Advice requested: BADA vs. Carnegie Mellon Summer PreCollege Program

glassharmonica
Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:13:56 +0000

Backgrond: My daughter is a rising senior (i.e., current 11th grader.) She will be applying to BFA and BA acting programs in the fall. She is honing a “short” (haha) list of 16 potential schools, mostly on the East Coast and 3 in California. For the two previous summers she attended Stagedoor and had a good experience, cast in major roles in the Garden Theater production. This summer she decided she wanted a more college-prep experience and applied to the summer pre-college programs at NYU Tisch, Carnegie, and BADA. Only BADA was auditioned, requiring a Shakespeare and a contemporary monologue and a “sight reading” of a sonnet. The other two programs required essays and recommendations. She was admitted to Carnegie and rejected from Tisch (not sure why, similar essays, same recommendation letters.)

So now she must choose between the two programs. The cost will be the same. Carnegie is longer (6 weeks) and ends early in August, which is a plus because she is doing two Fringe Festival shows in early September. BADA runs until August 23, which would make life more complicated.

Carnegie’s program offers more variety, and she can take electives such as playwriting (she also writes plays.) But she adores Shakespeare and BADA’s concentration on Shakespeare sounds heavenly to her-- but, she would not be able to work on her contemporary monologues (not sure how important that is.) Her acting coach reviewed the list of faculty on the BADA website (but they are not necessarily the list that will be there this year-- the faculty for this year has not been set) and she says it is a very impressive line up.

Less important, but important is the fact that she would be traveling to England on her own, whereas we would simply drive 4 hours to drop her off in Pittsburgh. The former does seem like a terrific growth opportunity.

I would be grateful for any input, both from people who know about these programs from experience and those who may have insights that have eluded us. Thanks!!