School for me?

<p>Hey everyone, I am looking for some help.</p>

<p>I want to major in theatre, musical theatre. I really want to go to school in NYC, because I figure that that is the best place for me to be. Now, here is where my problem is. I am not a dancer, my grades aren't that great, and I don't really want to go to a school that's not in NYC.</p>

<p>I have a great baritone singing voice, and my acting skills are pretty good. It's just my dancing where I falter. Can anyone offer and colleges to go to? I was looking at Marymount Manhattan and maybe Eugene Lang, but I am not sure. Can anyone offer incite?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>Juilliard (A reach for everybody)
NYU (Grades might be a problem)
Fordham University (BA Theatre)
Pace University</p>

<p>What about Wagner?</p>

<p>Yeah...good thing about Juilliard is that they are not so concerned about you grades as they are your ability. But they only have a classical theatre department; its not musical theatre. You'll be doing Shakespeare and Ibsen. Not Rodgers and Hart and certainly not Andrew Lloyd Webber</p>

<p>fishbowl has it right, so listen to her.</p>

<p>My thoughts - why do you have to be in NYC for college? Wouldn't it be okay to go other places for college and move to NYC afterwards? </p>

<p>If you want MT, you don't have many choices in the City beyond NYU (and grades ARE important there). The only positive for you at NYU is that you would be able to audition without doing the advanced dance audition, so you could audition with acting and singing skills only.</p>

<p>Marymount is only a minor in MT, I think (but please double check me).</p>

<p>Wagner is near the city if not in it, and they have gotten good publicity recently. I know nothing about it.</p>

<p>What about checking nearby cities - by looking at the list at the top of the CC MT forum? For example, U Arts in Philly shouldn't be too far from NYC.</p>

<p>Sign up now for some dance classes in the summer!</p>

<p>Do not let your grades scare you away from NYU. Do they care about grades there? Heck yes they do. More than some other schools? Probably. But, if you do well on standardized tests and audition well, anything can happen. On a different note, if you would be open to looking at schools outside of NYC but still in a big city, I would recommend looking at USC, U of Miami and Carnegie Mellon. Yes, Pittsburgh and Miami are not NYC, but both are great, vibrant cities.</p>

<p>Make yourself a big list of schools that might suit you. There are plenty of very talented kids that do not get into their first choice, second choice or third choice school in MT. In fact, all schools are reaches. Adding to the list that is already here, take a look at Montclair State, which has a new MT program It is one of the schools that is off the radar,and may be have less competition to get into.</p>

<p>And start dance lessons. Dance every day you can. Take ballet and jazz, and throw yourself into it. You have at least 6 months before you have to start auditioning. No, you won't look like you have been dancing your whole life, but you can get better. And you will need to learn to dance anyway. Might as well get a head start on it now.</p>

<p>And, work really hard at school next year. Schools do like to see an upward trend. Don't think, oh I am talented and that's going to get me in. Think, I am talented and smart, and I need to show that smartness too. You can make a lot of progress by working hard. Are you going to summer school? If not, consider taking some classes to improve your GPA at a community college.</p>

<p>I think the NYU grades thing brings up a good point about what school is right for some. At NYU, there is a big focus on liberal arts, more than most schools. If your grades aren't that good, the yes NYU might not take you. But, if you want don't want many liberal arts courses...then NYU is not right for you. It depends more on what is encompassed in the program. I'd investigate what each program entails, then make your decision, and it might not be in NYC, even though that's where you want to be.</p>

<p>Chris</p>

<p>There are some very good schools in Chicago. DePaul, Roosevelt, and Columbia College (non-audition). Chicago is a dynamic theater town so why not consider it in addition to NYC??</p>

<p>And Northwestern...</p>

<p>The people who have gone through here are amazing.</p>

<p>But Northwestern requires exemplary grades/SAT scores for admittance. So if grades are not your strong point, I don't think Northwestern would be your best bet.</p>

<p>Its has a train station on campus which makes easy access to NYC also bus service. Academics are not as important.The peolpe there are very nice and the program seems very good. Is fairly competitive but probably not as bad as the more elite schools for guys however for girls all schools are competitive. There are just way too many girls applying for MT for the number of spots out there.</p>

<p>EricsMom brings up a great point about Philly. I do go to UArts in Philly, BFA in MT, and I love our program. But right now we're talking about our location, which is ideal. There are multiple ways to get to NYC, and it's only a two-hour ride. I always save money by taking the Chinatown bus, which is $20 round-trip. I went into the city four times last school year, and being a student and rushing helped me save a lot of money on all the trips. </p>

<p>It's true that after graduation, New York is the place to be. But think about what's best for you now, too. I grew up in a small college town and then moved to the Milwaukee area, so moving to a city was a big deal. Going to school in Philly is going to help me make that same incremental step when I'm ready to move to New York after graduation. </p>

<p>Don't limit yourself. Explore your options and make sure it's really what you want. Ask yourself if it's more important for you to be in school somewhere working on your craft or if it's more important to be in New York. If the answer is the latter, then only apply to schools in New York. But if it isn't, please consider your other options.</p>

<p>dido.explore the NYC college experience. Many of the mT programs in NYC have ultra high dropout rates because the kids think they're good enough to drop out of school and go on b'way. Try some other schools like Syracuse U or U michigan</p>

<p>I know NYU (my dream school at the moment) decides on theatre students based on their audition AND their grades. Those of you that have children or know people that are at NYU, what types of grades are they looking for? I go to a small private school and I just got my year end grade card yesterday. I'm usually pretty happy with my grades, usually mostly A-s and two to three B+s. I made honors and the Headmaster's Distinctive Achievement list, but for some reason I'm still really frustrated with my grades right now. I was talking to my friends mom, who's daughter has extremely similar grades as me, and her mom insisted that her daughter would never get academic scholarships or get into any relativley good schools with her grades, so it really started to freak me out. Any comments on grades that schools like NYU like?</p>

<p>My GPA average for all 4 years, was a 3.48 and I'm gonna be a freshman there. I've taken 8 AP classes, so I think honors and APs are very important there as well. I think its your grades as well as how hard your classes are is what they look for.</p>