<p>Which programs would you consider to be up and coming and why? It’s easy to come up with the more prestigious programs but to get a realistic list you have to look past some of those to widen your options. My D and I are in the beginning stages of looking at programs. She will be a junior in the fall.</p>
<p>Where are ya? If you want to know Texas area/southwest I can suggest a few we visited that I think are much under rated.</p>
<p>I’m interested in this subject as well! Location doesn’t matter at all. But I am very interested in hearing WHY someone thinks a particular program is “up and coming.”</p>
<p>I have heard the up and coming term used in the past few weeks regarding Illinois Wesleyan. I don’t know enough to tell you why. It came from voice teacher who teaches primarily high school kids. This teacher does not focus only on MT but does have former students in MT at Michigan, Elon, Boco.</p>
<p>Up and coming - not currently well known - excellent program from the information that we have gathered…University of Northern Colorado. It is a BA in MT - but the curriculum closely resembles a BFA. Take a look - we were very impressed and added it to our (lengthy) audition list. Also VERY affordable.</p>
<p>These programs may already be considered too selective to be officially “up and coming” but I definitely think of Texas State and Coastal Carolina for their extremely charismatic and talented faculty with significant professional Broadway ties. If those folks stay on long term their programs will be top tier in no time! Remember that 25 years ago UMich had no MT program until Brent Wagner established it. Leadership and personalities are the key to a successful program from my limited observations.</p>
<p>This video is a couple of years old, but I think it gives a fascinating insight into the origins of a successful program.<br>
…</p>
<p>Texas State is a long shot (especially for girls) - the program has become VERY popular (for good reason).</p>
<p>Sorry I didn’t realize we couldn’t put links here. But if you search “Out Of The Blue Episode 4 - 25th Music Theater” on YouTube you’ll see a really interesting interview with Brent Wagner discussing the struggles of starting a fledgling Musical Theatre program. Every program was up and coming at one time or another, which is why I think there is hope for so many of the young programs out there just starting up.</p>
<p>I would consider Ohio-Northern in Ada very up and coming. Their BFA in MT is already selective, and the faculty there are incredibly invested in the students and their well being. They have a strong dance component as well and bring in guest directors to set up industry ties outside of the educational field. Not as talked about but definitely one to watch out for.</p>
<p>If by up and coming you mean famous, I can’t say that they would be the next Texas State, but I think if everyone was aware of the quality of the U of Tulsa program they’d have to start capping. They don’t, because they just don’t get an excess of applicants. This is in large part because it’s a small and academically much more selective school than Texas State. One in ten students are NMS and their median scores are significantly higher than a state school - plus the sticker price is 3 times that of Texas State. So they don’t need to resort to capping to keep the program small, the academic standards and cost do that for them.</p>
<p>It’s also a BA but when we were there, one of the kids in the program said they may very well end up a BFA in the near future and it’s one of those performance based, more like a BFA program anyway. And about those kids. There was a huge squad of them there on hand to hang out with us parents and the other kids while waiting for auditions and of all the schools we have been to I was the most impressed with them. Not just their enthusiasm and obvious happiness with their program, but how personable and obviously well educated and well spoken they were. As theater kids overall tend to be impressively gifted with these abilities, it speaks well of the school that they were so noticable in this regard.</p>
<p>The school emphasizes a tool box approach, including Masks; they strongly encourage study abroad, which I have found some schools much better than others about and that is one thing that is very high on our own personal list: they have VERY good connections and relationships with professionals in the business from Broadway who come to the school regularly, and the University president is extremely supportive of the theatre. Stephen Sondheim came this year and they didn’t have him just speaking for the theater department, but rather the whole school, because (I guess) the prez gets how big of a deal that is. lol. Of course the theater kids got their own private Q and A with him later and they said he was wonderful and funny and so nice.</p>
<p>So those are the specific criteria on which I base my assessment of the quality of the program. Whether it starts to get national buzz or not I don’t know. They do admit everyone into theater but they do a review after a couple semesters and if someone really needs to be guided into a different path, they do. I have found most BA programs to work that way instead of being audition to get in, which is one typical difference between a BA and BFA. They do audition for money, though, and we just got D’s offer yesterday and it was a REAL nice offer which was very gratifying. Unfortunately, compared to some of her other picks, the academic merit offer was sort of smallish because this is the one school D applied to that the median ACT is actually a point above hers: she’s either at or above all her others and the merit aid showed it. So, le sigh, I think Tulsa is probably not doable without way more loans than we want, though this is not decided yet.</p>
<p>We have discussed how there are some great programs in some not so great schools. This is a great school (one of the lists it makes is “happiest students” and I think that is not to be underestimated) with a great program.</p>
<p>(and this is why I say, do the best you can with academics because you never know if that will end up being the thing that makes the program you want possible…3 more points on her ACT and we’d probably be in the comfort zone. Just a few more points on her National Merit, which she just barely missed, would have done it, too.)</p>
<p>Snapdragonfly - are you STILL avoiding the dishes???:-)</p>
<p>I’m hoping my husband will just throw them all away and buy me new ones.</p>
<p>snapdragonfly-I’m actually in the mid-west but casting a wide net out there to see whats available</p>
<p>If you are willing to travel I think it’s great to cast a wide net. We needed to stay closer to home but fortunately there’s a lot of places within a day’s drive of us. Not very many of those are in state and affordable, but, at least they are there!</p>
<p>Also, I don’t know that much about the program, but Shorter University in Georgia has a BFA that I’ve heard good things about recently. There was a girl on CC last year who ended up going there and really loved it- you can search around for her posts or PM her I suppose if you’re really interested. As I said, I don’t know much about it, but I was at SETC a few weeks ago and I had a few of their students in my audition group and they were FABULOUS- getting callbacks out the wazoo! So maybe one not always heard of but could be a good hidden gem for someone. :)</p>
<p>Yeah, I’ve heard some good things about Shorter as well.</p>
<p>If you are looking for a liberal arts BFA MT program in the midwest, Ball State University and Western Michigan University are both very reputable programs with excellent staff. They both are audition only, drawing students from all over the country so neither is easy to get into but definitely worth taking a close look at.</p>