NotaPushyMum.Com

Below is a tweet posted on Twitter by a college yesterday. Interesting indeed. Are numbers getting out of hand and can any college realistically give excellent training and value for money when they have so many students? Showcase time is going to be very limited!

"Phone call from parent asking if we were still auditioning! Son turned up on first day of dream college to find over 180 people in his year!"

180? wow - where would they put them all? It does make you wonder if anyone was actually denied a place at audition doesn't it? My guess is it's sign up for the funding, keep them until the census point passes, take the partial funding then shrink the numbers, then do the same 'cull' later - which would get numbers down to the kind of level a strict audition would have provided. Money management. The trick is to find out how many are in year 2 - because this gives a reliable indication of retention.

It is mind boggling. I hope they were up front with all those who signed up. Clearly this parent referred to in the post wasn't aware. All our DCs are different and some will sink in such a large crowd and some will swim. Some will fight to get noticed and some will just disappear into the crowd. Some might say that that's the industry they're in. But if you're paying £27,000 for three years living costs and anywhere up to £40,000 in fees then you want value for money.

Got a feeling I know which college you are talking about! huge numbers which must make some students very despondent!

How can you not know until your 1st day? This information is available at all the open days, and if not then you just ask. I wouldn't dream of sending my DD to a college without finding out the intake. Bizzare xxxx

WOW that is a HUGE number of students. Are they streamed at all?
Bodyworks Cambridge only have around 30 in each year and are split onto the Dance and MT courses, so nice small numbers.

180 makes you wonder how much attention is given to each individual student...

I would tend to agree with the comment that it's a bit odd that the family in question didn't know about numbers. That said I imagine even if you/DC know and think it may work it may be different in reality. Also not everyone has a choice and this may be someone's only offer so it's a difficult choice between that and nothing.

DD's college is intensive over 2 years with a max of 22 in each year and classes are streamed. It's as good as 1-2-1 tuition for everything.

And yes I think we all know which college this is.

I must be really daft then as I have no idea which college this is...lol..

Would be interested to know which school?

jasmine2 wrote:I must be really daft then as I have no idea which college this is...lol..

Me too - no idea at all. Always the last to know anything!

I'm assuming it's Bird.

Probably Urdang as Bird haven't started back yet.

I was guessing Urdang? Their Instagram story did show a lot of students being welcomed to their first year!

Interesting. Just goes to show. I was basing my assumption on another thread on here which mentioned very high numbers at Bird last year I think.

This is the post I was thinking of.

RosaMac wrote:
Looking at the programme for the summer show at Bird, there are 119 students in the graduate year and 160 in the first year. It is a big college but the standard of teaching is fabulous. I think because most of the colleges offer student funding for the degree course they can basically take as many as they like. I notice that Performers will be starting a degree course which will probably mean their intake will double. The Hammond started a degree course a couple of years ago and their intake is now approx 90 for diploma/degree, when previously it was 30 for diploma.