Theatre/Drama Colleges Part 7

College Majors Theater/Drama Majors
101

<p>Monkey-</p>

<p>Check your email I sent you something.</p>

<p>Thebohemian-The NFAA money (which is $3,000 for a level one winner and the big prize is $10,000 which is a new gift that started last year) is nice because they don't send the money to the school, which means you can use it as you wish, (the check comes in your name). I have to agree with Monkey that there are many reasons to audition and one "biggy" is the ability to network with many in the industry. Also it is the only way to be nominated as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts.</p>

102

<p>Thesbohemian, Sorry but I refuse to call anyone "Thesbo." :) You are making a very smart choice no matter how much your mom has in your college trust. All of your schools are excellent and have produced more than their share of working professionals. I see you looked at my alma mater - Rutgers - and decided not to apply. Do you mind sharing your reasons? Its good to see notareble is going to audition. Also, do you mind telling us what your stats are and what kind of scholarships you think you can get from them at your college choices?</p>

103

<p>These posts about the scholarships are veeery interesting...is there a website I can research them? Thanks!</p>

104

<p><a href="http://www.artsawards.org%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.artsawards.org&lt;/a> </p>

<p>Of course, entering is over for this year, but it's really good to keep in mind.</p>

105

<p>Proactor,
I’m not comfortable sharing my exact stats because I still feel like I should stay somewhat incognito on here. After all, it is College CONFIDENTIAL and there’s no telling who might be lurking. :) I’ve also been contacted offlist by some random people who do not post here and apparently came across my old posts through Google searches or something. Some of them were either very rude or pervs. I will say that I’m a National Merit Finalist which qualifies me for some of the scholarships I’m after and my other stats would make me a strong candidate for the Ivy League if that were the path I wanted to take. </p>

<p>As for Rutgers, I had one more college to which I could apply and it came down to four schools to take that spot. Rutgers was among them, but I eliminated them based more on the overall college environment than the obviously excellent BFA program about which I could find very little to dislike. Basically, I wouldn’t be able to have a car on campus as a freshman and I heard a few too many horror stories about the “RU Screw.” It was also hard to get a read on how much scholarship money they offer. </p>

<p>I’ll have to get accepted to the BFA programs by audition and then win some scholarships through interviews which makes this like counting my chickens before they hatch; but, since you asked and it might benefit somebody else as well, here are the scholarship opportunities I’m looking at:</p>

<p>Catawba College – Tiny third-tier academic school that has a bunch of full-tuition scholarships with several set aside for theatre majors and still others that are non-major specific. They offer $2,000 talent scholarships to the people they want, too. </p>

<p>Florida State University – Full-tuition private memorial merit scholarship offered by a family in my hometown to students from my hometown. There is only one person who could legitimately compete with me for it and he already has a full-ride practically locked up elsewhere and isn’t looking at FSU, anyway. The family that offers it are big patrons of the local Fine Arts Center, know me well from there, and are close friends of my grandparents. :) If I get accepted, it’ll take a very sweet pot for me to go anywhere else. </p>

<p>North Carolina School of the Arts – No academic scholarships and everything else seems to be need-based. I’m mainly auditioning for them to give my teachers prestige points with my school’s benefactors if I get accepted. Considering the other schools I passed on, I’m wishing I’d followed my first mind and just done this as a walk-in. They DO offer great actor training, but I’m not sure I’d like going to school there. Some people I know call it the “North Carolina School of the Attitude” though a friend who goes there swears that reputation is undeserved. </p>

<p>Northern Illinois University – Offers full-tuition, fees, and room and board at in-state rates plus a $200 book stipend to National Merit Finalists. This comes to more than full-tuition at out-of-state rates. You have to interview for it and you need to maintain a 3.3 GPA to keep it.</p>

<p>Purchase College – They are kind of hush-hush about exactly what they offer, but I’ve been told I can expect around half-tuition plus some talent money if accepted. I was pushed to apply here and what I’ve heard about the overall college atmosphere keeps it from being one of my top choices though I’m keeping an open mind “as instructed.”</p>

<p>Southern Methodist University – The minimum I can expect in Cowboy Land will be half-tuition. I’m also a strong candidate for full-tuition. I’ve been told they’re very generous with talent money if they want you, too. You need to keep a 3.3 GPA to keep the merit money. Yippee Kay Yay! Go Mustangs! It really is a great program. It’s just in … Dallas.</p>

<p>University of Evansville – Almost automatic full-tuition for National Merit Finalists if you name them as first choice before the deadline which comes after you know your acceptance status with the theatre department. To keep it, you need to maintain a 3.35 GPA, live on campus, and stay a full-time student. This would probably be one of my top choices even without the full ride. I REALLY like everything I’ve heard about the program and they are probably the only one that could drag me away from FSU if I get accepted to both. Friendly campus + great theatre department + no MT+ no grad school = near perfect fit.</p>

<p>University of Miami – My stats make ¾ tuition almost automatic and full-tuition a real possibility. I’d so wreck my skin …</p>

<p>University of Minnesota-Guthrie – I can reasonably expect $7,500 and possibly $11,000 in merit money. The fact that it gets butt-freezing cold is really the only thing I can find to not like about this program. I’d need an outside scholarship and/or maybe some talent money on top of the merit award to go, though. Welcome to my top 3, M-G. I can find a pimp coat. ;)</p>

<p>There is also another $10,000 a year non-school-specific merit scholarship for students from my hometown that I’ve applied for. It usually goes to pre-med types, but none of the pre-med types in my hometown can really compete with my stats which makes me a strong candidate. Props to my guidance counselor for finding out I’m eligible for it. There are some other private scholarships I’ve applied for that involved writing essays, but the amounts offered for most of them would mainly just help with room and board except for one very notable one that awards $100,000 to the winner along with an appearance on one of my favorite TV dramas. Finalists in the competition get $2,500. It's obviously well worth the time of writing a 250-500 word essay. Only slightly longer than it took for me to write this … ;) </p>

<p>Here are some of the other excellent departments I looked at that offer really good merit money:</p>

<p>Boston University - Half-tuition to some National Merit Finalists, but you have to declare them as your first choice by the beginning of February and you won’t know whether you’re in the acting program by then. You can still change your first choice, but I wasn’t going to be comfortable doing that. Also, half-tuition at a $40,000 a year school is still pretty high. They also have some full scholarships, but they’re very hard to get and you have to participate in a lot of what seem to be interesting but time-consuming special activities outside of theatre to keep them. Talent money is varied.</p>

<p>Otterbein offers up to $11,000 a year in merit scholarships and they’re generous with talent money, too. They were last to go in my final four and would be on my list if they did more straight plays or didn’t cast the MT people in the ones they do. </p>

<p>University of Arizona offers an almost-automatic $19,500 a year to National Merit Finalists who declare them as their first choice before a deadline which comes after they’ll know if they got into the program or not.</p>

<p>Now watch somebody see this and swoop in and take all my scholarships. ;)</p>

106

<p>Thesbohemin, I understand about the 'screw.' The monster does eat itself sometimes and always has. Have you talked to your teachers about your feelings about NC Arts and Purchase? It is not a good to waste other peoples time or your own auditioning for colleges you are not serious about. Can they work with you and make an exception on your limit since it seems like they pressured you to apply? Please promise me you will at least ask. There are other kids who want to audition for those schools very badly and you might be holding up their spots. The deals at Arizona and Otterbein might look very good in retrospect. Also, don’t turn up your nose at MT. A versatile actor is a working actor and MT makes for alot of gigs if you can do it. Do the right thing and break a leg at auditions for the colleges you are serious about. :)</p>

107

<p>Proactor – She will probly kill me for saying this but the thing about thesbo is she NEEDS to audition for some of those schools. She doesn’t get how gifted she is and that she will be totally bored to tears with the training at schools where they start off assuming you don’t know anything and the students are rejects from other places. She needs to be somewhere she will be pushed and she needs to reconsider Juilliard. Our teachers keep telling her that and she doesn’t believe them. I wish they would tell ME that. Is the RU Screw for real? When did you graduate? It seemed okay when I visited but that was in the summer.</p>

<p>Thesbo – I’m all about being roomies at Guthrie little Miss Took-less-than-two-minutes-to-notice-and-fix-it-when-her-roomie-turned-ONE-book-on-her-shelf-upside-down-when-she-was-out-of-the-room. Got Zoloft? :p <3</p>

108

<p>Proactor,
You may be right. Especially if I don't get in anywhere. It's an administrative thing and it's out of my teachers' hands. I will look at those schools very seriously if accepted. It's just that they're lower on my list than some of the others for various reasons. Sorry for sounding negative. I'm not turning up my nose at MT, either. I LOVE MT. It's just not a strength and given the choice between a school that does half their productions in MT and one that only does one MT a year, I'm taking the one that only does one. Potential stage time isn't a priority consideration, but it is a tiebreaker.</p>

<p>Notarebel,
What-everrrrrrrr. There will be teachers that push me at whichever place I end up. If they don't, you know me and I'll push myself. Also, some of those schools are lots of peoples' first choice and the other students won't be a bunch of "rejects from other places," Little Miss Only-true-triple-threat-I-know-who-doesn't-get-that-everybody-doesn't-have-rich-parents. <3</p>

<p>Everybody,
I should have mentioned that some of the schools that have full scholarships for National Merit Finalists also offer half tuition to National Merit Semifinalists.</p>

109

<p>thesbohemian-</p>

<p>I just read your comment, "There will be teachers that push me at whichever place I end up. If they don't, you know me and I'll push myself." These two sentences have spoken a great deal about your integrity. You will always get out of an educational experience what you put in. I wish I knew more students with your kind of attitude. Bravo.</p>

<p>In many cases as a student you will go back to the beggining in order to correct bad habits that have been developed along the way and you have to be able to look at that as something positive. Sometimes it is to learn something in a "new" way, giving you another perspective in relation to your art. I have been doing all kinds of theater for over 30 years, and I learn something new everyday.</p>

110

<p>I got my first admission letter today!</p>

<p>It's from Tulane University. Although it's a non-audition program, i'd begin with the BA degree and audition for completing the BFA in my 2nd or 3rd year. </p>

<p>However, I've still got a few other universities to audition for and hear back from. It's just good to know i'm in somewhere (even though I need some finaid).</p>

111

<p>Congratulations, Marissal! I love what I've heard about Tulane and think it would be a great place to go to school.</p>

112

<p>That's great news, marissal! It's so nice to have one-in-the-bag, so to speak. :) Congrats and good luck with your other schools.</p>

113

<p>Hi I'm back! I talked to my parents and they won't let me go to a performing arts high school like I talked about earlier on this thread. They are going to let me graduate a year early and I am pretty sure I want to go to a good BA college with no grad school and no BFA where I can use APs to graduate in 3 years. I would want to go to a MFA program after that. My question is can students who graduated from a decent BA program get accepted to a good MFA program and is it possible at all to get into one when you are 20 years old? Does this ever happen? If it does, it seems like it might make more sense for me than going to a BFA school. The drama teacher at my school is totally clueless about all this. </p>

<p>Good luck to all the seniors going to auditions! I hope you all get your first choice.
Kel</p>

114

<p>I concur with all of the above "ranting" and I'm counseling my HS junior singer-actress-scholar accordingly. But as a college Student Affairs VP, let me offer my $0.02 about the real value in the undergraduate experience. Unless you want into a highly technical field (engineer, architect, etc.), I don't think there's a lot of correlation between undergraduate major and final career. But I'm quite certain that the best predictor of future aspirations and standards for onesself is the quality of the peer group. If it's acting and only acting you're seeking, you need to be among the finest, most passionate, most committed acting students you can find. If your interests are broader and more varied, you need to be among the best and most intellectually-curious students you can find at a school that also has a respected theatre program. I am convinced that the quality of the teaching in the Ivy League is not much better than at your state college - in many circumstances, it will not be as good or as dedicated as a state college professor's. But the real value in going to Yale is spending the four most formative years of your life being influenced by peers who also got into Yale. In short, I'd take a good look at the students who go to the schools you consider. In four years - for better or worse - you will be more like them than you are today.</p>

115

<p>I concur with all of the above "ranting" and I'm counseling my HS junior singer-actress-scholar accordingly. But as a college Student Affairs VP, let me offer my $0.02 about the real value in the undergraduate experience. Unless you want into a highly technical field (engineer, architect, etc.), I don't think there's a lot of correlation between undergraduate major and final career. But I'm quite certain that the best predictor of future aspirations and standards for onesself is the quality of the peer group. If it's acting and only acting you're seeking, you need to be among the finest, most passionate, most committed acting students you can find. If your interests are broader and more varied, you need to be among the best and most intellectually-curious students you can find at a school that also has a respected theatre program. I am convinced that the quality of the teaching in the Ivy League is not much better than at your state college - in many circumstances, it will not be as good or as dedicated as a state college professor's. But the real value in going to Yale is spending the four most formative years of your life being influenced by peers who also got into Yale. In short, I'd take a good look at the students who go to the schools you consider. In four years - for better or worse - you will be more like them than you are today.</p>

116

<p>I give up. Why this posts on part 6 when I respond to part 7, I don't know.</p>

117

<p>Gadad: The entire thread (all 6 pages) is part of Thea/Dram Colleges Part 7.
The format is just a little different than the last board, so we have several pages under part 7.</p>

118

<p>Alright, I just left the SAT/PSAT boards and I want to shoot myself reading all these entries by sophomores who got close to the perfect score of 240 for the PSAT. Um, let's just say I did lower. Much lower. Lower than 200 in fact. I didn't intend to be part of the NMSC program, and I did much better than last year...but still I'm afraid that it will predict my SAT score. If I'm looking at schools such as NYU and CM for the acting department will they weigh my SAT score more than my acting abilities? Belive me, I'm a much better actress than learner (but I'm a good student...) I feel like I'm the only non over acheiver on this board!</p>

119

<p>devron - Don't worry about it. I have math anxiety and didn't do so good on the Pee-Sat or the first time I took the SAT. If you are like me a Kaplan prep course will help lots. I took one last summer and my score went up almost 200 points. I think these colleges know we are ARTISTS - not digit heads - and expect us to be about average and maybe a little low in the total student pool they let in if we are good. If your grades are good, an average SAT wont hurt you too much. (knocking on my wooden desk) If I get in someplace they make you take math, I am gonna get the textbook and get tutored on it over the summer. Any science I take is gonna be totally "rock for jocks." :)</p>

120

<p>Don't despair. PSAT is not always a good predictor of how you'll do on the SAT itself. The key is to prep and that can be done fairly easily with a good prep book and diligence. You should work on that so that you are as ready to do well as possible.</p>

<p>The schools you're looking at for drama have different requirements for applicants. For NYU, you will definitely need to have good 'stats' to have a chance. Their admissions process is a two-part deal with the academic review and artistic review having equal weight. So the higher your gpa and your test scores, the better chance you have of being admitted. There is so much competition there that you want to give yourself the best chance possible. About 3000 kids apply to Tisch every year so the competition is steep.</p>

<p>CMU was actually my D's second choice if she hadn't gotten into Tisch. There, and I'm assuming it's still the same as two years ago, the audition is what is overwhelmingly important. It can't hurt, though, if you have good academic stats to go along with your great audition!</p>

<p>It's going to vary school by school so it's a good idea to research the ones you're interested in NOW so that you don't get any surprises! Many of them require good academic records as well as talent. That seems to be a surprise to a lot of people. Good luck on your search! :)</p>