Hello everyone. I’ve been lurking on college confidential for a year now but never made a post until now.
I started getting into MT this past year as a senior but didn’t think to apply to any MT programs as I didnt have really any experience at the time. I only applied to one audition program (for UT Austin’s theatre major) and I got rejected. I also got rejected from non audition schools (Northwestern, UC San Diego, Vanderbilt, Rice - I know it was b/c of my grades/ECs :(. I got waitlisted at Trinity University (San Antonio). My only options for college are University of Houston (psychology) or Loyola University Chicago for theatre.
Now that I’ve been thinking about things, I realize that I really want a degree in MT and I’m worried that if I go to UH or LUC that if I try and transfer after two years, some/all of my credits may not transfer and I’ve heard that I have to start over as a freshman. If I just took general core classes, would they automatically transfer, or does it depend on the college? My problem is my grades aren’t that great and if I go to college I could take 2 years to really improve them. I’m really scared since I have to make a decision tomorrow (May 1) and I don’t know what to do.
Should I:
Go to UH, transfer into theatre major, get degree? Maybe do a MT program in NY afterwards like Circle in Square, Stella Adler, NY Film academy, etc?
Go to UH, try and transfer after year? After 2 years? into a MT degree program
Go to Loyola, stay for degree? Maybe do MT program in NY like I said above after college?
Go to Loyola, transfer after a year? After 2 years? into MT degree program
Go to community college? I'm thinking of moving to Chicago (my dad has an apartment I could share w/ him) so I can work in theatre in the area.
Take a gap year to gain experience. But this wouldn't help with my grades. Again, I could move to Chicago and take classes there but my parents aren't comfortable w/ me not being in school. I've been trying to find non-degree MT programs in Chicago but all I can find are programs in NY like i mentioned above. I've even been emailing Chicago theatres to try and get in contact with people there but so far, no one knows of any :(
Any other options you guys know of that I haven't thought of?
I honestly don’t know what to do now. If it wasn’t for my grades, I would probably just take a gap year and actually audition this time but since my grades aren’t that great, I know I wouldn’t have a good shot at getting into somewhat competitive programs that count academics. I wonder if colleges can take my grades after a year of college, or if they would just consider me as a freshman and look at HS grades.
Any advice would be great.
By the way, I apologize for posting this WAY too late. I didn’t realize it would come down to this.
Loyola is a great school in an awesome location. I don’t know a lot about its theater major, but Chicago is a town full of theater possibilities, so it could be a great option for you. See if you can minor in dance or voice while being a theater major. There may be a way to piece together the training you seek without being in an official MT program. Certainly Chicago offers all sorts of training possibilities outside of school if you can’t find what you need at school.
Have you looked into Columbia College in Chicago? They do have an MT major, and I think they have rolling admissions. You could start as a BA theater major then audition for their MT degree once there I believe. I am not familiar with exactly how their program works – but it may still be a possibility for this Fall. I would encourage you to look into it if you feel that strongly about MT and Loyola doesn’t offer what you are seeking.
As far as grades are concerned - I am guessing your grades must be decent for most MT programs if you applied to Vanderbilt, Northwestern and Rice? Most MT programs are concerned as much or more with your audition than your grades quite honestly. If you did take a gap year, you could take time to craft a well balanced list of MT schools which might work for you. You could also spend your year getting intensive training in acting, dance and voice if you had the resources to do so. This could be done from home (are you in Houston?). You would not have to move to Chicago to do this. You might even consider working with a college audition coach. You may want to consult with one now and just get a realistic idea of how competitive they feel you would be when auditioning for colleges. You will be up against hundreds of kids with years of training so it is not a given if you should take a gap year that you would get in the MT program of your choice. You may. But the odds aren’t great. Definitely go for it if this is truly what you want. But try to be realistic about the outcome of choosing this path also. That’s where being assessed by someone familiar with college auditions will help. They could give you an idea of which programs you might be a good fit for or how competitive they feel you will be in the college audition process.
You are correct that if you start college somewhere this year and then transfer to an MT program, many will make you start over as a freshman as their class moves their curriculum as a group. But there are some cases where they’ve been able to transfer in with some credits. I know of 2 cases in which this has happened - one transferred to Penn State and one transferred to Coastal Carolina. But again, many programs will make you start over. You may be able to transfer some general education credits, but that just depends on each individual school whether they will accept them or not.
Best wishes to you in your decision making. Let us know what you decide!
I agree with all that @vvnstar said, and will reiterate that it might be money well spent to get a good assessment of how competitive you might be for an MT program, and what it would take to get you there. A college audition coach would be a good person to help with that.
One sort of middle of the road possibility is to take a few classes at CC (which would show you can be successful in college, fulfill some gen Ed requirements and hopefully keep your parents happy) while taking intensive dance/acting/voice classes in preparation to audition for MT programs for Fall of 2017.
Since you would have to start over as freshman in almost any MT program, it might not make sense to waste a year of tuition at a university, but CC credits will also keep you from losing too much time if you end up not going the MT route.
Each college will tell you how many credits you need in order for them to only look at your college transcripts, but I think in almost every case it will be more credits than you can get in one semester.
Definitely look at Columbia if you can live in Chicago! They have a good acceptance rate academic wise and the cool thing is you can audition for BFA either before starting or after freshman year. They way they explained it to us is everyone starts in same classes and stay together until sophomore year and then the classes split off. And even if you don’t go BFA you will still get an awesome education in theatre and be in a great area with lots of theatre activity and opportunities. Check into it. My d was very interested in thier program and was accepted to the school but decided she liked they program she ended up with just a bit better.
And… Columbia theatre instructors say they have lots of professional contacts with theatres in Chicago and NYC and there are lots of opportunities for internships. Not to mention the ability to see lots of productions that come through the area at super cheap prices.
You could check out thier summer intensive program at Columbia. You would get a really really good idea about what the program and the acting/mt theatre track would be like and if it is really what you want and I do believe you earn college credits as well. It is really affordable if you have somewhere to stay without paying for housing! My daughter was going to do it last year but she got cast in a performance group here in wisconsin and toured with them all summer instead.
Here is what is online about it.
Musical Theatre Performance Intensive
In this five-day, three-week intensive class, high school students will practice integrative learning as they learn the skills and performance values necessary to consider a musical theatre major in college (acting, dance, singing and other specialized skills), and the applied skills that transfer to everyday activities and other course options: focus, concentration, commitment, energy and collaboration.
After a LONG talk with my parents, I’ve decided to attend the University of Houston and transfer into the theatre major after a semester (unless I get off the waitlist for Trinity University in San Antonio - I’ll update you guys). Most likely, I’ll just transfer into another school for a BFA in musical theatre in 2 years unless I really like UH.
My reasons for going to UH are that I just really want to focus on getting good grades and training in MT; I’ll be very close to family (I live north of Houston). If I were to go to Loyola, I know that I would be homesick for a while. Also, UH is less expensive since I live in Texas so my parents would have more $$ for acting, singing, and dancing lessons. I’ll be near home in case something happens to me (Ex. getting sick, accident, etc) as opposed to being 1,000 miles away. Finally, since I’ll be living on campus, I’ll be really close to theatres/acting studios/etc.
I know I’m gonna have a hard time transferring into a MT BFA but I’m up for the challenge. I’m going to train very hard for the next two years, get really good grades, build up my resume, and start looking at schools that will take my credits.
Thank you for all the advice you guys have given me. I’m definitely going to look into getting a coach to help me with college auditions.
Sam Houston regularly takes transfers into their MT program.
I think that UH only allows dance majors to take dance, but you can get great, affordable training at the Met (Houston Metropolitan Dance Center) which is only 10 minutes away. In the advanced levels, it is not unusual to take class alongside dancers from National Tours that are in town, or Houston-based pros.
Matt Hune (DePaul), Stephanie Wittels-Wachs (NYU), and Abbie Seible (Eastman) at the brand-new RecRoom HTX facility offer great training beginning this summer in acting, singing, and auditioning. In addition to classes, they also offer private tutoring. They are all excellent instructors who have routinely gotten kids into the top theatre programs in the country (they all teach at HSPVA).
Congratulations! Thanks for coming back to let us now. It sounds like you and your family have come up with a plan that works for you. I wish you all the best as you begin this next exciting step of your life!
In addition to EmsDad’s excellent suggestion of enhancing your training with Voice or Dance classes during the school year, don’t forget here are any number of very excellent summer training programs locally to you and throughout the country (all price ranges), for acting, MT, dance, voice, etc.