Auditions

[Smadar]

Hi everyone!
I am a soon to be senior in high school and I am going to audition in the up coming year to drama schools.
One of my greatest dreams is to live and study in NYC.
I was wandering if anyone could help me by recommending the best schools there are. I want a BFA and also I want a program that combines musical theater too. I live outside of the US so dorms will be great too. My dream school is Juilliard but other than that I'm not really sure. I know a girl who is extreamly talented who auditiond there last year and didn't make even the first cut, so I'm guessing it's really hard. She was asked to do an additional monologue and sing a song so she was sure that they liked her, she took it really hard so I think it will be best to keep some other options. Thanks in advance for any help! And sorry if the post was too long.

[AwesomeDanny]

This forum is going to bive you a lot of information on different programs:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/

At this point, you're probably a bit behind most others in this competitive major. I would highly advise you to do as much research on schools and audition preparation as you can this summer because auditions next year will come sooner than you think.

As far as programs in NYC, yes, Julliard is extremely competitive. Even if you are one of the most talented young performers out there, don't count on getting in. Also, it's not the place to go to study musical theatre--their drama and music departments are completely separate. But the city has numerous other colleges with great programs, including NYU, Pace, Wagner, Marymount Manhattan, etc. If you do enough research (I can't express how helpful the forum I linked to is), you should be able to make a good list of schools to audition at next year.

[jackieoh]

^ Don't go to Pace.

[all that jazz]

What's wrong with Pace?

[jackieoh]

Pace is a horrendous institution that thousands of students get sucked into because they offer loan-heavy financial aid packages that will cover the complete cost-of-attendance. Since this means many will not pay a cent out of pocket toward housing/tuition, they believe they are living in NYC for free and will attend Pace because of its location. Pace stresses over and over to students how lucky they would be to live in the city and attend classes there. Unless you come from a well-off family, you will surely accrue $20,000 or more a year in student loans + interest. For the very poor quality of education you'd be receiving, the debt is not worth it.

You will have absolutely no weight in the decisions made in regards to your academic schedule. Myself and dozens of others were placed in classes that we had tested out of or had already taken, and when the conflicts were brought up to our advisors, we were told to simply 'wait it out'. By the time it was brought up again it was too late to change or switch out and leaving the class would already negatively affect our transcripts and GPA. With a $54,000 COA, someone so simple and easy to fix should not be an issue. And yet, it is.

I think that the one good thing about Pace is that musical theatre majors are encouraged to attend auditions and do theatre in the city. Other colleges, like Marymount Manhattan, forbid their students to do this until they have graduated. The faculty is great about helping students prepare and thrusting them into the very competitive theatre scene in New York, and I commend them for that. However, the rest of the musical theatre program (the way it is run, the way it operates, the way it is funded, the way it is filled) is political and messy and unjust.

At Pace, you are an ID number and an interest-accruing money machine. I dropped out midsemester, canceled my financial aid, withdrew from my classes, moved out of my dorm, and left the city. About a month later, I got a call from my advisor asking why I hadn't been attending any of my classes and asking if I needed on-campus counseling. It was just ridiculous.

Spare yourself time, effort, money, happiness, and freedom. Just don't even apply. Don't even CONSIDER it. It's a mess.