<p>Emerson is only by audition. They have a BFA by audition and a BA by audition (you must choose which specific theater program to apply to as you will only be considered for one). I don’t think the OP’s D would want this as it involves a commitment from the outset and it is not as if Emerson has a full array of other majors. It also doesn’t have the traditional college campus she wanted. But the main thing is that unlike Brown or the other schools I listed, Emerson is by audition. Then again, I have a student who is applying to Brown for theater and Emerson this coming fall, among other schools. I just don’t know if the OP is willing to apply to audition based schools or not.</p>
<p>Wow! We just got back from our Brown visit and the insane college fair. It was our first college fair and you could barely move through the aisles. We were in a long snaking line just to get into the gymnasium–as if going to a cattle-call audition! </p>
<p>People, who had been to other college fairs, said they had never seen anything this crowded. Not exactly a way to make a connection with a school. My D signed a few cards, when she could get near the table! We grabbed some info and left. She’s already gotten a ton of info from many of the schools already so I don’t think we’ll be attending any more of those!</p>
<p>My D, along with so many of the kids about whom I’ve readin these posts, is competitive for the top tier schools. She is in one of the top public school systems in the country. Unfortunately, that happens to be in the Northeast. While the school doesn’t rank, as so many no longer do, she is definitely in the top 10–if not the top 5 of the students in her class. She has been in double-accelerated math since middle school and took honors and AP in 9th and 10th grade and will continue. Her World History SAT Subj test score was 800, Molecular Bio SAT 2 was 790 and her Math 2 was 760. We haven’t gotten the AP World Hx test scores back yet, but most kids, at her academic level in her HS, get 5’s. Those are the stats we have to date. She is not a one-note kid, but her passion is, and has decidedly been the performing arts.</p>
<p>So–I’m not exactly sure how you would take her performing arts background out of the equation. I totally do appreciate Jonri’s strategic thinking on this. My head has already gone down that path for another school. Great school, but small drama department. She’ll probably be undecided on her major, which, BTW, Brown says 60% of their admit class come in as undecideds. </p>
<p>Our eyes are wide open to the competitiveness of colleges, like Brown, who have 90%or higher rejection rates. She liked Brown, as much as you can, when you sit in an auditorium with a room full of people, have a brief lecture about school and a Q&A followed by a walk around the campus. IDK…how do decide from this if a school is right for you? </p>
<p>I guess if you get a good feeling from the initial visit, you then keep the school in the running for a more intense look later??? I think you really need to be on a campus when school is in session and maybe sit in on a class or do an overnight. Do people do this routinely? And, if you have to do your visits over 3-day weekends, then I fear we’ll always be in a “cattle-call” situation. One way or the other we’re on our way into this.</p>
<p>Yes, she liked Brown’s campus. I’m a native Rhode Islander so she’s no stranger to RI. She also liked GU when we sidetracked there on a trip to DC in April, but again, the kids were not in session. So it’s great to like the feel of a campus, we need a little more “meat!” Sorry for the non-PC analogy. Understand, I’m aware GU has the rep of a totally different type of school than Brown.</p>
<p>Okay, I’m rambling, but I’m taking in everything that all of you are saying and to soozievt–we have lots in common. I had already gotten to “know” you from your posts because I tagged SDM and your posts came up. This will be my D’s 6th summer, maybe her last at Stagedoor!!! It was a lifesaver for her. We live in a very conservative town and she has never fit in. The group of kids she became friends with that very first summer are still her BFF’s. Since many are from metro NY area they get together during the year. OMG, we have to talk. Her experiences have been just like your daughter’s.!!! She leaves this weekend. I’m going to reread your posts when I’m clearheaded. Today was a long day.</p>
<p>Thanks again to everyone and please keep posting!!!</p>
<p>She has no problem auditioning if that is a requirement for the schools she ultimately applies to. It will probably be drama, however, even though much of her performing has been MT. She’s been moving in that direction in her performing over the last 2 years, though she still does predominantly MT.</p>
<p>I did not know that your D went to Stagedoor Manor! My D went there for 8 summers (16 sessions). She is now 20 and just graduated from NYU/Tisch. But she must have overlapped with your D the summers of 2004 and 2005. My D is very tied to her SDM friends. She even lives with one in NYC. My D grew up in a very small rural town in VT. I hope she has the best time at SDM! My student who is applying to Brown with the theater interest is at SDM this session actually. I did not realize when I was reading this thread that you are a SDM family. I had a student in the past from SDM who is now a rising senior at Brown and in theater there. Again, my own D (not the SDM one) attended Brown and LOVED it immensely and graduated from there a year ago (she did theater growing up but that is not her field). Brown is fab for theater. I hope your D has the best time at SDM this summer. You really ought to read the Musical Theater and the Theater/Drama Major forums on CC.</p>
<p>I cross posted with you. There are some BA theater programs that are by audition such as Fordham, Emerson (which also has a BFA), and American. If your D is undecided, a BFA program is not the best match. A BA path would be the way to go. Your D ought to seriously consider Northwestern. One of my students from this last admissions cycle who actually once went to SDM, is heading there in the fall. Northwestern’s BA is not by audition but they have a MT Certfificate program by audition after the first year which would be an option for your D.</p>
<p>She started SDM '04, third session, so if your D went to 3rd session, then they definitely overlapped. Last year was the only time she did 2 sessions–2nd and 3rd. She did Players Ensemble for the first time and that added a new element for her so she is hoping she will get in again this summer. She submitted a play for Dramafest and fingers crossed her’s is one of the ones chosen for production. [To one of the posters in this thread–she (we) love Wendy Wasserstein.] I wish SDM would do The Heidi Chronicles, but D says they don’t have enough parts in the play to do it. </p>
<p>Is there a magic formula for the whole college thing? Yeah–wishful thinking. I guess I hope that when the apps are thrown up the proberbial stairs that hers lands on the top stair of the school she wants. I know, I know. Better be a stable of schools!!! I suspect she’d be very happy at Brown, but the odds are what they are.</p>
<p>We plan to take a trip to Chicago and visit Northwestern. We know several kids who have gone and others who have done the summer Cherub’s program. Her HS gets a fair number of kids into Northwestern every year. Again, I wish that we’ll be able to do this when the kids are in session.</p>
<p>They didn’t overlap then in 2004 as my daughter went first and second session that year. When she first began SDM, she used to go second/third sessions. After four years, she switched to first and second session (long story which you likely could appreciate but won’t bore you here on the forum with the details but she HAD to switch sessions as she was going to be in a show at Lincoln Center that was during third session that year (she did not want to switch sessions…ya know how 13 year olds can be) but she did switch so she could take the job and have her NYC debut. Lo and behold as we went to performance weekend to pick her up after second session, we learned that the orchestra at Lincoln Center went on strike and all shows in August were cancelled and my D switched her SDM sessions for nothing! (she ended up staying all three sessions that one time due to this). Ever since then, she went first/second because that became the sessions when all her friends went. </p>
<p>Congrats on Players Ensemble! I have two students who got in it this session. My D used to be in Our Time Cabaret. Good luck on Dramafest. They started that after my D “graduated” from Stagedoor. A young girl from our home community had her play selected this session for Dramafest (she is 14). My daughter also is a writer and composer and her own original musical is debuting in NYC next week! Your D is gonna have a blast at camp but I’m sure you already know that.</p>
<p>I know several kids at Northwestern for theater and if you go when school is in session, let me know and I can likely hook you up to them (they all went to SDM). I also have had several students who have attended Cherubs.</p>
<p>Break a leg to your daughter!!! It sounds like she’s on her way! My D has never gone on professional auditions–well, she did go to an open audition for Thirteen–with–who else but a bunch of her SDM friends!!! How did your daughter like Tisch??? D has friends who do professional stuff, but my attitude was to get through school and if she still wants to do it, than to go to auditions on her own. I would not have been able to take her in and out of NYC non-stop. Her BF is continually driving from northern NE to NYC for auditions. He’s had some success, but when the job ends, it’s back to the auditions. He does school online. </p>
<p>Thank you for offering to connect my D with your students. I think that will be very helpful. The SDM connection is so powerful for these kids. It’s like the Yale “mafia” on Broadway. </p>
<p>We must be crazy being up at this hour!</p>
<p>Since we live in VT, and NYC is six hours away, my daughter only very rarely auditioned in NYC when she was younger. She did not go in like those who live closer for auditions. She had an agent. She was cast on her first professional audition there right before turning 11 and that job was perfect because she did it for two years for about two long weekends per year and she performed with various symphonies around the US and Canada and her final time was gonna be at Lincoln Center which was why she changed the SDM sessions when she was 13 (but it was cancelled in the end). But my daughter went to regular public high school and did her training and shows right here in VT (except SDM in summers) and the audition experiences in NYC were great in themselves and we did not pursue it that much as her life was here in VT. She got to do that professional job that was a great experience but it never really took her away from home. She also earned all the spending money she’d need for college from it. The highlight was performing at the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony. </p>
<p>My daughter loved Tisch. I have written many times about it on the MT Forum and so if you have a specific question, just ask me. It was the perfect fit school for her and she (and we as parents) cannot be more pleased with the education, training, and opportunities that she had there. She just graduated in May and is self supporting in her field! She also was cast within one week of graduation and signed with an agent. She chose NOT to audition for work during her four years of college (did not want to ever have to leave school), however and so began that journey immediately following graduation. </p>
<p>The SDM bonds are never ending. In fact, I just hung up with my D and she is seeing a play that a very close friend for years from SDM and who went to Tisch with her is in professionally in NYC tomorrow.</p>
<p>I’m just going to pop in here on the Stage Door Manor-fest and say that, if you go to visit Northwestern, you really ought to check out the University of Chicago, too. The theater program there is nowhere near as large, as glitzy, or as professional as Northwestern’s, but it definitely attracts a committed core of thoughtful, intelligent theater kids, and they seem to like it. (Not my kids, exactly, but a number of their friends.) Several of the recent graduates are supporting themselves (sort of) in theater. By the time your daughter begins college, the university’s spiffy new theater should be open and in use.</p>
<p>It’s not right for everyone – you have to have broad intellectual curiosity, good academic skills, and a willingness to be marginalized somewhat within the college community – but it’s perfect for some. I know you said your daughter had a bad impression of Chicago, but some students’ ideas about Chicago are more folklore than reality.</p>
<p>I’d love to see your daughter perform! Is she a soprano? My D is so undecided and sometimes I think fear of failure informs her thoughts of career in performing arts. She’s very good at everthing she does–except sports–just kidding!!! Theatre joke! From the day she got to Stagedoor she’s always gotten generally leads, never ensemble, and big roles in the two drama’s she’s done. On her very first summer, I told her not to expect to get the lead–or any “big” role, (she was only 11), and low and behold she got what was probably the most coveted role, however small, amongst the young 'uns. She also has a strong work ethic and that definitely helps with the director’s who appreciate that.</p>
<p>Soozievt,
What does it mean, under your username, that you are a CC College Counselor and MT Counselor? Is that for this forum? How does that work???</p>
<p>JHS,
It was on these forums that I was getting the impressions of UC and Swarthmore. I was reading posts of, what I believe, were students since it was in a thread where kids predominantly are posting.</p>
<p>What do you mean about the “the willingness to be marginalized” at UC? Do you mean theater kids are marginalized in the broader student community due to the academically-rigorous standards???</p>
<p>When we go to Northwestern, we will definitely visit UC.</p>
<p>efic,
My D is a mezzo soprano. Her forte is the belt voice. Are you in the NYC metropolitan area? For now, I don’t wish to post where my D is performing (she does have two shows in the city she’ll be performing in within the next ten days) and she is also going out this fall on a national tour as a lead. You can always click my name and go to “send email” if you are interested in who she is or where she is performing. </p>
<p>SDM is full of so many talented kids from around the country (and outside the country) and we never knew what to expect there coming from our rural neck of the woods, even though our child stood out locally. So, when she entered at age nine, we were shocked when she was cast so well there (and subsequently over the years) and also got into OTC from her first summer there. Attending SDM gave her some benchmarks of comparison with such a talented group of youth from all over, some of whom in later years, would eventually be applying to audition based college programs and she was able to observe older successful kids and have a point of comparison. </p>
<p>You asked about “college counselor”…yes, I am a college counselor who advises students and their parents on the college selection and admissions process for any field, though have additional expertise in theater and musical theater. I don’t post about that here and my posts here are strictly volunteering help and at other times as a parent myself. Posting on CC is not part of my job. It is not appropriate for me to discuss my work on the forum and so I prefer to not answer questions about my actual job ON the forum and so any questions of that nature should be private.</p>
<p>Thank you for clarifying! My D is a soprano. Belting is not her forte. I agree that there are many talented kids at camp and it’s a rich environment for kids interested in theater. I have, however, wished at times that they would make it an audition camp, because I’ve seen some plays, over the years, that were very “backyard.” If I paid the hefty freight to send my kid to a camp like SDM and she was cast in one of those plays, she would not have gone back. The play quality does vary, but 90% of the plays are excellent and I’m sure that’s the case with performing camps, in general.</p>
<p>Questions, some previous posters talked about ED 1 an ED 2 at come schools. What is the difference? I thought ED meant only one thing. Are there different degrees of ED???</p>
<p>When I say that UChicago theater students may feel “marginalized”, I mean that the 8-10 theater majors per class may sometimes feel out of the mainstream at a university where the most famous programs are in economics, other social sciences, classics, physics, math, and life sciences, and some students (not all, or even most, but plenty) may look down their noses at theater majors as engaged in something they consider trivial. I know for a fact that the theater majors are a smart, intellectual, dedicated, and hardworking lot, but I suspect that some of their classmates consider them bohemian slackers. Also, unlike Northwestern, the Chicago theater program depends heavily on the participation of non-theater students, who sometimes have other compelling demands on their time. Which of course makes things a little more frustrating and less professional than they might be elsewhere. But the theater program is quite vibrant, and the people in it get lots of chances to do good, interesting work, both within the university and outside it in the Chicago theater community.</p>
<p>There is a wide range of talent at SDM and a wide range of background experience as well. Usually those in the leads of the shows are very good but from time to time there can be a show that is not top notch. However, over the years, I have seen so many top notch productions there and have known many talented kids who have gone onto top BA and BFA schools for theater and many who have gone onto Broadway, National Tours, and other professional gigs in this field. What is so hard for me to get used to is that kids my D was friends with or in shows with (the majority of her friends at SDM were/are older than herself) are now cast in these professional shows. It is hard to get used to as it wasn’t too long ago that I saw them on stage at Stagedoor. I do not mind that the camp is not by audition. Also, they have Master Classes by audition (my D has been in Voice, Dance and Acting Master Classes there by audition) and then Our Time Cabaret and Players Ensemble are by audition and I have to say that OTC (which she did for 15 sessions) was one of the highlights of her summers at SDM and her closest pals were in that and so many of those kids have gone on to be a success in the theater world. </p>
<p>SOME schools have TWO rounds of Early Decision. For instance, Tufts does. For these schools, there is the first and typical round of ED (where apps are due Nov. 1 and decisions come out Dec. 15). But some schools offer a second round of ED in January (varies) and for those who are ready to commit to one school and be bound to it if accepted and who didn’t get into their first choice ED, there is this chance at some schools to put in for ED in a second ED round. Not all schools offer this at all.</p>
<p>I sounded like a snob about the auditions…sorry! The stand out play for me last summer was The Producers. Some incredible talent in that play! Of course the other thing that frustrates me is the stacking of the plays–so if I choose to see one of the must sees–I then have made the choice to miss another of the must sees because of the stacking system. I don’t like to sample plays. If I’m in one and it’s excellent, I ain’t movin for nuthin! I only saw half of Edwin Drood last year done in the new Oasis theater, but there was a ton of talent in that play as well! Yes, we will miss SDM if (did I just say if???) this is her last summer. You know how many parents say this is their kid’s last summer and there the kid is again the next?</p>
<p>I’m feeling that she needs to participate in a college theatre program, the 'ole college app thing…IDK…maybe I’m doing the wrong thing. Should I step back here and let her go back to SDM if she says that’s what she truly wants? We can’t afford to do both and many college programs overlap SDM’s anyway–which would preclude her from doing both?</p>
<p>JHS,
Thanks for UC explanation re: theater students. Ultimately, what I want my D to do is get a manageable list to apply to and the sooner the better. I know few parents who smile about the college app process. I want to get the information we need and move forward so we’re not overwhelmed later adding more pressure. The classes these kids take are already daunting enough. Adding in the college app process, the SATs…I know it will be crazy…</p>