A great method for finding the perfect school for you

College Majors Musical Theater Majors
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At our auditions last weekend we asked a student how she found out about our school. She proceeded to describe her method and I was so impressed I told her I had to share it. I don’t remember all of the details, but here are the basics.

The student and her mother created a spreadsheet with program details that were relevant to her. Her mother then randomly sorted the schools and removed the school names from the sheets before printing them out for her daughter. Her daughter then sorted through the info and selected the programs she thought were most interesting based only on the criteria - not the names of the schools. Once the student had selected 10 (or something like that) programs, the mother told her the names of the schools she had chosen to apply to.

I told the young lady I thought this was brilliant. It forces a student to pick the schools that are the best fit for them regardless of the name. Just food for thought.

~VT

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That is GENIUS!

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That is really a very good idea!

I have my students create a spreadsheet to compare various schools on their tentative (too long) lists and it includes listing how each school meets their personal selection criteria (and first, one should establish selection criteria!). But it involves listing many other things about every school and program. I find many students don’t like this task and the work it involves. But for those who really comply with the suggestions and directions, it helps them discover which programs really are right for them. I also tell them that later in the process when they have to write the common “Why X College/Program” essays, they will have already discovered specifics about each school or program that they can discuss. But there will always been students who don’t do this kind of investigation and discovery and don’t really know their schools and choose by name and also can’t truly articulate the Why X College essay very well.

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Great ideas. I’ll add mine.
Our coach requires to write 6 “must-haves”: 3 for the program and 3 for the university. These are the most important things the student wants in the college experience.Then helps us find the program that fill the must-haves, and then spread it over Reach, Fit, Safety categories. It was a life saver!

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So interesting. In reverse, it mirrors our experience. The schools on our list early on had a lot to do with name recognition. In the end, the final few schools (after narrowing down a lot of factors) had more to do with people and “fit”. (And finances.) Do I wish we’d figured that out sooner? Yes. So wow. That’s a smart mom you met.

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Now that the Shenandoah result is in for our D, I can come out and say that it was my D that @VoiceTeacher‌ was talking about. She was thrilled that he wrote down her response during the interview, and it was fun to see his post here a couple days later.

In November of her junior year, D created a list of important criteria for her (which included specifics of acting, singing, and dancing, general education requirements, atmosphere within the department, cost and scholarship possibilities, professional faculty, study abroad/other areas of the country, location, connections to professional theatres, etc.), and we both started researching programs and filling in each school’s sheet. Soon, we were swimming in them! We seriously researched 55+ schools (some much more heavily than others, of course). By mid-summer, D was overwhelmed and confused by her list of then 25-30 schools, so we thought of the rating system. After rating schools based on her lists of criterion, without knowing their names or obvious clues about which programs they were, D was surprised that some big name schools fell off her list entirely and that some others rose to become strong contenders. As @MTTwinsinCA‌ indicated, my D’s list had been largely based more on name recognition previous to going through this process; after going through it, the schools were based solely on fit for her. (I was particularly shocked that one big name school that I really wanted her to go for received one of the lowest ratings! D remained firm about it; good for her! If you do this type of system, be prepared for that possibility.)

After the rating process, D really started knowing her schools; they became focused places instead of a fuzzy glob of schools that blended together. As @soozievt‌ said, these sheets helped D write her essays. D also reviewed each school’s sheet in the days before each audition and put the appropriate sheet in her binder the day of the audition.

One thing we would have done differently is that we would have kept all of the sheets. We threw away many of the ones for schools that didn’t make the cut; it had felt so good dwindling down her list that pitching them seemed like the right thing to do! Later, though, we’d have questions about certain programs or wonder why a school didn’t make the cut and wish we’d had them. We did keep a few that were almost contenders, and we were glad we had a couple of those.

Even after all of this, there are a couple schools that we think would have fit her well and we wish she had auditioned for but which got overlooked or nixed–maybe wrongly. But, I didn’t start to feel that way until Unifieds, when I privately got myself whipped up into a frenzy for a couple days because of all of the great schools, lol! Still, this system was a great process to go through. It really helped D further define what she wanted, feel focused, and know the schools on her list as much as she could at that point.

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This is fantastic! I’m guessing part of what cropped up at Unifieds may have been the essence of a place that is hard to capture on paper, the “vibe” if you will. Any time a collection of people work or learn together, a place takes on a personailty that’s hard to capture until you physically spend time among those people. It’s why companies have such distinctive corporate cultures, and I know for our kids that vibe played a huge role in which schools they found most appealing.

You can always add an extra tap or Alexander class off campus, but you can’t easily change the department or campus culture.

Larger programs invariably include many smaller sub-cultures, so what you see during a tour is in no way comprehensive, but in small programs a few key personaities can really shape a culture.

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This thread is very helpful! My daughter is a sophomore and we are working from a very long list at the moment that is broken into state schools, non-audition safeties, audition fit, audition reach and audition super reach! She is going through the process of researching so we can work on narrowing the list and doing some campus visits in the coming year.

My question in guiding her is in helping determine fit. She is a legit soprano with classical training, although she is really developing her mix voice now. No belting at all though. I know that is not a great fit for some programs, but perhaps an advantage for others. She generally gets pegged in the ingenue category - Cosette, Belle, Laurie, Cinderella and currently Johanna in Sweeney Todd if that gives an idea of her “type” both vocally and physically. I think she might be best suited for a BM program and we have included a number of good ones on this extensive list.

But she is also very interested in understanding which BFA programs might be a good fit. She is dedicated to the Musical Theatre path as opposed to Opera and has become quite a good actress but not much time for dance. That is an area she hopes to work on more this year.

What types of things did you look at in terms of helping you define fit and really hone in on not only if she is a fit for the school but if the program is a fit for her? It seems almost overwhelming! Your system seems very effective and I would love to hear more about how you filled in the blanks in terms of criteria.

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Yes, @MomCares‌, the culture of a place played a huge part in D’s list, too. Several big name programs were knocked off because they didn’t seem to have the environment she wants. That element can be hard to determine, but she went off of friend’s/acquaintance’s experiences, conversations with people “in the know,” as well as long-time reputations (and further research then). She chose not to visit before auditioning because she wanted to save that money and, also, she didn’t want to prematurely fall in love with a school. The results were likely imperfect, but it was the best we could do. And, actually, she loved the vibes she got from the schools on her list and, ironically, had a few “uh-huh” moments at Unifieds with some places that didn’t make her final list because of environment. She was like, “See? That’s why I didn’t apply there.” (Please understand that this doesn’t mean many others don’t love the environments of the places she didn’t choose or that everyone wants the atmosphere she wants. It’s a matter of fit!)

@sopranomtmom‌, your D’s voice will develop a lot in the next couple years! Don’t think that where she is now vocally will be where she is then. But, you know she’s classically trained and that she values that, and that’s an excellent place to start. My D also valued that and wanted a strong classical base, and we looked at the backgrounds on vocal faculty, asked voice teachers and people on CC who have students at programs, read about vocal philosophies of the programs when available, looked at the productions the programs have done in the past couple years, and talked through/confirmed her choices with a college coach. Just as an FYI, D didn’t go for any BM programs even though she values a strong classical base. She wants to have more acting than music classes, and the BMs we looked at were too heavy on music classes for her desires; although she wants music classes (on top of voice lessons), she wanted a more acting classes than music. Again, it’s all about fit!

Your D can also start thinking about what’s important to her acting-wise: one particular technique, a “suitcase” full, Shakespeare, experimental, many options within the curriculum, a set curriculum, film, etc.? Your D might change her mind, though; she’s young! It might be best for her at this stage to just read through websites and curriculums to see what intrigues her before coming up with any sort of specific criterion.

I highly recommend your D take as much dance, especially ballet, as she can. We all know it’s tough to fit that in with their intense show schedules, but she will be so happy that she did! She’ll not only have stronger technique (if she has great instructors), she’ll also pick up choreography faster, which is important for auditions and can help her feel confident in them.

Honestly, I feel odd giving advice when the results aren’t in yet for my D. But, I can say that she really felt solid about her list. Hopefully, a few will feel the same about her!

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Thank you so much for the great advice. This process seems so overwhelming sometimes so it is great to get this feedback. Best of luck to your daughter!

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Thanks! Best of luck to your daughter, too!