions? GPA? Audition? A mix of both–and if so how are the two weighted?</p>
<p>I did take enough high school French that when I went to undergrad college they gave me a language placement test, and I aced it so I didn’t have to take any foreign language–I showed on the test I had the equivalent of two years of college French, so that met the university’s language requirement.</p>
<p>Really, that is the reason for taking AP classes, so that you can skip some of the easier courses when you go to college.</p>
<p>I’ve done quite a bit of research for UCF and according to their admissions it does depend on the major. Since I am looking to major in Theatre, and they do require an audition for that. Their GPA is an elevated one so Honors/GT/AP do have an affect on the GPA. I have also previously had 4 years of Spanish, all being an honors class. At my school the last level you can take (5) is offered in AP.</p>
<p>You can take AP tests for any subject without taking the class. I’m not sure to what extent you past Spanish classes have prepared you, but perhaps the “best of both worlds” option would be to take the musical theatre class, and then take the AP Spanish test to exempt you from the foreign language requirement.</p>
<p>Perhaps you should go buy an AP Spanish study book and see how well you might do. Remember that 2 years of college FL is at least 4 years of HS. It varies how well HSs teach FL - I’d say in general it takes 5 years and/or AP to place out of 2 years at the college level. But maybe you’d get 3 semesters and you won’t mind taking one semester, so you can get that last theatre class. It’s a toss-up. But I wouldn’t say you need that theatre class in order to get into the school. It would just be a personal choice.</p>
<p>Have you made absolutely certain that this “elevated GPA” applies specifically to the theatre program you are auditioning for? There are many schools where the AVERAGE GPA of ALL the admitted students is very high, but when you look just at the average GPA of just the students admitted to the theatre program, it’s much lower. Because the theatre program bases its admissions much more on audition then GPA. I’m just speaking in general, I don’t know if this specifically applies to UCF.</p>
<p>Don’t underestimate the importance and difficulty of the audition. I hope you are preparing NOW to give an utterly kick-butt audition for UCF.</p>
<p>KEVP</p>
<p>Theatrelover, how many schools do you think you will apply to and audition for? Here’s why I ask - my D is a rising senior with a weighted GPA of 4.2 and unweighted of 3.95. She is either a national merit semi finalist or commended student. (We find out which one in october) Her SAT’s are great and she got 4’s and 5’s on 3 AP tests already.
She is going to apply to and audition for 14 schools this year. I estimate we will be traveling on 8 or 9 weekends. So, when we chose her senior year classes, we actually lightened her course load. She is not taking foreign language and she is finished with her science requirements. She will be taking one AP class, along with honors social studies, calc 2 and several computer electives.
Some people may disagree with our choices, but we felt that her academics were very strong, more than high enough for all the schools she is applying to. We knew we had all these auditions on the schedule, and felt her time was better spent preparing for the auditions and not getting overly stressed and/or sick.
So that is kind of the other point of view from the previous posts. If you are applying to a lot of schools, maybe you should consider this angle too. Do you need to impress your schools with more academic rigor or can you back off a little to allow for more audition prep time?
The music theatre class likely has less homework than AP Spanish. There are just only so many hours in the day, and your end goal is to be accepted to a theatre program… which path is more likely to get you there?
(And BTW, three years ago I never would have said any of this or allowed my child to lighten her course load! But it just seemed to make sense for her goals now. She has also spent most of her summer with her head buried in books, reading and studying plays, which is probably not what most other kids have been doing. She is definitely still challenging herself. It is just not a traditional path!)</p>
<p>We lightened my son’s course load for his senior year also. He took Theater Tech which enabled him to work on props for the school shows, and also work on his monologues. </p>
<p>Because of college visits and auditions, you will end up missing school more than you might suppose.</p>
<p>My son is another student who lightened his academic load his senior year in high school. He already had an excellent grade point average (he ended up being salutatorian of his class, even though some of his classmates took more APs senior year than he did).</p>
<p>I think the only reason to maintain the highest possible level of academic rigor through senior year is if you are trying to get financial aid based on academic merit. It could possibly help with that.</p>
<p>For many students applying to auditioned theatre programs, it makes perfect sense to lighten up a bit during senior year and concentrate on auditioning.</p>
<p>Just in reference to NJ’s post, I found that most merit scholarships are unweighted so the boosted AP class GPA doesn’t count. Probably not true everywhere, but for the merit aid I was offered I found it to be true.</p>
<p>That’s a good point, Aspiring6776.</p>
<p>My son opted out of Physics II AP and Calculus AP, which were classes that most of his peers took during senior year. Instead, he was in a show choir class…and I think he actually had a study hall at one time that year!</p>
<p>There are some who would argue that the two classes above would have impressed certain schools (like NYU for example) when they saw them on his transcript. I don’t think it would have really made that much difference in his case, though. He was happy about his decision and had some good acceptances.</p>
<p>My S’s Senior year is not lightened at all and I am a bit worried about it. His GPA has been on the upward trend and we felt it was to his advantage to show he is maturing and getting better grades in harder classes every year. He also has quite a few non-auditioned BA’s on his list that will want him to have a rigorous senior year schedule. He did opt out of AP Calc and is taking honors instead, but he is taking AP Physics, APUSH and AP Lit,( thank god he finished up his FL with AP latin last year) and is doing an independent project, producing, directing and acting in a play. This does not even take into account his HS’s productions, and his honor choir commitments. He is lucky that his first semester ends before auditions, so this will help, but that first semester is going to be tough no matter how you look at it. I hope to be as much help to him as possible with the application process, but he is a pretty take charge type kid. School starts a week from Wednesday… wish us luck starting this insane process:)</p>
<p>5boys, if your son is willing, he might want to bow out of his high school’s theatre productions in order to have more energy for the great number of other things on his plate.</p>
<p>Kids tend not to want to do this because they love theatre and love being in plays, but sometimes the combination of academics, college applications and college audition preparation just have to take precedence.</p>
<p>I hope he has been working on essays so at least some of that will be done before school starts!</p>
<p>No to both NJtheatermom… he would never opt out of his HS’s productions this year… and he has not started his essays… he has been away all summer. He fortunately has this weird writing ability and can crank out great essays quickly. I don’t see this as a problem, but more the time away from school issue. Luckily he does already have some great monologues as they are required in his advanced acting class. He will most likely just have to fine tune them. His HS has someone tape them early in Sept/Oct so they can use them for Young Arts and any Arts Supplements or Pre-screens. He goes to a very rigorous private prep, so he is used to this level of insanity. He did well academically last year and it was just as insanely crazy( except for the no college app stuff). He is in Edinburgh, Scotland at the fringe festival putting on his play… he texted me that they had a full house… he was more than ecstatic.</p>
<p>It sounds like he is doing great, 5boys. Best of luck to him!</p>
<p>Thanks NJTM…He is going to need it… all kids going through this ridiculous process need it:))</p>