<p>Those of us who support our child’s wishes to pursue an MT degree will evidently have to agree to disagree with those who think it is silly, reckless or pointless. I do appreciate the discourse. Perhaps those on the thread can take on something less contoversial like national healthcare!</p>
<p>Really? I can’t understand the people who are trolling this site. I can’t imagine going on the thread for another major and disparaging not only the students pursuing the major, but the parents who are trying to help their child navigate a complicated process. These comments are just antithetical to the community that has been built here.</p>
<p>I concur with my friend above. It would seem some are coming on here just to deliberately inflame things, which serves no purpose. Those of us with children aspiring to an MT degree will continue our support, just as those parents with children having other aspirations will continue theirs. I see no reason to disparage any child or parent of a child that wants to pursue higher education.</p>
<p>Mythmom, Emsdad, ClassicalBK, and the rest of the bunch here: (read that to mean, not the trolls whose comments are as useless as they are irritating) </p>
<p>I love you guys. AND your kids. I guess it takes artists or just special people to “get” it. Those who don’t, well, I guess they serve some sort of role in society anyway, so let’s tolerate them as best as we can. Lol. Some of them seem to need a good example. heheheh!</p>
<p>OH and Classicalbk: my brother is a lawyer and he said that the kids in his law school who had theater undergrad degrees were kind of rare but they really stood out and he felt that all law students should have a theater background.</p>
<p>Any job in which you get up in front of people and need to communicate something to them will be vastly enhanced with the skills theater kids have. Anyone who can get on stage in front of thousands of strangers and open up their guts the way they do have courage and fortitude and skills that are vast and easily cross over to many many other applications.</p>
<p>Every now and then, Caldwell B. Cladwell, Orin Scrivello and Judd Fry show up. Where is Audry II when you need her?</p>
<p>Mythmom, I hope you weren’t referring to my post.</p>
<p>I’m an active member of this forum and a staunch advocate for MT, but really, for kids simply getting educated in general and pursuing their dreams so they will enjoy their work life moving forward.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure she was referring to the post right above yours. Sometimes things post in between.</p>
<p>I think all of us regular MT posters share your view and if our kids didn’t want MT but something else we’d do our best to help them achieve that too, whatever it was. My daughter switched to costuming and yet I’m not beating her with a flog screaming to by golly keep on singing and audition for all the local shows or else. lol. Though, I have fallen so in love with all aspects of theater including MT I still love to visit here because it’s just an extraordinary community. No people like show people I guess.</p>
<p>Well, let’s hope that some of our kids will someday entertain the kids who go into engineering/information technology, etc. Then everyone will be happy!</p>
<p>looking for the <em>LIKE</em> button!!</p>
<p>To the MT forum regulars: As long as this thread is posted on the front page of all CC, we’re going to continue to get comments from the “YOU MUST GET A DEGREE THAT WILL EARN YOU BIG BUCKS” types.</p>
<p>Just ignore them…if none of us regulars posts in this thread anymore, we don’t have to see their ugly remarks. We can just keep supporting each other in other threads on the forum.</p>
<p>I’m married to an engineer…if you ignore them long enough and just keep doing what you love, eventually they will agree with you! ;-)</p>
<p>Sounds like a plan. hah.</p>
<p>I was referring to Mark2m. My apologies for upsetting you, MrsDrz. Your post slipped in between while posting.</p>
<p>^^^^no worries!</p>
<p>mom2them…I’m also married to an Engineer and he does support D’s dream. Your comment made me chuckle!</p>
<p>Seems to me when traveling, studying another culture, or talking about the things we celebrate about humanity, we spend a significantly larger time discussing arts: visual and performing arts than anyone does about ‘technical’ aspects of a culture.
When we sent Voyager to the stars, there wasn’t a lot about engineering, but there was a gold record with our greatest accomplishments in humanity: music. The arts define what human existence is all about.</p>
<p>@Jackfamily2</p>
<p>You are right, but the problem is one of supply and demand. And it is hard to ignore this. The same way that JDs are now facing a difficult job market, MT graduates are also likely to face a difficult situation.</p>
<p>IMHO the reason is the following: It is more pleasent to study MT (and literature, entertainement studies) than it is to study other “hard” majors. Consequently, there is an over supply of graduates in the “pleasant” fields, which depresses carrer opportunities for those graduating in it.</p>
<p>One may say that the student may graduate and work on something else (teach certification, sales, JD), but do the MT majors honestly go into the program expecting to work on unrelated jobs?</p>
<p>So again, no one is questioning the value of the arts (as no one would question the value of sports). The question is more about how wise it is to place all your bets in becoming a professional artist (professional sportsperson). If one is completely risk neutral, do it. However, if one is risk averse, think twice.</p>
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<p>I am guessing you have never studied or worked in both Theatre and Engineering, as I have. I assure you that Engineering was FAR more “pleasant”, both to study and to do professionally. </p>
<p>In Engineering, there is usually a “right” answer, and if you follow pre-defined rules you can predict outcomes, both in terms of doing, and also getting and retaining, work. I worked in Product Development, where the creative cycle often lasted many years, versus professional Theatre where an entirely new product was developed in a matter of weeks. </p>
<p>By contrast, professional and college-level Theatre is the most brutal field you can possibly imagine. It involves INCREDIBLY long hours, is highly demanding both intellectually and physically plus involves never-ending competition. There are no recipes for success, and no security. By comparison, I found engineering both intellectually and emotionally FAR easier. </p>
<p>I can also say unequivically that the people I know in professonal theatre are, on average, far smarter in EVERY sense of the word than the people I know in engineering.</p>
<p>Inpersonal ~ clearly you have never seen an MT’s course load. While it is a “pleasant” major, most MTs take 18 credits per semester; many of those as one credit courses. My MT son went to class from 9 - 5 with many additional rehearsal hours PLUS to homework.</p>
<p>@Inpersonal</p>
<p>“The question is more about how wise it is to place all your bets in becoming a professional artist (professional sportsperson).”</p>
<p>If the sole purpose of getting a university MT degree were to become a professional broadway performer, I would agree with your point. Certainly, that is one of the goals of many, but not exclusivley so for those who are entering these programs. I think that there is an inherent value in pursuing a college degree on a subject that you are passionate about. Also not sure if you meant that getting a JD is “pleasant.” I love being a lawyer, but not sure getting the JD=Pleasant.</p>
<p>There are a significant number of MT and music majors who would do just fine majoring in those so-called “hard” majors. The opposite cannot be said. There is no one at any school in any major who works any harder than theater, MT and music majors. Their work ethic, ability to multi-task and ability to problem solve is unrivaled.</p>
<p>yea take it from someone who’s suffered numerous mental breakdowns in the last two years and almost left my acting program cause i didn’t think i was in a good state of mental health to continue…
while it’s the most wonderful think to study at times, there are other awful lows that have the power to wreak havoc on one’s emotional state consistently…
“pleasant”. haha. if sitting in front of your class and forcing yourself to open up and be vulnerable and as a result having to endure a horrendous sob session that you’d rather run away from is pleasant then i guess life in arts school is really pleasant.</p>