<p>Let me start by syaing we loved our visit to Temple. The campus, despite being in the philly underbelly, is incredible. The campus is beautiful and unique and i’d feel safe with my son there. Our only drawback is the MT program. MT students major in 3 things, singing, acting and dancing. All the big MT schools have combined the best of those programs into their MT BFA. Temple doesnt have a BFA because they havent combined. Their Boyer School of Music is one of the best in the country. But when you look at the MT classes, they are given “voice for non-music majors”! Seriously? How is singing anything BUT part of his major?! Singing is their whole livlihood! We’ve even cosidered applying for Boyer under vocals and minoring in their acting program. But there are lots of better schools that HAVE combined their programs, and are giving their students the best they have to offer. Temple does not. Its rather disapointing too, because it HAS such potential. Just look at the number of threads on this website for Temple in MT. No one’s talking about it becuase no one is sending their kid there. </p>
<p>@pghmusician As someone who does send my kid to Temple and knows many others who send their kids there, I can say you are greatly mistaken. MT students do take voice through Boyer ( you seem to be ranting about the name of the course). My daughter’s voice teacher at Temple is an accomplished professional. MT students have dance though the theater department and are able to take classes through Boyer as well. And I don’t think the number of threads on College Confidential is any indication of the strength of a program. Not everyone is on a college forum on a regular basis. If you would like some real information, just let me know.</p>
<p>I would love some real facts @persevere. And my comments were based on Temple’s undergraduate bulletin for MT students. Which can be found here. <a href=“Bachelor of Arts in Theater < Temple University”>Bachelor of Arts in Theater < Temple University.
Here are the FACTS that the University advertises:
- “Voice Class: Individual half-hour private lesson for students outside the College of Music who have reached at least an intermediate level of achievement.” ~The seems pretty definitive and real to me. You are correct, none of the required Dance classes are taken through the Boyer School of Dance, they are taken through the theatre dept. Just compare the courses that MT students are reqd to take vs. Voice and Dance students from Boyer. Its obvious. </p>
<p>And I certainly hope any school teaching voice is using an accomplished professional. Thats not the crux of the issue. The strength of a program comes students having access to the best instructors they can get.(In theatre, in voice & in Dance.) Which is then eventually recognized throughout the artisitc community, and you start to see 3rd party evaluations and ratings showing how good an MT program is. Which is then dissseminated by parents and readers of CC who scour the internet for information, who then spend more time talking about those programs than this one. No, its not the end all of a decision, but it is an obvious indicator; thats why NYUTisch, UMich, Boco and others all have more traffic. And if you still feel this is not an indicator, then please show me any 3rd party valuation that lists Temple’s MT program as one of the best. I would love to see it. Boyer has plenty of them. </p>
<p>Like I said before, the campus, the City, and especially the price! It’s enticing. If Temple was providing MT students with more than “intermediate level achievement” classes in music and in dance, we’d be there with bells on. But my kid sang for the National HS Choir; I want him to have the best voice instruction he can get. And the best dance… and the best drama.
My rant, as you call it, is becuase Temple has the makings for all this right now. But based on their own bulletin AND description of classes, and puclications, they are NOT providing this to MT students.
I encourage everyone to compare the actual class schedules for themselves. </p>
<p>MT programs often have their weaknesses. Getting the best dance, the best voice, the best drama, often does not happen, when the program is an entity of its own, and some of those programs are the best ranked MT programs in the country. There is a possesiveness, and power thing going on at every school among departments, and the way it often works is that those students specializing in what a department offers gets the first and best offerings. Those that are integreated in there often can get the same, but it may take more work and may not be offered right up. </p>
<p>The advantage of a defined MT program over majoring in drama or voice performance or dance and then trying to scoop up the other courses to make ones own MT program is that someone knowing MT has done the work and cleared the scheduling to make it possible. MT is a very difficult program; those undertaking it basically have a triple major with EC time taken up too. The credit hours for a MT program are heavy duty. Throw that in a unversity setting where certain core academic courses need to be completed too, and it’s a big commitment. </p>
<p>My son could not dance well, and felt that he needed to address that while in a MT program. He found that some of the biggest name schools in MT really hardly addressed dance. You had to get it on your own. Or go for private voice as well. Each MT program tends to have an emphasis in one part of the trifecta, sometimes they are fantastic in two parts of it–all three, without going to a conservatory, just doesn’t tend to happen. The MTer is not gong to get the depth in dance and Voice that specialized performance majors do. You look for the program that has the most of what your student seeks.</p>
<p>The top voice and dance teachers at many such schools will have master classes that they take by audition or knowing the students already. My son was able to take some voice that way that was specialized for him in place of the guaranteed MT voice classes. The catch is that the majors get first dibs. He could have taken private voice with most anyone, and we did that one term which was how he got into one of those master classes. Once the prof knew him and what he could do, he was in. Since he went to a state school where the costs were not kiliing us, we could afford some such extras like that. When you are paying $60K+, the very idea of paying a dime more for private voice/dance opportunities is painful. What you save in the cost can buy very directed private lessons. Most all the profs there take on private students, from what I can see, and once they know and like what a student can do, they are in like Flynn in the specialty courses. </p>
<p>It was a very difficult decision for my son to go to a state program vs NYU’s Tisch studio, but he well knew already what that studio offered and did not offer, and the cost was too over the top for us to pay for any extras if he had gone there. It was really over the top to even pay the COA of NYU–we were crazy to even consider it. That he got a nice scholarship, and his school had a low sticker price, allowed him to Buy what he wanted and then gain entrance to the specialty courses as he wanted. My good friend’s DD who went to Tisch, didn’t get any dance opportunities. Even the MT studio of that time had limited dance. Steinhardt is the true conservatory in terms of voice opportunity, not Tisch, and I have no idea what their dance opportunites were. </p>