| CC College Counselor/Musical Theater Counselor
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 14,525
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Jesse, I have been worried about you all along (I can't help it, I'm a MOM, afterall). Also, when we met at the Syracuse auditions and realized that you had gone to French Woods with my older daughter who is now 18 way back when and even played opposite each other in Oliver, I could not forget you (plus met your dad).
Have you heard from all your schools and are you in at ANY school yet?
The reason I am worried about ya is the sense I have gotten from your posts here and on another theater related forum that I have seen you post on, all regarding your passion and hopes to get into CMU. When admissions to programs are this utterly selective, NOBODY, no matter how very very talented (and I am sure you fit that bill) can count on getting in. I was really concerned by earlier posts where it seemed you had pinned all your hopes on this one particular college program. The odds are so slim that you just cannot expect to get in and if you do, it is like a nice surprise, that is how I view any program with an admit rate hovering around 5%. This is true in other selective admissions such as Ivy League admissions, in which my D who was in a show with you was involved a year ago. If she did not get into one of those schools, we knew it was not cause she was not qualified but that they could fill the freshman class a second time with just as good a class as the one chosen (admit rates were like 10% at some of those). And so it is with a BFA at Carnegie Mellon.
As you are well aware, Carnegie Mellon auditioned 1200 kids for 10 MT slots and 18 acting slots. Those odds are insane. To pin your hopes on one particular program is setting yourself up for disappointment. I know it is easy to fall in love with one college but when it is this selective, you really have to explore all the positive aspects of every college on your list because you might not have a choice (that is how my child went about it). You can't put your eggs in one basket with an admissions process of this nature. When a program takes ten kids, that may mean five boys, five girls, and so you were vying for five spots. I know MORE than five highly talented kids who auditioned and then there are hundreds more whom I do not know who have won national awards and done this or that high achievement and obviously MOST did not get in. Were they good enough? You bet. From my daughter's small circle of theater friends, I know one who got rejected from CMU but got into UMich and NYU (and others but just making a point). Was he not good enough for CMU? Of course not. This is a subjective process....someone gets into two top programs and then not into Penn State or Emerson, go figure. Another friend got into CCM and NYU (among other great programs) but not CMU. Again, do you think she was not good enough? Hardly the case. And so it goes.
Now, to your question. I TRULY believe you need to let CMU go as hard as that is. I am being utterly realistic, not mean here. My child did not get into the BFA for MT at CMU but is waitlisted for the BFA in Acting at CMU and as others have worded it, will be on the "Priority Waitlist" there. Now, the way CMU works, unlike other colleges, is that they accept the exact number of kids for which they have slots. Other schools accept more than the number of open slots in the freshman class, hoping to then yield the actual number they want (some will not accept the offer of admission). CMU does not do that but what they do is if someone declines the offer, they go to this priority waitlist. From a friend currently in the program, apparently there are 20 kids on the waitlist. My D has one close friend who also is on the one for Acting there. I cannot imagine them going beyond the waitlist. In fact, not everyone from the waitlist itself will make it in. So, even IF you were on the waitlist, as my D is, I would have advised you to not count on it, stay on it if you want to go there but move on psychologically and then make plans to enroll in another program of your choices. In your case, you don't even have the waitlist, so even more reason to MOVE on. You really need to be realistic now, as hard as that is.
Believe me, as GREAT as CMU is, we have found every single program we have visited to be really good in its own way. They just differ. I firmly believe that a student can be happy at way more than one particular school. It is all what you make of it.
So, I hope you have another option now and can embrace it full throttle and move forward. Life is full of disappointments but also successes. This field will be FULL of rejections on the audition circuit and so you gotta take it and then move forward and not get caught up on any particular college or role. It's hard, I know.
So, do you have any acceptances? What other options are you exploring? Please put this great energy I see that you have with CMU into those possibilities now. I guarantee you that next year at this time, you will be enjoying wherever that is. Truly believe that. This is simply what college admissions involves. CMU will be a distant memory at this point next year. You will continue to train and perfect your craft and enjoy your passion. Find another opportunity where you can and WILL thrive. I know you can do it.
Susan
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