University of Hartford- Hartt School of Music (CT)</p>
<p>Non-Audition Safety Schools:
Muhlenberg College ¶</p>
<p>Do you think that this is a good list? I was thinking of adding Otterbein and Ball state University, but then I thought that there would be too many schools with way too many applications and auditions. What do you guys think?</p>
<p>First of all you have conservatory and non-conservatory schools all mixed together. Are you looking for a conservatory program or more of a liberal arts education? It will change your lists. Secondly, it will depend on the strength of your academic transcript for some of the schools mentioned as they are almost as tough to get into academically as they are to pass the audition ie. Univ of Mich, Penn State U and Elon U.</p>
<p>They are all BFA degrees (with the exception of Muhlenberg which is a BA), and you could receive excellent high level training at all of the those schools. What will differ is the number of classes outside of your major you would be required to take. For example, students at Penn State take the entire liberal arts core (I believe), and students at CMU take very few general education classes. </p>
<p>You grades appear to be a match with Muhlenberg, so that is a good school to have on your list as a probable match. safety. All of the schools on your “possible match” list are highly competitive. This does not mean that you would be competitive for artistic admissions, but I am not sure that any school with a 2% - 10% admit rate could be considered anything but a reach? Sooze?</p>
<p>14 schools is a lot of schools. Do you plan on trying to audition for all on campus or doing some at Unifieds? You may find that many schools have conflicting audition dates if your plan is to audition for all on campus.</p>
<p>I hope someone else will chime in here with the definition of a conservatory . My understanding is that it is a program in which your classes are almost all in the MT/Acting department and there are no, or few, requirements for academics outside of the program. Most of the schools on your list are not considered conservatories - with the exception of Boston Conservatory and CMU. I know that many of the other programs you listed require some academics outside of the MT department. Maybe a better way to categorize them is audition/non-audition programs? Or BFA/BA programs?</p>
<p>I think there is a big confusion between real conservatories and conservatory-style training. Unlike BA and BS degrees where your major and minor are not fully addressed or even realized as a Freshman, conservatory style training begins your first year. However, as is mentioned in many of the other posts most true conservatories have very few gen ed requirements. With that said, it is also important to note that the difference between most BA’s and BFA’s is in the gen requirements, with most BA’s being around 50% for each; arts and gen ed, and BFA’s having more of a 70/30 spread. The best thing to do is to check the curriculum of each school to see if it works for you.
Also MTMama, I agree that BoCo is a full conservatory, but the students I know from CMU have a VERY tough academic load in addition to their arts. I wouldn’t group it with CMU. FSU is more conservatory style as is UArts…I think. I agree that catagorizing by BFA/BA is probably a good idea as well.</p>
<p>At many BA and BS programs your major is addressed as a Freshman. It will vary from school to school… where I teach students in the BA MT COncentration are in major courses starting the first day of their freshman year. There may be other programs where students are not even allowed to declare a major until sophomore year, so it is important to check each school.</p>
<p>I thought that the students at CMU did not take many general eduction courses outside of their major. Perhapse that has changed… I applied to CMU in the dark ages, so they may have changed the requirements.</p>
<p>Sorry for posting wrong information. After looking in to CMU and talking to the person who originally told me about CMU’s challenges I was wrong about the “academic” load. They were saying that the program is VERY difficult and challenging (not a bad thing-they love it) but not necessarily academic oriented.
Oops…next time I’ll do my research better!</p>
<p>If you look at CMU’s website, MT majors are treated as “double majors” and do not have any classes outside of the Theatre Department. There’s been some interesting discusion on other threads about the concept of “conservatory” vs. “conservatory style” training and if I recall, a post by DrJohn had some interesting historical perspective. The bottom line, I think, is that if you are talking about a BFA program housed in a college or university, rather than get hung up on the label, schools can be clustered based on the extent to which students are involved in gen ed. It can vary greatly from school to school even among those that offer BFA’s. Most schools have their curriculum online so that you can see not only the balance of the performing arts studies but also the amount of gen ed.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon is clearly considered a conservatory program housed within a very fine liberal arts university. Students in the musical theater major there certainly <em>do</em> take some liberal arts classes, but not, to my knowledge (which comes directly from kids who go there and from schedules that my own kid was given as a sample during precollege) “a very tough academic load” OUTSIDE of their musical theater courses in acting, dance, voice/singing and movement. Musical theater is, in fact, considered practically a double major, so there is not time for many liberal arts courses at all.</p>
<p>Compared to the kids at, say, Michigan or NYU, in fact, the kids at CMU take very few liberal arts courses.</p>
<p>MTMama and NMR are right on with regard to CMU. The load of courses are heavy duty for sure but they are not academic courses. My daughter is only required to take 3 courses outside of her MT major in the 4 years she will be at CMU. It is definitely considered a conservatory type program, but that is what she wanted. It depends on what is right for you and what you are looking for specifically in a program.</p>
<p>kaysmom – I love what you were saying about “It depends on what is right for you and what you are looking for specifically in a program.”</p>
<p>There are o many different paths to a similar goal… BA. BFA. BM. BS. two-year conservatory, MFA, etc… are all different paths to a career in the performing arts. Students hopefully find the environment that is the best match for their wants at the time. The best environment for one will not be the best for another. :)</p>
<p>13 auditions is quite a lot. Perhaps you could pare down your second cluster of 11. It’s tough to do if you haven’t visited them and have a direct sense of personal fit. Perhaps you could think about location and whether a school is located somewhere you would actually want to live for 4 years. Sometimes this factor gets overlooked because of the narrow focus on MT related criteria. Take a look at things such as climate, city v. small town, easy access and traveling v. remote and more isolated, size of the school. Your list is quite varied with regard to these factors. Do any of them knock a school off your list because you just wouldn’t want to live there for 4 years?</p>
<p>My S just started Elon as a freshman, and while the MT training is quite rigorous (and he is loving his classes) I can assure you that the curriculum also includes a broad-based liberal arts core. To be sure what you are auditioning for, I would check the curriculum at each school.</p>