I am an international student. This summer I apply for a few online summer programs in theater and creative writing, and I found that I got in to most of them. Now I am really hesitant on which program to choose bc I rlly like the programs that I applied for. I would love to have some suggestions (the acceptance rate, the quality of the program, the “prestige” etc.)
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ArtsBridge Summer, Dramatic Acting. (2 weeks)
ArtsBridge’s result came out really early, and they offer me a decent financial support, so I have already paid for the deposit. -
Ithaca College, Summer Theater Intensive Online. (3 weeks)
I apply for both the Acting and the Playwright & Dramaturgy programs, and I can choose from one of them before the course begin. (I think I would choose to take Playwright & Dramaturgy since I would go to AtsBridge for dramatic acting.) I also apply for financial aid, but the result haven’t come out yet. I think if they don’t offer me a good financial support, I wouldn’t go, since I’ve already committed to a theater program. But if they do, I would consider about going there.
*Time conflicts with Juniper Young Writers Online -
Juniper Young Writers Online at UMass Amherst. (2 weeks)
Like their curriculum. I also applied for financial aid for this program, but they didn’t offer me any. But either way, I think I would go.
*Time conflicts with Ithaca’s Summer Theater Intensive -
Northwestern CTD Equinox Online, Thirty Plays in Sixty Minutes with the Neo-Futurists. (3 weeks)
I got admitted to the course I really like! I am fascinated with this topic and I want to do an experimental Neo-Futurist theater production in my city/at my school. But it conflicts with the most of my other choice, so I am considering about researching about this online by myself.
**Time Conflicts with ArtsBridge; Also conflicts with (the last 5 days of )Ithaca’s Summer Theater Intensive & Juniper Young Writers Online. -
Iowa Young Writer’s Studio, Online Course in Creative Writing.
I haven’t receive the result from IYWS. But since their online course is mostly asynchronous and require only three hours of engagement a week (it’s quite flexible), I wouldn’t worry about it too much whether I would be rejected or accepted.
btw, I want get a BA Theater experience at college, so I don’t really need an intensive audition training. But in my country and my school, we don’t have a strong theater program, so I think a theater training at ArtsBridge or Ithaca could really help me to have a better idea of performing and writing in theater. And maybe I would consider about applying for a few programs that require audition by the end of the year. (I saw on ArtsBridge’s website that in the recent two years, they have students got into some of my top choices like Yale BA Theater and Performance Studies and Brown BA Theatre Arts and Performance Studies, so that is a plus point for me.)
Also, I write poems and plays most of the time. I would list Creative Writing (English) as another concentration/major in my college application. So I can’t really decide whether I should go to Ithaca (more playwright orientated) or Juniper (explore other creative writing genre).
At Ithaca, I can learn more about Dramaturgy, which can definitely help me in playwright and just theater in general. I think I would definitely gain a lot as a playwright/actor at Ithaca.
At Juniper, I can get a better support system (in terms of creative writing) compare to IYWS’s asynchronous program. So I would develop in poetry and maybe really writing fiction/non-fiction, which is something that I want to do. And with Juniper, I think I can have a good start at it.
So it basically comes down to choosing between Juniper Young Writers Online and Ithaca College’s Summer Theater Intensive, and forfeiting my position at Northwestern CTD. I don’t know if my analysis is accurate for my current personal situation, and I’d love to hear from people who have went to any of these programs to give me a better picture of it. Thanks!