Which programs most surprised you or impressed you?

College Majors Musical Theater Majors
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<p>With fear of completely derailing this wonderful thread…</p>

<p>I think it’s so interesting to understand kids’ logic for choosing programs- you never know what will do it for them. I have noticed BOTH the BoCo kids and Hartt kids on the Facebook group be so extremely welcoming to all incoming students or just to be there to offer support for prospective students. I can’t say that about every program, and I think that’s really great that they’ve got that instinct. MTCoachNYC- too bad your student got that vibe from them that they were just interested in what he could do instead of who he was. Hartt is most certainly a great choice as well though!</p>

<p>beenthereMTdad- out of curiosity, when did your daughter graduate? I have a friend who graduated in '09 and I vaguely remember a story similar to the one you told. </p>

<p>That being said, my friend that graduated from BoCo loved her time there. I don’t think that she loved every single thing about the program (most specifically the competition she felt in the beginning) but no program is going to be perfect, and in general, I know she learned a ton, feels her training was top notch and has a great support network. I can say that camaraderie displayed by the kids now toward incoming freshman is something that never went away for her between her classmates- she’s currently on a national tour and she’s constantly got friends that she graduated with coming to see her, and when she stopped in Mass, a few hours outside of NYC, she basically had an entire cheering section! I think that’s super cool.</p>

<p>And switching gears (again)- why not judge a program based on volunteers manning a sign in sheet? I completely see your point that it seems a bit silly and very likely doesn’t have any regard to the caliber of the program or the atmosphere a kid would be placed in to, but at the same time, first impressions really matter. If you go out to eat, for example, and walk in the front door to sit down for a nice dinner and the host is short, rude, disinterested, etc, it could at best get you started off on the wrong foot and at worst, completely ruin the dining experience. Pardon the metaphor, but I think it’s valid that a student has to choose the program as much as program has to choose them, and it would never be acceptable for the student to seem disinterested when not performing or even to be rude to the person checking them in, so I suppose I don’t see why it would be so hard for the volunteer (who likely has some type of theatre experience) to put on a friendly face and receive a potential student warmly? SOO I just went way off on a tangent, but there’s that anyway.</p>

<p>I now feel like I need to add something constructive to this thread based on what it was meant for- so I’m wondering if anyone could offer any type of input on Rider? I noticed a post in the admitted student’s decision thread that they felt the care the faculty was putting into the program made them feel it was a great up-and-comer. I’m doing some heavy digging into options for more classical MT singers for next year, and I have a great deal of respect for this program, but I don’t actually know anyone there and have never been myself, so I’m curious if anyone has some firsthand info. :slight_smile: …and end lost post!</p>

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<p>I can speak a little bit about Rider even though I won’t be attending until Fall '13.
I have a couple of friends who attend now, and have close friends from the same city as me (4-5 of us) who will be attending Rider.</p>

<p>The dance training is amazing. Robin Lewis has choreographed every show in the book. He reminds me of the male equivalence of Kaitlin Hopkins from TSU. He has worked so hard in the past two years (Actually came from TSU as the Head of Dance), and has truly made Rider a triple threat program.</p>

<p>The voice training (Westminster Choir College) is some of the best in the nation. The school is great with academic scholarships to help offset the tuition (usually people pay 25-35k a year). </p>

<p>They have had great success with placing a large number of students in equity summer shows, many sophomores and juniors will already have their equity card before their senior year. The close proximity to New York City means Robin is bringing in a Broadway actor/director/casting agent/ choreographer almost weekly. Respected Broadway casting director has been almost 6 times this year alone.</p>

<p>The program is truly a up-and-comer and top 20 already if not more. It is progressing so fast, changing to a BFA this fall. </p>

<p>At Unifieds the buzz was about Rider this year, TSU last year. It has a buzz around if for a reason, the training is becoming top notch.</p>

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<p>My daughter graduated in 2011 so this would have happened around 2010.</p>

<p>From 2007 through 2011 I worked the desk at NY unifieds running the audition schedule, etc. And my single purpose for being there, besides keeping things organized, moving forward and helping out the staff, was to keep the kids (and parents) calm, relaxed and positive.</p>

<p>I can’t speak to who has followed me or what the volunteers did at other cities but I do know Neal, Michelle, the people in admissions and President Ortner intimately. And they all care deeply about all the kids that audition for their program and that they are given the best chance possible to show there talent. </p>

<p>The volunteers in most cases are parents and most don’t have any experience other then being parents. They should be there to offer their experiences and answer to the best of their ability any questions people have.</p>

<p>I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed working the NY unifeds (all three days for 5 years) and the annual showcase. Unfortunately my new job does not afford me the opportunity to help out anymore. I adored seeing all these fresh faced high school kids come to the sign in all full of hope and promise.</p>

<p>So yeah, I guess I am a little sensitive when it comes to Boco, what it offers, and what it stands for.</p>

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<p>Anyone else want to chime in with great smaller programs that might be overlooked? As I said in a previous post, it’s no doubt that BoCo is an excellent program. Not only have I had students there, but many very close friends who loved the program.</p>

<p>I’d love to hear more about programs that might be overlooked! Thanks!</p>

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<p>Some programs that we were not familiar with but that were recommended to us include Viterbo, western Kentucky! Western. Carolina, Western Michigan, Christopher Newport, university of Tampa, Illinois Wesleyan … We did not really look into these but may be programs worth researching.</p>

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<p>I’ve heard great things about both Kent State and Wright State in Ohio, which are lesser known and haven’t been discussed much in this thread. I don’t know much about them, however, as I didn’t audition for them- but maybe some other people do. Ohio Northern is also a hidden gem that I DID audition for and loved the faculty/dance intense side of their program, but never ended up visiting. Honestly I’m jealous of those kids auditioning for MT growing up in Ohio! You could probably make a well balanced auditioned list with reaches and matches if you picked a non-audition “safety”. In Ohio alone:</p>

<p>-Oberlin (I’ve heard good things about their non-audition BA in Theatre)
-Kent State
-Wright State
-Ohio-Northern
-Cincinatti CCM
-Otterbein
-Baldwin Wallace</p>

<p>If you’re in that area- you’re lucky!</p>

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<p>I’ll help! :slight_smile: SUNY Fredonia has a smaller program that might be overlooked. It’s a nice campus in western New York state, near the Lake Erie shore. The school has an excellent music school and we were really impressed with the theater department. From our first campus tour to audition day to accepted student’s day, the department chair was very engaged in each event. I liked how involved he was - talking at length about the program, answering dozens of questions and even acting as tour guide at some points. I liked his "no illusions’ approach when he described the program and the realities of the business. Their “NYC Experience” for seniors seemed like a very sensible approach. I also liked the liberal arts emphasis, and the spiel he gave about what skills theater students gain and how those skills can be applied in the “real” world. </p>

<p>They take about 10 students each year into the Musical Theater BFA and it’s clear each student gets a great deal of individual attention. That was important to us, especially since my son has had very little experience. My son felt he would receive excellent training. He had a chance to spend a night in the dorms and spend two days shadowing the classes of a current MT freshman (who we found right here on College Confidential!) and my son absolutely loved everything he saw. He was certain the program would be the perfect fit for him. </p>

<p>The school has great facitilies and they are adding on to them starting next year. They have a great main stage where they are currently performing Anne Frank. The set is incredible - three stories high - and built by students. While we didn’t get to see the show due to a conflict with my son’s own show, we have heard from others that it was excellent.</p>

<p>Another important factor was the cost. At approx. $17k per year for in-state, it’s almost 1/4th the cost of some of the schools we looked at. To be able to enter the job market with no debt is a very big deal for us. Great training + great pricetag = no brainer for us! :)</p>

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<p>Some of the best scholarship $ we got from a surprise program was Ohio northern. Loved the faculty we met from there. Definitely would take a look. And again, Coastal Carolina is fantastic too. But not as much scholarship.</p>

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<p>Millikin in Illinois has a great program.</p>

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<p>I meant to add that Millikin has a great program for MT and they have scholarship money for those that show promise. It is a beautiful campus too</p>

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<p>Something new to consider just announced today: the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY is going to start offering a Musical Theatre certificate through its theater department. The faculty will be Lyndy Franklin Smith and Jeromy Smith - both equity performers who appeared in many shows on Broadway. Lyndy has a strong background in dance and I believe both are graduates of OCU. They have been asked to choreograph and be involved with productions at Lyric Theatre, Music Theatre of Wichita, University of Michigan, etc… so are well known in the industry and are well respected artists. They currently are directing a production of “Spring Awakening” at UK, and as part of that process, they were able to bring in Jonathon Groff to work with the students (he was one of their roommates in NYC!). All that to say, if you are looking for something in this part of the country, it will be a new program you may want to consider. The news article said auditions would be in April of each year and they will take 10 - 12 students. Also, be aware UK is home to one of the premiere opera programs in the country, led by Everett McCorvey. Faculty include Cynthia Lawrence and Gregory Turay, both Metropolitan Opera artists. So the voice training available is fantastic. Recent graduates of that program I know were just in a national tour of Titanic, Porgy and Bess at Lincoln Center and one is currently in Cinderella on Broadway. So good things are happening at the University of Kentucky.</p>

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<p>Just a reminder about money and Coastal Carolina. There is more money available for academic merit than for talent. All stats based and posted on their website. Also, if you are in a state that is part of the Academic Common Market, check to see if the program that you/your child is interested in at CCU is available.</p>

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<p>I had a similar experience to Marbleheader’s when I visited UMiami (I’m only a sophomore, but I happened to be in the area). Unfortunately, we had rental car trouble and didn’t make the tour, so I tried to check out their theatre dept. as best I could. It seemed to me that it was such a tiny portion of a huge campus, and I was kind of unimpressed. It was just really hard without insight from someone who knows the MT program well.</p>

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<p>DD and I were very impressed by the organization of auditions at OCU. It was high on her list, but having open rehearsal for multiple on-going shows in process was great. The MT kids were very open and able to answer a lot of the questions a student would not have asked faculty or a general admissions tour guide.
Rider was our big surprise and ultimately where she will be in the fall! Three performance spaces and very good audition experience. She is coming from 4 years with a 900 seat theater so some programs like Illlinois Wesleyan seemed tiny- her emphasis is voice so the association with Riders Princeton Vocal Performance campus is a plus…very beautiful part of New Jersey and Director Lewis is fabulous!!!</p>

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<p>Hi Everyone! I wanted to resurrect this thread from last year to get feedback from this year. A lot of these recommendations from last year helped me counsel my students to have more realistic lists and this year is already proving to be very successful!</p>

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<p>Thanks, MTCoachNYC, for the reboot! I hadn’t read this thread when I started lurking on CC a year ago so it was most helpful to see it now that auditions are well underway (9 down, 3 to go). I wanted to post here (as well as on the SU school sub-forum) about a pre-audition communication from Shenandoah my S received today. He got an email from the MT Program Coordinator offering very specific feedback based on his prescreen with adjustments he could work on to improve his audition at SU in two weeks. My S and I are very impressed that SU reached out to him this way before the audition; it says a lot about the program and how it’s run. It’s probably unrealistic to expect that other schools with prescreens would do the same, especially those with way more applicants/auditioners, but how fantastic for prospective SU students to have this kind of personalized feedback before they even set foot into the audition room! </p>

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<p>@maMTma- The same happened for one of my students and she was so impressed and excited! It was wonderful advice!</p>

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<p>I believe that it was done for a number of students. The D received an email as well before the audition and so did two of her friends.</p>

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<p>I’ve been most suprised/impressed by Otterbein. I can not believe more people aren’t flocking there to audition. The opportunity to intern for 9 weeks, Sr year, at a casting agency in NYC or LA to me sounds invaluable. What an amazing opportunity and to my knowledge they are the only program in the country that offers this. We’ve visited schools where the faculty is equally as approachable and close to their students. Joe Deer, at Wright State, stand up guy, Marianne Cook and Robin Lewis at Rider…love them, but the fact that Dr John Stefano and team meet with every single auditioner speaks volumes to how much they care about the kids. You can’t fake that kind of connection. I loved the area, very quaint and I immediately thought how safe it appeared. They have a wonderful philosophy. My S is a pretty good dancer and he was impressed by the dance call. </p>

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<p>Let me begin by saying that I know absolutely nothing about the University of Kentucky or their MT certificate, but I caution anyone against evaluating faculty or a program based on the fact that an instructor performed at the Met or any other opera house. There are many well known singers who can’t teach and many who have not performed with a famous company who are terrific instructors. Always ask where students are performing (or in the case of VP, where they attend grad school or YAP) and the retention numbers for their studios, and then try to meet with the potential teacher and have a sample lesson to see how you “fit”.</p>