MT at Prestigious Schools

College Majors Musical Theater Majors
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<p>If you’re looking for a BA degree as opposed to a BFA, Brandeis would give you both first-rate theater opportunities and a first-rate educational experience. </p>

<p>Brandeis offers an exciting intellectual and creative environment inside and outside the classroom. That well-rounded and challenging liberal arts education is what has produced such renowned theater and film industry alumni as actresses Debra Messing (“Will and Grace”), Robin Weigert (HBO’s “Deadwood”), Lorretta Devine (Movies’ “For Colored Girls,” Broadway’s "Dream Girl"s, TV’s “Grey’s Anatomy”), Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher–“Star Trek TNG”, Tyne Daly (“Cagney and Lacey”) and Louise Lasser, plus creators/producers Marta Kaufman and David Crane (“Friends”), TV producer Gary David Golberg (“Family Ties”) and Tony-Award-Winning producer Robyn Goodman (“Avenue Q,” “In the Heights,” “Westside Story”) to name a few.</p>

<p>Not only are there opportunities for undergraduates in the Theater Department and with the resident Brandeis Theater Company, but the Undergraduate Theater Collective puts on numerous musicals each year as well. </p>

<p>Forgive my enthusiasm, but I’m an alum who experienced musical theater at Brandeis first hand. Although I didn’t become a theater professional, I still participate avocationally and even semi-professionally. It’s an amazing school. You really need an overnight visit to experience it for yourself.</p>

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<p>I don’t think I would look at those just because I haven’t visited them. I have visited all the other places I am applying with the exception of Stanford, which I will visit if I get accepted.</p>

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<p>In my opinion, first, you should seek a BA degree. There are not that many BA degrees that actually offer a MT Major, however, that are located in very selective colleges. A few offer a MT Minor. What you should look for is a BA school with a strong theater department and a school that has MT opportunities (puts on musicals that either non-majors can participate in and/or student run musicals). </p>

<p>Of the schools on your list, I would say that Yale and Brown offer a great deal of MT opportunities on campus, both faculty and student directed musicals in abundance, in addition to courses. Yale, in particular does have MT courses. </p>

<p>Then, I would seriously consider Northwestern which is very strong in theater and offers a MT Certificate program (audition after first year) and is a BA. I would also look at USC as you can do a BA in Theater and there is a MT Minor by audition. I would look at Brandeis which is not only strong in theater but has a MT track. Muhlenberg would be a very good safety school (I do not know if you provided your entire college list in your post but you are sorely lacking match and safety schools). </p>

<p>I do not agree with your stance that you will not add these schools since you have not yet visited them. Sorry. For one thing, you are willing to apply to Stanford without visiting and will visit if admitted and so you are being inconsistent in that regard. While I am a big proponent of college visits, if there are a couple of schools on your list you cannot visit prior to applying, you can visit this year or if you are admitted. It is a bad reason to omit these schools, in my view. On the one hand, you say how much you want to be able to do MT in college and have posted a thread about it, and on the other, you have some schools on the list that don’t have much for MT and there have been some good suggestions of very selective universities that have either a MT Minor or track or certificate, and/or MT opportunities. If you really want MT in college, it would trump “prestige” and all that. </p>

<p>I have worked with many very strong academic students who prefer a BA over a BFA but want to pursue MT in college. These students tend to look at Yale, Brown, Northwestern, USC, and Brandeis (some also apply to Vassar). I know very strong MT students who have chosen these colleges to attend. I can’t tell how much you want to pursue MT or not. But if you truly do and the “name” of the college is not your main selection criteria, look into these suggested schools. They are highly selective academically and for that matter, their “names” are prestigious too. Some schools on your list are not the best options for someone who genuinely cares about MT in college.</p>

<p>PS, I forgot to mention UCLA which has a BA in MT by audition and is very difficult to get into and is a lot like a BFA. But I don’t think you are necessarily seeking audition based programs and just wish to be able to continue with MT in college and the other suggestions are better for you in that regard.</p>

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<p>You also ask if there are MT courses at the schools on your list. In my view, on the one hand you think college visits are essential before applying to any college, and yet, something as simple as what courses a college offers is available right on the colleges’ websites and is something you truly should be exploring in order to select your colleges, and not rely on a message board giving you answers to what is readily available with the click of a mouse.</p>

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<p>I will do you a favor with ONE school…Yale. </p>

<p>Have you examined their Shen Curriculum for Musical Theater? (courses through Music dept. cross listed with Theater Studies)?</p>

<p>Have you looked at their Theatre Studies list of courses? For example, Musical Theater Performance I, Musical Theater Performance II? American Musical Theater History? Various acting courses? Libretto Writing for Musical Theater?</p>

<p>Dance courses?</p>

<p>Directed Independent Studies? (such as staging your own musical)? Senior Projects? many musicals are staged</p>

<p>Extracurricular theater at Yale? Yale Dramatic Association (known as Yale Dramat…this organization alone puts on numerous plays and musicals each year…RENT production opens tonight…my daughter’s close friend is playing Roger)? "New Musicals at Yale’ (which includes workshops and staged readings of student created musicals)? Opera Theater of Yale College? Yale Drama Coalition?</p>

<p>My D has good friends at Yale who are hugely talented in MT and I know while there, they have taken voice or MT classes with Victoria Clark (Tony winning Broadway actress).</p>

<p>Right after my daughter’s graduation from NYU/Tisch, she was awarded a national award for theater given to one student graduating college who studied theater and I was able to attend the dinner for this in NYC with her where she was given this award with scholarship money, and we happened to be seated at the dinner next to Annette Jolles who was there because when she was younger, she had been the recipient of the award my D was receiving that evening. We chatted with her quite a bit. She is a Lecturer at Yale and in fact, her courses are in Musical Theater at Yale and coincidentally, she had several of my D’s friends who attend Yale as her students. So, we got some first hand information on MT at Yale that way too. </p>

<p>While not FOR students at Yale, Yale also puts on the Yale Institute for Music Theatre where they workshop with NY professional actors and directors two new musical theater works they select from submissions. I know that this past June, in one of the two new musicals, one student who had just graduated in theater at Yale in May was cast along with the professional Equity actors, as well as two Yale MFA students. </p>

<p>My daughter, who did not attend Yale (went to NYU/Tisch) and has since graduated college, takes private voice lessons now in NYC with Vicki Shaghoian. Vicki is on the faculty at Yale Drama School and teaches singing there. My D says she is fantastic.</p>

<p>I did not provide you with links but mentioned many things at Yale pertaining to your interest in MT. All of this is easy to find on their site.</p>

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<p>Thanks to soozievt for the wonderful replies. Although you are answering a question posed by someone else, I want you to know how helpful it is to us! </p>

<p>Does anyone have any first hand experience with University of Richmond in VA? We have a plan to visit there and the website makes it sound like a fantastic school both academically and artistically, but we would love to hear from someone who has personal knowledge of the school and theater program.</p>

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<p>Thank you for the info about Yale! I had looked on their site and I couldn’t find the course catalog for music or theatre. Can you please send me a link if you know where it is and can find it quickly?</p>

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<p>I have quite a bit of experience with Yale and their Shen program and MT and such, although my experience is 2 years old. As some know, my daughter was admitted to Yale and it was where she always thought she wanted to go but it’s MT program was not impressive at all. You would need to cobble together a program for yourself and sort of hope that it was what you needed to compete in the “real world” of MT. The one MT “star pupil” when my daughter met with everyone actually took the train into NYC on Saturdays for voice lessons. My husband arranged numerous meetings with administration, staff, etc. that my daughter went to during Bull Dog Days (admitted students overnights) and, try as she might, a good solid MT program did not exist for her. It was heartbreaking for both my daughter and my husband but in the end they had to admit that if she wanted MT and not straight theatre she needed to look elsewhere.</p>

<p>She chose Northwestern because, like you, she felt most of the audition schools did not have the academic depth and challenge that she would enjoy in addition to the strenuous MT program. The negative with Northwestern is also the positive in my opinion, which is that you don’t audition until the end of Freshman and/or Sophomore year for their MT program which means a stressful year leading up to your audition, if getting into MT is the only program you’re interested in. (I believe there was a parent last year who was lamenting her child’s decision to drop out if he/she did not get into the MT program.) On the other hand, you get nine months of “audition time.” The staff and administration knows you, your work ethic, interest, attitude, etc. after nine months so while the audition is still incredibly important it is more than that which gets you into the program.</p>

<p>USC was a contender for a while and she was even in contention for a full scholarship including airfare (we’re from NY). Her concern was that being in their BA theatre program so that she could minor in their MT program (as opposed to their BFA straight theatre program) would put her in a different status (for lack of a better phrase) which is what we heard from our tour guide who was in the BA/MT program. Academically it was also not as strong at Northwestern. </p>

<p>The other schools she was admitted to were not as academically strong or, like Yale, were better for theatre vs musical theatre. </p>

<p>I commiserate with you, there are not a lot of choices if you want both top notch academics and strong musical theatre. Only you can figure out what works for you and your “life plan.” Good luck!</p>

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<p>I’d just like to quickly jump to SC’s defense on one point: "Academically it was also not as strong at Northwestern. "</p>

<p>USC is gaining prominence on the academic scene. More and more people, especially on the West Coast, are starting to regard USC as a prestigious university. It’s true that we are not (yet) quite at the same level as Northwestern, but we’re definitely getting there and still working. Our new president is determined to make us one of the premier academic universities in the nation, and he is carrying on the excellent work done by our former president in order to do so.</p>

<p>For more about the BA/BFA difference here, so far as I’ve observed it, look at post #3 in this thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/theater-drama-majors/1030945-sniffing-around-ba-s-without-being-insulting.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/theater-drama-majors/1030945-sniffing-around-ba-s-without-being-insulting.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;