Thinking about colleges...

College Search & Selection
1

I’m heading in to my junior year of high school, which means it’s time for me to start thinking about what I wan’t to do with myself. For years my dream was to go to Cornell to be a veterinarian, but last year I saw my first Broadway show and instantly fell in love with live theater (I’ve now seen 11 shows since then). I tried out for my school’s musical and actually got a decent role, for someone that hasn’t sang in eight years. I’m not taking chorus this year. I realized that now I really would like to head down the path of musical theater. Ideally I would like to be an actor, but obviously it’s super selective and unpredictable.

My guidance counselor is recommending me to start checking out some liberal arts schools since I do really well in all subjects in school. I still don’t really understand what a liberal arts school really is, since it seems like you are able to major in certain things there, as well as just liberal arts. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has any ideas of some more selective liberal arts schools that have a strong theater department? Right now I am not too concerned with location or size, I just want to get an idea of some options

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@“k_atherine.h” You may want to do a little searching and post your question on the Theatre and Musical Theatre major forums on CC.

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/theater-drama-majors/

There are musical theatre and theatre programs that require an audition to be admitted, and some of those require pre-screens to be submitted before you can be considered for an audition slot. Because you are relatively new to the idea of pursuing theatre or musical theatre as a major you may want to avoid (or significantly limit) schools that require an audition to declare the theatre or musical theatre major. Many auditioned programs have admit %s in the single digit to low double digit range.

In terms of selective colleges and universities with strong non-auditioned theatre and/or musical theatre programs…

Northwestern (audition once already a student for the Musical Theatre Certificate program)
Muhlenburg
Skidmore
Vassar
Connecticut College
Kenyon
Trinity (CT)

There are many others as well… this is just quickly off the top of my head…

You will likely get lots of suggestions on the Theatre and Musical Theatre forums.

:slight_smile:

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Well-resourced liberal arts colleges typically offer over forty majors across humanities and fine arts, natural sciences and math, and social sciences. All of these fields of study, taken together, comprise the liberal arts.

Schools along the Hudson tend to be strong in theatre – think Vassar, Barnard, Skidmore, Bard, Sarah Lawrence.

Kenyon would be another great school to consider.

Hamilton comes with one of the nicest theatre buildings around.

Muhlenberg seems to be particularly strong in musical theatre.

4

There are several and a lot give aid but :

I am going to say no… Don’t do it. Bringing you down to reality.

If your really serious get evaluated before you waste your time. Just falling in love with theater and seeing plays and getting a part does not make you a musical theater actor.

Why liberal arts colleges (where do you live to make suggestions easier) is so when you change your mind you can take classes and get your degree in something else. You might want to do a BA with theater Vs a BFA. The BA will let you take academic classes also… BFA(much harder and auditions, portfolio etc) is very selective.

So why do I say this.

My daughter went to a private small pre - professional high school for musical theater, dancers, writers, artists, musicians. They all had to audition and many traveled “hours” both ways to attend including all days Saturdays. These were the cream of the crop kids. All singers and musical theater performers had almost daily professional singing lessons. They had professional acting coaches brought in to work with the kids. I could go on but for starters… This is your competition. These kids not only knew the plays… They knew who produced, directed, did the wardrobe and who did the choreography.

For musical theater, unless you are naturally talented, you have to be a “triple” threat. Dance, Act, Sing. Most if not all of these kids had years of all the above before their 4 years of conservatory type high school training. Many are going to the schools mentioned plus Pace, Emerson, Illinois Wesleyan… Etc etc The musical theater kids were in the same dance class with the kids that went to Juilliard /Joffery

You have to have a large back bone. Just getting criticized for your acting, dancing, singing is tough. Seriously…

These kids would get a show down from start to finish in 2 weeks including blocking. You have to be able to memorize your part and pretty much most others also incase there is a mistake you know how to handle it.

My daughter was in the musical theater portion of the school. Their high school performances were better then a lot of small theaters that we have in Chicago… Just amazing. She focused more on design and as a sophomore - senior designed a lot of the full production shows. She went on to a BFA in theater design. After her first year she missed the academics so switched to a BA in the same. But her responsibility was the same. She was in the theater nightly to at least midnight, starting homework at 2:00am sleeping a few hours and repeat. Some how she was on the honor roll.

She changed her focus to performance studies and now schools. ;She the last 2 years has been creating plays for Autistic kids and the lgbtq communities. This is how she is taking her love for theater and combining her interests. Still in college she has worked professionally in Chicago and as the Art director on a movie in LA.

Now the main reason :

Most of these hyper talented kids realize, once they see the national competition plus maybe getting burnt out that they want more. Many changed their focus to something else like computer science, math etc. Some combine their interest but many drop out of college since the cost are $50,000 /year and they don’t want to continue till they know what they want. They get stuck paying after 6 months deferment. You still have to pay back loans etc . Many that do continue end up working low pay jobs and act at night. Many are creative thinkers and can go into business or work on a team etc.

The ones that go on to steady work are few and far between. Much easier to get work behind the scene like most these tech work then in front of the stage.

So yes, love theater. Go to a school that has that and if not a serious BA or BFA program… Try out and be in plays and have fun. If you have the talent someone will let you know and on to hours of auditions to get multiple rejections.

Sorry to be so gloom on this. I just know many, many kids that went this way. Again going to a school to study what you love and being in some plays is great. Also know very few colleges do musical theater. Some do plays and maybe 1 or 2 musical theater productions every other year so really research schools.

5

You can major in theater and still go to vet school, if that’s a route you’d like to consider. For vet school, you need to take the basic pre-med courses (intro chem, organic chem, intro physics, intro bio) as well as some upper-level courses that vary from one vet school to another (e.g. animal nutrition and mammalian anatomy/physiology). You’re free to major in whatever you like as long as you complete these courses.

Animal handling and veterinary experience is a very important in vet school admissions. Ideal applicants have several hundred hours of experience with both small animals (cats, dogs, birds, etc.) and large animals (horses, cows, pigs, etc.), as vet school trains you to deal with both. Attending a college with a veterinary hospital and/or strong animal science program – and Cornell obviously has superb offerings in these areas – can be very helpful in getting animal handling experience.

The liberal arts consist of math and the sciences, social sciences (econ, geography, sociology, etc.), humanities (religion, philosophy, art history, etc.), and arts.

Most students on CC are interested in liberal arts colleges (LACs) and universities. Liberal arts colleges are small (about 1000-1500 students on average), almost exclusively undergraduate colleges that focus on the liberal arts and only rarely offer pre-professional programs like engineering and business. Enrollments at universities range from about 2000 to 50-60,000 students, so there’s quite a bit of variation. Like LACs, universities offer a variety of majors in the liberal arts, typically within a college of arts & sciences. Unlike LACs, however, many universities have additional undergraduate schools - business, engineering, journalism, architecture, etc.

There are many colleges and universities that would allow you to combine an interest in pre-vet with theater. I attended Duke as an earth science major and was heavily involved with our musical group on campus (Hoof ‘n’ Horn) that puts on 3 musicals a year. Other folks in Hoof ‘n’ Horn were studying everything from chemistry to music to history. As another example, a close friend of mine studied nursing at Emory and was involved in musical theatre there. (He’s still very involved in local community theater even as a practicing nurse, FWIW.)

I recommend beginning with the basics.

[ul][]Have the money talk with your parents. What can they afford? How much financial or merit aid will you need? Keep in mind that professional degrees like a DVM are very expensive.
[]What size college would you like? Would you feel more comfortable at a small school like Vassar (2400 undergrads), Brown (6600 undergrads), or Cornell (15,000 undergrads)?
[*]What parts of the US most interest you? Would you prefer a college in a small town like Cornell, suburban schools like Tufts, urban schools like Penn?[/ul]