Hi, this is Gluemom's D - I am currently a second year MT at the Hartt School and my mom was reading me some of your questions and concerns about the campus and housing etc so I thought I would offer my opinion.
The campus itself is not the most beutiful campus I have ever laid eyes on, but it does have its pretty parts. The academic side of campus is especially nice. The housing, where not very appealing on the outside has an excellent set up on the inside. Housing is not divided up by program so you live with students outside of your major and outside of the Hartt School. Freshmen live in whats called the complexes. I found it to be a great set up for freshmen year. There are 2 double rooms and 2 triple rooms with 2 bathrooms and a common room that only the 10 people can access. Everyone in the suite is the same sex. The atmosphere of the suite is completely what you make of it. I became friends with my suitemates and doors were open and the common room was decorated. I have been in others where people barely knew their suitemates names and their common room was rarely used. A wonderful thing about our campus though is its location, smack dab in the middle between Boston and NYC. We're close by the bus station so there are many weekends that I've gone with a couple of friends on the bus to go see a few shows in the city. It's awesome to go and see exactly what your studying for. Also when people think the city of Hartford, there is generally some concern. Keep in mind that the university has its own closed campus in West Hartford. The surrounding area is beautiful.
This year I live with 3 of my best friends and they are also in the theatre program. We lucked out receiving an apartment with 4 singles, a common room and bathroom to ourselves. This set up has served us extremely well thus far.
As far as socially, most people in the theatre program form their closest friendships within the theatre program. There are exceptions as there are to every rule, but the theatre division is really its own community. Freshmen year you have all your Hartt classes with the other freshmen theatre students. You get to know upper classmen throughout the year through working crew for their shows, being in the same voice studio as them, as well as opening welcome events. The program is very welcoming and friendly and willing to help people become adjusted. The faculty is also very supportive and amazingly talented. If you go in with an open mind and are willing to be a sponge, you will learn so much not only from the faculty but also from your classmates.
I mentioned voice studio, there are many adjunct voice faculty as part of the Hartt Theatre Division. You are placed with a teacher your freshmen year and you have an hour long private lesson each week. You also have a weekly master class. The way each is run is slightly different but the basic idea is that you present in front of your teacher and his/her other students what you have been working on that week. A live accompanist is provided and you get a chance to do a little performance weekly. It's a great way of conquering bad nervous habits and gaining confidence as well as learning from the others you watch.
Along with that vocal training weekly, you also have 2 acting classes and 2 ballet classes as a freshman. Depending on the size of the incoming class, the freshmen are divided up into smaller groups. My year there were three groups and 13 people in my group. None of the classes are much larger than that. For ballet the freshmen class is split in half. While it is obvious that some people have had ballet for years and others have never danced a step in their lives, you are all still in the same class. If you want to and the teacher agrees, you can place out of Ballet 1 and move on to Ballet 2. However I had been taking ballet since the age of 4 and I still found things to learn in Ballet 1. It grounds your technique and while sometimes it was frustrating to slow down, it helped me overall. There are also jazz and tap classes available, but they are hard to enroll in as a freshmen. You have to go into credit overload and they are often already full of upperclassmen because that is who they are offered to (When I say upperclassmen i am referring to anything above a freshman). Also the dance classes often don't coincide with your already busy schedule. Along with voice, acting, and ballet, there is also voice and speech 2x a week, music theory 3x a week, and ear training 3x a week. You can see a complete list of all the classes you need to take by going to hartford's website at
www.hartford.edu, continue under the Hartt link. Also the program I have just described is strictly for the MT division. ATs and MTs are together in acting and voice and speech only freshmen year. If there are specific questions about the AT program feel free to ask and I will answer to the best of my ability.
I hope this post has answered some questions some of you might have had. I absolutely love going to school at Hartt so when I read some of the questions I thought I should definitely respond. I will try to keep responding especially over this month since I am home for break. Happy Holidays :-)
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