<p>I am currently a junior in high school... And as I look forward to pursuing theatre I wonder how my grades, GPA, SAT/ACT scores will actually affect me in the acceptance process. I recently visited NYU and AMDA and was told at NYU it was a 50/50 thing and at AMDA they basically just want to make sure you graduated high school. I know the qualifications vary from school to school. My cumulative GPA is somewhere between 3.4-3.75 I am not quite sure (and that is a wide range)... But if anyone has any information or experience concerning how your academic record affected someone's placement in pursuing a BFA musical theatre degree, I would love to hear it. Is it something I really NEED to worry about if I have the talent?... etc, etc. and everything else this topic concerns.
thanks.</p>
<p>The thing about this is, good grades can't necessarily help you, but bad grades can hurt you. If you are interested in NYU, definitely take grades seriously, because they do take them into account and I know several people who were great actors but had low SAT scores and grades, and so they were not admitted. At certain places like CMU I've been told that they will overlook low grades in sciences or math, but they look at English and history classes to see if you are a motivated enough student to do well there, not necessarily just to see if you are good at those subjects. I say, you don't have to kill yourself trying to achieve 100% straight A's and a perfect score SAT, but it doesn't hurt to show the schools that you are motivated and want to learn.</p>
<p>Most schools (mainly conservatories) I have talked to said they can override the university's decision to reject someone based on grades if they want you in their program. Of course, they may not accept someone who has very poor grades in school. I'm sure a 3.4-3.75 is more than fine. I have been accepted academically to all of the schools I have applied to (including Elon to my surprise :D) with a 3.51 which fell down to a 3.46 last semester. But none of that really matters if you don't get into the schools artistically (which so far hasn't worked out for me)</p>
<p>I agree with freedom_fri911--a lot of schools seem to have lower expectations for grades. That said, it's my observation that colleges in general this year have been going for SAT scores over grades. I know people that can't get into state schools with 3.5 GPA's due to lower SAT's, and people with 3.1 GPA's and high SAT's getting into universities in the top 50 of USNEWS. So, your GPA sounds good, and aim for a high SAT.</p>
<p>NYQ12, as you've noted, it really can vary from school to school. With respect to audition based programs, academic profile can play a minor role, even at schools that otherwise are highly regarded academic institutions (CMU is an example) or it can play a major role to the order of 50% of the admissions decision at other schools where you must separately be admitted academically by the admissions office and based on your audition by the MT department (such as NYU and Emerson). The common denominator at all programs that require an audition is that it doesn't matter what your academics are if your audition doesn't get you accepted by the department. That being said, obviously, the better your academics are, the more of an advantage you will have at schools that do weigh academics if a decision is being made between you and another student who scored about the same in the audition. Also, at schools that do weigh academics, if you don't meet their academic standards, you will be rejected academically which will result in an overall rejection by the school regardless of your audition scores.</p>
<p>With respect to non-audition programs, academics count as they would for any student applying to any other program or major. The better your academic profile, the better your chances.</p>
<p>In addition, academics can play a significant role in receiving merit scholarships regardless of the type of program. Very often, most of the merit money is available through a school's admissions office and not through the department.</p>
<p>From what I can gather it depends upon the school. However, many schools will be more academically lenient towards their prospective MT majors; there are a lot of really talented people who didn't perform well in high school. Since your GPA is well over a 3.0, I wouldn't worry, because 3 seems to be the magic number for most schools.</p>
<p>My daughter is currently in a school show and is panicked that her grades are going to suffer. The school, although they have an amazing performing arts dept., does not give any slack to kids in the dept. expecting these teens to be super human. The show falls on the last week of the quarter and there are exams every day. I am trying to convince my D that she's OK with her grades and she won't have trouble getting to the audition process based on her academics. She has over a 3.5 unweighted and over a 4.0 weighted. Her SAT's are currently 1230 M and E and a 650 in writing. Her ACT's are a 27 composite with a 31 in writing. All her high school classes are honors with one AP in her Junior year. She plans to take 2 more AP in her Senior year. Does anyone have a solid feeling toward her ability to get into UMich, Carnegie Mellon, Emerson, NYU-Tisch if her auditions are successful. I know that these grades not cut it for a BA at those schools but I understand the BFA programs are a little less difficult to be accepted into. I have heard of people getting past the audition but not being strong enough academically.
Any info would be helpful.</p>
<p>Pohsomom - FWIW, my D had similar grads and stats compared to your D and passed the academic review at UMich and was accepted at NYU. That said, even though it is true that BFA programs may be somewhat less difficult to get into academically, her grades should not take a major hit, as colleges prefer to see an upward or steady trend rather than a dip in grades, especially junior year.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, like a wise mom told me last year, most of the kids our kids compete with are in the same boat, lots of training, extracurriculars on top of academics, and their schools do not cut their kids any type of slack either. So it becomes a "game" of who knows how to multi-task, keeps all the balls in the air, and also who knows when to pull back. To the point for example of skipping school shows senior year altogether in favor of auditions, SAT's and maintaining grades. </p>
<p>Try and see if she can work ahead in some of her classes, bring work to rehearsal and 'have mini study groups with fellow classmates during breaks etc.</p>
<p>I have been told that CMU requires less academically from BFA candidates than from other students. If your D gets through the audition successfully, her grades should be enough to be accepted there.</p>
<p>Yes, grades alone cannot get you into a BFA program. Without significant enough talent to stand out and show the faculty you are capable of being successful, one has a slim to none chance of being accepted.</p>
<p>Talent is crucial but grades are important too. My d has a 3.4 and only a 22 on her ACT. She does well in school but does not excel. She has been invited into a couple of great programs so far this year (still waiting to hear from many of them)but I wish we would have encouraged her to do better in her grades and had not taken the "these are good enough" attitude. For one thing she couldn't audition at some schools. Also, the academic scholarships offered are significantly less. So, yes, talent and decent grades will get you into a lot of schools, but excellent grades and talent open more doors.</p>
<p>The admissions coordinator at one conservatory told us they don't expect "arts" kids to be academic achievers. They understand that these kids are differently abled. Another conservatory told us they don't look at SATs at all. My D does well in school but her SATs are average, but still she's getting academic money, which is nice. </p>
<p>I think the schools that require academic acceptance before scheduling auditions are trying to keep the numbers of auditions doable.</p>
<p>Skwidjymom -
"The admissions coordinator at one conservatory told us they don't expect "arts" kids to be academic achievers." ??????
OUCH - that statement is so NOT true!! A mere generalization. In fact studies disprove this. Would that apply to those talented Northwestern students? What about all who studied so hard to achieve their best SAT's & GPA's, and where rewarded with academic as well as talent scholarships?
UMich is the only school I can think of that required an academic acceptance prior to auditioning - I'm sure they didn't think our "arts" kids to fall into that negative statement.
I would hope that the person(s) making such a statement were corrected and educated. GRRRRRRR - :-)</p>
<p>We were told that by a rep from Shenandoah working a performing arts college fair booth. An admissions rep from U Arts told us at the info session that the average SAT is 1060. NYU said they sometimes fight for talented kids who have lower stats, but they are not always successful. </p>
<p>This leads me to believe that there is hope for weaker students with talent if they pick the right schools. But if at all possible, get those graades up so that an NYU rep doesn't have to "fight" for your admission, but can confidently pass your name on to the academic "audition panel" & expect good news.</p>
<p>Skwidjymom - I do realize that you don't specify what conservatory told you this, but I will share this experience: - I remember visiting a BOCO booth at a college fair a few years ago, and was quite surprised to learn that an applicant with a GPA of 2.7 would be perfectly acceptable (as informed by an admissions rep when I asked what baseline GPA BOCO was looking for in their applicants). </p>
<p>I since learned that although that may be the case on paper, many academically strong students opt to go to BoCo for their excellent training. </p>
<p>With all the competition that goes on, I would steer clear from assuming that there are schools that actually embrace really low academic standards, even at conservatories, that have such a wide array of talented and bright kids to pick their class from nowadays. There is no question that one would have to be exceptionally talented to get accepted with sub par grades. It is true however that some schools are definitely known to put more emphasis on academics than others, but they are quite upfront about that too, and so you can avoid those if you have to. </p>
<p>Mainstage - I actually even recall some studies that performing arts students' grades tend to be quite strong :), due to different "brain/hearing training". My D even wrote a research paper about that for one of her science classes :).</p>
<p>Mainstage, I am just repeating what was told to an auditorium full of parents by the director of admissions. How can a study disprove an opinion?</p>
<p>Aren't all of us really good at some things and not so good at others? Language is my stock and trade and will pay my kid's way through MT school, but math brings my brain to a screeching halt. Do we expect star athletes to excel academically? Sure, many of them do, but aren't we surprised when it happens?</p>
<p>LOTS of MT kids get good grades. SOME MT kids have learning differences (I have sat beside their parents). SOME MT kids devote so much time to MT that their grades aren't as good as they would be if they concentrated on academics. SOME schools weigh auditions more heavily than grades. Agreed?</p>