<p>I’m starting my college search for a good MT program, and an amazing school. So far I’ve looked at Otterbein and CCM, will be applying at Ball State, Illinois University, Capital, Northwestern, and maybe some other places. But I have no idea what this program is, so if anyone would like to explain, it’d be great!</p>
<p>CAP21 is one of the top MT programs in the country.</p>
<p>There's a lot of information about it on the official site: <a href="http://filmtv.tisch.nyu.edu/object/DR_CAP21.html%5B/url%5D">http://filmtv.tisch.nyu.edu/object/DR_CAP21.html</a></p>
<p>Good luck with your search :)</p>
<p>CAP 21 is one of the acting studios at NYU in the Tisch School of the Arts. As a current student, I posted my impressions that I will bump for you. </p>
<p>You'll want to check out all the threads here, the Questions for the Tisch Arts Reps thread is extremely helpful, as well as anyone have questions thread.</p>
<p>Chris</p>
<p>Chrisnoo-</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for such an informative post. My daughter went to the NYU CAP 21 summer program and thought it was terrrific. She loved the faculty, whom she found to be supportive and authoritative at the same time. She auditions this November, and we are keeping our fingers crossed. Good luck to you as your year progresses.</p>
<p>My son is a third-year student in CAP, and I can tell you that it's a great deal of hard work, particularly in terms of dance. But out of acting/singing/dancing, dance is his weakest area. If you are admitted to the program, you'll be challenged and at times intimidated by the demands. While your roommates are having a leisurely Friday sleeping off the Thursday night partying, you will be up and out the door to an all-day-long program, including a hefty serving of dance, scene study and rigorous voice. While everyone else is out having a good time, you'll be running around Manhattan looking for sheet music and rehearsing late into the wee morning hours for a scene that will be due the next day. CAP's a good program, but it does appear to me to be the most demanding of all the Tisch studios. It's no cake walk. </p>
<p>On a different note -- I have a Pilates instructor who is also a Rockette. She hails from a dance program in a school that she claims is a major player in musical theatre education -- Oklahoma City University -- which is a big surprise to me. It's not on the usual list of schools that all of us hear about, but I looked at the OCU website and it looks very promising to me. Not everyone is going to be admitted to NYU and its ilk, and it's good to know about other places that offer solid training, but don't necessarily have the cachet (and high price tag) of the big-name schools.</p>
<p>Oklahoma City University IS one of the big name schools. Many people consider it one of the musical theater "ivy" league institutions; in other words, it is considered to be of the same or similar "ilk" to NYU. :)</p>
<p>NMR, OCU is an excellent program, no doubt about it. I understand where fannie is coming from and notice that she is a new poster to CC (welcome fannie). Until I started reading CC over four years ago, I had never heard of OCU either. In the past couple of years, OCU has had a lot of visibility on the MT Forum. People on the MT Forum come from around the country (and beyond) and so introduce others to schools that are popular in their regions too. And we've got OCUMTInfo posting here who tells us about OCU often :). </p>
<p>I have to tell you that when my D was applying to BFA programs two years ago, she had many many theater friends along the Eastern seaboard from Vermont to Florida who were also applying to BFA programs or had before her. Not a single one applied to OCU. It wasn't on the radar of folks in certain geographical areas and who OBVIOUSLY don't read CC :D. Of course I know lots about it now due to those from other areas who have shared about this program here or who attend. I think what I observe in fannie's post is common among people from certain areas of the country who don't read CC and they just are not aware of the program at OCU. Over time, I imagine more will be. The list of schools my own kid applied to overlapped a great deal with lists of her friends from the East Coast. I can't tell you why necessarily but it is just an observation. Remember, too, that besides location, OCU is a BM program and not everyone is seeking that.</p>
<p>What is SO great about this forum is the exposure of the many BFA program options out there that some have not heard of through their own theater contacts and it is so great because time and again, some kids have ONLY heard of the same five or six schools and think they HAVE to go to those and they don't! In fact, in my work, I come across kids' college wish lists that list the schools they've heard of, yet they truly are not qualified to get admitted and so exposing them to the many other fine programs out there is a goal. Fannie doesn't have a kid currently looking for a BFA program but if she reads this site, she'll see that LOTS of CC readers surely know about OCU! </p>
<p>It is true that for those shopping college price tags, OCU is a better "bargain" than CMU, Syracuse, NYU, and some other BFA's. </p>
<p>PS...hi fannie...I have a daughter who is a second year CAP21 student and perhaps our kids have met.</p>
<p>Soozievt, the reason that I had already heard of OCU before I came on this board is because my D has long been a big fan of Kristin Chenoweth, who is a graduate of OCU. So it was on <em>our</em> radar because of that! Of course, us East Coasters can be very "one track" (read: East Coast oriented! :)) when we think about colleges, so it makes sense that not everyone has heard of OCU. Learning about other terrific programs out there is one of this board's biggest benefits.</p>
<p>This looks like an OCU thread, but I wanted to add that OCU's BM in MT program is top notch and is part of the school of music. Separately and under a different school within the university, they have a very highly regarded dance program and offer majors in tap, jazz, and ballet, geared toward dance performance in areas such as Broadway musicals and other entertainment. The MT students take their dance classes with these dance majors. I have occasionally recommended the dance major to people who have a strong dance background and feel that singing is not a strength (and singing is very important for getting into their BM MT program).</p>
<p>Hi, and thanks for the personal greeting -- yes, our kids probably do know each other! I hope your daughter is enjoying CAP.</p>
<p>Yeah, OCU -- this readers of CC may very well be big marketers of it and that's a great thing, I'm sure. We live in Los Angeles and did a seemingly exhaustive search into theatre/BFA programs, and hailed from a high-pressure school with formidable high school counseling people and practices -- and not once did anyone ever mention OCU as a viable choice. It was on no one's radar that I ever ran across. So I think you're right in saying that it isn't known everywhere in the USA. But I apologize if any of its CC fan base have ruffled feathers because of my apparent ignorance -- I'm sorry! It's unintentional...</p>
<p>By the way -- again, off the CAP 21 topic and peaking of schools that probably aren't on the tips of everyone's tongues (but obviously I can be wrong) -- Back in the dark ages, I attended Southern Illinois University. In the 1970s, that school had great theatre and musical theatre programs. I'm wondering how it's thought of in this day and age by those in the know?</p>
<p>fannie, yes my daughter absolutely loves CAP21 program in every way. I was just at Tisch two nights ago to see Into the Woods. </p>
<p>Since you are from LA, by any chance did your D go to OCHSA? If so, one of my D's closest friends in her year at CAP21 is an alum of OSCHA and the funny thing is, when he got into CAP21, he was a poster on this forum and I "knew" him through posting (but my D doesn't post here) and then subsequently, when he got to CAP21, my D and he became close friends, ironically, unrelated to CC. I've now met him many times and just saw him Monday night. I sometimes kid around and say, "I'm SoozieVT, Hi Collegebound87! (his posting name back senior year in HS back in LA)". They co-musically directed Into the Woods. Another graduate of OSCHA who is in your D's year at CAP, played the Baker's Wife and was excellent.</p>
<p>If your daughter is friends with them from HS by chance, then perhaps she is going to see the show this week. My D is the one who is playing the piano accompanying the show, and conducting the orchestra. If your daughter is going, she should say to my D, "my mom knows your mom on CC" and my daughter will get a laugh out of that. :D</p>
<p>Fannie,
I do not know anything about Southern Illinois U. other than what I read on their website today. I do not believe that the program has been mentioned on this forum. (Coincidentally, the chair of the music dept. where I earned my BM and MM degrees was formerly from SIU.)</p>
<p>SIU offers a BA in MT through the music department. The degree seems to be pretty heavily weighted toward music coursework. Here is a link to the curriculum for SIU's MT degree: <a href="http://www.siu.edu/%7Emt/curriculum/bamt.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.siu.edu/~mt/curriculum/bamt.html</a></p>