I went to the Hartt school many years ago so a LOT has changed but this is what I have to say about my personal experience with it:
pros:
1. compared to a lot of colleges this was a more affordable option and offered a larger number of scholarships to arts students Which made the arts degree feel like way less of a risk financially.
2. comprehensive music theory and ear training that turned out to be very valuable to me!
3. I personally had the greatest experience with my private voice teacher and still meet up with my voice studio often in new york to this day
4. as crazy as he is, I learned so much from Ralph Perkins and credit him so much to making me believe I could really dance.
5. I felt that the professors truly cared about us as people and performers. Sometimes their advice was misguided… but I believe most of the time they really had our best interest at heart. 5. the alumni from this school are an incredible tight knit group in the industry which helps enormously in nyc day to day!
6. I received so many opportunities from the networking this school provided especially from my senior agency showcase.
7. west Hartford is stunning if you can move off campus (most of us did)
8.the access to Hartford Stage, Goodspeed opera house and Theatreworks CT was invaluable to so many of my classmates
9. I personally gained a lot of confidence from my experience here. I went in debilitatingly insecure and came out MUCH more equipped for real life.
okay so
CONS:
many of the professors offered low key useless classless and like they didn’t actually want to teach … they did it out of necessity . not all but definitely some .
the campus is was hideous and in a sort of dead part of town. The musical theatre building was gorgeous but off campus.
musical theatre students were kind of screwed without a car. most of our classes were off campus and there was a shuttle but it was often not on time and kids struggled to make it back and forth.
4. there were very apparent favorites and my class size was far larger than was advertised so that effected the overall experience for a lot of people
5.many people were traumatized by being told to lose weight, change their appearance, bulk up, slim down etc. and some even discouraged from pursuing the industry.
6. The college itself was so bad lol. Musical theatre students were very often the smartest in the room and the liberal arts education was severely lacking.
7. dont go here if you want a traditional college experience. the Greek life is silly (coming from a former Greek life gworl) lol there is VERY little school Spirit and not a lot of traditional college opportunities. also the campus looks like a prison and most actors move off famous . the only good housing in my
opinion was halk hall ( i think that’s what is was called) which is all freshman lmao
8. sexual misconduct issues with some MT professors at the time but they are all gone now t God
9. many MANY people were never featured in a MainStage show which was super disappointing and discouraging after paying so much in tuition.
this all being said I am SURE so much of this has changed because most of the professors I had are gone now and there is a new head of the program. I would love to hear other hartt people’s experiences!
Piggybacking off of this!! This is all SO so true, but they've had a lot of faculty turnover and curriculum changes recently, so def try to talk to a current student rather than an alum if you're considering going here.
My favorite part of Hartt was definitely the connection to Goodspeed and Hartford Stage. The Goodspeed Festival of New Musicals was so artistically fulfilling. Hartford Stage was my first equity credit and helped me graduate EMC instead of non-eq, which has been a godsend at auditions! Hartford Stage is the most wonderful place to work, and they treated all the college students from Hartt like real professionals.
At freshman orientation, one professor sat us all down and told us we needed to work out, eat "healthy", and not gain weight in order to be at peak performance level. This set the tone for a really awful culture around bodies and food. This speech alone drove me to develop two eating disorders. Imagine how much worse it would've been had I been told to lose weight like so many of my classmates were. To be fair, the professor who gave that speech at orientation has since left the school, so I cannot speak to the current faculty's attitudes about weight.
The gender ratios in the student body are extremely skewed, so the men at the school get leads constantly while the non-men have to work twice as hard to prove themselves and still get nothing but ensemble roles. This realllyyyyy did a number on my confidence.
The food in the cafeteria is so so so so so so so bad. Especially if you have any dietary restrictions or allergies.
If you come here, I recommend finding some sort of hobby or activity outside of the Theatre Division! It can be really exhausting being with MTs 100% of the time. There is a community service fraternity for all genders, various clubs, a music fraternity for men and non-binary people, the list goes on! Or even just make friends with dancers and music majors to expand your horizons outside of the MT world.
Also Phil Rittner is literally the best voice teacher in the universe I love him so much