Haha ok I edited mine to match!
Well, Mini Ivy or whatever it’s called but yes…Michigan. It has one of the very top schools in both business and in theater. Probably both are some of the most difficult to get into.
Just be aware, these students that audition don’t just have local high-school experience. Many of them have acting coaches, been in regional plays and aren’t your average kids that like to act. It’s the cream of the crop.
My daughter went to a pre professional high school for the arts. She was in musical theater. This is similar to the one in NY and the other 3 or so around the US. This is 4 year’s of like high school conservatory for their art form. Not saying your child can’t. But it’s very difficult.
I would focus as all the above stated. Unless she already has an acting coach /agent etc. Let her have fun and see where her interest lie. My BFA daughter is now in her first year of her Master’s for Speech Pathology.
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The first school that popped into my mind was Carnegie Mellon.
The second was USC. (Southern Cal)
Both have strong undergrad Business and Drama programs.
It’s waaaaay too early, but when the time comes, and if she is still interested in both Business and Drama, these two may merit consideration.
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I want to be very clear that it is more difficult to get into most audition-based theatre programs than it is to get into even the most highly rejective “elite” schools. I went to what would probably be considered a third-tier BFA program (not a school that is EVER mentioned on this forum except in context of its BFA performance programs) and there were nine students in my freshman class. My program would generally see about 800 students audition every year. Similarly, in 2018, Carnegie Mellon had 3000 prospective students audition for the School of Drama - 2300 of them were for the musical theatre program, and they admitted six men and six women that year. So the conventional wisdom is that your “odds” for getting into any audition-based performance program range from less than one percent to less than 10 percent. People often ask me why I went to a school that no one had ever heard of rather than a school that more closely aligned with my academic record - I went where I went because that’s where I got in, and I couldn’t afford to be choosy if I wanted to prioritize my actor training. If your D wants to matriculate at an audition-based performance program (and she has plenty of time to decide whether that will be her path), there will likely be compromises to make. I would have loved to go to a school with Greek life and a little bit more academic rigor - but I had to prioritize a lower cost of attendance, since I was an international student, and then further chose to prioritize schools that would let me double major in arts administration while graduating in four years.
Schools that have been mentioned here like Michigan and Carnegie Mellon are not realistic targets for any would-be BFA applicant, because these are programs where the odds of acceptance are less than 1%. If your student loves Michigan and CMU, by all means, apply - but do it with the full understanding that these institutions admit somewhere between 12 and 24 students into their BFA programs a year.
There has been a lot of good advice offered in this thread so far, about allowing your D to explore what kind of educational experience she wants. What I will say is that if your D does choose to prioritize high-level performance training alongside a double major or dual degree, that will likely limit the programs she can apply to, as many BFA programs will not permit their students to double major or dual degree. Double majoring may also mean that she will not have time for Greek life or other campus activities (which can be difficult to fit in around mandatory rehearsal schedules).
One of the things you can be asking your child now is why she’s interested in theatre school. There are lots of different ways to become a professional actor (and as a professional actor myself, now, I don’t know that I necessarily recommend theatre school to young actors over other options, like taking regular acting classes in a larger entertainment market). Lots of my friends who are successful actors now majored in something else in university (in some cases to get that traditional college experience that theatre school does not necessarily afford you, in other cases to give themselves a good “backup plan”). Why is theatre school interesting to her, and are there other ways you can help her achieve what her end goal might be?
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When I was in eighth grade, I wanted to be a photographer. When I graduated college, I had no idea what I wanted to do (I taught high school for a few years while I figured it out). I’m now a history professor. Btw, when I got to college, I never planned on majoring in history – I was soured on the subject by a lackluster HS teacher. One class – which I took only because my friends were taking it – changed all of that. Life is unpredictable.
You and your kid have no way to predict the future, but the thing to do now is encourage her to follow (or discover) her passions, join clubs, try out for plays, volunteer, take rigorous classes (that are appropriate for her abilities), and see what she likes best. Pare it down gradually (quality over quantity), but only after trying new things. Sometimes, the best paths for exploring an interest are the least predictable ones. Let her be a kid right now so she can play around with the possibilities.
High school should be about growth and learning. And it’s not that you can’t think about where the academics and activities will lead her, but resume-building should be the outcome of growth, not its driver. And please, when you talk about college, be sure to mention some of the wonderful options that she might not have heard of. Don’t “eyes-on-the-prize” college when the prize has a 5% admissions rate. Make a wide range of opportunities feel exciting.
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@LDM_1 Is there some reason why you tagged American University and Bowdoin? Are these colleges your daughter is thinking about or knows about?
I don’t believe Bowdoin even has a business major.
It might be interesting to pull up the course catalog from your state flagship and see the courses offered in business and theater.
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Not only their interests but the job market. I was captivated by Michael Lewis’s Liar Poker. I thought investment banking was certain for my career when I graduated high school in 2005 and went to Babson. Fast forward 20 years and I work for a tech company leading product management. Tech, PM, SaaS, cloud computing were all in their infancy when I was student. The iPhone wasn’t released until my junior year. Babson helped with refining my analytical skills along with networking opportunities but no school would have accurately predicated the changes to our economy and job market.
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If we’re creating a CC wall of things that everyone needs to read, this should definitely be right up there.
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