Schools to look at

My son is only a sophomore, so we’re early in the process of thinking about colleges, but we’d like to take a couple college tours this summer to help him start narrowing down his search. He’s an average student, who loves both the tech side of tech theater, and computers. I think ideally he’d like a school where he could major in tech theater and have room in his schedule for a bunch of computer related classes, or do the reverse, and major in computer science or information technology and still take lots of tech theater electives, and work on shows. I’m thinking that this means a non-auditioned program where admissions to the university means admissions to the design/tech program? Is that correct?

If so, what are some programs we should look at? I’d love to start off with programs on the East Coast. I don’t need him to stay here for college, but since we’re still sorting out things like big/small, or urban/rural, I’d rather not pay for airfare just yet.

Here are a few big schools I’ve found that seem promising

Towson

Wright State

University of Rhode Island

West Virginia University (from looking at their website, it’s hard to tell whether kids in one school can take classes in other schools, and how easy it would be to transfer between schools)

I’d also love for him to look at some smaller programs. Does anyone have suggestions for schools to look at that meet these criteria?

I don’t know if NC is too far away for you but we loved Western Carolina University. They have great facilities and a solid BA Tech Theater program. They have a computer science degree but I don’t know much about it. It is in the NC mountains and is about 50 minutes from Asheville, NC.

Thanks! We’re in the DC area, so WCU is about the same distance as Wright State and URI, plus probably nicer weather for a spring break trip.

You may want to take a look at James Madison University too–strong program, amazing facility, and it’s a BA, so there’s plenty of opportunity to take courses in other departments.

Thanks! I think JMU might be a stretch for him academically, but we’ll check it out.

Are you in Virginia?

No, MD

Ah, okay. I PM’d you. You’re smart to start looking so early!

Thanks for the PM!

Does anyone have suggestions for small schools to look at? At this point, I feel as though we’re just sorting out the “big” issues, such as big vs. small, and urban vs. suburban vs. rural. But our list at this point is pretty much all big or at least biggish state schools. Any LAC’s or other small schools we should check out?

Take a look at Drew University in NJ. My daughter is a freshman there and is loving it! There are 400 freshman and the town this college is set in is beautiful. They give amazing merit aid. She was accepted to a BFA program but chose Drew over her #1 school because of it’s size and proximity to NYC. PM me if you have any questions.

I loved Davidson, which has a pretty strong LAC theater program, but I don’t know about the tech side. They were probably the nicest, most humane school we had contact with. (Also a no-debt, full-need school)

Greensboro College is a small LAC with a good Tech BA program.

Thanks Jke. . . and cjenny. We’ll look into those two.

When I plug “computer science”, “technical theater”, small school, east coast, and estimated scores into SuperMatch, I get the following:

Western Connecticut State University

Keene State College

Seton Hill College

Fitchburg State University

Davis and Elkins University

Has anyone heard of any of those?

Really Keene State? (I live ten miles away. I know they have a theater department and a nice performing arts facility, but I’ve never heard much about it.)

I was curious so I looked at the Keene State website and they have this list of theater department alumni: http://academics.keene.edu/tad/alumni.html

It’s not exactly CMU, but there are a few people working in the business.

Hi Befuddled, can I ask how you plugged in estimated scores as for a sophomore? My daughter is a sophomore and I’d like to do that SuperMatch. Thanks and good luck. Nothing to add except I’ve heard good things about Wright State, just met a few of their alumni on a no budget indie shoot a few weeks ago and they all spoke highly of their experience.

Well, it certainly wasn’t “science”. For G.P.A. I just put in his current G.P.A., his grades have been pretty steady so I felt safe doing that. For his SAT, our school publishes the range of test scores for both the SAT and our state tests. So, I took his state test percentiles and looked to see how kids at that point have traditionally done on the SAT, and I chose that number.

In addition, my goal here is really to look at safeties. My kid attends a school that’s very much a “pressure cooker”. It’s like college confidential in real life, where everyone is focused on getting into Harvard or similar schools. It’s done a number on his self esteem, but since it’s our local public school he’s kind of stuck. I really want him to see that he has options, and that there are schools that would love to have an incredible kid like him. I don’t want to take him on a tour and then have to say “but you probably won’t get in”, at least not at this early stage. So, once I figured out my “best guess” score for him, I subtracted 100, and I used that number. If it turns out he that he does better, and schools we thought were “matches” become “safeties”, that’s fine. I’d rather not have the reverse where we aim high and tour JMU or Davidson, and he falls in love and then finds out it’s not a realistic option.

Take a look at Coastal Carolina. Great tech theatre program, and it looks like several options for a minor in C.S.
http://cs.coastal.edu/index.php/academics/undergraduate-programs

Thanks, we’ll definitely look at Coastal. Do you know if he would still be able to take tech classes if he decided on a I.T. major or something like that? I have sort of been assuming that classes in the audition only majors are limited to those in the major, which is why we’ve been concentrating on non-audition schools, where I’ve been assuming it would be easier to blend the two subjects.

That’s a good question Befuddled. I’m not sure of the answer, but an email to Ken Martin would answer the question for you. Ken is the chair of the theatre department and a fabulous tech guy himself. His email is kmartin@coastal.edu. CCU also offers a non-audition B.A. in Dramatic Arts. I’m thinking that B.A.s could take tech classes so why not someone with a non-theatre major. It’s a great program so I would definitely send an email to Ken and ask what options your S might have!