What your kids will learn in an MT program

College Majors Musical Theater Major
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<p>Lots of talk here about careers and cost-benefit analysis of an MT degree, so I thought I'd chime in with some thoughts about the positive aspects of an MT program.</p>

<p>Work. Your kids will learn a work ethic that puts 99% of other college kids to shame. </p>

<p>Interviews. Well, to get into a program, they've likely survived an evaluative process that I didn't face until I was up for a law firm position, well into my 30s. If you doubt me, go to Unifieds and sit outside the Penn State audition room. I've interviewed Georgetown JDs who can't hold a candle to the average 18-yo Unified applicant.</p>

<p>Self-sufficiency. There are no soft spots to land in MT. Hard realities of the marketplace are learned early on and enforced continually. You make your own luck and our kids understand that. What a great lesson that is.</p>

<p>Finding yourself. If you love what you do, you'll do it better than you do anything else. If theater is what you must do, that's what you must do (no guarantees on income, however).
Your kid will not be an engineer unless they're an engineer, and engineers are being outsourced these days, fyi. </p>

<p>Seeing opportunity. Artists create. They see beauty where we don't. They find the new thing, the next thing. They abhor safety nets and make-work. They are already at the place the New Economy is headed; flexible, open-minded, creative.</p>

<p>So, don't fret too much. If they've got some talent and a ton of drive, they'll come out of this just fine. The new economy has no guarantees, anywhere, and live is more than X dollars times X weeks equals "success"</p>

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<p>Well said, thank you. I feel the same way, but I could not have said it so well.</p>

3

<p>Beautifully said! I wish I had this memorized for every time I’m asked “Well what is she going to do with a MT degree?”.</p>

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<p>We can add

  • time management skills
  • working with a team, group, support personnel and management to accomplish significant projects of a time sensitive nature
  • learning to see multiple perspectives at the same time and being able to put themselves into other people’s shoes.</p>
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<p>Croner- you mentioned interview skills. My D feels she could go into any interview and nail it, even if she wasn’t necessarily qualified for the job! Like you said, these kids are put thru the ringer during auditions and if they can handle that, they can handle just about anything!</p>

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<p>I love the sentiment of this thread, and agree that MT professionals learn all of these things. I guess the only thing I question is whether most really serious MT kids haven’t already learned most of these lessons from their serious involvement in theatre prior to heading to college, and I guess that was the question at the heart of the Transformed, Fine-tuned, Hardly-changed thread. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1178243-transformed-fine-tuned-hardly-changed.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1178243-transformed-fine-tuned-hardly-changed.html&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>In any case, I don’t doubt that there are many new and important lessons to be learned in college, and as you say all of these skills will serve these kids well whatever paths they follow later in life.</p>

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<p>Momcares…I also do not think that you can discount the connections that are made through the respective college programs. Sometimes in this business it is who you know, I think.</p>

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<p>@mommamt – I totally agree that contacts can make or break a career in MT, and I’m sure you’re right that many kids make life-changing connections in college. No doubt that’s more true of some programs than others. I’m thinking at D’s future school it may be less true than at some (though I suppose I have zero basis for that assumption) and I’m thinking that your kids’ schools are among the best in that regard! ;-D</p>

<p>As was mentioned above, the future economy is apt to highly value flexibility, creativity, teamwork, courage and resilience, so hopefully our MT kids will be prepped to find happiness in such a world, since they should have all of these qualities in spades.</p>

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<p>I think it is slightly amusing that Momcares refers readers to the “transformed, fine-tuned or hardly changed” thread when, it seems highly likely, that “what your kids will learn in an MT program” was already a reaction to that thread…
Is that what the “Circle of Life” means?</p>

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<p>Yup, that’s exactly why I mentioned it. We could all easily make the connection, but someone new to the group might not.</p>

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<p>The following link has been posted more than once on other threads in the past. I recently had to search for it so I could send it to my daughter to remind her of the value of her degree.
[What</a> Theatre Majors Learn. What can you “do” with a theatre major? Plenty!!](<a href=“http://lecatr.people.wm.edu/majorslearn.html]What”>http://lecatr.people.wm.edu/majorslearn.html)</p>

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<p>I love this thread and just posted it over in the Acting Major forum! Bravo!</p>