My daughter, a junior, currently has a 2,6- 2.7 (hoping to bring it up in next 4 cycles) which in our school (very highly ranked high school ) is a Bt average. She has some rather poor grades in math and science. She is extremely active in theatre/ chorus /performing. Has been in 30 plays, is in an acapella group, and a audition only theatre rep group in hs. Also chorus, et. She writes music, and is generally talented. ( I, of course, think she is brilliant!) She is telling me it is useless to even audition for a Carnegie Mellon, or one of the top conservatory schools because of her gradepoint. I have heard its all about the audition. What is the lowest gradepoint anyone has heard of someone getting into these schools? Is it even possible? I have told her it doesn’t hurt to try. She went to MSM last summer, loved it, but wants to go to a bigger school that is not only about music. Help! I have a year but want to plan a spring trip.
Carnegie Mellon is well known for bending its academic requirements for acting/MT candidates it really wants. (Though it is extremely hard to get in artistically.) NYU and Michigan are not, but I would say that the majority of true conservatories do not care very much about grades or test scores. (BA schools are a completely different kettle of fish.) You may miss out on some academic merit money at certain schools though.
Does anyone have any actual stats of conservatory grade point requirements versus other majors? It is expensive and time consuming to go to the auditions, and all I need to know if it is even possible (I already realize the audition process alone is extremely competitive and long odds)
CMU outright said to us: “we don’t care about grades or test scores” when we toured.
It is possible at CCPA/Roosevelt.
Julliard also does not care about grades at all.
Most BFA conservatories truly don’t care too much about GPA and I’m not even sure what the minimum is. (The work load and work ethic needed once in is intense however. Including a lot of writing, preparing multiple scenes every week, long hours, physical demands. My son often rehearses until 11:30 pm then goes home and starts homework. Classes 8-5:30 pm every day. No math or science in most though!) I would not cross CMU off her list. Unless she has good test scores I might skip schools like NYU, BU, Syracuse, Michigan, Fordham, Northwestern… My kids only applied east coast for the most part. But Rutgers, Purchase, Juilliard, UNCSA and CMU (among others I am forgetting right now or have no personal knowledge of) accept based on talent. I think DePaul, Marymount Manhattan, Pace cared about grades but had lower academic requirements. Emerson cared about grades if I recall. And… lower GPA (again unless great test scores) do hurt you on the scholarship money unfortunately.
Just anecdotal - but I don’t know anyone who has not been academically accepted to Pace (and I have known 20+ people who have applied over the years from D’s PA HS) including several who had grades significantly lower than what the OP described. So I don’t think it will be an issue there
There aren’t any stats or lines in the sand that I know of. That said, CMU and Juilliard are the only two US conservatories I can think of that don’t care at all, meaning the grades are not a factor at all, though you usually do need to have graduated high school.
Most other conservatories may or may not care, but also must admit according to the standards of the university or college they’re embedded in. Some have more power to override poor academics, and some have less power within their university. I know when we visited Mason Gross a couple of years back, one of the current students then boasted that her grades had been terrible, but they “really wanted her” so she’d gotten in. I have no idea if that’s true, but surely if the conservatory has to fight with administrators in the larger university to make an exception for a student they want, they will choose their battles carefully.
So to answer your question, I wouldn’t cross off a talent-based conservatory purely because of grades.
But on the other hand, I feel I should say that grades are a factor in getting admitted in nearly all conservatories, so it is always important to do as well as possible academically in high school, & strong test scores can help too. If you improve your senior year, that can’t look bad. Also as Bromquest says, you do need to be able to have a strong work ethic regardless.
CalArts also doesn’t care and they do not require SAT/ACT. They do however, want to see your transcript, but they accept you based on your audition.
Thanks everyone! A lot of useful information! Let’s keep posting with any new info we have!
I have heard that at Penn State, the admission requirements for theatre majors are the same standards for satellite campuses. Can anyone confirm? I know Penn State’s theatre program isn’t a conservatory, but it is conservatory style and they offer really strong BFA programs.
Of the schools my daughter applied to:
Definitely cares about grades and is a significant factor in the decision:
Boston University
NYU
As best I can tell appears to be at least a measurable factor in the decision:
Syracuse
Rutgers (I think less so than Syracuse but I put it here because I am less sure that it means nothing like those in the next group)
For all practical purposes, not a factor in the decision:
UNCSA
Juilliard
Ithaca
U of Arts
CCM
CMU
Hartt
DePaul
Purchase
This list is as of a few years ago so it is always possible that it is different today.
Is there a way to see the actual stats of various schools on how many audition and how many get in? I have a book on theatre schools but it is from a decade ago. They don’t seem to give them on websites,
@musicmama123 Not specifically, now, but there’s a lot you can glean from this site and by asking directly here on specific schools. If other parents have students in those classes, then usually they will weigh in on the size and gender split of the class.
@musicmama123, some of the colleges post those stats but they can be misleading. For instance, if a student auditions for several schools at once, each college may count that audition as individually applying to them. Regardless, some of the stats can be pretty daunting - 2%-6% acceptance in some schools. But if you really wanted the info, I think you could ask each school you’re interested in. With my own kids, once they got accepted, they were told how many had auditioned–so the info is out there.
I think she would also be okay at The Boston Conservatory.