Summer Programs - Discussion

College Majors Musical Theater Major
421

<p>Broadway Wannabe has given one student's perspective on the "freedom" at CMU and I'd like to give a parent's point of view.</p>

<p>My D, now a sophomore MT at the University of Michigan, did the CMU pre-college MT program in the summer of 2003 after her junior year in highschool. I found the supervision and security set up for the kids to be exemplary. There were strict rules for when the kids wanted to leave campus (in some cases permission forms had to be approved and signed by parents IN ADVANCE) and mandatory check-in/out at the dorm. Kids were not allowed to go in a car off campus but did have passes to use the Pittsburgh bus system with approval. I found the dorms themselves to be very secure with locked access to the floors and an attendant on duty in the lobby. There were supervised activities planned for almost every weekend and the kids could choose to go or not as they wished. ON CAMPUS they were free to walk around to attend classes, activities, go to meals, use the library etc. I really felt very good about my D being there. She had attended a residential summer ballet intensive the summer before that was highly structured and very closely supervised and CMU felt like a great "next step" and a wonderful short term experience in independent living. Previews of coming attractions, if you will.</p>

<p>I'm sure you've read lots about the quality of the MT training so I won't go into that in depth. I guess the best recommendation I can give is that as costly as it is, I feel it was worth every penny and I feel it made a huge difference in my D's approach to and success in her college auditions. We live about 5 hours from Pittsburgh, by the way.</p>

<p>Hope this helps!</p>

422

<p>Tell me if I am obsessing folks! My D failed gym first marking period so she thinks she needs to wait until the end of the next grading period (january22) to get her transcripts for summer programs. Her other grades are in the 90's. I am worrying that with CMU's rolling admission we will be late if we wait until the end of January. What are your thoughts.
Har</p>

423

<p>I just want to Ditto what TheaterMom said about her D experience at CMU. My D attended last summer and we had a very similar experience.</p>

424

<p>Don't worry about the gym. It will not be a factor in my opinion. If you remain concerned, call the CMU office.<br>
Last year, CMU didn't even have its app posted until the end of February. I gather it is up t his year (an improvement!) but I can't believe that even if yo waited until Jan. 22 that would be a problem.</p>

425

<p>A quick question for soozievt or anyone else whose child has gone to SDM: from the application online, it appears that there is no audition required. Is that correct?
My D and I were cruising around the Internet last evening, looking at summer programs and she navigated to StageDoor Manor, commenting that a friend of hers went there last summer. (Indeed, we found the girls' photo on a page where you can see pics from last summer's productions. This young lady was in the chorus of "Smile.") We checked out the application and it looks as if you basically just need to apply and pay in time. Is that right?
My guess is that once the campers are there, they audition for various productions and are cast. Is that correct?
LD</p>

426

<p>I also just finished looking at Ithaca College's three week, summer MT program. Anyone out there know anything about this one? It appears, from a cursory glance, that you just apply online. Could that be correct?</p>

<p>LD</p>

427

<p>"The downside for my D was that she really didn’t want to come home and was not happy to be back in high school this fall but the whole summer made her realize that she really wants this and has made her very willing to do everything and anything to make it happen" </p>

<p>I wrote a long post last week, talking about the down side of the CMU program, but chickened out posting it. Probably afraid that I was the only one that felt that way, or that I was just venting. But since someone else mentioned it, I wanted to throw in my 2c.</p>

<p>First, my Daughter loved the CMU Pre-college program. It was probably the greatest thing (beside boyfriend Greg) that every happened to her. And I don't regret sending her or spending the money for one minute. But there were some "side effects". (Disclaimer: None of these problems are CMU's fault. It is how my particular daughter reacted to the situation.)</p>

<p>We are a middle class family. About as "middle class" as you can get. And so are most of the people in our area. We cut a lot of corners so that we could provide our kids with the best when it came to things such as dance shoes, soccer gloves, lessons, camps and opportunities. CMU was the first time D had been around a lot of people that were much better off financially than we were. And she didn't know how to handle it. The final results were we had given her spending money, and she used most of it on a new wardrobe that we didn't approve of. She also ran up a fairly good credit card debt (on her card) that it took her a year to pay off. She just didn't know how to tell her new "friends" that she couldn't afford to order out as often as they wanted, or spend as much time shopping as they did. </p>

<p>As with the above poster, D did not want to come home. After CMU, she had very little patience with high school kids and their lack of commitment to the future. She also had very little patience of having to follow rules again. She had been on her own for six weeks, and did not like being a "child" again. An example: She decided she did not need to tell us when she was taking Advil. Without us knowing, she decided to cure a hamstring strain by taking three Advil, three times a day, on an empty stomach. Which is why we had her stomach scoped twice that year, checking for ulcers.</p>

<p>Looking back on it, her entire Senior year of high school reminded me of the summer after her Freshman year in college. Except she was only 17 and not really ready to be on her own. She just thought she was.</p>

<p>As I said, CMU was a wonderful opportunity. But I wish I had gone into with my eyes a bit more open.</p>

<p>Peg</p>

428

<p>Thank you, Peggy, for a very honest post about your D's experiences with CMU's precollege summer program. It sounds as if the whole thing was a growing experience in many ways for the whole family ..... and all growing experiences (or, at least, most of them) have their happy and painful bits! Certainly your D learned the hard way about accruing credit card debt! (I hear that many college students get deep into trouble with credit cards these days, so your D's experience may have been a blessing in disguise. She went into college knowing what NOT to do. That's a benefit, I would say, though I am sure you all didn't feel that way when you saw the bill come in.) In any case, thanks again for a reality check/heads up: I think your post will give some parents and kids something to talk about before the kids head out this summer to various programs.</p>

<p>LD</p>

429

<p>NMR -- Thank you for the encouragement. Despite the fact I've been here so long, sometimes it's hard to open up and admit that my kid's an handful and an idiot sometimes. Really makes me admire people like WildChild'sMom.</p>

430

<p>Notmamarose, (lol cute name btw) I went to Stagedoor last summer. I started a huge thread on Stagedoor last summer and Im sure if you search you can find it. In regards to your question, no it does not require an audition. You audition when you get there and they place you in a production. You do get to choose either drama or musical or both ( in which case they will probably put you in a drama). I am heavily considering receeding my place at SDM (sessions 2 and 3) so I know those will open up, as I am considering a pre college program at OCU and 3 weeks in Oxford instead. Btw who is your D friend? I went the same session they did Smile, I probably knew her. If you dont want to say on here you can pm me.</p>

431

<p>Peggy- it is a great help to hear all sides of the experiences of "those of you have gone before". I always have done best in my life when I can prepare ahead with as much info as possible. Your sharing will definetley guide our family as we set our expectations for next summer. Thanks again,
Harriet</p>

432

<p>Peggy,</p>

<p>That is one of the most honest posts that I have read on this site. Thank you very much. Sending my daughter to one a summer camp was completely out of the question financially for us. I, always, read with envy about the wonderful experiences these kids have had. But after reading your post, I know for sure I would have had an identical experience with my daughter. She hated her senior year of high school as it was, if she had that little taste of freedom beforehand, it would have been completely unbearable to have her around. Luckily, she spent the early part of senior year working on audition material and the later part on scholarships after her early acceptance. Thank you for making me see the other side. Now, I will stop questioning my decisions.</p>

433

<p>Defying Gravity - Glad you are considering OCU's summer program, as I was about to post about it.</p>

<p>NotMamaRose - I love your name, by the way! My son hates that I used his name in my screen name. I was going to suggest that you look into OCU's 3 week summer program which I have posted about several times before. If you look into the summer program thread about last July / August you will see quite a bit of discussion. I know there are many good programs out there, but I think this one has everything you would want plus more and at a reasonable price. </p>

<p>ocuMTinfo - If you see this, it may be good to have JoBeth post a link to the summer program web site on the thread with information on summer programs. I don't know how to do that. Thanks!</p>

434

<p>Yeah . My mom has emailed Jo-Beth as I have to (if Im going to) pull out of SDM but valentines day but she has not updated the site. Its still on Summer 2005. She said she will probably have the brochure done by Jan. How was your experince overall at OCU? Did you son audition for it/ get in?( the college I mean).Mtmommy pm'ed me about it and it sounded like her D. loved it.</p>

435

<p>Peggy
Thank you for your post. We too found that different camps dealt with the economic diversity of the kids differently. We have afforded to send our D to Interlochen because I teach summer school and she attends an arst school so gets 15 hours of dance and all vocal free. One of the good things about INterlochen is there aren't too many options to spend money and D was younger and could only spend what was in the account we sent. I am not sure how she would/will handle being somewhere where she can spend money.</p>

436

<p>Defying Gravity - Please send me an e-mail by clicking on my name and sending an e-mail to me rather than a PM. My PM's stay full, and I prefer e-mail, but yours is not activated. I'll be happy to share everything and answer any questions you have.</p>

<p>At my son's request, we are not currently sharing his auditions or acceptances on the public forum, but I will eventually post everything, whether positive or negative outcomes. I can assure you that things couldn't be better at our house right now. I'm very proud of him! He is modest about any success stories. We'll leave it at that for now. Write me if you want more!</p>

<p>I've been very open about how much we liked the OCU summer program. Go back to the summer program thread in July / August 2005 for details from me and from others. ocuMTinfo gave some really good update e-mails in July during camp. The program includes classes all day every weekday in all the MT areas and working on a fully staged show at the end (this work is done at night and on weekends). There were other planned activities on the weekends, so the kids were not bored, and they were not left on their own, either. They did not leave campus unless it was with a counselor or if it was a planned activity where they went as a group. They were so busy, I don't think they had time to consider leaving campus, anyway. It was an incredible learning experience and a fun time and the opportunity to make life long best friends who have the same interests. The faculty is the same as the ones you would have in college, and the counselors were experienced older students, all of whom were very personable. There were master classes with some of the famous voice teachers, and the rising seniors could pay a little extra and take private voice lessons (also a wonderful opportunity). I consider it one of the highlights of my son's life so far. To show what special friends he made, he left today to go to another city to spend the New Year's weekend with a couple of very special friends from OCU's camp.</p>

437

<p>Peggy,</p>

<p>I also want to thank you for that truly honest post. My d is applying to CMU's pre-college program as I have mentioned, and we are upper/middle class people. But not wealthy....at least not monitarily. My daughter has to contribute 1/3 the cost to be able to go and she has been working her butt off to be able to do it! She wants it that badly!</p>

<p>She has already been faced with the very wealthy friend situation since she started high school. She is in a performing arts high and most of her friends are doctor's children or just extremely wealthy kids. We have a beautiful home....but they all have monstrosities! Multi-million dollar homes with additional summer lake and beach houses that are still bigger than our home! I have seen her taste go up in clothes (calling me from the mall asking me if she should buy the $275 pair of Kate Spade shoes that were just fabulous....and me on the other end saying Don't you Dare, I don't care if you worked for the money or not!) I think it has taken a few years of being friends with these girls to realize she doesn't have to have all of that and they will still love her for her. She's a great person! I could see if her first taste of it was at a summer program, her falling into the same thing as your d. I think now, at least I hope now, she knows better.</p>

438

<p>hello.
new to this board. My 14 year old daughter has been in summer day programs, around Philadelphia area..but now wants to try the overnite ones.
I have been talking to Frenchwoods, and Stage door and another one in the Adirondacks (long.? something)..can't remember the name of it.
Comments? She is going by herself not with any friends and is NOT very competitive.. where will she be most comfortable. She is a good actress, an OK singer and dancer.
thanks for any input..i have to send my money in very quickly as they are filling up and she is going to do the 3 week course.
jan</p>

439

<p>Peggy- Another thank you for the very honest post about CMU. My daughter is thinking about both CMU and Northwestern for this coming summer. I guess my question now would be - when do the kids have the time to go shopping? Are they really given that much free time? The program my daughter attended last summer allowed some free time, but very little in which the students were allowed off campus. (It was considered an intensive program and there was a lot of rehearsing that went on during free time.) In reading about both CMU and Northwestern they sounded like very intense programs with little down time - but your post makes me think otherwise. I'd love to hear more from you or from others with CMU/NHSI experience as to what the free time/off campus experience was like and just how intense the program itself was.
Thanks so much.</p>

440

<p>In terms of the time for free time at CMU, I did not find tons and tons of time when I wasn't doing work, going to classes, and hanging out with people on campus. The only time people really did seem to go shopping would be on weekends. Of course we had a lot of work to do on the weekends, but people seemed to manage making time for both. </p>

<p>CMU was intense, but it definitely depended on how much you put into it. For example, there were many many optional workshops that went from 7-10 on evenings. If you attended them, then basically your only free time during the day would be an hour for lunch and an hour for dinner (classes go from 9-6 with a break for lunch). If you didn't attend them, then you had the whole evening to do whatever you wanted before signing-in. Also, since you weren't graded for your directing or playwriting projects, some people didn't put as much effort in as others who were really really into it. This isn't to say that there were slackers who never did work or anything, but there definitely were the people who were totally into musical theater and wanted the BFA and other people who just really really liked it as a big hobby. </p>

<p>I found it to be a really good balance of free-time and classes. I loved loved loved going to my classes and I was always sad on weekends not to have classes, but I also made some of the most amazing friends and just had a lot of fun hanging out with people and stuff (in fact, i just got home from having a reunion with my two best friends from CMU for 2 days!). </p>

<p>i would definitely call it intense......but it was good intense for me!</p>