<p>Hoping for some real honesty here from parents and students who are already in college. Can you say something you DON'T like about your (or your kid's) program, aside from cost and geographic location? Is there something you wish were different? I know this is difficult.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for what I hope will yield some useful information!</p>
<p>Here’s my “real honesty”:</p>
<p>I have some concerns about the intensity level of a BFA, period. My son and his classmates seem to have so little free time, they have trouble working in the essentials of eating, sleeping, and laundry. Maybe that’s a Freshman year thing and it will get better. It seems as if they have no time for leisurely reflection and assimilation of what they are learning. My son has eleven classes this semester. The number of credit hours earned for each class is not a true reflection of the time commitment and the amount of work. The BFA students have almost no flexibility in their schedules. Given this, can’t the administration work it out so they have a break at some point instead of having classes continuously from 8 to 2?</p>
<p>These are the concerns of a parent, not of a student. The students seem to have the attitude of “This is what it takes.” They take pride in their insane schedules and view with pity the liberal arts majors who have actual free time during the week and can sleep until whenever because they don’t have 8 AM classes every day. But to me it seems almost like Stockholm Syndrome. </p>
<p>Is this really necessary? </p>
<p>They seem to think so.</p>
<p>Thank you, prodesse, for answering. I can see where that would be of concern to parents. I suppose though, that your son loves it so much that he doesn’t mind the long hours. Eleven classes does seem extreme. Is this true of all the BFA programs, or just conservatory-like programs?</p>
<p>As to that, I couldn’t say. Certainly I have heard the same from some other parents whose students are studying at different schools. </p>
<p>Yes, he loves it, but he got sick last semester and that made everything incredibly difficult. There is no margin for illness in a BFA! Over winter break he didn’t give me any argument about getting a flu shot.</p>
<p>I had to really think this one through. I wish my D’s school would bring in more theatres that offer summer work and have them hold auditions on campus. The crazy schedules, and the cost of travel, make it hard for many of the students to take time off to go to SETC, NETC, Strawhats, MWTA, etc. Plus I think there is an added benefit to having the theatres on campus. I do appreciate the ones that do come in. And I understand there is a cost involved to the school when they do this. But if I could change something that would be it. </p>
<p>Veritas - The schedules are definitely intense. There is very little down time. Add in shop hours, rehearsals. weekend master classes, recitals, performances, etc. to the class schedules and you wonder how they eat or sleep. But they do. And they even have time to socialize and have fun. I’ve seen the Facebook pics to prove that ;)</p>
<p>OK, here is something that happened at Montclair that I didn’t like: the SPORTS TEAMS got to register for classes for second semester before everyone else. The rationale is that they have lots of practices, have to travel to games, etc. I think this practice goes waaaay back, before they had an MT major. But of course the MT majors have to keep evenings open for rehearsals, have shows, etc., and MT is the HARDEST major in the whole school to get into. I told my D that she and her classmates should start a petition or go talk to administration to state their case to also register early, but she is not the fighter that I am. <em>sigh</em> Thank you, VeritasMT for starting this thread. I LOVE CC, but one of my issues has always been that there are ONLY positives about each school and you have to kind of glean any negatives between the lines, or go with the obvious, like location, weather, etc. The good news is that most kids love their schools, as does my daughter, in spite of this annoyance. </p>
<p>Caliliene, I agree…the time commitment for BFA majors, particularly when in productions, is every bit as much as for college athletes. I have a daughter who was a varsity athlete in college and during her sport’s competitive season, had to go away every weekend and also away from campus two mornings a week from 6:30 AM until 2 PM and there were no early registration privileges. </p>
<p>Wow, thanks so much to those of you who have answered. This is extremely helpful. Any specifics on classes…e.g., no dance leveling, not enough acting, quality of the voice teachers…? Anyone else want to chime in? It’s just that I don’t think EVERY program can be perfect! ;)</p>
<p>People are reluctant to list things they do not like about specific programs, probably because they don’t want them to get blown out of proportion. So for the benefit of people who will be reading this forum, I will chime in again about something that I thought was important in judging a program, that I have changed my mind about.</p>
<p>If you’ve done your basic research, you have probably noticed that there is a big difference in casting policies from one school to another. I was concerned about the schools that do not allow freshmen, or sometimes both freshmen and sophomores, to audition for mainstage performances. </p>
<p>As it turned out, my son is attending a school that allows all students to audition. But I now know that I was wrong even to be worried about that casting restriction. I know a lot of parents of freshmen in various acting programs, and almost none of them have been cast in mainstage productions, and IT IS A HUGE RELIEF TO THEM. They are way too busy with their acting classes and scene study, etc. The only freshmen I know of who are doing a lot of performing, are in less-intensive programs. It’s not necessarily good or bad, one way or the other, just different. </p>
<p>prodesse,
In this thread, you have brought up two big issues that I wish prospective theater applicants would really know about and understand. </p>
<p>One is the kind of schedule, commitment, and intensity of a BFA program. I think there are SOME applicants that don’t know what they are getting into. A BFA program is so intense and not like a regular college experience (at most programs), and there is very little free time. It is not for all people. It obviously works just fine for your son and it did for my kid too. Even now that my kid is out of college and working professionally, she is at it 7 days and nights a week, again with very little free time. She’s not complaining but again, it is not for all people. You have to be so passionate, driven, motivated, etc. to keep with this kind of pace. </p>
<p>The other issue is that many applicants poo poo the idea or programs that don’t allow freshmen to be in shows. They can’t imagine not being in shows, something they surely are involved with in high school. My kid went to a BFA in MT program where freshmen can’t be in shows. She did not mind at all. During freshman year, she performed in an a capella group (so was performing), performed in class, performed in musical themed birthday parties for kids (job) and was an accompanist to a student run musical production. Then, she was in professional theater during the summer. So, the block of time without a show wasn’t really that long. Freshmen also had to crew shows. It was a very busy year. She was in shows all the following years. Skip ahead to when she was the lead in the mainstage musical in her junior year, she remarked to us that she was glad she was not allowed to be in productions freshman year because she never would have been ready to take on a role like this without the college level training she had then had under her belt. She readily saw the reasoning behind it. Prospective students should talk to current students to understand this more fully. My kid was in a LOT of shows prior to her first year of college and in LOTS of shows since. The training she got in college was really the key thing, not so much the shows, even though she loved those too. </p>
<p>
I guess it depends on your definition of “a lot” of performing. Two programs I am very familiar with are Coastal Carolina and Texas State. Both are very intensive programs. Both cast freshmen in their mainstage shows. Both provide freshmen with other performance opportunities outside the mainstage productions. My D was cast in 2 mainstage shows her freshman year – one musical and one play. Was she crazy busy? Yes. Did she learn and grow? Absolutely! Does she look back and wish she hadn’t had those opportunities? No way! I think you embrace where you are and how things are done in your program and that is what helps make it “right” for you. </p>
<p>I actually kind of prefer it if freshmen can’t perform. I’m not in college yet, but I definitely feel like when I’m a freshman, I’ll need time to adjust to the intense schedule and the whole general transition from high school to college/living at home vs living on my own. Adding rehearsals and performances to the mix, memorizing lines, etc, I would probably be a bit overwhelmed. I think I’d much rather get used to the school and the whole college experience first before I started making myself even busier with being in a show. Just my thoughts.</p>
<p>I’m with Danielle. I’m not in college yet, either, and at first I was kind of shocked to hear that some schools don’t allow freshmen to perform or encourage them not to. But now, thinking about it, I’m perfectly fine with it. We’ll still get to perform in class, plus it’ll be cool to be able to WATCH future classmates perform, get to witness their abilities before competing with them, and get to participate in crew which we normally don’t get to do. It’ll make the transition a little bit easier before we dive in head first!</p>
<p>As we’ve gone through this process we’ve learned that some schools - mostly the large “state” universities - allow anyone in any major to audition for shows. For those of you in these programs, how has it worked out? Are you competing against business majors, or does your training give you an edge? How are these policies perceived by the students & faculty of MT programs?</p>
<p>My D is in a BFA MT program and yes the BFA program is very demanding with very little time to do much else. She is handling it well, but her main complaint is that they are only allowed to challenge out of the keyboarding class for one semester. So she challenged out of fall semester, but now is required to be in that class for this semester, and it is really a waste of her time (she has taken piano lessons since she was 5 years old). As she points out it is also a waste of her tuition money to have to be in that class, and she would much rather use the time and money to perhaps audit another dance class, or go to the gym and work out, etc. etc. I encouraged her to approach the faculty about that rule but she hesitates…in the big picture of things she doesn’t see it as that big of a deal to make waves about it. She enjoys everything else so much that she chooses to focus on the good things about the program. My eternal optimist :)</p>
<p>At her school Freshman are not required to audition for the fall shows—it is their choice. Then after that I believe it is required that everyone audition. It’s nice to have that option for those who want to take a little time to get adjusted to college life, but for those who are raring to go they can jump right in (that was what my daughter chose to do). To each his own and that’s okay!</p>
<p>I also believe that when parents or students make a big deal about the little differences in programs, it is harder for the kid to adjust. When they start as a Freshman at school A they don’t know any different and their reality is what it is. They know not what it’s like at school B or C, and that is just fine. They will adjust, and they will flourish if we and they focus on the good. (Of course if there are major dislikes with the program that’s different). And after they have given school A a true try, if the program isn’t what they want or what they expected, it’s okay to pull out and change tracks. </p>
<p>momarino…that is too bad about the keyboarding policy. In my opinion, asking her advisor or department head about it is not truly “making waves.” She could explain (or demonstrate) that she is so proficient at piano that she fears she will not learn anything new and may be better challenged by something else. She would not be complaining, but rather inquiring and discussing what would work best for her. If they cannot accommodate that, she can tell them she will just live with it. </p>
<p>At my D’s program, she was able to place out of all the music theory (wasn’t called keyboarding, but it involved learning piano) with a placement test (she also had been studying piano since age 7). This was at NYU. I recall at her audition for UMichigan, there was a piano placement test and she was told she placed out of all of their requirements too. It obviously makes no sense for your D to be learning such basic skills she already knows and could be frustrated by it. I am sure she’ll go along with it, but there is something to be said for discussing this with someone in the department, which is not the same as complaining or making waves, but rather taking ownership for her own learning. </p>
<p>cheeseheadmike – Re: “As we’ve gone through this process we’ve learned that some schools - mostly the large “state” universities - allow anyone in any major to audition for shows. For those of you in these programs, how has it worked out? Are you competing against business majors, or does your training give you an edge? How are these policies perceived by the students & faculty of MT programs?”</p>
<p>Where I teach students from other majors are able to audition for most productions. However, the students who are actively in training (musical theatre, theatre, music majors, and theatre minors who are also actively pursuing the training, and who plan to pursue this professionally post graduation) are the students most likely to be cast in productions. The students who were active in HS, but who are not continuing to train on the college level, are really just not competitive with the students in the major (or students in the minor who are taking the training classes). </p>
<p>What I don’t like about my (daughter’s) program: that the performance spaces are tiny because real estate is at a premium. Which means that you have to be ON the hunt for tickets to any performance the nanosecond the tickets are available. And if that also means if you’ve bought plane tickets thinking you can go and don’t get an actual seat… bummer. </p>
<p>I also don’t like that a Tisch theatre student can never take foreign language because of how those classes are in direct conflict with studio days all 4 years. </p>
<p>But other than that it is rainbows and ponies and everybody in New York serves you warm apple pie. </p>
<p>Am I the only one using the program’s name in the responses? Makes it easier to connect the dots if we do. :-)</p>
<p>The only thing our freshman son has shared about BoCo that he didn’t care for was the course,The Freshman Experience, a pass / fail course that met once per week during the first semester. Other than that, he loved his first semester, and he said the people in his Core truly bonded (they have 5 Core Groups they break the freshman MTs into). I have also heard of a few parents complaining about heat and hot water in one of the dorms (which are old Brownstones), but our son says his dorm has been fine. Finally, given how busy their schedules are, it can be difficult to get to the cafeteria for some meals, so some meal punches each week go unused, while they spend money to pick up quick bites to eat between classes. Second semester, their cafeteria is the new one at Berkelee, which is closer than the Northeastern Univ cafés that BoCo used 1st semester.</p>
<p>Regarding productions, freshman can audition, but for the 1st semester mainstage production, only a few freshman who were great dancers were cast. It’s so competitive, it’s tough for freshman to get a role. Our son got 3 callbacks 1st semester and was just cast as a lead in a student-directed production this semester, so he’s excited to be in a show. First semester was so busy, not being cast helped him settle in, from a parent’s point of view, but I know he would have preferred to have been cast last semester. </p>
<p>Finally, he loves Boston, but his first snowy winter is a new experience. He returned to 12 degree Boston a little over a week ago. He told us he just ordered some thermal underwear online yesterday. </p>
<p>Halflokum, agree that the theater spaces at Tisch are small and not everyone who wants a ticket can be accommodated. :(</p>