School question LIU Post

Any opinions on LIU Post for MT?

My daughter’s friend just graduated from Post. We saw him in original productions that were written by graduate playwriting students and they were well-done, interesting, and thought-provoking. He LOVED his experience there and feels that he has grown so much as a performer because of his experiences there. He is currently directing teens/young 20s in a production of Spring Awakening and many of the performers have said that he is a fabulous director.

I don’t know if she is still on here but @winnieroot 's daughter is attending there.

My daughter was accepted there and we visited. The biggest drawback for us was because it was/is a commuter school. We are from the west coast and that was a concern for us. Also, my daughter wanted more of the traditional college experience with a large campus, sororities, etc.

@LoveMyMTGirl @theaterwork I’m here! Oh, not just a commuter school! Very vibrant campus life. Since there are no apartments or affordable housing (Gold Coast) if your parents don’t live close, you live on campus for all 4 years.

My daughter is in a sorority she loves! Theme parties, fraternity formals, Greek week, she does it all! Very fun school.

A commuter school?! Noooo… She is living in Greek housing next year.

Oh and amazing MT program. The master classes alone with industry professional should make it a top choice. Every single senior in showcase got representation. Fabulous school!

My daughter is doing summer stock right now and one girl who is FABULOUS is from LIU.

That is exciting @Calliene! Wildly talented kids for sure. It is very industry connected, which is a big big plus.

The commuter school stuff if totally unfounded, but what is true is that they do less traditional theater and more modern, experimental work.

Vocal training is outstanding however, my daughter studies with Michelle Malardi, who was Belle.

Watching Tony’s with D: “he/she did a masters class” You just can’t beat the support they get from their geographical location.

Wow thanks for all that info @Calliene and @winnieroot . My D just did their summer theatre institute in MT & loved everyone there . I wasn’t blown away by the school itself & with my crappy drive there I really wasn’t feeling the love if you know what i mean. I didn’t get to see the theatre facilities really because their showcase was in the recital hall. i will pm you @winnieroot

So glad things are working out well for your daughter @winnieroot !

@theaterwork There are a little bit more than 5,000 undergraduates on the LIU campus and housing is available to approximately 1,200 students on campus. So approximately 75% of students are commuting from home. In addition, many of the students in housing are from Long Island and the NYC area and do not remain on campus over the weekend–thus giving it the label “suitcase” school in addition to “commuter” school. These numbers are from their website. @winnieroot tells a different story, but as someone who lives nearby and knows many students who have attended ( there are also many commuting graduate students on campus), I respectfully disagree that it has vibrant residential campus life. Perhaps the students in housing have good facilities and programming, but they are still a small minority of the student body overall. It is also possible that a majority of MT students are from out of town and living on campus. Personally, I don’t know any local MT students who have attended, nor do I have any first hand knowledge of the MT program, so I am not critiquing the program itself.

@uskoolfish, does only 1200 students in dorms necessarily mean that the other 75% are commuting from home? I don’t know anything specific about LIU, but I know at some schools, where I teach being one of them, only freshman, 1/2 sophomores, and a handful of upperclassmen live on campus, but the others are not necessarily commuting from home. Most are living in apartment complexes surrounding the campus which cater to students. Basically, off campus student apartments. So, while the statistics would look to indicate a commuter campus, it is not. Like I said, I do not know about LIU, just curios. Thanks!

When we went to visit a couple of years ago, we were told by students attending the school that most students left the campus to go home Friday thru Sunday. There were very few classes held on Friday. The students that remained were the International students and the Theater students since most of the Theater students are not from the area.

The campus is a hop, skip, and jump from NYC. Even if it’s a commuter campus it will always be something to do. And for an MT student, I would think being that close to broadway would be more important than frat parties and campus events.

I do think that things have improved dramatically with Campus Life in the last few years. An entirely new team has been hired to appeal to the more traditional student who wants a campus life. My daughter was prepared for commuter school and did not find that at all. She has too much to do on the weekend. And most of her activities are with sorority sisters. I also think that adding Greek Life in the last few years has increased the campus activities. Yes there are kids who just commute. But plenty stay around on the weekends. If this is a concern, look at LIUPOST campus life Instagram feed. And the sororities: DeltaZeta at LIU Post, AEPhi, AxiD, and the newest: Sig Delt (huge population of MT girls in this one). And then the Fraternities: ThetaChi, TKE, PSK, and SAE. With the opening of Greek Housing this year, it should be even more fun!

Also of great interest to the MT kid is the Tilles center for performing arts which hosts traveling Broadway shows and concerts. All $15 for students. KChen was the entertainment for last year’s homecoming and did a special meet and greet with questions with MT kids. (Not quite a masters) class. Brian stokes Mitchell did perform and held a masters class. Plus field trips to the city hosted by variety of campus groups for $30 that includes dinner, transportation and a Broadway show.

I think about the local kids around here that stay at our rather large local university, they think it is boring. Could it be that the local kids don’t really reach out and participate in all the campus offers?

The situation with LIU is that there isn’t really student housing in the surrounding area–since it is on the campus of a former estate and is surrounded by very wealthy communities of the North Shore of Long Island. Even if you go further away from campus, there are very few areas that have rental apartments, and if there are, they tend to be very expensive, not catering to a student crowd. So I would say that it is safe to say that students not living in dorms are commuting from home.

I certainly will not say that there is no social life for those who are living on campus. But they are still very much the minority of students.

Long Island is not Manhattan. Manhattan will also not provide the traditional campus experience either. Commuter not commuter… chances are a school in Manhattan really won’t rely all that much on the campus life to be the main provider of activities and social life. The “campus” would have simply too much to compete with to even bother.

I’d trust what uskoolfish is saying above with respect to the availability of housing in the area and its impact. And I’d also trust winneroot’s report on how her daughter has made things work by embracing Greek life. What does someone whom is not at all interested in Greek life but who is not a local and therefore won’t have a living at home option do? Is 4 years of on campus housing available and if so, are there any upper level students living in that housing? Those would be my questions. I bet there is an answer that works but I’d be asking the questions not because I’d lack excitement about the school… but because I’d not want to deal with a housing issue.

^^^woops sorry and too late to delete. Thought I was responding in the same thread where theaterwork was talking about the drive to Long Island which I had already commented in as did several of the folks above so I got confused. Don’t think I said anything wrong but my starting sentence about “Long Island is not Manhattan” makes no sense and has no relevance to this thread. Apologies.

LOL! I don’t know if housing is guaranteed all 4 years. I asked D about Seniors on campus. She said that many live on several floors of Riggs, a very popular hall. Or they live in the suites style building that requires you to be 21. She says that a group of MT seniors got a house in Hicksville, 5 miles away. But that is about as close as you could find affordable housing.

All 5000 undergrads are not involved in campus life for sure. Vibrant doesn’t necessarily mean big. For the 500 or so kids in Greek Life there is plenty to do. She also pointed out to me that athletes tend to stay on campus all weekend. It is division II so they do give plenty of athletic scholarships and like MT they come from all over.

Also, a large population of international students from Sweden and Finland. I don’t know why exactly… They have taken over one fraternity.

But let’s get back to an honest assessment of the MT program. It is new, they just graduated their first class. It is heavily acting focused. They take full advantage if their geographical location and they are very focused on preparing the students for employment. They teach the Suzuki acting method, and were the only school to offer this, but this year they opened a training institute for other MT schools learn and teach it.

They also take care if each other. Every freshman gets a mentor, success coach, and a Big Sister or Brother. This Big Little Program is amazing. D gets her little next week!

Directors are always guest directors and industry professionals.

Cons: they do less musicals than other schools. One big main stage a year, and a few smaller ones and Cabarets.

Their shows are more experimental in nature. They also produce several student works. As someone whose favorite show is “The Music Man”. I think this is a negative. Doesn’t bother my D a bit. You won’t be hearing any “76 Trumbones” at Post.

They require less dance, but MT students can audit dance classes.

The vocal training is spectacular. Really. But, again, less musicals.

The school itself is not considered academically rigorous, but D is in honors college, so that helps. Amazing money if you have the test scores.

Oh, and the MT facilities are a mixed bag. Tilles center is one of LIs biggest show venues and it is right on campus. So their shows there are amazing. And the little theater (Marjorie post’s old bowling alley) is good. But the TF building (theater/film) is cramped. It does have character as the estates old stables.

Campus is beautiful. It is a cat sanctuary. That was established by Marjorie when she donated the estate. It is also an offical arboretum with a Dutch gardener. Springtime is glorious. They give garden tours. Marjorie’s old playhouse was recently converted into a coffee shop that is a favorite campus hangout. I like the stables and seeing the horses on campus. (For reasons I don’t understand, the Equestrian team joined the sorority favorited by the MT girls. This is not my daughter’s. She likes to be different)

It is a very special place and we are so thankful D loves it so much! My mother in law went there too. Even though we live in the Deep South, my husband is from Floral Park Queens.

And their mascot is creepy. But hey, Go Pioneers!

I appreciate all your posts @winnieroot . It’s all great info to have if my D decides to audition there. She really liked the staff and professors . It’s on the “floating school not sure what to do with list” right now lol

My D’s coach had suggested that D look at Post with the caveat that she also research Suzuki method, including watching videos (there are some of Post students), as it is a or even the focus of their acting approach. She said that some like it, and some don’t jive with it at all (as with many actor training approaches), but it was important to know which D was because it is evidently used pretty heavily there.

Besides that and the basic research we did into Post (it didn’t end up on D’s list–not anything against the program at all, just to each his own), I don’t know any more about it. (I like hearing about Winnieroot’s D’s experience.) I just thought it might be helpful to pass that along…