How important are rigorous classes for high profile MT schools?

UMiamiMTDad
Fri, 26 Apr 2019 09:37:33 +0000

Every student is different and there are so many MT programs that have a wide range of academic requirements in addition to the artistic. Many of those have already been mentioned. My S knew as early as 7th or 8th grade that he wanted to pursue musical theater. And though he did well academically his first couple years in high school, he had a much more difficult time his final two years because his focus and interests were so much into theater. He did take a couple AP classes, but those may have been to the detriment of his GPA. We are pretty certain he was disqualified from a few programs without even an audition because of academics. But that’s okay because he likely would have struggled with the non-theater classes at those schools.

He is now completing his sophomore year at the University of Miami, a school which if you look at the average high school GPA and SAT scores we would have thought he would not have made the cut. But like some of the other programs out there, the MT program weighs the audition pretty heavily. As the program director said to us when we visited the school in 2017, he will not accept anyone into the program that he does not believe can handle the academics at Miami. He said he has only been wrong twice, and he assured us that he believed our S would do just fine. If I remember correctly, what he said was pretty close to “We promise the students that they will receive excellent training. We promise the parents that their student will graduate with a college degree.” I will add, though, that a higher GPA would have made Miami a tad less expensive since he would have qualified for some additional scholarship money, so that is one other thing to keep in mind.

As I said, every student needs to follow their own path. Only you can decide how much academic load you can take on during your next three years of high school. Just know that not every program out there weighs academics as heavily as others. Do keep an eye on the minimum academic requirements of each school, however. And if you are a 4.0 student who excels at AP classes, by all means go for it. But don’t feel you HAVE to take on that kind of load if that’s not your strength.