@uostate13 I actually thought before reading your posts here today, that by your posts on the CMU thread, that you had already decided on Carnegie. They told us we would hear about financial aid today, so I am nervously checking every hour. If they don’t budge, all this discussion will be moot. If they budge a little, do we let her take out loans to make it work since she seems to want to go there so badly? We still don’t know. If we both decide on CMU, I will have to give you my daughter’s email so they can talk.
Does anyone have unbiased, honest opinions about these schools and their theatre design programs?
She had 90% decided on CMU - and then really kind of waffled after the visit, and then even more after BU. She now has become a bit ambivalent, all that effort and passion about the process - and now she just isn’t excited at all. She feels kind of let down overall but can’t really explain it. Her expectations might have been unrealistic, thinking everyone and everything was going to be perfect and electrifying, she had envisioned a ‘Broadway’ world within an academic powerhouse at CMU, and it really didn’t feel all that different than any other school we visited. Weird. Will keep you posted and I am sending you her contact info as a PM.
Ladies - I can’t remember where you said you were located, but if you can get to BU on May 4, they are having the BFA/MFA Design & Production 2015 showcase. Also a few of the design students are listed under the showcase info, and I know nothing about computer work as it pertains to theatre design but there seem to be some references to computer design programs (example 2D and 3D AutoCAD 2014, and Vectorworks 2014). Again - I don’t know what I’m talking about - LOL! I would say again, that it sounded like @bearlife got a sorry guide for her and D’s tour and if that student wasn’t happy for some reason they could bad mouth the program - that is only one person’s take, remember. And to TOTALLY throw you again, we have a friend who is at CMU for scenic design and loves it - he has done some things at CMU but also keeps his contacts in this area and works at theaters around us. As far as the kids doing “too particular” tasks, I guess that makes sense to me as the kids need to learn all aspects completely, nest-ce pas? Last thing - NO, this is not an unbiased opinion!!!
My D didn’t end up applying to BU mostly because we just could not get back there for an interview, and she didn’t want to do a Skype interview. I’m sure it’s a great program, and we were there in the summer when not a lot of students were around. She actually has a cousin and his family in Boston, and it would have been nice knowing she would have someone to turn to in time of need. Should we have applied to BU? Probably, but it’s expensive to apply everywhere. Our guide didn’t bad mouth her school. She said it was a good program, but she didn’t say everything was absolutely rosy either like the professors seem to do. She just seemed tired!
Wow both of your girls have some tough decisions to make! All great programs! My husband is a BU alum and he absolutely loved being in Boston. He loved the school, he loved everything. We looked at the program there for my daughter, but she wanted to do straight costume right away and wasn’t thrilled with the theater tour (We were there in JULY, not the best time to find people to chat with). She also didn’t have the opportunity to meet with any costume people and she simply didn’t apply. She applied to Emerson instead and got in there. (But didn’t get any aid at all so that was a no go). However EVERY SINGLE student that we spoke with about the BU theater LOVED the program and highly recommended it. They also got help with internships in Boston and outside of the city.
CMU seems very interesting to me. When my daughter interviewed there she was VERY interested in how they helped with internships as they help make the connections that you need after school. They said that they do NOT help their students with internships and that it’s entirely up to them to find them. That turned her off big time. She also felt that they waffled a lot around the same questions that you’re all asking: BFA/MFA differences, who gets to work on more shows, etc. There were no straight answers there. However, because everyone wants to go there, maybe they don’t need to be?
NYU is known world wide for their programs. It’s just the NY thing. If you love being in a vibrant city atmosphere than it might be for her. My d’s close friend is at Pace and they’re similar in that the kids work on their own, but have plenty of support and help with finding connections to shows to work on as well as internships. It can be a fantastic experience is NY is where you want to be. Hang in there ladies!! We were going crazy between 3 schools for a while and it’s hard. They should go where they feel the warmest vibe. Chatting with current students helps. Faculty can be more biased than a student would be for sure. I’m sitting here just waiting to hear about the decisions!!
We just learned about the internship thing at CMU yesterday. That is disappointing to me. Whatever we decide, I’m beginning to think we’ll always wonder what if we had gone in another direction. After today I’m even wondering if we should have applied to BU! My D also got into emerson, but we also didn’t get very good aid. The head guy at TCU just called her again for the third day in a row telling her that no one wants her to go to their school more than them. I can’t talk her into wanting to go to school thirty minutes away from home though. BIG UPDATE: CMU increased their aid just now to make it much more affordable. She would still need to graduate with some loans, but not a hugely burdensome amount. Now we really need help-CMU or NYU?
Bearlife - Good luck with getting a truly unbiased opinion! I think your D has two wonderful options. I don’t know as much about CMU as I do about NYU as I couldn’t get my D to look there (and honestly, my DH wasn’t interested either, which didn’t help), but I’ve heard good things about it. What a great problem to have, really!
Bearlife and Upstate: Please keep us updated on where your DDs land. Such an exciting time, even though it is stressful!
My D is still leaning toward Carnegie. She still feels like it will give her better job opportunities. Also, at many of the other colleges she went to, they often brought up Carnegie Mellon like that was the standard they were trying to live up to. Of course, now when she actually has to decide, everyone says their school is the best. She feels that she would enjoy NYU more. If our aid stays the same all four years at CMU, she will still have about $25000- $30,0000 in student loans all together. Probably about half that at NYU. I know the scholarship at NYU will stay the same all four years, but I’m afraid of it decreasing at CMU since she will be our only kid in college after next year. My husband will also be retiring which will decrease our income, but those numbers wouldn’t show up until the next year’s FAFSA. I know that the aid at Carnegie doesn’t stay the same every year, which is troubling to think about. Too much to think about.
I have a d at NYU (in an acting program) one of the things about being in the city are all the opportunities to see professional theater. My kid has seen something (bway, off, fringe- you name it) at least once a week all year- and says this has been an education in and of itself. Student discount tickets make this affordable- it’s rare for her to spend more than $15-20. (Not always “great seats” but they are in the theater!)
I have no doubt that my D would love New York. She and I were both wondering if there are too many distractions.
I am sure NYC has opportunities for distractions - but to be honest, my kid finds the biggest distractions in college come from friends dropping by while she is trying to work (which could be true on any campus) rather than city life
bearlife, not to make your (bear)life more difficult, but did you find out about the high attrition rate (~50%) in theatre design at CMU? For instance,18 new freshman BFA designers start but only 8 or 9 were still there to get their degree. That red flag was hard for us to understand and reconcile. I asked the department at the time, but felt I was getting vague excuses. (kids change their minds, etc), when we were worried it was more dissatisfaction with the classes req’d for the program, less opportunities to design shows, steep competition among UGs for design spots vs. MFA, and (real worry for us), less FA as the years go on. We were also concerned that the atmosphere in the program seemed troubled since a lot of attrition meant close friends and classmates were dropping like flies. (just joking!!) Were you able to get direct answers about this? And the student my S emailed with (and spoke with), said he and friends felt stifled for the first 3 semesters–he thought his time in those courses was paying dues and many didn’t want to stick it out. Since my info is 4 years old, and so much may have changed, I hope your D can talk to a current student to get the real insider story, and please share it here if/when she does. My S loved CMU for many reasons, but apparently too many design kids were unhappy back then.
@madbean Where did your son go? I asked the head of the department about kids dropping out and he acted like he had never heard of such a thing. Right now my daughter refuses to hear anything negative about CMU, and when I bring up these points, she thinks it’s me being unreasonable. The FA thing is scary. The extra money they gave us would disappear when she is the only child in college after next year. Then we would be back in the same boat. It is the only college that we are dealing with that doesn’t make your aid renewable (at least not grants). She’s been begging me all day to commit there, but I’m not ready to do that yet. She’s tried to email a couple students there, but they have not responded.
I don’t think that is true about the FA/grants. These are based on your CSS profile and EFC - all things remaining equal you should get the same amount. All schools will adjust based on the number of kids in school and changes in income - not just CMU. I specifically asked about this as we have the same situation. We have emailed the Scenic Design professor also about the attrition rate, hopefully that just isn’t a trend that is still continuing. But we all certainly need to know, and that data actually should be available.
The aid at all the other schools is scholarships not based on financial need. CMU’s is mostly based on Fafsa so if she decides to go there, I’m hoping they will do what they can to keep her there financially.
bearlife, my S went to USC. He wanted to double major in film and scenic design/theatre so it was a good match, although at the time he was unsettled to turn down CMU, for sure. He also got generous merit grants at USC, so (like many of you) we were concerned about the older sib graduating and it affecting our FA, which wouldn’t be a worry with merit aid. If the money were the same, I think it would have been a harder decision, at the time. But now, with 4 years of hindsight, he would say USC offered him the sorts of opportunities he now realizes were key for him. Few kids can know as HS seniors what will really suit their evolving career goals (if they do evolve at all), so it is always a leap of faith. With so many good choices, your design kids will be fine no matter which school they choose. They will make friends, learn a tremendous amount, work and build portfolios. The money (if there is a significant difference and a need for loans) may be less fine. I wish you all luck in this decision, and I hope your kids are as happy as mine turned out to be.
@bearlife have you thought about just letting her go for a year and see how it goes? I can completely understand your apprehension, especially with the aid issue. However, if she loves it, it may be worth it. Will CMU award merit aid after their freshman year if they do well?
I’m a current hs junior and I plan on applying to the BFA scenic design programs at a few of the schools discussed in this forum. I plan on getting my portfolio together this summer and I was wondering what I should include/exclude. I have have tons of design projects and a few actually realized designs under my belt. My “artistic” drawing skills aren’t the best but I am great at technical rendering and drafting. I express most of my designs through scale models because I’m really good at them but those aren’t easy to bring from interview to interview. Also any information about the interview process at these schools would be great. I will probably be attending Unified auditions in New York since that’s most convenient for me. The specific schools I’m really looking into right now are UNCSA, CMU, Purchase, DePaul, and Pace.
@TheatreTrix you are looking at almost every school that my daughter applied to, save for UNCSA. She will be a costume design major at DePaul in the fall. She had a pretty extensive portfolio with renderings that she turned into actual clothing, hats-examples of her work. I would take pictures of your scale models along with including the renderings/draftings that you created prior to making the model. I don’t think that it matters that you aren’t the best artist, what matters is what you’ve created from your ideas. On each website you will find a portfolio list of things that they look for. Here’s DePauls as an example: http://theatre.depaul.edu/conservatory/undergraduate/scenic-design/Pages/interview.aspx They look for different things in each discipline from what I understand. I just know Costume. As far as auditioning, all that I’ve heard from my daughter is to know your info on each school (because they’ll quiz you a little), why you’re interested in their program, your creative process, etc. Just be you and show them why you want to be a scenic designer through your knowledge and the things that you’ve created. My D also said that they like to hear about your other interests and how they might influence your art. This is from her as I’m the ‘mom’. 
Good luck with the process. It’s crazy but in the end very rewarding.