Final Decisions Background, Class of 2020

College Majors Musical Theater Majors
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My oldest S left his well-respected BFA program after one year. He loved acting and singing (still does) but the program was not for him for many complex reasons. Rather than transfer to a different BFA program, he decided to transfer to a non-acting BA within the college, but then left the college permanently. He took several years of working and then going to community college to recoup and figure things out, and now I’m proud to say he is entering his final year of undergrad work at a respected liberal arts college and plans on going to med school.

I’m saying this at length because not many people post here if they or their son/daughter drop out or transfer or change career plans, and for those who are experiencing this, I want you to know you’re not alone. There are so many paths and many ways we can be successful, and not all necessarily travel a straight line to the original goal.

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Thanks for sharing your story about your son, @connections. I agree that not all paths are a straight line, yet can lead to great success. The goal may change slightly or even greatly. While not quite as big a change as with your son, my older D switched graduate schools midstream. While she stayed in the same field, she got a different degree/specialty in it when she realized the original specific degree/career track was not quite right. She even worried that people would think she was nuts to leave one of the tippy top programs in her field. She landed at another top program but in her chosen specialty. She is doing exactly what she wants to do and landed her dream job in her specialty after graduating the second graduate program. It is not really considered transferring in graduate school, but in a way, that is what she did. She still went the total number of years as originally intended but split between two different graduate degree programs.

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@owensfolks - my S was also one who auditioned, got into BFA programs and then decided he’d rather for a completely different degree. He had two lists of schools to apply to - what we referred to as the MT list and the “regular” college list. Did make the whole application process pretty hard, but he wanted to do it and has no regrets about it now.

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We did exactly the same thing. My son applied to about 16 auditioned programs plus 8 “regular” colleges. He opted for the BFA in MT path, but seems happy that he had other choices right up to the end. So I guess it was the right thing to do. It was certainly a lot more effort (far more essays to write) and a lot more expensive.

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Our D is yet another who applied to two parallel lists of schools (a list of BFA MT and one of rigorous academics). In the end, the school that was nearest the top of both lists became her top choice, and having been out of college over a year now she feels it was the perfect choice for her.

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Great story @Fotokat. Every applicant and parent should read it, especially if you have a D who arrives at these auditions and sees a sea of young women…who look JUST like her. But this process is as unpredictable as the business itself is, so you have to show up with the right attitude, the right preparation…and, evidently, the right “character shoes” (still not sure what those are but know we always nearly forgot them). It’s not going to turn out the way you think it will-- and it’s not really because you aren’t worthy. The level of talent in general in this process is staggering.

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Congrats to your daughter! My daughter will be attending OCU as a set design and production major. We are from Texas so if their paths cross, she can always come hang at our house. My D is in OCU Leads and living in Walker.

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Congrats @gmo913 My daughter will be at OCU as a theatre set design and production major!

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Thank you for your story! Good to hear your experience as we begin our audition year!

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where do you live we are going thru the process now my D loved SU we live in RI.

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Any student in the School of Performing Arts (not open to non-majors) can audition for the Dance Minor. We don’t list it on the website because we tell students internally once they are here and in the program (and, of course, at information session and forums such as this). As another note, sometimes our musicals will open up casting to the three BA and BFA Acting programs and BFA Commercial Dance program. Alternatively, sometimes our Acting programs will do a musical - an example is HAIR that we did this past Spring where it was all acting majors from our three acting degrees.

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9 schools applied.
8 audition, 1 non audition.
Muhlenberg, non audition. Audition. Baldwin Wallace, CCM, Montclair, Nebraska Wesleyan, Oklahoma City University, Otterbein (prescreen passed), University of Miami, Westminister College at Rider.
Unifieds LA: Montclair, Otterbein, U of Miami, Westminster
On Campus: Baldwin Wallace, CCM, Nebraska Wesleyan, Oklahoma City.
Acceptances: Nebraska Wesleyan, University of Miami ( off WL, early), Westminster College at Rider
Decision: Westminister College at Rider
General notes: very new to MT, long time dancer, ballet. Church choir and private voice 2 years, equal classical and MT work, acting classes minimal. Some camps and workshops over the years a few MT and plays last few years that made her decide to pursue MT. She was torn between VP and MT but dance was important to her, we foolishly assumed MT programs would be easier to get into than VP programs. That was mistake number one. We made many more mistakes after this. We had pushed her away from a career in performance for years, when in January of her Junior year this was her one passion we said OK go ahead and pursue. So we raced through finding out how to get a college education in the performing arts field. We thew her into a MT intensive camp last summer and she came out smiling, the camp was not great, but it did surround her with intense kids, we then worked on audition stuff. Her school and local people really had no good ideas. They were great help, once you had material lined up, but not good for picking out material. They also really knew nothing about schools. My main take away is, hire a national coach, not a regular college coach, not a local coach, but a national MT coach at least for a school list, and song and mono list, at least if you are new i.e. just a few years to the whole performance scene… We went though months of finding material and everyone had a different idea of what was best, but frankly none of them had a good idea of the national scene. We just wasted lots of time and energy on this. We also wasted lots of time and energy on trying to come up with a list of schools. My kid did not have strong school sense except to not be on the West Coast:):slight_smile: So we were looking at schools we knew nothing about except NYU, U of Michigan, CMU. She did not want to be in Michigan:), we did not want her in NYC:), so there you go. I also would do all my auditions at Unified’s if possible or by video. The school visits before being accepted are difficult, that is where the national coaches help with the initial list. Visit after you get in. Some of you live where you can easily visit schools and if doable then go for it. We were having to fly into schools during her senior year for auditions and trying to absorb everything on top of the audition process. We just did not have the time to visit during the summer. The other point is she has excellent academics so any school was pretty open. Not a resume filled with experience in terms of roles except in dance. General school thoughts. CCM efficient but no sense of school. Nebraska Wesleyan, fantastic program, she loved Oklahoma City, that was a hard no, we never saw Miami, but they were very gracious and organized at Unifieds, I just had trouble selling her on Florida. Rider with its location near NYC won her out.

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Whoops accepted academically to all 9 schools and got both a talent and academic scholarship to Muhlenberg. Got academic money to all schools and merit to all schools that had auditions and which accepted her for the BFA program.

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@sbc how does she like Rider this far? My D is auditioning there this winter. …

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Does she like Ryder ?

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@sbc Hi how is your daughter liking Rider? My D was accepted as a transfer MT for next year. Thanks

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@muscialmama if you send a PM she will get an email notification…otherwise she may never see your post if she’s off CC

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@musicalmama
Sent you a PM.