Santa Clara vs USF vs Chapman - performing arts

Snowynyc
Sun, 25 Apr 2021 20:39:57 +0000

Okay, D21 is still trying to decide between these three (one east coast school as well but I’ll leave that out for simplicity).

We visited all three last week. All beautiful campuses but so hard to get a vibe with so few students around & with the schools unwilling, in most cases, to set up in person meetings. There seem to be good & bad at all places and no place stood above the rest. So, here are the details and concerns. My D has had a very hard year and a half with COVID both emotionally & academically (it’s definitely tied together). She’s very creative & I & her school would say a smart underachiever. She’s going to study dance &/or theatre. But wants a strong humanities education. She was all over the place when she applied applying to and getting accepted to some top conservatories, but also applying more broadly to schools that have dance/theatre but aren’t conservatory in nature. She is very liberal & grew up in a diverse area and values diversity. She is biracial. So, here are quick thoughts on the schools. Please weigh in with anything you might know.

Chapman: they have been the least generous in terms of aid. The performing arts (which she was accepted into) is top rated along with the film. The school itself seems rather conservative but the the film & performing arts seem a bit separate from the rest of the campus. She did see several funky & creative kids walking around. While the performing arts is top notch we wonder if it will be cut throat and siloed. She’s a dance major but also wants to sing & act. Some of the faculty seem phenomenal.

The town of Orange is cute, but again we worry about it’s conservative nature. The most disturbing thing about campus were the busts of Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan (sort of get that given the location of the school), Milton Friedman, & Ayn Rand. But maybe that would give her something to rebel against, lol.

Santa Clara: There was no audition to get into the program but there was an audition for a talent scholarship, which she won. Despite not being a conservatory, the faculty are all top-notch and still working professionally as performers. We think it may be less siloed than the conservatories she got into & she’s met & likes the head of the department & she actually got to attend a class. He seems to really want her & would probably mentor her, but she also thinks he might retire before she graduates.

It was hard to get a vibe of the school itself. But we get the feeling that there are not an insignificant number of tech bro types that attend & it is probably in the worst location of any of the schools. Very depressing right off campus but it seems that you can walk to a more interesting part of San Jose. The school seems more diverse than Chapman, but still seems to be working toward greater diversity.

USF: Definitely the best location & the most generous with aid. But again it was really hard to get a vibe of the school. It is the most diverse of the 3. The program she’s in, performing arts & social justice, seems really interesting but it is really hard to get a sense of it. Online it seems that they also have some great faculty. I also like that each student is assigned an academic success coach regardless of their stats.