<p>I wanted this thread to be somewhat like the " schools you crossed off your list after visiting" thread, but more in line with theater schools you crossed off after visiting. I know families are going on a lot of visits this year, and would love to get some feedback, as kids looking at BFA programs would have a different set of criteria than say, kids looking at colleges in general.</p>
<p>For kids and families that have already gone through the process, would love your input on some of the schools you visited and ultimately ruled out. It would be great to hear about all schools.. LAC's and the big obvious ones. Were there some schools that had an outstanding theater program, but you ruled it out because you just didn't like other aspects of the school?</p>
<p>Is it worth visiting a campus even when it isn’t possible to tour the drama department? If no tours are available, it is OK to call and request one?</p>
<p>I don’t see the point in visiting a school if you can’t tour the drama department and/or get info about drama programs. </p>
<p>Purchase was one of my daughter’s favorite visits but every single favorable view of the school relates to the tour of the drama department. Unless you are a fan of Soviet Union style utilitarian architecture (ok, it’s a bit better than that), you wouldn’t find a reason to go to Purchase from just a tour of the campus. </p>
<p>We’ve never tried calling to set up a tour but it can’t hurt to try.</p>
<p>Drama departments don’t tend to have anything on their websites about tours; however, usually if you ask, they are more than happy to have a student take you around and show you things and talk to you.</p>
<p>When we visited Purchase, the regular tour guide took us through the beautiful building where the theatre and dance program is housed. When we peeked into one of the studios, some students were rehearsing in there. The tour guide asked then if the visitors could ask a few questions, and they said yes and were very nice about it.</p>
<p>My son also liked the attractiveness of the surrounding suburban location and the funky, artsy vibe at SUNY Purchase. The actual performance spaces were very impressive too.</p>
<p>We’ve had prearranged tours of the theater departments at Evansville, DePaul, and JMU, all of which have a way to set that up on the website. Other schools (Syracuse is one example) have special open house days when you can get the tour. And when we attended an admissions event at Muhlenberg, a theater professor told us that there was a small tour being given of their facilities–it was just one other family with us–really informative and helpful, but we just stumbled onto it. I really want to say, though, that for my son and me, the number one most helpful thing by FAR has been to see productions. Not gonna name names on the forum (feel free to PM me if you want!) but we DID cross schools off his list because of shows. </p>
<p>We also have kept at least two schools ON the list because of shows, even after a lukewarm reaction to the overall tour/info session. The productions have provided crucial evidence for whether a program seemed like a good fit. And I’d say talking to faculty has also been a huge factor for my son. He still has a few places he hasn’t visited, so we hope to audition on-site at those schools.</p>
<p>SUNY-Purchase actually does offer tours for the drama department and the dates are listed usually on the same page as all of the other admissions office tours.</p>
<p>That’s great about the SUNY Purchase drama department tours. I apologize for implying that they didn’t offer them. Perhaps they didn’t four years ago when my son was looking at colleges, or perhaps we just never found the correct part of the website.</p>
<p>Sometimes you really have to dig on the website to find the info about drama department tours. If all else fails I would just call. We dont even go on the regular campus tour when we go to schools. My D cares so much more about the drama program than all other factors. We do look around ourselves and get a general flavor but don’t take the time for the whole campus tour.
We crossed Emerson College in Boston off our list after the visit. The facilities and the dorms are actually wonderful. It has a great location in Boston across from the park. But although it calls itself a “conservatory style,” students only spend about half as much time in acting class as some other schools. Also, the academic requirements at Emerson are rather low and my D has very high grades and scores. We felt like she would be really bored taking more academic classes at a school with lower academic requirements. If she can’t get into a true conservatory, better to choose a school with more difficult academics. That’s just the decision for us, but everyone is different. Certainly the facilities there are top notch.
Syracuse is another school where a tour might influence you. While the campus itself is beautiful, the surrounding town is NOT. Acting students spend alot of their time “down the hill” at Syracuse stage, which is a wonderful facility and a great opportunity to get equity points, but it means at least a 15 minute walk up and down the hill to get to dorms, dining halls and the one class they will have on the main campus. Acting students eat out of the vending machine and bring food to leave in the fridge at Syracuse Stage. It’s not an ideal situation as far as that goes. It is of course very cold in Syracuse too so trudging up and down in the cold could get old. This being said, the program at Syracuse is excellent and it remains on our list. These factors will come into play if my D happens to end up with a choice of schools.</p>
<p>My D crossed Evansville off her list after attending a college weekend. The University was wonderful, the facilities top notch and the instructors gave a great presentation. However, she found the town of Evansville small, old and depressing. She decided she couldn’t see herself spending the next four years in that town.</p>
<p>I wish we had arranged to be at Rutgers for a theatre dept tour. We took a general tour of Rutgers New Brunswick and only looked around the theatre department facilities informally with a theatre dept guide who was a tech student.</p>
<p>My son was turned off by the Rutgers campus tour, which seemed to highlight the huge sports facilities and glittering buildings of the professional schools in the Piscataway area of the campus, across the river. It might have been better to skip that, because the theatre students spend just about all of their time in the smaller-scaled, more historic and gracious part of the campus anyway (plus they spend a whole year abroad in London!).</p>
<p>My son applied to Rutgers anyway, and would have attended their program if things had worked out a certain way with his acceptances. He was never very enthusiastic about the idea, though.</p>
<p>I visited Utah State University in spring, and I loved the campus and town, and the tour guide was so helpful. I was so in love with the school, and I knew things could only get better as I still had the theatre department tour.
However, the tour was less than impressive. The faculty seemed disenchanted by their own department, complaining about one thing or another, the students were less than friendly to my family and I, and while the facilities were impressive, no one acknowledged us as we walked through the theatre and backstage area.
I was disappointed, and slightly heartbroken, and decided that I didn’t want to spend four years in such a negative environment.</p>
<p>I also toured Southern Utah University, and had a very different experience. The campus was gorgeous, and the tour guides were kind and helpful. I had a meeting with the head of the department and he was so incredibly honest and helpful, and the program was impressive. However, I ultimately ruled out the school because it was too hard to reach from my home out of state, and the town seemed a little barren.</p>
<p>We crossed Ithaca off after our visit. We’d made an appt to talk to the Theater dept., and drove 6 hours there. A secretary met with us-- she didn’t have an answer to any of the questions, told us that the acting curriculum was “based on Stravinsky”, etc. They didn’t, at least back then, have any specific curricular info on their website either. I know it’s said to be a great school, and I’m sure it is, but we had to narrow down the list and we just couldn’t find a reason to keep it on. </p>
<p>University of the Arts and U of Rhode Island both allowed D to attend classes and let her ask all the questions she had. She loved both. I do think there’s a big point in visiting-- you can see how the faculty treats you-- with respect, or cavalierly? You pick up a vibe and that means a lot. But it’s nearly impossible to visit all the programs you’ll apply to.</p>
<p>My S really was disappointed with UCLA’s theatre presentation on audition day and even more underwhelmed at their admitted student day. Even I (a big UCLA booster) was concerned that the head of the department could not answer in a strong way how the huge budget cuts (he said half a billion dollars throughout the UC system that year alone!) would ultimately affect their program as their own budgets had not yet been set. Meantime, he did acknowledge that they were less focused on performance opportunities and there were less shows being scheduled. Instead, they were concentrating more on training. O-kay. For the tech students (my S is a theatre set design guy), they had even more disheartening news. Seems they give all the design opportunities to their MFA students and the BAs do not get to design for school productions. Oh yes! He also mentioned that his son had dropped out of UCLA after, I believe, one year, proclaiming why spend time in school when he would rather be out in the world auditioning, and his daughter wouldn’t attend UCLA because she could get a better education at another UC. What??</p>
<p>In spite of this, I think UCLA is still a highly regarded program and deserves its fame. However, the atmosphere on those 2 occasions really turned my son off. Ah, well. </p>
<p>I’ll add that I truly believe he might have been happy at this or any of the schools he was admitted to. We tend to focus on the jarring note, or disturbing tour guide, or the lack of organization on tour day, etc. But actually attending a school, making lifelong friends, finding that one mentor professor who believes in one’s talent, getting the most out of one’s education is often about the attitude and drive of the individual student. No place is perfect!! Sigh. :)</p>
<p>As a tip, you don’t need to schedule a formal tour to see the school. Many schools will allow students to sit in on classes and allow students to speak to dept chairs/professors (by appointment) and all I know of allow students and family to walk around campus. My D went to several colleges in this way, sat in on classes, spoke to students during lunch (you are almost always allowed to go to a student cafeteria and purchase food out of pocket), went to the library, studios, and other points that interested her, and generally wandered about all day (without me). SHe got a lot more out of this than the tour. </p>
<p>Personally - and this is my personal opinion, and we’re not ‘group’ sort of people - I and my children, so far, get almost nothing out of the ‘college tour’ except if the tour is very negative, which, strangely, has happened far more than you’d think (dislikable students leading the tour, mumbling or giving a tour of buildings, or disparaging the college or the city it is in, or making fun of fellow students not in their social group of major, etc etc–we’ve seen it all).</p>
<p>haha that’s funny about Ithaca. I think we met with the same secretary. We were not very impressed with her and got the sense she is not a “real” acting person; just a lady who happens to work in the drama department office. After this meeting though, we had a tour of the facilities with a student and she was great. She knew a lot about the program and answered every question we had. The facilities are really nice at Ithaca and self-contained. Ithaca remains quite high on our list.</p>
<p>I’m loving some of these posts. ActingDad, I used the Soviet analogy to describe Syracuse, at least its peripheral buildings…have heard similar things about Purchase. And am still cracking up about the “Stravinsky” reference at Ithaca! I think it must’ve been the same lady I spoke with on the phone when inquiring about audition dates…sounded a bit like a loose cannon, but very nice.</p>
<p>A note about Syracuse to those who are looking there: we visited informally (on our own, no tour) this summer and while I hated the city, my son didn’t mind it. The streets and sidewalks around Syracuse Stage were quite torn up with construction, and after our visit I happened to spend some time with a young friend of mine who just graduated from the architecture school at Syracuse. He told me that they are working on re-doing that whole street in order to create more of a connection with the campus–I’m not sure, but I think he said there would be bike lanes, etc.–his impression was that it will create a stronger sense of community and a more walkable corridor between the main campus that that “down the hill” area. He also did confirm that there isn’t much there in terms of, say, good places to eat or culture apart from the university. However, my son’s eyes lit up at the site of the Carrier Dome (SO HUGE), so there ya go. </p>
<p>Re: random spontaneous theater tours–I had an opportunity to visit University of New Hampshire’s theater program this summer while my son was elsewhere, and I really liked the campus and overall school environment. I wandered around the building, poked my head into the costume shop, green room, black box, etc., and found the department office, where an incredibly nice man (administrative manager or something similar) gave me their print materials and showed me all around the facility. He was knowledgeable, enthusiastic, low-key but well informed, and I left feeling like this would be a GREAT non-audition option for my son. It made me feel better about our tendency to just explore a campus and ask questions and see how the people who work there react!</p>
<p>This summer my son and I took a campus tour of Marymount Manhattan and both our ears perked up when the lady from admissions talked about their great merit aid and the fact that the aid can be stacked. She said they give merit aid for academics, talent and even leadership. </p>
<p>The school itself is just two buildings in a nice residential section of New York’s upper east side. Walking through the buildings narrow hallways and with a student body of 2,000 I thought the environment might be a little too much like high school. It was my son who said I’m more interested in the quality of the acting program then the fact that the halls are narrow and lined with lockers. So he joins many others on this thread who feel it’s the theater department that matters most. </p>
<p>Now on the other hand I thought Montclair’s campus was adorable and being a resident of NJ was surprised by the mission style architecture of the buildings. And I just loved the town of Montclair. My son and I are eager to attend their upcoming acting arts day in the fall.</p>
<p>Hope you and your son enjoy the arts day at Montclair, shacherry. We were registered for one back in 2008 that was cancelled due to a major snowstorm. Very disappointing. </p>
<p>We liked the Montclair campus too…and the auditor my son had at his on-campus Montclair audition was the nicest auditor he performed for during college auditions. </p>
<p>I think it’s cool that you are going to see the play at Rutgers. Hope you will post about both experiences.</p>
Ah, well. </p>