Sheridan vs AMDA (MT)

[WadeTheatre]

Posted: 4/10/20 at 12:26am

Hello guys, 

After my audition run, I am so honoured to announce that I've been accepted to Sheridan College, Randolph Academy, Canadian College, and AMDA all for Musical Theatre. I have narrowed it down to Sheridan and AMDA! Sheridan accredits an Honours Bachelor of Applied Arts (BAA)  in Music Theatre Performance, and is the best MT program in Canada, where AMDA is a BFA program in Musical Theatre and constantly makes Playbill's "Big 10!"

I live in Canada so, financially, Sheridan makes more sense as tuition is 1/10 of the tuition at AMDA. Sheridan is also an amazing program and I would be ecstatic to go there. Sheridan has a HUGE reputation within Canada but I'm not sure if it holds a reputation within the USA... I strongly believe both programs would do blessings for me and my career. 

I know people are having this debate over Sheridan vs AMDA within the Canadian Theatre Community! I'm going to commit to Sheridan, 100%, It's a great program and I will not have to borrow any student loans. But for the sake of conversation... Does Sheridan hold up to AMDA ? or other schools in States ? Does Sheridan have a reputation within the USA ? Is AMDA worth the 45k tuition vs the reasonable domestic tuition for Sheridan ???

Let's just share our opinions. Cause people all around are making these decisions based on the value of reputation! Which class of 2024 will win Sheridan BAA or AMDA BFA ?

Updated On: 5/4/20 at 12:26 AM

[Scarlet Leigh]

Posted: 4/10/20 at 5:17am

I honestly can't say I have really heard of Sheridan but oh... OH I have heard a LOT about AMDA. 

I have heard everything ranging from "legit the best" to "total scam school" depending on who you talk to. Everyone seems to have a different opinion based on their own personal experience with the place. Have legit theatre professionals come from AMDA? Yes. But the question is... were they just naturally talented and happened to go to AMDA or did AMDA enhance their talent to get them their careers? What I do know is that AMDA really doesn't have the same high set of standards as other conservatory schools do for admission so a degree from them does not carry the same weight as other conservatory schools. They have a bit of a reputation for 'if you pay us, we will take you.' And honestly, I can see that. 

I personally know two people that have gone to the school (for a time at least) and both have expressed to me DRASTICALLY different experiences. The 1st one was a genuinely talented actor with a lot of potential. Just needed some polish. He went, he got a lot of attention, and he really enjoyed it and found it worthwhile. But again, he had a lot of natural talent already going in. The 2nd person on the other hand was kind of the opposite. While they had an okay voice, they were that kind of stubborn teenage choir girl. You know... the kind that claim they are a soprano but they are not and would be so much better if they just accepted they were an alto and sang songs in their correct range but refuse because they know better then the music teacher? ANYWAY! Even with her okay voice, she was also and okay actor BUT not a dancer AT ALL. So after a lot of auditions, AMDA was the only school that would take her but unlike with the other person I mentioned before, this girl didn't really get a lot of support. She was not really nurtured to improve any just taught much of the same level of things she already knew and constantly evaluated as needs improvement while never being given the change to improve.Thus she was ending up paying for classes where a lot more attention went to others deemed to be more talented from the start. She did eventually drop out without ever really advancing her skills any. Though... KNOWING her... as I said before she WAS stubborn so I can't say for sure if they were not really training her OR if she was not willing to take what they were trying to train her.

[Ravenclaw]

Posted: 4/10/20 at 6:12am

I'm gonna second everything stated above--I have heard the most all-over-the-place opinions about AMDA. I don't know anything about Sheridan, but I will say that nobody in the business really cares where you went to school. There are some schools that have great reputations for turning out lots of talented people, even the highest-tier schools have graduates who are never able to book work, and there are successful actors from nearly every school, not to mention the plethora of successful actors who never even went to college. Nobody has ever booked a Broadway show based on the name of the school on a resume. The most important thing for you is to choose the school that is right for you, and it sounds like you have a strong idea what school that is. Normally, I would say that if you haven't already, try to visit the campus and observe classes to see if the school is a place you can imagine being a good fit for the next four years, but obviously the current state of the world won't allow that. But that is to say, my advice is to take name recognition out of it and choose the school you think will be the best fit for you. I turned down one of the top conservatories (some might say the top conservatory) because I decided that I wanted a liberal arts education and because I thought that school was the right place for me, and I am so glad I made that decision. And, if you are able to graduate without any debt (or with very little debt compared to the other school), it is impossible to underestimate how much better of a position you will be in.

Congratulations on your acceptances, and good luck with the next few years!

[bmd12887]

Posted: 4/10/20 at 7:14am

Hello!

I am a LONG time lurker here at BroadwayWorld, and am currently in graduate school for acting, emphasizing in pedagogy. I aspire to be the head of a musical theatre or acting program, and a big part of my training currently is studying what training programs have the best returns. 

With hundreds of musical theatre programs all over the world, it’s important to find the training experience that best matches your needs, in terms of skill level, experience, rigor, ingenuity, finances, and goals. It can be a really daunting decision, and one that may feel like you have to make extremely fast. 

I’m going to be extremely candid with you and I hope you don’t mind. 

Avoid AMDA at all costs. 

Unless you come from an extraordinarily wealthy family, and you will not be paying for a cent of your training, AMDA is far too expensive to make it a viable training option.  

Sheridan sounds like a terrific option. It seems like the kind of program where teachers are actually going to know your name, and where you’ll find not just find a training ground, but a community to depend upon as well. Community college is an excellent place to begin feeling out for yourself if a professional acting career is the right road for you. 

AMDA leaves you with one decision- complete a degree, regardless of it’s worth, and audition until you drop.

AMDA is costly- and don’t forget, both AMDA campuses are in expensive cities, so not only will you be paying for training, but also for life in a fast and unforgiving metropolis, be it Los Angeles or New York. You should be suspicious of a school that makes it difficult for someone to access how much it costs per year to attend. I just clicked through AMDA’s website for a solid 20 minutes, and found no information about the cost of attendance. That should concern you. That should ring alarms.Sure, you will get exposed to great MT teachers at AMDA. But take a moment to be honest with yourself- are you ready to be exposed to great acting teachers? If there was only one moment in your life where you were going to grow in your craft, would you want that to be now while you’re still figuring yourself out? Wouldn’t you want it later on in life, when you’ve experienced more, when you can bring more life experience to the table? And when you know you’ve gleaned enough knowledge to parse through the experience of training more clearly? Not every 18 year old is going to get into Michigan, and I don’t think being rejected from one of those fancy programs is a barometer of success- believe me, I’ve witnessed how fickle this business can be about training. But if the universe is saying “hey- you’re not ready for this right now, but keep working, and you might be”, why not keep working in a way that financially allows for opportunity for more? 

I think any aspiring actor would benefit far more from a cheap liberal arts degree than from a BFA. Without question. 

So maybe you transfer from Sheridan to a state college, and you get a BA in Theatre or Math or English with a Pre-Law Emphasis from a school no ones heard of. Save your damn money, and take every damn gig you can book. No one will care where you went to school and for what if you got the goods. You have a much less likely chance of getting to show what you got if you’re shouldering 100k in debt on your back into every audition. And when you feel like your voice has fully matured (which happens usually in your 20s), when you feel like you’ve aged into a type where you are taken seriously, or when you feel like it’s ready for a tune up, why not audition for graduate school, most of which will offer you a hefty scholarship (I’m at a top 10 MFA program currently that costs 50k a year, and 40k of it is paid for with scholarship and teaching assistantships)? Or screw it- go for a super fancy conservatory in your early-to-mid-twenties (like Rada, BoCo, NIDA, Juilliard, or CalArts). I’ve heard of a few friends do this and they’ve had a much more fulfilling and mindful experience. 

In an economic downturn, it might be worth it to just move to New York. Apartments will be cheap. Tours will go non-union. The industry will struggle, but if you could maybe pursue a CUNY degree while also auditioning you might strike gold at the right time. Especially if you maybe invested this quarantine time into coding classes, or training in jobs the are online. 

Debt is not what you want in our current economic climate. Especially for a mass produced BFA experience. You want your training experience to be special, not something a million people have experienced. AMDA has a slew of successful alums because they graduate HUNDREDS a year. You have so many more options than you think you do. Consider them all. Be your own advocate. Avoid debt unless it’s the greatest school in the world to you. 

Updated On: 4/10/20 at 07:14 AM

[massofmen]

Posted: 4/10/20 at 8:09am

Getting a BA or a BFA in Musical Theatre is basically worthless unless you want to get your masters later on and teach or do someting lese. 
There is NO reason for a BFA in theatre or Musical theatre. zero. 

Theatre and tv/film  is one of the ONLY places in the world where  you can get a job (a very high paying job) right away without a education or pedigree in that vocation. You don't walk into an audition and you sing the hell out of a song, dance the combo perfectly and then act like gary oldman and they say "ugh we would have hired you if you had a BA or a BFA but we just cannot seeing that you don't have a degree" Thats never happened. I guarantee it. Sutton didn't go to college, Ben Platt, Jonathan Groff and on and on and on. Sure, some AMAZING people did! Josh Gad, ( who wasn't even accepted into the MT program at Carnegie mellon) Faith Prince, heather Headley etc. You don't think all those people were incredibly talented BEFORE they got in? Come on. Sure, some colleges really do help those mediocre talents become VERY talented. Def. Thats what college is for. 4 years of it though spending 200k? I mean NYU is like 78k per year now!!! thats insane!!! What are they buying? An Agent showcases and the name from the school? I can almost guarantee you that if you go in there, look the part, sing/act better than a kid from Michigan, you will get the job. They AREN"T going to say "ugh wel he didn't go to Michigan" . Same thing in Basketball, baseball and football. Sure the kid with the degree from one of the BEST schools in the country gives them an added advantage (thats why they PAID the 200k) but it wont be the deciding factor. 


If you want to go to college and spend all that money, then major in business, finance, biology, anything that can help you, if theatre,tv/film doesn't work out for you. 
You can probably still do the musicals and plays at the 4 year school while majoring in something else. So you will get roles on your resume' from your college productions then go out into the auditioning world. 

That people still pay 50k a year to go to schools like ELON or CCM or Carnegie Mellon to get a BFA is insane. INSANE. 

[teh_pretty]

Posted: 4/10/20 at 3:24pm

Sheridan.

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 4/10/20 at 7:20pm

Plenty of well known performers went to AMDA, but the consensus I’ve gotten from friends who have gone there is that (like most programs) you get out of it what you put into it. It does NOT have a stellar reputation in the industry (nor does Sheridan), and as others have said, it doesn’t matter where you went to school... however, I’ll say that the exceptions to this rule (from my observations in the NYC audition world) are UMich, CCM, and Carnegie Mellon.

[KaiStevens]

Posted: 5/9/20 at 6:00pm

Sheridan is 100% the better choice between the two!!! Congratulations