<p>I was looking at schools in the southeast and saw that Western Carolina has recently built a new $30 million performing arts center. Anyone know anything about their program?</p>
<p>Yes, it is in a gorgeous location in the mountains. They have just hired a new director, who if I have this right, played "Beast" on Broadawy. I will see if I can find more info on that, and pass it along! My best friends S will be a junior, recreation major there and he loves it so much, he never comes home. My d was accepted to Western but decided to attend Otterbein as a VP major so she never auditioned for the MT program.</p>
<p>Here's the article! Correction: his title is the distinguished professor!
<a href="http://www.wcu.edu/4111.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.wcu.edu/4111.asp</a></p>
<p>Georgia, my D has a few friends from the Carolinas, one of whom has a friend who spent a year at WCU before transferring. The impression my D's friends gave is that WCU is a school which is very easy to get into, even, relatively speaking, for the MT program so it didn't turn out to be the right place for this particular girl and she realized that very quickly. I think it's a place where you really want to investigate the curriculum offered and know a little bit more about the class profile in the program. It may suit your particular student just fine but there's always the chance that it may not. </p>
<p>The fact that they have a new performing arts center is a positive but it shouldn't be a determining factor in adding a school to your list, in my opinion. Same with the fact that Terrence Mann is a 'distinguished professor'. Terrence has had a long and distinguished Broadway career, much more than just playing "Beast" :), and it's doubtful that he will actually be at the school teaching full-time. Many schools add names like this to the faculty, kind of how companies pay for naming rights to an arena or stadium, etc. Terrence's wife, Charlotte D'Amboise, is in A Chorus Line currently on Broadway and it's unlikely that he would leave her and their kids to move full-time to teach at WCU.</p>
<p>I am from NC, and here WCU is known as a party school, the only people that go there are people that can't get into Appalachian. Culowhee is in the middle of no where, so the only thing to do is drink. A girl was in my community theater production of "Beauty and the Beast" after just doing "The Music Man" with Terrence Mann, she said she really liked him, but did not like the school.</p>
<p>I'm glad my D never gave it serious consideration! I kind of had the feeling that it was NOT a strong academic school!</p>