glassharmonica

FWIW, my daughter got into Mason Gross but decided to go to Fordham, in part because she wanted a BA. You might also want to look into Bard along with Sarah Lawrence... and I think someone mentioned Vassar.

MichaelNKat

Just so that you are aware, UArts has about a 6% acceptance rate. It is often viewed as "less selective" because the academic threshold for admission is lower than at some schools but the audition is weighted more heavily than academics. (Academics do play a significant role, however, in scholarship offerings and the highest scholarship recipients are those who are not only very talented but who also have academic stats that would make them competitive at academically very selective schools.)

chrissyblu

This is an interesting thread. My D thought she had a lot of training when she started at UCLA. She had been to an intensive program at an arts high school. She did summer programs at recognized theatres. But, now, entering her senior year at UCLA, she realizes how little she really knew when she got to college. Your daughter should not judge a program based on what is taught at a pre-college program. What you learn in a college acting program is far beyond anything you get in high school. My D is at UCLA with kids from all over the country, including the "Fame" high school in NY, Idylwylld (sp? sorry) and all sorts of performing arts high schools. When they all enter they think they know everything. UCLA (like most programs) systematically erases that notion from their students and recrafts their actors. Judge the program on what students who are in the program say, who went their (i.e. the quality of the mafia), and the faculty.

stagemum

MichaelNKat - Does your 6% figure apply to all programs at UArts, and for both genders? If so, that goes beyond merely reinforcing my perception that the school has raised its profile extraordinarily within a few years. The profile on CC (which includes all departments) listed a two-thirds acceptance rate. I knew that the performing arts departments were more selective, but thought they were in the 20-25% range (probably higher for boys, but lower for girls, and lower in Musical Theater and Dance). Incidentally, my son had a deplorable GPA, but a decent "super-score" on his SATs (with one Critical Reading in high-700s), and he received a generous scholarship offer from UArts. If they only accepted 6% of those who auditioned last year, he should feel even happier about attending than he already does.

MichaelNKat

The CC profile is for the school across all majors and departments. Keep in mind that its programs cover a broad spectrum of Theatre, Film, Visual Arts, Dance, Design and Music disciplines, including both performance based and non-perfomance based majors.

I should have been a little more precise in my post and it was a bit skewed based on MT. During the time my daughter was there, from September 2007 - May 2011, the acceptance rate for MT was in the 6-8% range, with Acting being a bit higher in the 8-10% range and the numbers coming down over those years for both programs. The school appears to attempt to construct a freshman Acting and Mt class with an equal number of each gender but the gender distribution will vary from year to year based on the vagaries of the application/audition cycles and I suspect the following year's acceptance distribution is somewhat influenced by the prior year's yield to try to keep a gender balance in the program to the extent possible. I don't know how the acceptance rate breaks out between genders for either major but overall, it is artistically a very competitive and selective school. For my daughter's MT freshman class there were about 600 auditioners and about 45 (7.5%) were accepted to yield a class of 24. We know many talented students who were rejected by the Acting and MT programs even though they were accepted at other very well regarded schools.

Your son should feel very pleased with his acceptance. It's not only an excellent school but Philly is a great college town and I just read an article that the student density in Philadelphia is now higher than Boston! My daughter still lives in center city Philadelphia and wouldn't be happier or more contented living anywhere else at this stage of her life.

EmmyBet

All kids who get an auditioned acceptance should be very pleased! And kids who do not get acceptances should understand that it is not personal; the odds are always against it. Would we tell a kid (who meets the general standards) who got rejected at all of the Ivies that they're just not really very smart and should try some other goal than going to college? Never!

M&K is so right that this process is full of mystery, luck and who knows what other factors. I think my D has finally understood this since she's been on the other end of the glass wall - she was able to help run auditions for incoming freshmen this year, met lots and lots of candidates, and saw who got in and who didn't. She realized what a strange, confusing gauntlet she had run the year before, and that hard work and talent are only a few of the numerous factors that go into what kind of letter you get in the end.

Also she has seen 4 classes of students (freshmen-seniors) who were accepted at her school, and the various ways they used the opportunity of being there, at all points of the spectrum. She has met transfers in, and transfers out, and also has compared notes with people in other programs (theatre and otherwise). She loves the work, and is as enthusiastic about her chosen field as ever, but she sees how luck and another thousand factors impact an individual's experience - in any college education, not just in theatre.