MichaelNKat

My daughter attended Syracuse's summer MT program in 2006 and also applied/auditioned for the 2007-2008 school year. What we were told throughout the process, both by Murphy in the Drama Department office and by professors was that there is no "direct" admission to the BS drama/acting program. As has been stated above, the BS program is there for those admitted to the BFA MT or acting program but who for one reason or another need or want to transition out of it but desire to remain a drama/acting major within the department. I don't know if anything has changed this year but that's the way it has been in the past.

MomOfAPrincess

Michael -

I'm not saying any of you are wrong or that isn't the way it is. But if that is the case their website is misleading as it indicates the two choices at SU in acting directly as a freshman - BS and BFA.

NotMamaRose

MomOfAPrincess, in the end, it all amounts to the same thing: kids who want to study acting or MT at Syracuse have to audition into the acting or musical theater program. They take the same core courses (as explained by the people in the department at two information sessions I attended with my kid) and at the end of sophomore year, there are some choices to be made. One choice is that the student *herself* decides to pursue the BS track, which means taking more liberal arts courses. (In this case, the student cannot enroll in upper level acting/performance classes.) OR the professors decide that the student has not mastered the material enough to go on to the upper level, BFA classes, and the student moves on to the BS track. OR (yet again!) the student wants to continue to upper level performance classes, and passes her juries/evals, so she *does* continue to the BFA track. It really is a semantic difference. From what the folks at SU have said, students in both "tracks" do the same things freshman and sophomore years, and it goes from there, according to both the student's wishes/desires/interests and the teachers evaluations of whether those who do wish to move on in the BFA track can do so. Does that make sense?

MomOfAPrincess

Thanks NMR. I think a bigger question I have right now after reading this board is this emphasis on dance. I read somewhere that if you got 1's and 2's in voice and acting there was a possibility that you could get in despite a not as successful dance audition. Let's assume this happened and you got in the BFA MT. 2 years go by and you still can't catch up to the other students that studied ballet since they were 3 yrs old. Will this come back to haunt you? Will you likely than be thrown into the BS Acting?

Anyone knowing someone with less dance experience that has first hand knowledge of this I'd love to hear from you.

NotMamaRose

MomofaPrincess, that's an interesting question and I will be interested in hearing what kinds of responses you get. But let's look at the flip side:
What about kids who have been dancing since they were four and who came into SU's program as really accomplished dancers, but are not as accomplished in, say, voice and/or acting? I think it is reasonable to assume that most kids who are admitted to Syracuse have some kind of weakness: very few kids are true triple-threats at the age of 17 or 18! That means that each and every student who enters Syracuse will likely have an area of weakness, which they have the chance to remedy/build up during the first two years of intense training. In essence, that means everyone begins on relatively equal footing and has the chance to make the most of the program before the evals. I would surmise that the adjudicators at Syracuse believe that every kid they admit out of the hundreds who audition have the ability to improve their area of weakness and move on to the BFA track in time. Of course, that's not always the reality. But it IS Syracuse's system, and anyone who enrolls in that program needs to understand the possibility that he or she may not be allowed to continue on the BFA track.

onstage

MOAP: Regarding dance -- during orientation weekend, there is a dance placement test. Students may be placed in Ballet 1, 2, 3 or 4, depending on their proficiency. Most freshmen are placed in Ballet 1, but there are always a few exceptions who will be put into more advanced classes. No one on the faculty will expect all dancers to be at the same level after only a few semesters of ballet. What they do expect is that students will be making enough progress to advance to the next level.

Regarding the auditions: to be accepted, students need a 1 or 2 score on two out of the three skills: acting, singing & dance. The faculty hopes to get a good mix; most students have at least one area in which they excel. There has been a strong emphasis on dance in recent years; in spite of that, there are students who are not strong dancers.

I'd like to emphasize that the Syracuse program is NOT a cut program. The department does not intentionally cut a certain number of students; the sophomore evaluations are primarily meant to identify students who are not keeping up with their work, and not making the expected progress.

Students who fail voice and/or dance may be given the option of switching to a BFA in Acting; OR they can re-take some classes; OR they can take the BS option. Students who fail acting must re-take basic acting classes, or take the BS option.

Hope this hasn't been too confusing -- I think it does illustrate, though, that the faculty makes every effort to help students to remain in the program if they wish.

MomOfAPrincess

During the talk yesterday the Acting Professor was asked if a student could enter directly to the BS Acting instead of the BFA Acting - he said "yes"

onstage

Really? I guess that's the final word then! Apparently they still have to audition to be accepted, though.