bravesgirl

Just curious - thanks.

KatMT

For Musical Theatre -- the lowest GPAs that the university accepted to the program last year (with the recommendation of the dept.) was a 3.3 unweighted at a competitive HS, with APs and Honors Courses.

I am not sure of the test scores on that particular student.

Most students who were accepted weere is the 3.7 - over 4.0 range.

soozievt

Kat was reporting regarding MT students. I thought I would also throw out there that the average GPA for those accepted to James Madison overall is a 3.7. (remember that is the AVERAGE, not a minimum) When GPAs are reported for colleges, they refer to UNweighted GPAs. More selective schools, like JMU, also care about the RIGOR of the curriculum chosen in the context of what's available at one's HS.

KatMT

Thanks SoozieVT -- Yes, for MT students a lower than average GPA can be accepted if it is someone we notify admission that we would really love to have in the program. However, below a certain GPA (and course rigor), the university will come back and tell us "no".

Because students at JMU take 41 credits of Gened, through intermediate level of a foreign language, and the Musical Theatre Concentration is credit intensive (with most students taking well beyond the required courses), it is important for students to be able to handle the course load, and academics. If admissions tells us that they feel a student will not be academically successful at JMU, we do not fight it... no matter how much we would have liked to have he or she in the program from an artistic sense.

soozievt

KatMT...I think this policy makes sense. I know yours is a BA program but even in BFA programs, it is so rigorous, that I would think that admissions officers would want to make sure a student could handle it by evidence of their track record in HS. As well, MOST BFA programs (not all....) have SOME liberal arts classes or theater studies classes beyond the training/performance type classes and so the student still needs to be able to succeed in those college classes. Each college has a different level of academic selectivity but some of these MT schools are selective academically and applicants should know that. One can be very talented but not up to the rigor of college work and expectations, and indeed a BFA program is extremely rigorous and involves excellent time management and work ethic.

KatMT

Very true... all of these programs regardless of BA/ BFA/ BM are rigorous in terms of time management, intensity of courses, etc... Also -- schools see so many more talented applicants that they can possibly accept. Academic track record I am sure is sometimes used as a deciding factor at many schools

soozievt

Kat, I agree. There are more artistically talented students than slots available at these selective MT programs, and so one thing that can set some apart is the rest of the application and record. The academic bar at some schools or conservatories is not very high but if the school is selective outside of the MT program, one needs to be competive across the board when there are more artistically qualified students than they can take. Schools can pick students who are talented and also have the academic requisites to succeed since they really have their pickins in this process. It is also important to select schools where your academic stats are somewhere in the ballpark for the school. If the school is both an academic reach and also has a low acceptance rate into the MT program, those are two hurdles to jump.