southernvoice

My D has decided just this week to attend Elon in MT starting in the fall!
She is very excited and has turned down FSU, Tisch/CAP 21, and Illinois Wesleyan (excellent programs) to do this. Elon is just the right fit with excellence of training, individual attention, performance opportunities, professors and the overall college experience she is seeking...the price isn't bad either!

AUDITIONS..my D's crazy audition schedule, like everyone else's, only allowed her to audition at Elon on the last big day...March 11th. She was the next to the last person to audition. She sang one song, presented one monologue and then performed a dance she'd choreographed. She forgot some of her choreography, although we don't think anyone would have really noticed since it was hers. It really upset her.

She had taken her tap shoes into the audition (at my insistence) and after she "thought" she'd blown her lyric/modern dance asked if she could tap for them. They said "sure". She tapped without music for about 1 1/2 minutes. There were a few questions...there were quite a few faculty and a few students in the audition...the students may have just been the guides for the day.

It was a long ride back to GA that night. She did not think she'd done well and had fallen in love with the school, the teachers and the program as we'd waited all day. I've said this before, that she got nervous for the first time ever because she'd forgotten how much she loved Elon and now really wanted to get in.

We also realized how much an early group dance audition has put her at ease at her other auditions. She wasn't afraid to present her own dance for Elon, it just created a different level of comparison (basically NONE) and confidence (all based on those 10 minutes with the faculty). This is something to consider if the audition-day schedules are different at each school...how will it make you feel if you don't know going into the singing/acting audition how you stack up to the others in dance? My D usually had some confidence behind her by the time she went in to sing and act because she's an experienced dancer.


Anyway, the next day was decision day and she got the call (message) by noon. We were floored and she was thrilled.

I too asked about early or late auditions when we were mapping out the audition calendar. The administrative assistant said it really doesn't matter. We were worried that all the spots would have been filled by March, but that was not the case. We feel very good about the timing...now that it's all over! Of course, it’s easy to say that now. But my D was the next to the last person to audition and she got in.

I don't know if this info helps anyone. My D got into the first and last schools she auditioned for (Nov. and March) with two other acceptances and two rejections in between. Who knows about the timing?

Good luck!

NJmtmom

My s also received "the call" the day after the department met to choose the students for the fall of 2005. I was stunned to receive a personal call and couldn't wait to tell my s. We couldn't be more thrilled. It is a BEAUTIFUL campus and the cultural arts building is terrific.

We had the BEST day in Elon when he auditioned in February. Along with about 25 students, he attended an acting class, and went to scheduled rehearsal time with the pianist. We both attended an info session where 2 junior male students performed a selection from The Secret Garden called Lily's Eyes. We were so impressed to see how talented they were. We met more females than males at all 4 of his auditions so it was nice to see other young men who are part of a program where he'd like to attend.

Later we ran into one of the performers and joined him and another MT student for coffee where they talked about Elon in general as well as the program. That really gave that personal touch to the process!

He loved the actual audition. It was held in a nice small modern theatre setting on stage with professors and students in attendance. He was escorted in by a current (male) student (also a nice touch). He sang parts of 2 songs and performed a monologue. They asked him to then sit on a chair and do the monologue again in a different style. He hasn't had any formal dance training but moves does freely on stage for his characters. This was all followed by a question and answer period. He had prepared 2 questions and felt very confident.

I was a wreck for a month following the audition knowing that this was absolutely his (and my) first choice school. He was accepted into 3 of 4 MT programs and the 4th school accepted him into his 2nd choice major. He only applied to 1 non-MT program where he was accepted but not until March 31st!

There is a lot of anxiety wondering if the school will accept your student and THEN if the MT department wants him! I would advise students to apply to a rolling admission back-up school before getting involved in the audition scheduling. Knowing that you have SOMEWHERE to go if all else fails could be a good thing!

Ericsmom

Bumping for Megsmom60 so she can read about Elon.

NJmtmom - Appreciated your contribution to this thread, and congrat's on getting his first choice! We loved Elon also (my son is a junior), and I was the one who started this thread.

BacktoBefore

This is most definitely my first choice school... however, I don't want to get my hopes up....

How many people generally audition every year? I'd just like to know the percentance that get in so I can think about my choices.

ElonActress - Are you allowed to double major in musical theater and something else at Elon? My parents would really like me to have a "fall-back" incase acting doesn't work, and I agree with them. I would like to double major in MT and Psychology. Let me know!

chrism

Question: is Elon in the middle of the countryside as it looks from the map? What is the nearest city? Where do kids go for "city" stuff? thanks

Ericsmom

I'm probably not the best to answer any of the above questions, but I believe they told us that in the past 150 or so had auditioned (maybe a little less than that), but they are having increasing numbers each year as more people hear about them. They take 16 into MT each year.

I believe they do allow double majors, but you need to check with them. It think it would be a difficult schedule.

Elon is 20 minutes from Greensboro and 45 minutes from the Raleigh-Durham airport. I think that puts them about 30 minutes from Chapel Hill, a little farther to Durham, and probably an hour or less to Raleigh. It is also about an hour the other way (west) to get to Winston-Salem. When we visited there, we had lunch with a student (not in performing arts) who would now be graduating, who was from our home town. In the almost 4 years he has been there, I think he said he has only gone to Greensboro about twice a year. He finds very much to do on campus and in town. Students are mostly from out of state. Everyone stays on campus on weekends, and it seems that they have tons of student activities on the weekends.

NJmtmom

My s was told that 265 auditioned this year and that they accepted 16. At least one of the 16 (who we met at auditions) chose another school...

My s asked about double majoring with Education - it seems a logical pairing but he would probably have to do student teaching following the 4 year MT curriculum. We will research this further once he is there! His 1st semester is the usual mix of theatre and required courses...

angstridden

I know several kids attending Elon that love it. However, My D. looked at it and felt it was very small and had a high school feel to it. She really disliked it.
My friend said that when her son went at the start of the school year they dropped an acorn and talked about helping the student grow like the acorn, which sound kinda young to me. However it seems like they are very supportive of the kids.
I dont know alot about admissions to MT. My friends son got in ED for a different major with very average grades and not alot of activities. Once at the school he had some trouble in one of his classes because they kept changing teachers..I think one quit and one got fired..not sure. He ended up flunking the course and has to retake it. ..but my thoughts are he was probably goofing off ..but the teacher situation didnt help.
I think thats a school that you will either really like the small feel or you wont..and a visit will let you know right away.

soozievt

Angstridden, you can't compare the admissions to Elon or any other college with the admissions to its BFA in MT program. The selectivity for the BFA program is much more difficult than the college/university at large. For instance, a person who knew nothing about MT BFA programs would tell my kid upon hearing she was applying to Penn State or Emerson or Ithaca (examples here) that of course she could get in because they were assuming that a kid with her academic profile would easily be admitted to those schools. And yes, she knew she could academically get into those schools. However, most are not aware that even if a school has something like a 65% admit rate overall, its BFA program might have a 5% admit rate (most of these do) which is worse odds than Ivy League admission odds. So, you can't compare the credentials of a kid who got into the regular college for a different major at Elon with a kid who had to be selected into the much more selective BFA program there.

Another thing in selecting where to go for a BFA....it is very very different in terms of college criteria than most kids need to think about when selecting a regular college. I know this having two kids go through this now. One did the selection process like most kids...she established her criteria (all the usual things like location, size, level of challenge/academics, EC offerings, social scene, etc. etc. etc.) and narrowed it down. She perused very thick college directories, narrowed it to 30, then to ten to visit and then to 8 to apply to. But for a BFA in MT kid....for one thing, the list of schools must be culled from a fairly small list of programs available. I felt my D's list was created rather readily and was similar to many of her theater friends (unlike other D whose list differed greatly from her peers). She was not as concerned or able to use things like size, location, Greek scene, etc. in making her list. Rather, she had to look very closely at the BFA program...things like curriculum, performance opportunities, training, philosophy, amt. of liberal arts, dance offerings, etc. She had to weigh in on conservatory style or within a university, stuff like that. It was a very different type of selection criteria. It was very very much focused on the actual program, much more than the college itself. That does not mean that she never thought about location and size of the school or the atmosphere at the school at large, but these were secondary to examining the BFA program and fit with that program because when you enter a BFA program, it usually represents approx. 75% of your curriculum at college and it is pretty spelled out for you so you have to make sure you want that very specific program as there is not as much choice involved in picking courses like for other majors. It is a little like engineering programs. The kid is commiting to this specific program, not just the college. So, when getting first hand accounts from kids who go to these colleges (always important), it is quite critical to get these accounts from kids in these specific BFA programs, not just kids who attend the college itself. It is related but still a little like apples to oranges.

Here is one example....and I hope I don't offend....but take CCM. It is one of the top rated MT programs in the country. Many kids who apply there or who attend, likely would not have picked Univ. of Cincinatti as their college of choice had they not been going for a BFA. There is NOTHING wrong with that university but merely saying that some of these kids are likely academically overqualified for that college but picked it SOLELY cause of its BFA in MT program which is about 90% or some such of their program while there. So, they had to examine if they wanted the intense conservatory style training offered there, much more than looking at Univ. of Cinci as a whole (not to discount that they should ALSO look at that but I feel pretty sure that was a secondary consideration for some of these kids).

So, a kid looking at Elon for a BFA in MT MIGHT not be the same kid who would have looked to apply to Elon otherwise. I hope I am not offending because Elon itself is a very good school. Just saying that picking a BFA program is NOT the same as picking a regular college.

Susan

angstridden

Oh Susan you are so knowledgeable.

As I mentioned in my post..I dont know alot about admissions to the MT program there. Just that general admissions dont seem to be too hard.

soozievt

You are right, Angst....on the general admissions. If your child chooses to pursue a BFA degree in musical theater (do not know that she will go that route or not), you'll now know that it is a different ballgame than regular general admissions to these very same colleges. So a college that otherwise does not seem that hard to get into (for instance for your older D who was a very good student) might be very very very hard to get into for the BFA program. Here is an example for you.....Penn State. Good school. My niece goes there and she is definitely an above average student. You do not have to be a stellar student to get in nor have very high SATs, etc. It is not super hard to get into but not easy of course. So, for example, I recall your older D as being a top notch student. She'd get into Penn State no sweat from her stats as I recall them last year. But say she was a candidate for the BFA degree at Penn State. They auditioned 350 kids (if I recall the number accurately, I hope) and they admitted approx. 15 kids into the program. Them are tough odds. Not what you think of when you hear Penn State, right? That's what I mean.

I thought the admit rates at the elite (not BFA) colleges my older D applied to were very very tough odds but the BFA degree program odds my younger D applied to were even worse. It is an eye opening statistic and better to learn it now if you are remotely considering this. I recall several years back that an older friend of my D's (four years older) was applying to BFA programs and her mom was telling me of these 5% admit rates and I thought, for sure, that CANNOT be true. Her D ended up at NYU/Tisch/CAP21. Now, we have gone through this and have learned that indeed that is a typical or average admit rate to most of these programs. It is quite a shock to hear it for the first time though!
Susan

angstridden

Yes it was my older D. who looked at Elon while she was checking out Davidson and UNC.

southernvoice

The reason Elon gives out the acorns to freshmen and oak seedlings to graduates is because ELON means OAK in Hebrew. (If you look at their logo it has oak leaves with an acorn. The campus itself is absolutely lovely and has huge, old trees everywhere.) The gift of these oaks in various stages is an old tradition at Elon, so we were told. Yea, it can seem a little sentimental to do that, but sounds like it's been done for years and they stick to it.

There is something solid about the place...the setting, the professors, the other students. My D turned down 3 wonderful BFA MT offers to go to Elon this fall. We really think that Elon is making a name for itself with its graduates. For MT kids looking for a traditional college experience AND a good BFA program, Elon is a great choice.

Elon has a very strong overseas studies program...I think at least 75% of the student body take advantage of Elon's overseas connections either during their short term or for a semester. If that % is not right, it's at least close. We know of a BFA MT student who went to London this past short term. Several BFA MT programs don't allow ANY time for overseas study. We are glad it is still an option at Elon.
.
The school has become so popular overall for admissions that they've stopped their rolling admissions. There are only 91 kids in my D's graduating class and at least 10 of them applied to Elon...3 are going.
Only about 30% of the student body is from NC, so we're expecting some diversity.

I'll be happy to relate my D's experiences and our opinions after she's been there a while.

abparent

To southernvoice,

Please do keep us posted on your D's year. We visited w/ our son and were very impressed. You answered my question on out of state students. Any idea on what the breakdown is for students from North vs South? Several folks have been steering our S toward the North because of NY. We're also from NJ. However, many programs throughout the country are very attractive. Elon was one that really surprised our S. I'm sure he'd like to hear from any who land there about the culture and area. He adapts pretty well, but would be 7 hours from home if fortunate enough to attend Elon. Thanks for whatever input you can provide.

proud_dad

We live in Greensboro, but I grew up in Syracuse,NY. My daughter is planning to go to Elon in Fall of '06, so we really checked the school out. Elon U is in the town of Elon College, but this is indistinquishable from the much bigger town of Burlington. Burlington is an old mill town that has been taken over by strip shopping centers. It sits right next to I-40/85 and in the past was known for it's outlet stores. Elon sits between this town and rural NC. There is nothing but farms and fields north of Elon. There some really nice areas near Elon. Just a couple miles west is the town of Gibsonville. It looks like a traditional southern town that you see with small shops right on the street. The students will be more interested in Greensboro, about 45 minutes west. It has a number of universities (UNCG,Guilford,Greensboro C,A&T,High Point U...) so there is a little more of interest there. Chapel Hill and Duke are about 45 minutes to the east. For students there are things to do and see there. Elon's nickname is the "bubble", for good reasons. Immediately around the University there is not a lot to interest most students. Elon is kind of an oasis. I think the admissions told us the highest percentage of students were from Maryland,followed by Virginia and then NC. To me it feels like a upper middle class country club.

my 2 cents...