Student Blog: The College Search as a Theatre Kid

Upon deciding for certain that theatre was going to be my career path, around my freshman year, I decided that musical theatre would be the ideal major for me. After spending a year partaking in a pre-college MT program, I realized that I wasn’t really cut out for it. Fortunately, that realization provided me with the space to come to terms with the fact that I want to be a director and educator. I derive the most joy from guiding others in the creation of their art, as opposed to creating my own. I still plan to consistently seek to develop my own creativity to be the best I can be as an educator, but have decided not to pursue performance professionally.

As a high school senior, I am looking at all sorts of bachelor’s programs that center around Theatre Education and Directing. I will be applying to the University of Michigan's Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Performance: Directing program, Baldwin Wallace University's Bachelor of Theatre: Directing and Acting program, Rider University's Bachelor of Arts in Theatre with a Theatre-Making Concentration, Oklahoma City University's Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Innovation and Entrepreneurship program, Ball State University's Bachelor of Arts or Science in Theatre Education program, the University of Northern Colorado's Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts: K - 12 Drama Teaching Emphasis, Texas State University's Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre with teacher certification program, Emerson College's Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Education and Performance program, and Nebraska Wesleyan University's Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts Education program.

I have evaluated all of the aforementioned programs as being the most ideal for my situation from an artistic, educational, geographic, and financial standpoint. Before I can start narrowing down that lengthy list, however, I need to start getting some acceptances.

This process began at the beginning of my junior year, when I started gathering all the information I could about colleges that had the degree program I was looking for. I knew right away that none of the 4 major in-state universities here in Arizona had anything for me, so I had to expand my horizons to other parts of the country. Once I had a long list going, I visited schools whenever my family was on vacation. I made the decision to cut any schools that do not have a Musical Theatre program, since that is the main realm that I want to focus my energy on. Opportunities to work as an AD or any other position on a musical would be ideal, and I also just found a solid MT program to be the common denominator between a lot of stronger theatre programs. That cut a few schools from my list, and then it came down to the culture within each school from there. I ended up cutting a few schools whose websites I had to scour to find barely any information about the degree program to which I was applying. In this time, I also made a professional website to essentially serve as a springboard with which to advertise myself. Then, at International Thespian Festival, I had the opportunity to talk with a few of the programs that were on my list. This resulted in me adding an additional university to my application schedule, and taking one off. This school was still interested in me, but had done away with my specific program of interest.

Going into this year, I made my Common App account and had a lot of assistance from my friend Brielle, who went through the application process last year in pursuit of the right Theatre Design and Production program for her, and ended up at Oklahoma City University. She helped me make the basics of an application spreadsheet, which I then fleshed out with the more detailed information I had gathered during junior year: specific application requirements, school details, etc. With my schedule completed and ready to go, my next step was to ask for letters of recommendation. All of my schools required one from my counselor, so I had to fill out and submit a questionnaire about myself to her. I also included my website and both my artistic and academic resumes. In addition to my counselor, I requested a letter of recommendation from my junior year AP US History teacher and my theatre teacher. They occupy the “teacher” slot on the Common App recommender portal for every college except one, which only allows one recommender. For them, I chose my history teacher since it specifically requested a core teacher. In the “other recommender” tab, I chose to ask a director who I’ve worked with in community theatre who I also got to AD for over the summer.

Moreover, a huge part of my website and my application is my portfolio. I have had to curate a Dropbox folder full of documents related to all sorts of areas of Theatre Education and Directing. I have subfolders dedicated to design, directing, dramaturgy, acting, education, and marketing. I have recorded some videos and written all-new essays to include in there as well, so that colleges have a virtually unlimited resource to get to know me more if they’d like to.

Furthermore, at the end of my junior year, my AP English Language teacher had us write our personal narratives for the Common App. I gave mine a significant overhaul at the top of this year before sending it back to her for feedback. I just heard back from her, which means I’ll be able to make the necessary revisions there and officially get it uploaded into my application. Once that’s done, I’ll be ready to submit my first application next week! I don’t have letters of recommendation back from anyone but my counselor, and ideally I’ll have them in the portal by then, but I can still submit it if not. 

This process can be overwhelming, and definitely was at first. However, I’ve started early enough that I will be able to apply Early Action to all of the colleges that offer it. My biggest piece of advice to anyone starting the college process would easily be to stay as organized as possible: communicate with your teachers and people who have gone through it before, Google Sheets is your friend, and remember your “Why.” Keep your passion at the forefront and you’ll have and endless supply of all the motivation you could ever need.

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