How to approach college visits

[thelostone1224]

Hi there, I'm currently a Junior in High School and I'm currently doing research into a program for a BFA in Stage Management/Design and Production. I'm trying my best to figure out what the alumni and faculty networks are like, however, the college websites are usually filled with a lot of fluff. My teacher/director recommended that I come here to ask what the best questions are to ask before I start emailing professors and going on college visits this summer. Any advice on that and how to contact current students would be greatly appreciated

 

[derekleffew]

Where, when, even if, you should attend college, is the most important decision you have to make in your life to date. In ten years, no one will care. And you're most likely to have found something other than live entertainment that floats your boat. Read the stick-ied threads st to top of this forum. Remember you're interviewing them as much or more than they're interviewing you.

 

[SteveB]

At our school it was left to the department chair to arrange and handle visits by potential students and any accompanying family (typical). Thus the chair carefully controlled what the potential student learned and saw. An option is to examine the department website and reach out to a technical staff member for a private meeting, without the faculty being aware. The tech folks might be a bit more honest about the reality of the program, or they might opt to not meet due to the potential issues with faculty should they find out. An option would be to ask the tech folks for possibly some contacts from graduates, maybe get an opinion from somebody who went thru the program.

 

[Footer]

What do you want to do post graduation? Where do you want to work? Where do you want to live? Do you want to tour? Do you want an MFA?

Can you elaborate on what you think having a stage management/Design and Production degree will do for you? What area of the country are you in/how far from home do you want to be? Are you paying for college out of pocket/loans or will your family pay for everything?

What college are you looking at now?

After that, facebook/instagram is probably your best bet to get a toe in. Odds are to that any program worth its salt will have a graduate kicking around here or have a graduate employed by someone here... and honestly if we don't know someone from that school or have never heard of it its probably not worth your time anyway! Looking where graduates are is probably your best bet... and university's HATE that people look at that.

 

[JChenault]

I would opine that in addition to the excellent thoughts above, you ask about the professional credentials of your professors.
have they worrled in the professional theatre?
do they still work in the real world?
when they have outside gigs do they take their students with them?
how many productions outside of the department are students involved in?

 

[chawalang]

In your post you said, college visits this summer. Why are you going in the summer? What do you hope to gain by visiting a school when faculty are gone, students are gone, and there are no productions going on? You need to attend during the academic semester.

You wrote Stage Management/ Design and Production. Those are two very different tracks, with very different coursework. To get any traction in one or another you would need to focus.

Have you considered vocational schools?

Have you considered working for a few years before investing the time into college?

To see if a degree is the best use of your time when going into the entertainment industry? Or, in reality if this is an industry you will actually be in long term? In which case going to skool may not be the best use of resources, or even any kind of theatre degree.

 

[TimMc]

I would opine that in addition to the excellent thoughts above, you ask about the professional credentials of your professors.
have they worrled in the professional theatre?
do they still work in the real world?
when they have outside gigs do they take their students with them?
how many productions outside of the department are students involved in?

And the flip side: do they have so much work outside of the Uni that their classes are taught by graduate assistants? What's the point of picking school based on faculty who are unlikely to teach the classes you take?