How important are rigorous classes for high profile MT schools?

BFAorBust
Fri, 26 Apr 2019 18:01:44 +0000

My D had the same concerns. For her the answer was dual enrollment, where you take your classes at a local college or community college for simultaneous high school and college credit. I don’t know if that’s an option where you live, but it might be something to look into.

There are pros and cons. I probably wouldn’t recommend dual enrollment over AP for someone trying for Ivy League, or an an ultra-competitive academic major. AP is more likely to transfer credits more widely, and the fact that it’s a nationwide standard means colleges know what to expect. With dual enrollment you need to be careful and go to a college or community college with a decent reputation, and spend some time looking at transfer equivalency guides for your most academically competitive schools to get an idea of the classes you should take. It puts a lot more responsibility on you to guide your curriculum. And some kids find it lonely being away from their high school, or aren’t ready for the level of independence college professors/courses expect. There can also be cost associated. For us tuition was free, but we paid fees and books amounting to about $200 a quarter.

The benefits for my daughter were huge though. A big one was flexibility in schedule. Rather than taking seven courses at any given time, she was taking three and that was full-time. She could choose her schedule, meaning if she wanted to go five days a week and start at 8 and be done by 11am, she could. If she only wanted to go to school on Tues/Thurs and have M, W, F off for theatre, work and training, she could make that happen too. She worked her schedule so that each quarter, she took one core class in a subject she felt strong in (language arts, for social science), one “killer” course in a subject where she tended to struggle (math or science), and course in another area that interested her (foreign language, music theory, etc). That balance helped her to never feel overwhelmed, and she was able to really improve in some areas she struggled and really challenge herself in subjects she loved. Because one quarter course equals a full years course at the high school, she would take nine courses over the school year, compared to the seven she would have taken in high school. This allowed her to account for the fact that colleges might deem dual enrollment slightly lower than AP, by taking more core classes, and thus upping her “rigor” that way. It also had the added bonus of making each course count a little less toward her cumulative GPA, so she could worry a little less when she had a really tough class (not that she didn’t give it full effort, just that it was less “if I fail, this will be the end of my academic career” kind of pressure). By the time she graduates she’ll have completed significantly more core classes than many of her local peers, and well over the recommended guidance for the colleges she applied to. Overall, while her homework was challenging, she found it more interesting, and by per volume of homework she had several hours less homework per week than her friends taking AP classes. Another huge benefit for her was that the transferability of her classes was largely based on her performance over the entire class (assuming she ensured it was a transferrable course), not on a single test. As a poor test-taker, AP could have been a disaster for her. The friends thing wasn’t an issue for her, because she was active in regional theatre and her friend network existed mainly outside of school anyway. Her boyfriend and best friend both attended different high schools, and she still got to go to dances and do all the high school things, just not at her school (which is admittedly different, but was not a big con for her).

When it came time for college admissions D applied to 18 schools. She ended up with 6 BFA admissions, and several BA re-directs. She got into 100% of the schools that give academic acceptance separately, including some of the more academically selective schools, and she passed UMich prescreen which means she met their academic standard. She got non-need based academic scholarships at 100% of her acceptances, and was invited into honors college at several schools. That’s with a 3.6 GPA (unweighted, many schools weight college credits taken at a college similar to AP credits), and a very mediocre ACT (again, poor test taker). Since the majority of her college coursework did transfer, she’ll be entering her BFA program as a freshman with 100% of her general education requirements already completed. She also has a lot more confidence in taking on college because she done a lot of the small tasks that can feel a little intimidating at first (registering for classes, buying supplies, professor office hours, tutoring centers, etc).

Again, this is not for everyone. But it was a lifesaver for D. She was able to do the ridiculous theatre schedule she wanted (often upwards of 40 hours a week, between training, theatre internships, rehearsals and shows), successfully complete high school (next month!) and still have some balance for friends and general high school fun.

The depression and panic disorder is a fully separate issue that I would encourage you to make any school you attend aware of. There are resources for that, and you should not face an academic disadvantage for it. My D is diagnosed with anxiety, and because she found a schedule and situation that worked for her, she did not need to access any of those resources. But if she had needed them, we wouldn’t have hesitated.

You are in a great place, because you are starting early, you know what’s important to you, and you have a goal. That is so far ahead of most kids. Now you just need to look at the options available in your school district and find something that will work for you. Don’t be afraid to ask for help at your school, and to make it known what you want to do. If someone is patronizing (because I think many of us have dealt at some point with patronizing attitudes about going into theatre at school), ask someone else and keep asking, till someone offers guidance. I wish you the best of luck!