LIU/CWPost theater

EmmyBet
Sun, 22 Jul 2012 10:12:07 +0000

We researched it, too, but my D decided not to add it because she felt she had enough schools. The program website looks very nice. I know this doesn’t help very much, but one of her classmates at Adelphi also was accepted there. I learned this when chatting with her mom at a performance; I really don’t know why she preferred Adelphi, except I do recall something about Adelphi’s lovely new facilities.

One thing I would ask them is just how easy it is to get into the City. From a quick look, it seems you have to take a shuttle or bus to the train. We stayed at a hotel pretty near CW Post when visiting our D, and it’s a nice area, very typical suburban LI. My D found it a task to figure out how to deal with the pretty isolated suburban setting of her LI school; this year we’re going to let her take a car, so she isn’t as dependent on friends and the minimal shuttle service. But at Adelphi the train stain is just a few blocks from campus, which makes it a snap for students to get into NYC, and that made up for the other location issues completely.

On a general note, being people who had to do a lot of website surfing to find schools, and had to plan visits very economically, I would say this: while lots of schools tend to look the same “on paper,” and because most of them by definition make themselves look great in their public profiles (and even when you visit), it is hard really to “know” if the experience will be good for your student. It’s wonderful if you can get perspective from CC or in other ways, but of course often that information is skewed due to personal issues (good or bad) or just too anecdotal to settle serious questions.

I don’t have any solutions on how to evaluate schools, but I will say that in looking back over my own and both of my daughters’ college choices and then how they played out, focusing on program is a very legitimate way to go. If you can project a 4-year experience in coursework, performing opportunities, career preparation, and at least vaguely in a social/recreational sense (like for my kid, how much professional theatre would she be able to see, or if they have other hobbies/interests available), that can be enough.

Intangibles like how they might fit in, what the people are like, or even what their future prospects would be if they went there, are really hard to evaluate, even if you CAN visit. For us, at least, when it came down to choosing among acceptances, what again became most important was PROGRAM. If you believe that college is what you make of it, then a school with the program opportunities you want will be a good choice. My D, for example, turned down one BA partly because of location (very hard to see lots of professional theatre) but mostly because it was very weak in design classes, which she knew she wanted available to her.

I can see, other other hand, how a student who just felt enormously happy at a certain school - because of the people, the location, or one specific part of the program - might be willing to adjust his/her needs for other program aspects. I’m not saying this isn’t a valid way to choose a school; my D came close to choosing her 2nd choice very much for this reason (BAs with excellent, if possibly more limited programs, in great locations, with student bodies she was very excited about).

My short answer is that if you like a program’s website and it fits a student’s criteria, go ahead and apply, try to visit, and assume it would be a good option when making a decision in the spring.