Important Information to Consider Before Applying to Ithaca College MT

mt13
Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:55:09 +0000

I understand your opinions, and you of course have every right to voice them(that’s a given). However, I feel that someone reading this is not going to get a full or correct sense of the program with solely your analysis. So, in response:

1.) Yes, there is a process to discontinue a student from their track if the faculty feels that the program is not the right fit for a student…as is the same at most every other Musical Theatre program, though Ithaca does not “cut” as some other schools do. Also, in general, if a student is going to be discontinued from the program, they can see it coming. Nowhere is it said or even implied that a student will be discontinued if they risk and fail. Risk is encouraged. Also, if a student is discontinued from their track, they have options. They aren’t coldly kicked out of the school, as is the case at some other programs. Students can stay in theatre as BA Drama majors(which is in no way a demotion, but simply a more broad path to explore more facets of the art through) or find another degree program that suits them better. And the relationship between the students and the professor are some of the best I’ve ever seen, not strained as you predict. On another note, at most any MT program you will have juries for singing and review for acting. I’m not sure where you thought you were going to go that didn’t have these processes…


Ithaca does have a dance program within its Theatre Arts Dept. and it is incredibly strong. And if a student has never set a foot in a dance studio in his/her entire life, of course four years is not going to make him/her into a Chorus Line or 42nd St. caliber dancer. Proper training to be at that level takes more time and commitment. What the program claims to do, and does, is to give non-dancers a solid technique that will pull them through at most any broadway dance call comfortably. And for those who have danced before at varying skill levels, they will be challenged and improved as well.


Hope this sheds some much needed light on the situation to anyone reading the above post.