Would performing in professional theater look good on college apps?Answered
I'm a rising senior in high school, interested in majoring in Political Science (and maybe doing a double major in literature or history), and I plan to minor in musical theater. Some schools I'm looking at are Georgetown, NYU, and Boston University (hard targets), Yale and Harvard (reaches), and George Washington, American. and University of Maryland (targets).
I've taken classes in Musical theater for about 10 years and usually perform in three shows a year through the independent "theater school" where I am a student of. I'm aware that this isn't remarkably impressive on college applications as it isn't through my high school nor is it something you audition to be a part of. This being said, I was recently offered to audition for a professional production of The Crucible with a community resident theater that performs in the same space as my theater school. To be completely honest, this is something I'm really looking forward to doing as I think it'll give me valuable insight into how professional theater works, and it would be nice to have a job in something I'm so passionate about.
This being said, if I'm cast into the show, it is a pretty big time commitment in addition to my clubs, AP and Honors classes, and honors societies. I'm currently having a pretty long think on whether or not it is worth it to pursue this opportunity with everything else I'm doing my senior year. So, I was wondering, if my being a part of a professional show would look good on college applications, even though it is not related to my planned major? I'm honestly not sure. I also want to add that I do have plenty of community service, clubs, and previous employment that have to do with my intended majors, so it's not like this would be the only important extracurricular I would be doing. I'd appreciate any thoughts (and I'm very sorry for the plethora of background information)!
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2 answers
Being a part of the show will definitely help your applications and is worth doing! Colleges want to see a combination of ECs on your list that show that you are well-rounded, doing top-tier activities, and are demonstrating a spike. This theater opportunity meets the first two criteria. Since you have done other ECs that relate to your spike, it would be no issue to reduce your commitment to them to pursue theater.
A lot of schools have great theater resources, but want to let in more theater kids because the best ones seem to apply to the same top programs at other schools - Georgetown University, my alma mater, is an example of this. I'm sure that your theater interest will catch their attention. Hope this helps!
As Emperor Palpatine says, "Do it!!". Professional theatre will look fantastic on a college app, there is not much else to it.
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