University of Memphis MT BFA

Anybody out there going to Memphis? My D got accepted and wondering who else may be in the class. She was impressed by the program - kind of under the radar.

@Mempho – Glad to hear someone else talking about Memphis BFA MT! My D is considering her offer as well. Beautiful campus; nice, new, clean dorms; and they keep the MT program to 15-17 students a class. My D also likes that they have Music Theory/keyboard and dance starting freshman year. We are from TN so that is a plus for us. Has your D decided yet?

@Mempho Yes!!! Hello!!! I would love to get in contact with your daughter if I am not already!! I am a girl accepted to U of Memphis for MT 2023!

@Tnkdd has your D decided yet???

My daughter will graduate high school in 2020 and we have U of Memphis on our list of possibilities to explore for MT. I haven’t found much information about the school on the MT websites. I wonder why it is not well publicized. Our high school college counselor is unfamiliar with U Memphis, which worries me because she is a really successful college counselor. She and I wonder if it’s primarily a commuter school, but I see that another parent mentioned nice dorms.

Could people please share positive/negative comments about the MT program, and about U Memphis more broadly? We’re from New Orleans, so Memphis is a reasonable driving distance, it’s a musical city, and looks like they are trying to recruit out-of-state students with tuition discounts. We are looking for affordable, accessible, good-quality MT programs to include on our college list … we need to balance out the hyper-competitive, hyper-expensive schools on our list. Affordability is important because I will have 2 children in college soon.

My daughter is currently tied for valedictorian, but her ACT/SAT scores are not at the most elite level, so I do not expect merit aid at the most academically competitive MT schools like NYU or Northwestern. We are not going to apply to those schools. I am hopeful for academic merit aid at less hyper-competitive schools. I welcome comments about merit scholarships and musical theater scholarships at U Memphis, and about the academic atmosphere generally.

Artistically my daughter is strongest in singing. She has qualified in district and state honor choirs all through high school; she placed first in the New Orleans district for soprano 2 as a junior. She has done plenty of acting in school and local summer programs, but has not had specialized acting lessons. She likes dance, but has had only 2 years of dance lessons through our local recreation department. I worry that in auditions it will be tough for her to look strong among more experienced dancers. She has just started working with a MT voice teacher to prepare for college auditions.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can tell us about U Memphis (and other good prospects).

@nolamtmom Hey there! I’m going to be an incoming freshman at U of Memphis for MT! If you or your daughter have questions about Memphis or auditioning in general, let me know! My Instagram is @kateannakuszynski so she can feel free to follow me! Same thing goes for Facebook! I am strongest in singing as well, and have only danced for two years.

Memphis offers many performance classes, but they also offer a lot of stage management and “behind the scenes” theatre classes in order to make us well rounded performers. They offer many dance classes, once a week voice lessons starting freshman year, and many different acting, audition prep, music theory, piano, etc. classes!! They recently closed the show Be More Chill, which was a fantastic production!

Their dorms are extremely nice! It’s not much of a commuter school. The theatre and dance community is housed in Centennial Place, a three year old dorm with private/shared bathrooms. This is where I will be staying! You are able to pick your roommate, but if you don’t know of anyone, they can match you with someone! The campus is beautiful.

I auditioned late, so I did not receive any scholarships, which I expected. I am assuming they were first come first serve, and since I was so late, they were already given out! However, Memphis offers many scholarships, as well as the theatre program offers performance based scholarships. Their tuition is capped at 12 credits, and they pay for the rest of your credits to ensure that everyone is able to become a full time student! This is for in state and out of state!

I hope this might answer your questions, but if not, please reach out on CC, or on my social media accounts and I’d be happy to answer more questions for you!!

@mtsingergirl Thanks for all this information. It would be great to know what you think of U Memphis once you get started in your classes.

@nolamtmom Will do!!! I’ll come back and reply around Christmas and let you know!