@gelmom3 - Brenau University BFA Acting and MT programs are well regarded. Excellent, rigorous training for an economical price because they are generous with merit aid (or if you enroll via UNG for the freshman/sophomore yrs). Their performances are top notch and professional quality. They work collaboratively with Gainesville theatre Alliance - regional theatre. Produces working artists and academic colleagues - eg- an undergrad alum earned Yale MFA, performed on broadway Hamlet (and TV), and now is an acting Prof at Ithaca. It is a (not so hidden) gem among Southerners!
@coronado-thanks so much for the info!
@LinnyLou I currently live in Lakeland, TN about 20 minutes from UoM. I graduated from there as well. The campus has improved SOOOO much and it quite lovely. Lots to do around town. It’s like most campuses… don’t walk at night by yourself on the outskirts. Campus is solid though. Lots of theatre around town and I know they are encouraged to audition for them. DFT, POTS and TM are the three outside of the school. I know a couple of students in the program (or coming into it).
UPTA’s each year is hosted at POTS, so she could volunteer and hob-knob. My kids have performed all over Memphis area and we just love the community.
Wooboy. I hate to say this but I’d want to have had someone say it to me so here goes…
All of you still deciding between schools for next year, please look at the financial stability of the school as one of the criteria. This was never a huge concern for us in past years but with this Spring semester being shortened and the Fall semester questionable for on-site classes, some schools will go under. It’s already happening that some struggling schools are announcing they will fold. I am not going to name names but some well-known performing arts programs also operate with a very thin margin for finances. Just investigate this if you have a couple of schools you are debating between. I don’t want to start any massive controversies but this is a tough year all around and it pays to be careful in difficult times.
I may be naive, but how would one determine if a school/program is struggling?
Thanks.
I’m not an expert @Fallisthebest but google is always a friend. Here’s an informative article:
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/04/17/signals-your-college-might-not-reopen-fall-opinion
If my kid were looking at schools right now I would spend some time looking up the financial statements for each school - those should be published regularly. Look for operating expenses and cash reserves and make certain the schools have sufficient cash reserves to stay solvent through a tough year in which tuition income may not be as high as in previous year. If things look iffy, look to see if the school has issued statements about how they are going to handle it. You can also contact the school directly but know that they can’t release any information that hasn’t been made public.
Endowment per student is another good metric. Some endowments look larger than they actually are when you divide them by the number of students at the college/university.
Thanks, @CaMom13 . The article you posted has a link to the Forbes list grading the financial health of particular colleges. And yes, some MT colleges are within the list of those with low grades for financial health.
Here is the link to the list. Use the search button at the top as the scroll feature wasn’t working well on my computer (kept kicking me back to the top). I was surprised by some big-name schools with a D rating!
@CAMom13, @tsamuique, @soozievt, and @NeensMom,
Thank you for your replies and information. Certainly another thing to think about.
@CaMom13 sent me down the rabbit hole when I should be working. 
Here’s an interesting site for researching financial sustainability of colleges. It’s interesting how what you know about the school also can color some of the results. IE: the equity ratio for my kid’s school changed significantly while their expenses barely budged - but I also know they just built a new dorm so that’s likely the cause for that large change in debt/equity.
http://www2.bain.com/sustainable-university/interactive.asp?s=1
Definitely not trying to give people anything else to worry about @speezagmom!!! 
My feeling is, if your kid is in a school and happy - DON’T make yourself crazy trying to anticipate problems. But if your kid is not yet not committed and you have a choice of two or more schools that they love, consider financial stability as a selection criteria.
@CaMom13 I think considering the financial stability of a school is a legitimate concern. Thanks for bringing this up.
Are any of you holding off paying for room and board for fall? How can s hooks ask us to pay that if they don’t know of it will happen no?
@mamaboyz we went ahead and paid. The head of MT at UArts, Katie Donovan spent an HOUR on a zoom call with my daughter and me this morning. She is SO incredible and we are more excited than ever about her choice! Katie said as of right now there are no expected changes to the fall semester and she trusts that if anything does change, the school will be MUCH better prepared than before to handle any and all changes or accommodations necessary. So we are going to hope for the best and trust that UArts will do right by us if it comes to that.
I don’t know how it works elsewhere but our older daughter is a junior at OU. They bill early but don’t require payment until after school starts each semester. They bill 8/1 for fall and 1/1 for spring, but payment isn’t late until 9/26 for fall and 2/26 for spring. Maybe check the due dates?
The data I retrieve is for 2007 - 2012 (I can’t seem to get more recent data using this tool… can you?) so if you are using this data set, a new dorm likely wouldn’t be reflected in it.
@NeensMom, when I click on the link, all I see is the article- I can’t find the list. In the middle of the article, it says “For the full list, see below,” but I keep scrolling and don’t see it. Where is it?
@actorparent1 Go to the link for the Forbes article:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/schifrin/2019/11/27/dawn-of-the-dead-for-hundreds-of-the-nations-private-colleges-its-merge-or-perish/#4076ea93770d
Once there, scroll, scroll, scroll and the chart/list appears way lower down. THEN, once you get to the chart/list, it has its own scrolling device to see the list in its entirety. This list is just above the bios of the authors of the article.
@Twelfthman Geez, you’d think that I’d see the RED BOX. I missed that entirely until going back this morning. I see that it says “updated in 2014”. So - here’s the interesting thing. Molloy was a commuter school until 2011 when it opened the doors on it’s first dorm (Fitzgerald). They opened their second dorm (Maria) in 2014 and their third dorm (Bogner) in fall of 2019. So - anytime in the last 10 years their metrics could have been impacted by the opening of a new dorm.
I’ve been hunting all over the place for financial statements and haven’t found them. I’d like to see the detail behind the Forbes grade. I’d like to understand the impact of strategic investment on the health grade. I did find the president’s report on the college site. I’m guessing every college does this, and it’s an interesting read. In Molloy’s case - according the 2018-2019 president’s report (2019 - 2020 not yet published), the school has doubled their enrollment since 2001. Interesting background to the letter grade.