What are my chances of completing a Music Theatre degree? Are people cut from the program, as they are at many schools, after sophomore year?
The faculty who hear the Music Theatre auditions attempt to only admit people into the program who they believe have the potential to succeed in the program. Unfortunately, however, not everyone who enters the program will graduate with a degree in Music Theatre. The most frequent reason for this is NOT based on any faculty decisions, but on the fact that the student has reconsidered his/her career goals and moved into another degree program. This is true of all performance degrees, not just Music, Music Theatre, or Theatre. If students are not completing and passing all required course work, they may not be allowed to advance in the program. CMU’s Music Theatre program is still young, having graduated its first class in the spring of 2003. Of the students in the original class, approximately 80% of those accepted completed the degree. Another way of stating that is for every 10 accepted, 8 graduated. The technical term for this is “retention,” and an 80% retention rate is quite high o
