<p>Thanks so much everyone! My poor disorganized head is dizzy trying to figure out portfolio/interview situations. Some U’s do come to Los Angeles (nearby), but others do not. </p>
<p>Anyone know kids who have attended Case Western in Theatre? It’s a school my S2 is considering. I stumbled into their website only to discover they have a Theatre weekend—starting in two days. (!!) Anyone of the kids you know attending?</p>
<p>OK – Just realized that I hadn’t posted since my daughter traveled to NY for her Artistic Review. In short, she is more enthralled than ever. She interviewed with one person (the head of Tisch Tech), and had a 2-way conversation for around 45 minutes. Sounds like it was very relaxed and personable and he really wanted to find out as much as he could about here. He only briefly looked over her portfolio, which I thought looked great, by the way! All in all, she felt very good about the whole experience and fingers are crossed that she will get in Early Decision with some sort of workable financial aid package. We know it’s a long shot, but she has to try, right?
So just this past week, she checked her spam folder on her email at midnight one night as she was finishing some homework. She found a note from the man she interviewed with as well as the head of Tisch admissions – in the SPAM folder! It came earlier that day and they requested that she submit her personal statement from her portfolio by the end of the next day (NY time!). She freaked out and stayed up until 3:00 am editing what I thought was a pretty good personal statement. It was sent electronically before the requested time, and now we wait.<br>
They say the decision will arrive before December 15th, but we have heard that Tisch notifies early decision as soon as December 1. Good thoughts, please!
Lisa</p>
<p>She is finishing her CCM app this weekend along with Univ of California (where we live). Next batch is Purchase, UNCSA, and the supplements to the Common App for Syracuse, DePaul, Boston.
I can’t wait until this part is over!</p>
<p>I apologize for crowing, but I need to brag and not too many of my friends will understand! My lovely daughter who has worked her rear end off has been accepted to Tisch Early Decision for Theatre Design and Production! We are overjoyed and are not really thinking about the $$ yet! One step at a time, right?
Thank you all for your advice and support and Happy Holidays!
Lisa</p>
<p>Congratulations to your daughter. What a great way to enter the holiday season. Best of luck with the financial arrangements and with the rest of the application/interview process. </p>
<p>Isn’t it nice to have a forum where people understand your daughter’s accomplishment?</p>
<p>Congrats to your D, hughesmove, on this achievement and the excitement of her first choice college coming through! Very exciting! I hope your D enjoys Tisch as much as mine did.</p>
<p>Wow hugesmove!! Hugs to your talented D. What an accomplishment! She must be on top of the world.</p>
<p>I haven’t posted here in ages, and I’m happy to report my S2 has 2 EA acceptances to date which gives all of us a lot of comfort at this stage, but they are more in the good university-with-Theatre-departments category than major Theatre schools like NYU. We’re celebrating a very good scholarship at Tulane and he’s also up for a theatre scholarship at Case Western. But he’s going to have several portfolio review/interviews coming up–one tomorrow and several in February and we can use any advice you’ve got to send.</p>
<p>madbean, congrats to your son too! He is sitting pretty with two fine acceptances going into the admissions season! That is a super position to be in!</p>
<p>Thanks soozievt! S2 has sort of tiptoed into the BFA applicant pool, not really sure how to blend his academic side with his creative side until very late in the game. We have been so lucky to have great CCers like you who have shared your knowledge.</p>
<p>Such an exciting time – I am really happy to share it here with people who “get it”! Congrats on the EAs, Madbean! We found out today the the financial aid package offered by Tisch is pretty darn good – one of the few benefits of my husband being out of work for 2 1/2 years, I suspect. So she can officially accept Tisch and start filling out many, many scholarship applications.
My 13 year old son offered her his bank account to help her pay for Tisch - “it’s her dream, Mom” – incredibly sweet gesture.
The holidays are a little brighter after a rough couple of years. Thanks to all of you for being around and offering such great advice – I will definitely “pay it forward!”
Happy Holidays –
Lisa</p>
<p>A second round of congratulations is in order! So glad that your daughter not only got an acceptance to her #1 school, but a FA package to make it all work. You can really enjoy the holidays now, along with the rest of her senior year. All the best to your family.</p>
<p>PhotonPhreak-I know that it has been said before, but I just want to say it again, NCSA has very few academic/GenEd classes. On the trimester system, all Design and Production students have 36 credits that we are required to take. Basically that means taking 2 classes every term for three years. I am currently in my second year at NCSA and I will be finished with my academics at the end of this school year.</p>
<p>Next year, with the semester switch, we have been unofficially told that the requirements for incoming students will be less strenuous that it has been in the past. The incoming students will have the same education as before, but with more time to sleep and eat. We still are unsure of what the academic requirements will be on the semester system, but we are told they won’t be much different than what is in place now.</p>
<p>Also, congrats hughesmove on your daughter’s acceptance!!</p>
<p>Congrats to all of your S/Ds with acceptances, great news! </p>
<p>madbean, FWIW, my S has mediocre stats but evidently impressed the profs at his portfolio reviews. They are offering him a tech-specific merit-based scholarship. (Will provide more details when things are firmed).</p>
<p>thelilodance, thanks for the NCSA GenEd update.</p>
<p>It seems that many of us and our S/Ds are considering BFA programs at schools where a $40K/year cost (before aid) is perhaps merely at the median. Consequently, it’s not inconceivable to be envisioning $100K or more parent & student debt, at least I presume for the majority who won’t get merit or need-based full-rides. So there’s a primary measure of the “cost”. </p>
<p>Of course there are many intangibles on the “benefit” side, but a quantitative measure is surely the income one expects from getting a BFA (sorta’ pushing aside BA for the moment). And on that count, one might check out the range of incomes for various tech-theater positions in:
[Mike</a> Lawler: Careers in Technical Theater](<a href=“http://www.mikelawler.com/book.html]Mike”>http://www.mikelawler.com/book.html)
As expected, there’s a wide dispersion, but solid median figures he cites (IIRC) are between $30K-70K/yr. Of course $70K is considerably different from $30K, so let’s consider $50K/yr for discussion. I wonder how you all would respond to the following:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Do you think Lawler’s figure is too low, i.e., has he averaged over everyone from the folks pulling cables in the local theater to the CMU LDs working in Hollywood, with the vast majority being the former? IOW, how much does a BFA (from a conservatory based program) influence this figure? </p></li>
<li><p>Do your S/Ds have significantly higher income expectations? Why? If not, what intangibles do they add onto the “benefit” side in rationalizing the incurred college cost (or do they care at this point)?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>If we were anticipating debt in the neighborhood of $100K, I would indeed feel compromised by the cost of my D’s education. Fortunately, she was offered sufficient financial aid to make her private university equivalent to the cost of a state university. Hopefully, you will have similar choices.</p>
<p>Similarly, we found it useful to compare her prospective earnings to the real alternatives. She was never going to be a doctor or an engineer and most likely would have majored in something like English or Sociology. I’m guessing this would have meant graduate school and then a job in some sort of non-profit with a starting salary of $30-40K. In comparison, a $30-40K job with just an undergrad degree looks pretty good.</p>
<p>My D does not have higher income expectations right now. She is more interested in making art and living La Vie Boheme. If she does change her mind, however, those possibilities exist. </p>
<p>Congrats to all on this year’s early acceptances.</p>
<p>Thanks GG and all. Just popping in to mention that UCLA has posted its online audition/portfolio review reservations today. Interesting fact: While reservations were only posted today 1/7, the L.A. auditions will be held 1/15-1/16. Cutting this a little close, right? Oh my. S got a time, so that’s good! </p>
<p>Just when we were relaxing about getting applications submitted, here come some interviews!</p>
<p>Who else is going for in-person design/tech theatre interviews? Any tips or advice from the experienced ones in the crowd?</p>
<p>Here’s some specific guidance from CCM for EACH of the tech subspecialties:
[TD&P</a> How To Apply](<a href=“http://ccm.uc.edu/tdp/apply.html]TD&P”>http://ccm.uc.edu/tdp/apply.html)
noting in particular the pointer: "Detailed portfolio requirements and suggestions can be found by following the program’s link on the left. "</p>
