So many colleges!

College Majors Musical Theater Major
1

<p>I've read a lot of posts on this site, and have studied a lot of the schools offering Musical Theatre degrees, but I was wondering if I could get some personal advice about colleges. </p>

<p>I'm a junior, soon to be senior, with a 3.552 GPA (3.364 unweighted.) I have taken GATE, AP, and Honors classes and am currently taking two AP courses. My grades last semester were all A's and B's, which, with the AP classes, made a 4.0 GPA. My goal this semester is to get above a 4.0 and I'm close to doing it. I will continue AP classes next year.
I've been in choir in high school 2 years, 6 years with and will be Choir President next year
I've been in workshop shows since I was 5, and I've been doing school musicals and community plays pretty much constantly for the past year. My confidence and skill level goes, from greatest to least, singing, acting, dancing. I don't take private lessons, but I'm attending the Theater program at the California State Summer School for the Arts this July-August.
I live in central California, and my family can't afford expensive tuition. We are also trying to avoid taking out huge loans. And I am searching for scholarships.
I want a program that contains intense training in dance as well as acting and singing. I'm looking for a BFA program, and a school that is less that 30,000 a year and/or gives out a lot of financial aid. I also want a program that's going to push me. I am willing to go out of state but I don't know where to start with out of state colleges. </p>

<p>Some of the colleges I'm looking at are:</p>

<p>California Institute of the Arts (BFA Acting)
UC Irvine (BFA Musical Theater)
CSU Chico (BA Musical Theater -as a safety school, they have no auditions-)
AMDA (BFA Musical Theater)
University of the Arts (BFA Musical Theater)</p>

<p>There are many many more outside of California that are well priced and are good programs, but there are so many that it's hard to even wrap my head around it...</p>

<p>I was just wondering if I could get some advice, any advice at all, because I've been surfing the site and the web for months, but it's getting so close to application time and I still feel like I don't know much about non-ultra famous schools and schools outside of California.</p>

2

<p>I believe that all of the schools listed below have reasonably well-respected BFA MT programs and all are under $30,000 per year for room and board with no scholarships:</p>

<p>Florida State* – strong dance reputation
University of Oklahoma
Sam Houston State
University of Wisconsin Stevens Point
Texas State
University of Central Florida
Coastal Carolina</p>

<p>If you qualify for a scholarship at a Texas school (Sam Houston and Texas State) then you get to pay in-state tuition, which drops the cost to under $20,000 per year.</p>

<p>The following schools would be under $30,000 per year with a $5,000 to $7,000 scholarship, and most of them are private schools that are potentially likely to award scholarships in that range:</p>

<p>Belmont $31K
Webster $34K
OKCU $35K
CCM* $35K
Elon $35K
Otterbein $36K
Shenandoah $36K
Point Park $36K
Penn State* $37K
Baldwin Wallace $37K</p>

<p>People will disagree, but I think FSU, CCM and PSU are the toughest on this list to get into.</p>

<p>Most of these numbers are for 2010 and generally only cover tuition, room and board, they do not include all fees, books, etc.</p>

<p>With good SAT/ACT scores and a GPA of higher than 3.5, you will probably have a solid shot at getting academically accepted at most of these schools, but you should look up the profiles for incoming Freshmen. I think that PSU, for one, is fairly tough to get into academically.</p>

<p>There are many more schools, of course.</p>

3

<p>With a 3.5 and 1300 SAT or 29 ACT you would automatically qualify for the President’s Scholarship at Coastal Carolina. For OOS that’s $7,500 per year. You could also qualify for a talent scholarship. Tuition, room and board for 2011-2012 is just under $30,000.</p>

<p>Best of luck with your search!</p>

4

<p>Here are some more solid MT schools that are under $30K for out-of-state:</p>

<p>Ball State
Wright State
Montclair State is right at $30K</p>

5

<p>Webster gives out great merit money. My D could have gone there for $21,000 a yr. Also check out Northern Colorado. Great up and coming program and I believe very affordable.</p>

6

<p>UArts will be about $46,000 for tuition, dorm and meal plan for the 2011-2012 school year. However, the school gives substantial merit/talent scholarships of up to $12,000/year (last year’s cap) plus need based grants and scholarships where applicable. There are also departmental and third party scholarships. Most students end up qualifying for merit scholarships at some level. Notification of awards is given at the time of acceptance.</p>

<p>My daughter was accepted, she received a 4 year $10,000/year university merit scholarship (which was the cap on university merit scholarships at the time - last year, for entering freshmen, the cap was $12,000/year). She received an additional 2 year departmental merit scholarship funded by a third party foundation at the beginning of her freshman year of $2500/year which was increased to $6000 for her sophomore year. So, while the initial price tag is up there, the many scholarships that are available can make a real difference.</p>

7

<p>Why don’t you put Muhlenberg on your list? It’s a non-auditioned BA, with a reputedly excellent theater program, and gives merit aid (Presidential Scholarship totals $20,000 / year and there are a few lower ones as well), plus students can audition for talent aid. </p>

<p>You shouldn’t have a list that is all audition-based anyway.</p>

8

<p>Please pay attention to MichaelNKat’s post that the price tag for a college is not necessarily the final price tag you will pay. Many colleges and many BFA in MT programs offer scholarships. Don’t rule out applying to schools that cost more than your budget because it could turn out that the final price you owe after scholarships at a more expensive school comes in within your budget. My kid attended a very expensive university (NYU) for close to your budget.</p>

9

<p>James Madison University in VA is an auditioned BA Musical Theatre program (if you are looking to have some BA schools on your list). The OOS Tuition/ Room/ Board is under $30K. There are some academic/ talent scholarships available as well.</p>

10

<p>Texas State has a very strong, up-and-coming Musical Theatre program. Robin Lewis, a long-time Broadway veteran, is running the dance program there, he’s awesome. OOS’s who are accepted into the MT/Acting programs are automatically awarded a $1,000 talent scholarship, which qualifies them for in-state tuition rates. So total cost, including room & board, for 2011 at TSU is just over $15K – plus, it sounds like you’d qualify for an academic scholarship as well, which could knock off another $2k or so/yr. Also note with regard to CCM, most of the scholarship money comes from the Cincinnatus scholarship competition, and it appears that you would probably qualify for it. But be aware, in order to be invited for the competition (and thereby qualify for an academic scholarship) your COMPLETE application, including transcripts, recommendations, test scores etc., must be received by CCM by 12/1. Otherwise, you won’t get any other academic scholarship, and they generally don’t award a lot of talent $$$ either.</p>

11

<p>My D attends Marymount Manhattan College which is a very intense BA program. The 2011 -2012 cost of attendance is just over $38K. You would qualify for the $8K per year academic scholarship based on your grades and when you audition you have a chance for an additional $1K-$4K per year in talent money. This would bring your total cost to less than $30K per year.</p>

<p>Good luck putting your list together and let us know if you have any questions.</p>

12

<p>musicaddict152: here are some BFA MT schools that:</p>

<ol>
<li> Are “non-ultra famous”</li>
<li> Cost less than $30k per year (in most cases, far less)</li>
<li> Do two mainstage musicals each year</li>
<li> Some are located in nice towns, scenic spots, etc. (ok, one is in Buffalo :))</li>
<li> Have some really nice features like dedicated Freshman performance opportunities, ties to Shakespeare Festivals, etc.</li>
</ol>

<p>East Carolina $26k
Kent State $26k
Minnesota State/Mankato $20k
Missouri State $20k
Northern Kentucky $20k - lots of performance opportunities for Freshman
Northwestern State $20k (Louisiana) - strong dance emphasis, historic town on a lake
Southern Utah $20k - summer Shakespeare Festival and mountain bike capital of the world…
SUNY Buffalo $28k - lots of part time job opportunities shoveling snow (just kidding)</p>

<p>Also Central Washington $20k, but I don’t think that they do two mainstage musicals per year</p>

<p>Now, not all of these institutions have NYC showcases, a long list of alumni on Broadway, nor are they located in areas with lots of post-graduate professional theater performance opportunities.</p>

13

<p>^^^^ I forgot to mention that Northwestern State in La. is actually a BS MT school, not a BFA. However, it is the Center for Excellence in the Arts for the University of Louisiana System and has a strong emphasis on dance in the program.</p>

14

<p>One California school you don’t have on your list, and offers excellent training is Cal State Fullerton.</p>

15

<p>Cal State Fullerton might be tough to get into right now as they are giving local students priority.</p>

16

<p>Suny Cortland BA MT, also strong dance emphasis, Freshmen can audition for main stage shows, same price as Suny Buffalo. $20,000 for NY residents $28,000 for out of state.</p>

17

<p>Another, and probably the best, SUNY school is Fredonia - same costs as the other Suny schools. SUNY Buffalo typically does one mainstage musical and one black box musical a year. In your search please be aware of the continuing massive and destructive cuts to higher education in Florida, New York, and Wisconsin.</p>

18

<p>Wow there is some great info here about school costs! Just wanted to add that on the Shenandoah University website there is a scholarship and aid estimator that I found to be pretty accurate. My academic scholarship came out only $500 less then what the estimator there showed given my academic stats and SAT scores. Some students also can get a talent scholarship on top of the academic award.</p>

19

<p>Also Otterbein gives very good academic awards. I think I got a $16,000 academic scholarship and my SAT scores were nothing special. It is a very hard program to get into though as they take a class of only 8 or so. Last year there was no application fee however and they do travel to unifieds so the financial cost of auditioning and applying was very minimal. Plus I really enjoyed my audition experience with them. They were very kind and asked a lot of interesting questions.</p>

20

<p>MTDOG- add California to that list of states with massive cuts. It is definitely affecting what few MT programs we have here, as well as the amount of available financial aid!</p>