Could someone please place OHIO NORTHERN University on the sub forum column

momofstar · March 2012

It would be interesting to start ongoing discussion regarding Ohio Northern University's BFA Musical Theater program.

jeffandann · March 2012

Yes, my daughter is interested in programs in the midwest area and I'd love to know more about them, quality of faculty and instruction, etc.

tracyvp · March 2012

Normally what happens is that once a school has a fairly significant presence here in the regular forums, one of the moderators will decide to start a subforum. Hopefully this school will start to get more discussion and that will happen.

Unfortunately there can't be a subforum for every school. And as you can see, sometimes the mods create a subforum and no one ever posts in it again! So I think they tend to wait and see how active the discussions will be before creating the subforum.

BroadwayBound164 · March 2012

I agree. I'm looking into the school and really interested in it. I'd love to have a subforum so that it would be easier to share information

alwaysamom · March 2012

This may have changed but, originally, the sub-forums were created because of a certain amount of activity in discussions about those schools. There was a limit to the number of sub-forums that could be set up and the schools that generated the most activity were the ones chosen. As tracy mentioned, there cannot be a sub-forum for every school and for those that are not discussed frequently, it's often better to post about them here in the main forum because more members frequent the main discussion forum. Most members do not visit many of the sub-forums.

Intervals · March 2012

We would love to see ONU listed as well!

blueskies1108 · March 2012

Seems like its a school many are auditioning at that are also auditioning at more well known schools - seems to me it should get a forum!

PaiMom3 · March 2012

My D is also looking at Ohio Northern. I know quite a bit about the school as I grew up in Ada, attended school at ONU and my father was a professor there, so I can try to answer questions. Although the MT program has developed drastically since I was there.

Intervals · March 2012

PaiMom3,

Thanks, I would love your input about the educational quality and student body there. Are most students from Ohio, and do many leave on weekends to go home? Are the frats a major part of the social scene, and is the social life centered around drinking/partying or are there many other activities happening at night and on weekends? What do you know about the MT program? Are the gen ed classes challenging and discussion based? Are the students motivated to learn? Anything else you want to add would be much appreciated.

jeffandann · March 2012

PaiMom: I'd like to know more about the size of the program, how many students they take into the program, the quality of the faculty. And since I'm paying for this, it seems from the website it's pretty pricy, so what kinds of scholarships/financial aid, etc are available.

PaiMom3 · March 2012

ONU is a private Methodist College. It is pricely compared to state schools, however a majority of the students attending Northern receive financial aid. The Musical Theatre Department is small. I am unsure of the exact number of students they take each year but I would assume it to be between 20 and 25 total. Ada is a very small town and there is not a huge social scene. Although the campus does provide many events each month. There are sororities and fraternities, but when I was there only about 16% of the campus participated in greek life. There is a large religious fraternity and chapel every Wednesday. There is college partying, but I would assume no more than any campus, perhaps even a bit less. The nearest towns are about 20-30 miles away. Academically, Northern has a very strong reputation. It has a strong Pharmacy and Engineering program. The faculty, to me, are the best part of Northern. They are very hands-on and care tremendously for the success of their students. Again, I have not participated in anything at Northern for many years. However, I have seen there last few musicals and they were fantastic. I know at least one recent alumni is trying her hand in NYC. I know they bring in guests lecturers to help further develop their students.

4inoregon · March 2012

My H and D are visiting this weekend, so I will post more info tomorrow, but as far as scholarships go, D has gotten merit money everywhere but ONU is far above the rest with a merit plus talent total of $31,000 per year. Very generous and very nice people.

BroadwayBound164 · March 2012

I absolutely agree, I was offered 29,000. They were so nice and both the co-heads of the department were there when I auditioned at Unifieds. I'll be visiting over my spring break in a couple of weeks

supportive · March 2012

My daughter did a walk-in for ONU at NY Unifieds. Not only were they extremely nice but they were also extremely organized! My daughter received a fup e-mail while we were walking over to her next audition. They also followed up with her a couple of weeks ago by phone to tell her they were very interested in her. It's a very good program and they even have a Delta Zeta sorority chapter there (she's my legacy

). However, my daughter really wanted a mid to large sized school and one that was closer to a major city- in her case, Chicago. Personally, I think ONU would have been a good fit for her and I would have been pleased based on the nice auditors I met in NY.

BroadwayBound164 · March 2012

I assume you also had 3 auditors in the room. at NYC, two of the auditors were to co-heads of the department and the third was an academic adviser. I think that it really shows how much the school cares about their students when they give potentials that kind of attention and attitude.

supportive · March 2012

Yup- there were 3 auditors in the room. When my daughter came out of the room, I thanked them for working her in and one of the women said to me- No, THANK YOU! That made us feel really good. They were smart because they had laptops in the room so they could keep up to date. BroadwayBound- may I assume you were there too? You also did a walk-in at LIU? p.m. me if you want!

BroadwayBound164 · March 2012

For those of you that are interested, you can find the curriculum link posted on this thread
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1198236-ohio-northern-mt-curriculum.html?highlight=onu

4inoregon · March 2012

The current catalog reflects the quarter system which ONU is using now, but we were told this weekend that they are switching to semesters, so some things might change. I would imagine that the types and varieties of classes will be pretty similar, though.

austinmtmom · March 2012

I remember meeting Lloyd Butler and Kirsten Osbun Manley when my D auditioned. They were so engaging and worked to make the audition experience a positive one. They obviously love what they are doing. ONU was one of her first acceptances and we were both thrilled when she received it! We never got to visit the campus, but ONU stayed in the mix for her until the very end of the decision-making process just because of her interactions with them at the audition and through emails after her acceptance. They also offered her a great mix of academic and talent money which made the school incredibly affordable.

momofstar · March 2012

@4inoregon...anxious to hear how the visit went and impression of MT program?

4inoregon · March 2012

Ok, H and D are back from ONU. Here are their impressions, hope its coherent.:
They enroll about 10-12 kids per year. They produce 3-4 musicals and 4-5 plays per year(which is alot for a small school), and freshmen do audition. There seems to be a good mix of voice (including 1/2 hour of private voice per week, and the option of 1/2 hour of vocal coaching per week), music-piano, acting and dance. As far as dance is concerned, if you are a highly trained dancer, this might not be the place, but they do have multiple levels of ballet, jazz, tap, modern and MT dance. They are friendly to relatively untrained dancers, which was important to us. We always ask if there are classes in the "business of theater", and there are. My family met about 5 MT students and all were very friendly. They love their faculty, and all said that they were impressed by how often ONU brings in visiting teachers and directors from NYC. They did say that their showcase might end, as they feel that you cannot predict how many agents will show up, and they can leave without talking to the kids. They plan to fly agents into Ohio for the weekend, to see the showcase and spend alot of time getting to know the kids.

The campus was quite pretty, and the theater facilities were very nice. The shows seem to draw people from all over the area. They even have a summer stock theater on campus which some of the kids stay and work for. Most of the kids seemed to have jobs lined up for the summer.

ONU has juries, but no cuts. The focus of the juries is to point out areas that need more work. We asked how many kids have left the program in the past year or 2. Two switched to theater BA and one went home to Texas.

Overall, seems like a good, friendly "family-like" program. So, what are the downsides. I have to admit that my family was "impressed" by the distance to a city and the small size of the town of Ada. This is do-able since my daughter is very low maintenence. She does have some concerns about how socially conservative the culture might be, as she is quite "blue-leaning", so we have to look into this a bit more. But, all in all, I think D really like it and would be happy there.

If I can answer more specific questions, please post or pm me

Could someone please place OHIO NORTHERN University on the sub forum column

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