So my DD has an amazing desire to go into musical theater…she has been performing for so many years and now the time to apply has come and she’s strongly telling us she wants to take a year off after high school and during that time use it to travel to schools and apply then.
Does anyone have any wisdom about the inclination for Musical Theater schools/programs to allow this or disallow this? Does it have any impact on acceptance or possible scholarships? Any thougthts would help.
Thanks.
This is referred to as a GAP YEAR and schools don’t allow or disallow it. It is common. Some colleges, like Harvard, even encourage it!
Taking a gap yer will have no impact on admissions or scholarships.
If your D takes a gap year, she should devise some concrete plans of how to use the year in worthwhile ways. On the Common Application, where an applicant can add something extra, a statement about her gap year would be good to include.
Be aware that if you happen take some college classes at a community college (for example) during your gap year, it can work against you - if you accumulate more than a certain number then colleges may require to apply as a transfer or a “freshman-transfer” which can lower academic merit scholarships (in some cases reductions can be quite significant). The number of hours varies, but I think some schools will qualify you as a transfer or “freshman-transfer” with as few as 12 hours.
As soozievt pointed out, it is a fairly common practice, especially for students who do not get the results that they desired during their first try at auditioning for college theatre programs.
My own daughter decided early on in the audition process that if she did not have an outcome that she was sure was the right “next step” for her, she would take a gap year to focus fully on the process next year. She said that she honestly felt that it would be beneficial to dedicate all of her time, energy, and focus on the entire process without everything else in school her high school year added on and knows others who have done just that.She pushed as she felt ready as she will actually turn 19 right before college starts. She told me that if she had been a 17yr old graduating senior, she would have not been ready and would have definately taken a gap year to prepare.
Also, the incoming MT class at the school she will be attending has quite a variety of students coming in from different backgrounds ranging from traditional 1st year freshmen, current freshman transferring in, to older students.
My D graduates high school tomorrow, and is about to embark on her Gap Year (I prefer to call it a Growth Year.) I plan to update periodically on how it’s going. We are optimistic and hopeful-but it’s a little scary, and not at all what we thought we would be doing in '17/18.
Thank you…your feedback has been so helpful. I think that might be the route we go. She definitely is not ready to go away to school and probably could really use that extra year. Thank you for your thoughts.
Gap years can definitely be beneficial if used wisely! If you read through the multiple posts on this board a lot of kids take a gap year - or auditions didn’t go the way they had hoped first time around and they took a year to improve on their craft, took more lessons, classes, worked and saved some money. If you are not ready or sure, it doesn’t make sense to spend all the $$ on applications/travel etc - it is a very expensive process!