canadianJo wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 7:19 pm
Hi All, really appreciating all the knowledge on this forum! In Canada we don't have many options for musical theatre training, so my daughter has been auditioning for UK schools. As the wait is excruciating , thought I'd ask about the one offer she has so far.
Trinity Laban foundation year- thoughts? anyone know how many students they accept? They have been very frustrating to get in touch with, so not super impressed so far (although I do appreciate that between the numbers and covid it's been a very tough year). Even though she submitted her videos on time she wasn't invited to the audition day- she tried calling and emailing when she'd not heard any info about it, no response. Then received a rejection email (for the BA program). She reached out and asked if she'd missed something as it seemed hard to believe the entire MT audition was 2 songs... They told her she hadn't missed anything and then suddenly got an offer for the foundation program.... Seems a bit weird- is it just me? Anyway, as you can imagine we're hesitant to send her across the ocean and pay all that money if that experience is a fair representation of the school. Thoughts?
Hi, in Dec 2019 me and daughter went to their open day. It was only meant to only be open for kids in the school year above her but daughter rang up and they said we could come along.
We both found it a lovely welcoming school. We had tours and talks and Q & A session and then they took the kids off to do various workshops whilst they gave us a parents talk and Q & A. The talks had both staff and 1st year students. My one criticism of it was not being open about their foundation. A parent asked the price of the foundation and was told they didn't know (the info of cost is on their website, I was sorely tempted to put my hand up and reveal this - but resisted). Even the student who had previously been a foundation student claimed they had no idea of the price as her parents had paid it (possibly true, but seemed odd). Another question was how many they had taken from foundation to degree there the previous year and the answer was 6 (unfortunately I can't remember foundation student numbers). Later parents were dismissed to go wait for their kids in the cafe and the students came with us. I got into conversation with a few of them. They all enjoyed their college. When I asked about not being very forthcoming about the foundation year info when it's on their website, the students said they didn't know why the staff had made a big thing of accepting 6 students the year before from foundation to degree as that was a higher number than in previous years when it had tended to be around 4.
The only things I can think of re them not knowing about foundation costs is either they did have clueless staff (who should have done their homework re this, it was a likely question to be asked!) or because they were making a big deal that it's one of the few fully funded MT degrees for tuition (the previous foundation student also enthused about this when the question was asked about price of foundation) that they didn't want a load of parents present complaining that it wouldn't be affordable to many.
Another thing asked was how many of their students got agents. The reply was the previous year it had been 'all of them'. Earlier though they'd talked about the history of the course and how they'd increased student numbers so many years in from 25 to 50 for degree. Again I asked the students at the cafe what year the increase in degree students had taken place and found their current 3rd years were the first year of 50 students, so the previous year when all students had found agents that had only been 25.
I see a previous answer talked about 2 buildings. The tour we were shown I believe was where the classes take place (we saw a dance studio for example) and only later did they take us to another building right at the end of the day. Both buildings were nice. We could have also bought tickets to stay and watch their show (3rd years I think) and I now wish we had, but it would have involved an overnight stay and we'd only booked to go visit 2 days earlier so hadn't planned it in.
Daughter really loved her open day there and applied this year, other than the self tapes of singing 2 songs, you were asked to list your dance experience/qualifications. The audition day consisted of an acting workshop. My daughter is an actor first, Trinity Laban was 1 of only 2 MT courses she threw into the mix to apply for because she'd loved the day so much. It was very easy to be missed though due to the amount doing the workshop together and daughter didn't think she'd been particularly noticed. After that there was an interview. She was sent a rejection email about a week later. She'd have jumped at the chance of their foundation. It's one of the few places she'd consider applying for next year too.
I found where it was situated a really nice area too. I hope this helps towards your decision.
