<p>I’m a rising senior and compiling my list of schools to audition for. I’ve heard several stories of people who graduate from places like NYU with a degree in one field and end up with a fantastic job in another just because they have a degree that’s so highly regarded (especially within NYC). This sort of help could be quite useful to a “starving artist” with a BFA/BA in musical theatre who’s looking for work while auditioning. Any schools come to mind? Two I’m definitely applying to are NYU and Northwestern.</p>
<p>MT and theater are very different from other degrees. What matters is killing your audition and being right for the part. The casting director won’t care where your degree is from or if you even have a degree at all. What should concern you more is where do you feel you would get the best training to kill that audition. And for each individual that is a very personal choice. What is a good fit for one may not be a good fit for you.</p>
<p>You may find some information by doing a search on this forum. This subject has come up before, and you may find the information you are looking for. You may also check out the individual school threads found at the top of the main page for this forum.</p>
<p>@marybren If I am reading your question correctly…you are looking for schools that are “academically” impressive as well as “artistically” impressive. For example, a person goes to Harvard and majors in poetry. When they are interviewing for jobs (because being a professional poet is a tough beat) and hand people their resume- it’s the “Harvard” that stands out, not the “poetry”…and they may get the non-poetry based job. </p>
<p>I agree with both bisouu and entertainersmom that there are lots of threads on this forum (and the theater/drama forum as well) that discuss schools. AND that most important thing in the whole process is finding the place where you “fit”. </p>
<p>With that said, in addition to the schools you mentioned above, I would check out places like Carnegie Mellon, Michigan, Boston, and Syracuse. Fair warning- those schools can be EXCEPTIONALLY difficult to get accepted- but they seem to fit into MY interpretation of the question you are asking. But there are LOTS more. Again, seconding entertainersmom take a look at the schools listed at the top of the forum, see if anything catches your eye- and start researching. </p>
<p>Here is a list from USNWR for schools with MT programs in the top 100 National Universities:</p>
<p>Northwestern - 12
CMU - 23
UCLA - 23
USC - 23 (MT minor)
Michigan - 28
NYU - 32
Penn State - 27
Miami - 47
UC Irvine - 49
Florida - 49
Tulane - 52
UT Austin - 52
Washington - 52
Pepperdine (BA in Theatre and Music) - 57
SMU (MT Minor) - 60
Syracuse - 62
Indiana - 75
TCU - 82
Alabama - 86
Colorado - 86
Tulsa - 86
Florida State - 91
New Hampshire - 97
Oklahoma - 101 (it was so close that I included it)</p>
<p>(I might have missed a couple)</p>
<p>Ithaca (8), Elon (1), James Madison (6), and Belmont (7) are top-10 Regional Universities.</p>
<p>Apologies to those who question the validity and usefulness of rankings (I am a rankings agnostic myself).</p>
<p>If you look at test scores only and put the cut-off at SAT I = 1200 for the 25th percentile, you get (data is from 2012):</p>
<p>Northwestern
CMU
USC
Michigan
NYU
Miami
Tulane</p>
<p>There are many ways to slice and dice the data.</p>
<p>Northwestern is academics first, audition second. They want to know you can succeed in the school. Don’t know about any other school. But if you do go to Northwestern consider Melissa Foster as your voice teacher. My daughter takes lessons with her and she’s fantastic!</p>
<p>The schools after Northwestern on D’s list were Yale and Brown. While neither offers as specific an MT program as NU (and so landed lower on her list), D has friends who have launched solid MT careers from both, and as the OP says these schools can open many doors both in and out of the theatre world in addition to providing a great education. “Prestigious” academics are obviously not necessary for all MT kids, but these programs are a perfect fit for some, and D has already seen friends get Fulbright’s and other post-college grants, as well as land all manor of interesting jobs.</p>
<p>If I were to generalize, I would say the only people who will be able to launch successful MT careers from schools that do not offer performance majors (like Brown or Yale undergrad) are those who have achieved MT success prior to attending and/ or continue to take voice/ dance lessons privately. D was accepted to Barnard and was not guaranteed voice lessons even if she declared herself a music major. We would have had to pay for private voice lessons in the city (at about $150 a pop) plus dance classes to keep her competitive with those in MT programs. (She deicide to attend NYU instead.) Younger D (also a MT kid in HS) opted for a studio art degree at NYU, but continues to take weekly voice lessons at NYU for credit at a cost of about $150 for the semester (a “lab” fee.) These classes are available to all NYU students since they offer performance classes to all. But not all colleges do…and many greatly limit the availability to upper classmen (as was the case with Barnard/ Columbia.) We did chose NYU because of it’s academic reputation as well as MT training, so I am personally in agreement with the OP’s approach. I would just be leery of schools that do not offer performance classes (or limit them) even if their academics are first rate.</p>
<p>@Marybren—While I agree that top tier schools like NYU/ Northwestern/ Michigan/ CMU can open doors to “fantastic jobs” outside of your MT major–or (as D as done) jobs in the entertainment business, be aware that these jobs will require that you work full time. Most full time positions will not allow you the flexibility to audition. That is why those auditioning take flexible jobs that allow them time off during the day. D has worked doing casting, theatre marketing, and now works for a top talent agency, but she does not audition and in many cases, it would be a conflict of interest. But you can decide to audition and use your “prestigious degree” at a later point. Or have a full time career and perform on the side.</p>
<p>Also remember that Northwestern is unique in that you don’t audition as part of your application process. You are admitted based on grades/scores/activities/recommendations as a drama major (within the school of communications) and then have the opportunity to audition to be part of MT beginning at end of freshman year. </p>
<p>I think Emsdad gave good lists as starting points for the OP.</p>
<p>I also know kids who went to Brown and Yale pursuing MT and have had great success in MT since graduating. While uskoolfish says that they would have had to be successful in MT before matriculating at these colleges, that is true of most people I know who attended BFA programs and were successful post graduation. They, too, were quite talented and successful at their age prior to college. Also, you can take private voice at these universities and they have some performance oriented classes (though not as many as a BFA program would have) and very active theater production scenes on campus. It won’t be like a BFA program but there are some kids who got into BFA programs, but wanted the experience at Yale or Brown instead. </p>
<p>D’s friend who just graduated Brown (a Broadway veteran) continued to take private voice lessons in NYC. He was involved in acappella music and theatre while at Brown, but did not seemed satisfied with their private voice lessons. As in the case of Columbia, even when quality voice lessons are available, it may be limited and available only by lottery or class standing. It’s something that’s important to check out for non-BFA/ performance majors. </p>
<p>FWIW, even students in top BFA programs are sometimes dissatisfied with some of their performance classes, including vocal coaching. I personally know of several such cases. And I agree with soozievt that most highly successful grads of MT BFA programs who I know personally were darn talented, well trained and often also very successful before starting college.</p>
<p>Agree that there is no guarantee that one will love their vocal coach in any program or the level of all their classes. Although D stayed in the same voice studio for all 4 years at NYU, there were many students who switched around. But the point I was making is that in BFA and BM programs performance classes are available to you as part of the curriculum. If you are in a non-performance major and hope to be able to take performance classes, it is sometimes hard to get them despite schools saying that they are an option.</p>
<p>Agreed! 
I remember one of D’s friends at UMich was very disappointed to learn that his first year voice was taught by a grad student, so even with a BFA one should research what training is included. </p>
<p>One anecdotal thing I’ll add here is that our D is a rising senior and while I initially questioned her last-minute switch toward more academic schools, over the years she has LOVED her academic classes and they have genuinely shaped her world view, so we now see that she made the perfect choice for herself in spite of what others expected. Although she is still laser focused on performing after graduation, she has also been very excited to see all of the amazing non-theatre careers her peers who choose to are pursuing post graduation, so that’s been exciting as well.</p>