| In the old days, we used to wait until March to notify everyone. That meant that my administrative assistant and I had to generate 300 letters in about two days after our selection meeting. We were paranoid about making mistakes, as you might imagine. We also realized that we were keeping a lot of prospective students waiting longer than necessary.
So we changed our procedure. We now release students whom we know we won't be considering at our selection meeting. It means a smaller group for us to look at more closely in March.
Students who auditioned for us in November and in January have received letters already, as UAmom described. Students who auditioned for us at the Unifieds in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles have not yet received letters. The selection team is looking at videos now, and we'll be reviewing them together next week and deciding whom to keep for consideration. Letters should go out by Friday.
After our last audition day--we have three more--the selection team will review the applicants we've kept for consideration. We'll look at the videos, review our notes, and put together the class. As I've said before, it's much like casting a show. There's no question that we could put together our class in 20 different ways, based on the talent that we've seen this year.
No later than April 1, we'll mail letters to the students who have been kept for consideration. Some will receive offers in Musical Theatre, and some in Acting. Some will be told that while we don't have a place for them in MT or Acting, we'd like them to come to Otterbein as BA Theatre majors, or Dance Minors, or Music majors. (We do these "redirect" offers based on our assessment of each student's talent and interests. It's one of the reasons that we interview all of our candidates.)
Some will be put on a waiting list. As MTaussie described, for every student we invite into the program, there's one person on the waiting list who would fill that spot if the student decides to go elsewhere. Several students from the waiting list will be accepted eventually--we don't have a 100% "capture" rate. No school does (although some come close, I'm told.)
Most students unfortunately will be told that we don't have a place for them. Does this mean that they don't have the talent to pursue theatre? Absolutely not. It just means that we didn't have room--or that we missed seeing the talent that was there, as we obviously did with UAmom's daughter. UAMom, please congratulate your d. on her callback to the Guthrie. It's one of the best BFA Acting programs in the country.
I hope this helps. Don't hesitate to post if you have more questions about our process. |