Choosing the right Grad School

MPowers

Well-Known Member
Kind of interesting. I was always told graduate school is more about choosing a mentor the choosing a school. In the case of a few schools the rolodex is worth more to your career then you're education.

Big thing to me though that the article did not get into is... why go to grad school. The "My career is not working out, an MFA will fix it then people will hire me" philosophy is pretty much the worst idea ever. Just because you have an MFA does not mean you are any more hirable. Way too many people fall into the trap of more education will make me a better artist. No one can make you a better artist. If you don't have the chops with your undergrad degree an MFA won't fix it... I know way too many people with MFA's (one from CalArts) who are currently back in school in their 30's to get a degree to do something else outside of the industry. Teaching jobs are drying up... and (most of) the real world could really care less about what paper you have. 3 years of your life is a long time, you always have to weigh in 3 years will you further your career more in the real world or in the education world.
 
I hope I'm not re-opening anything too old here, but my search didn't really turn up much about graduate schools newer than this thread.

I have my BA in technical theatre (my school didn't offer a BFA) and I've been in the workforce for a year now. I worked a summer stock job ("professional") and an internship. I've seen improvement in my carpentry skills and I know a lot more about rigging now, but I can tell there's a lot of knowledge I'm missing and the places I've been working haven't offered me an opportunity to learn what I'd like to learn.

Eventually, I hope to become a Technical Director. This means I need practice in managing schedules, money management, design meetings, engineering, physics, drafting, leadership, and a lot of other things I don't even know I need to learn. I personally think graduate school is a great place to learn many of these skills.

At this point, I've been looking at a bunch of different graduate schools: Chapel Hill, NC School of the Arts, Carnegie Mellon, Yale, FSU, Perdue, Tulane, and UNLV for a start.

Since I live in NC, I'm hesitant about the NC schools. I know that they're good and have strong reputations, but I don't know that I want all my education to be from one state. Aside from that, I'm not even sure which schools would be good for me.

SETC is starting a new program this Fall that's similar to URTA and I plan to attend that, but then I wonder if there are schools on the west coast that I'm missing out on.

And on top of all this, when I go to look at the schools' websites I usually have problems finding their curriculum.

I know this is long and I'm kind of rambling about a bunch of issues at once but any advice is helpful.

Thanks so much!
 
Chapel Hill is a great MFA school... don't discount it.

Graduate school is a great place to learn all that stuff. You at least know what you want to learn. That is half the battle. Some MFA programs do a good job teaching that stuff... some don't.

As far as curiculum, most don't post it because it changes student to student. Most MFA students are told to find their own path, so no two graduates are the same. Yale on the other hand does have a curriculum it follows with the TD students... and it is what you are looking for.

With that though, it is possible to learn what you want to learn and keep working. It is not going to be as easy, but you can do it. If you can't draft and have no management experience then grad school might be your only option. At that point I would go back to your undergrad and burn the place down because they did a poor job teaching you. Hopefully they left you debt free and you can afford to not make money for 3 years.
 
Most not posting it certainly explains a lot. I've found a lot of baseline classes listed, which I hope I can now assume are just the basic requisites.

Yeah, unfortunately, I ran into a lot of problems in undergrad. Some were all me and some where departmental or school issues. I ended up with little to no drafting experience and I'm really struggling because of it. I've gotten some good advice on how to begin correcting the problem and I've been told I'm not as bad as I think, but I still feel horribly inadequate in drafting.

The thing I'm really looking at right now is schools with Assistantships that include tuition waivers. I'm not sure I can afford graduate school any other way. It's not a ton of money, but it's better than accumulating a ton of debt.
 
Most not posting it certainly explains a lot. I've found a lot of baseline classes listed, which I hope I can now assume are just the basic requisites.

Yeah, unfortunately, I ran into a lot of problems in undergrad. Some were all me and some where departmental or school issues. I ended up with little to no drafting experience and I'm really struggling because of it. I've gotten some good advice on how to begin correcting the problem and I've been told I'm not as bad as I think, but I still feel horribly inadequate in drafting.

The thing I'm really looking at right now is schools with Assistantships that include tuition waivers. I'm not sure I can afford graduate school any other way. It's not a ton of money, but it's better than accumulating a ton of debt.

Be wary of the assistantship thing. Many schools offer it and use you to teach the undergrads instead of teaching you. Yale does not have an undergrad program for this very reason. However, in recent years I believe Yales tuition has dropped to almost nothing if you have almost nothing in the bank. http://drama.yale.edu/financial-aid-policy.

My feeling is that before you even do that you need to get your feet a bit wetter. Drafting is an easy skill to learn. Every community college has a drafting course... take it. It will be cheep. Take an accounting course too. That will take care of your money issues and then some. Get a hold of structual design for the stage, Rigging Math Made Simple, and the Stage Rigging Handbook. Thats a big start to the physics portion. This stuff is really not that hard. Aim to get your ETCP cert. Finally, on your next job hunt (or at the one you are at) ask questions, stay late, and soak up as much as you can. If your not finding what you want at your current job, go look for a new one. Go in letting them know what you don't know... and what you want to learn. I assume that most of the people that work for me will not know what they need to know to do their job on their first day. However, I know if I invest time in my employees I will get an employee that is tailored to my exact needs. Most people have this philosophy due to the training issues involved in this industry.

You don't have to go to grad school to learn this stuff. Plenty of TD's never have set foot in a classroom. It is easier to a degree, but unless you pick the right school you could easily waste 3 more years. If you can't afford one of the top schools OR can't get into them then your better off with the hard knocks degree.
 
"Be wary of the assistantship thing. Many schools offer it and use you to teach the undergrads instead of teaching you. Yale does not have an undergrad program for this very reason."

Yeah, I'm not sure that is the reason they don't have an undergraduate major.
 

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