<p>Hi there! I posted a lot when we were going through the process with my daughter - packed her off to St. Edward’s this fall, then decided I needed a full time job to deal with the empty nest and I kind of cocooned for a while…but lately I’ve been missing this great forum so I’m visiting here. Most of my posts were on the MT thread as that’s what D was trying to get into. I can’t give any advice about the majority of the schools on “the list” because I don’t know much about East Coast and Midwestern schools, but Texas schools, I know!</p>
<p>“My list includes schools such as Stephen F. Austin State University, Texas State, UT, University of Houston, and Southern Methodist University.”</p>
<p>SFA has the best study abroad program I have ever heard of. Seriously…it is only for the BFA, not the BA. But everyone starts out in the BA and gets into BFA by review in the second semester…they don’t come right out and say that everyone who works hard and has some talent who wants in the BFA will get into the BFA, but it’s not capped (or wasn’t last year anyway) and I think it’s a matter of working hard, not luck. (unlike some programs in which they just can’t accept everyone. Well, I mean, they can’t accept EVERYONE either but I never got the feeling that they turned down serious students.) They did not have an MT emphasis so D didn’t pick it. But their technical programs seemed excellent…D’s secondary interest was costuming and I just about wanted to apply there myself just so I could work with the costume professor. She’s awesome. The town isn’t Austin, true, but it’s a nice liberal college town unlike most Texas small towns, and they like the college there, which some towns don’t. The director of the local community theater who cast my D in a lot of shows when she was in high school grew up there and the only reason he didn’t go to school there was because he was accepted to one of the Ivies (forgot which…Yale maybe) so, you know, he chose it, who wouldn’t, but otherwise he’d have gone, which I think says a lot as most people shudder at the idea of attending their hometown school. Very friendly pretty town. And Austin is only a few hours away if you just have to have the big weird wonderful college town experience for the weekend.</p>
<p>The other thing we didn’t like about SFA was that their academics weren’t really top notch and D wanted to be pretty serious about her core classes…at most schools with fabulous theater programs and so so academics, you can compensate with honors programs, but their honor program sounded awful. By contrast, one like Texas State’s sounded much better. </p>
<p>Texas State is currently the huge buzz and is getting nothing but rave reviews from everyone going there…but as they only take a dozen or so out of the many hundreds who apply into their BFA programs, clearly you need some backups.</p>
<p>As far as UT…frankly, I personally would never put MY freshman, or most freshmen, into UT. They have way more freshmen coming in than they want or need, in every major, and have many ways to wash that excess freshman population incorporated into their system. The big rivalry schools in this area are UT, A&M (who is not even worth mentioning because I’m not sure they even HAVE a theater there), U of Oklahoma, and Arkansas - of all of them, not only is Oklahoma the only one with a truly remarkable undergrad theatre BFA program, it is the only one we got the feeling actually cared about trying to not fit into the negative aspects of Big Enormous Indifferent Flagship. UT is a wonderful grad program and a great school in a lot of ways, and there are those who argue that being at such a great program for four years of watching other people and never getting actual hands on yourself is still better than a lesser smaller program, but I personally disagree with that. However - lots of people go to UT and think it’s great…some of my daughter’s professors went there and they would steer their kids towards a smaller school…so…your concern about grad/undergrad issues at UT, I would say, are not unfounded, and I’d be real careful about UT if that’s an issue for you. I’m not sure about it at UH though.</p>
<p>SMU has excellent credentials - my D didn’t feel she would be a good fit with the student body. While there are always exceptions, and while theater is always it’s own wonderful little world, the steretype of SMU as being a lot of fairly well off kids is true and it is a much more formal and conservative atmosphere than what my D wanted. But their fine arts school is excellent.</p>
<p>There are a lot of fairly new programs in Texas but U of H has had a well regarded theater program for a long time. For some reason D simply did NOT want to investigate them…I thought we should have because you never know if you will like a school or not. From what I understand, Huntsville is pretty dreary…I think far worse than Nacogdoches. But it’s real close to Houston. The school also has fairly low academics compared to some but it’s honors program looked considerably better to us than SFA’s. </p>
<p>Both those schools are VERY affordable. UT is crazy expensive for a state school. SMU is very very expensive.</p>
<p>Some schools with really good theater programs in Texas you didn’t mention - A&M Canyon, (in the panhandle - little bit smaller than SFA, has a BEAUTIFUL new theater, and a good program) Southwestern University in Georgetown, right north of Austin, which is a lovely lovely Methodist school with EXCELLENT academics and a grad school placement rate in the high 90’s. They have a really good theater department and if you have good grades they have some really generous scholarships. If I remember correctly, it’s open admission to the program but you are reviewed for the BFA later. Personally I prefer that kind of system to one that sorts them before they enter. </p>
<p>TCU has a great program. When we auditioned there, it was one of our top choices, but they didn’t offer enough money to make it even worth considering - guess they weren’t impressed with D’s credentials. One of her best friends got a full ride there, though. They are looking for certain things there, and community service counts for more there than at some other schools. </p>
<p>Then, there is my daughter’s eventual choice, which is St. Edward’s, in Austin, which we like to refer to as the small family farm where they know all the cows by name (as opposed to the 50,000 head “cattle ranch” up the road, lol) They are one of only a handful (three, I think) of Equity undergrad programs in the country. You can be eligible for your Equity card upon graduating. That can be a double edged sword but it’s an option if you want it. They are currently a BA program but - and you heard it here first - they are developing a BFA degree. Right now - my daughter could still get in on it if she wants, as a freshman, her professor told me, but it might not be on the website or in the catalog yet. But it is definite, is my understanding. It’s a smaller school so it’s a smaller program as far as how many students, but the university considers it one of their more important programs so it gets plenty of support. They don’t do some 30 shows a year like some schools, such as SFA do (of course only 4 or 5 are mainstage) in the program itself but there are a lot of opportunities outside the program in the area and they encourage students to try out for anything they want to. Academically, it is a very strong school with a very strong liberal arts emphasis (very similar to SMU or SWU) but rather than two thirds core and one third emphasis, we found the BA to be closer to half and half, which is exactly what my D wanted.</p>
<p>She’s in her second semester there and is very happy. It’s more expensive than state schools, to be sure, but they gave us the most generous offer of all the private schools, and we found we could swing it. It is open admittance, they have auditions for scholarships. As it is a small program they have not found it necessary to cap admissions into the program; but, they will be restricting the BFA program so as to have a balanced group, like most other BFA programs. The BA will still be available though. </p>
<p>It’s hard to say which is the “best” program in Texas…they all have pro’s and con’s. St Ed’s and Southwestern don’t have grad programs so no competition from grad students. </p>
<p>I can’t really go into much detail as to the nuts and bolts of the programs themselves as my info would be a year out of date anyway…I can tell you that St Ed’s has a very well rounded program, no matter what your emphasis, you will be well trained in every aspect of theater plus you’ll have a good general education, you will be able to write, reason, and think. I think that is true of other schools too, but I know it is there.</p>
<p>~you might already have known a lot of this, and it was very long, but I hope some of this info is of use to you~</p>
<p>and - for those who followed us last year - and knew about my d’s interest in costume as well as MT - she has just recently decided to change her concentration to Costume. They found out about her UIL wins and said “you’re OURS. We MUST HAVE YOU” (actually they did not tell her that but they made it known she’d be real welcome) and she’s now on a slightly different adventure. She’s not dropping performing or auditioning, but, I think she’s realized where her true calling is…which shows that it’s good to pick a school with a well rounded program in the design and technical aspects as well as performance, because apparently it is not unusual for kids to switch into tech or design.</p>
<p>It makes me kind of tear up when I watch “Smash” but on the other hand, this week she’s in Long Beach at the USITT Conference getting an enormous jump start on her career and on cloud nine, posting amazing photos from the sessions and exhibits so maybe she’ll be the next Colleen Atwood and will be dressing some of the brilliant performance kids from this forum, some day. :)</p>