Mary C

When you look at these numbers you realize how lucky we all are. I can't believe that my daughter was accepted into a program at all. One of my friends said that it was harder to get into a musical theatre program than it was to get into medical school! He has a son who is currently in pre-med at IU and a daughter who auditioned for a couple of musical theatre programs.
I think he is correct!

jbinca

And thanks Soozievt, for such precise info, so many parents ask me for advice and I can finally help-so much better if they aren't operating under unclear perceptions. This is tremendously helpful.

NotMamaRose

Does anyone know the numbers of U of Minnesota's Guthrie program?

jacksdad

As always my lack of typing skills inhibits my communication skills. I believe that the numbers quoted for UCLA are skewed-we were looking for the number of kids auditioning for the MT program and I think the numbers given include all the kids applying for the theatre majors-most of which do not require an audition.

actingmom

Jacksdad-
I was only quoting my d's acceptance letter which stated the 1,500 number - I am sure that encompasses other than just the kids that auditioned. However, because it is one of the top UC's and because for us Californians tuition is so reasonable I believe a lot of those kids did audition for MT and straight acting. I'll see if I can pin down the exact number.

NMR - I would also love to hear the numbers for Minnesota!

actingmom

oops and forgot to add - her letter of acceptance to the school stated 55,000 freshman applied -- yikes!!!!

soozievt

Actually, for several schools on the list, it is not delineated as to whether it is referring to just the BFA in MT applicants or all BFA applicants. So, whenever possible, the more detail the better. For instance, now for Tisch, we've got ALL of Tisch Drama (which includes Acting and MT) but also we have just MT. For CMU we also have a breakdown. For some schools, it is not clear what the numbers refer to as some may be reporting acting and MT combined and some may be just talking about MT.

babar

Although CMU doesn't accept more than the number they hope to enroll, they do usually end up going to their priority waitlists, so actually more students are accepted than the number enrolled (a few choose other programs). Additionally, those schools that accept, say 30, to get to a class of 20 may go to a waitlist, too, meaning that more students ultimately are accepted than the original 30; it's a case of hoping the numbers will work out (and in some cases the schools can end up with larger classes than they planned if more accepted students choose to enroll than predicted).

My main question is about the huge difference in numbers between NYU's auditioning students and the other schools' auditioning students. I understand that many more students can be accepted there based on the number of different schools within the school and that many apply Early Decision, but still, it's making me wonder because so many students apply to multiple schools why that number is about three times higher than other schools - Wouldn't many of the students applying to NYU also apply to other programs, thereby adding to the numbers applying to other schools? Are there so many students who ONLY apply to NYU?

It's late on Friday so maybe I am not making sense, but I just wonder since my kid applied to many of the schools above, including NYU, is it because there were so many more interview dates and times offered and more students could sign up for auditions there? It is confusing me!!!

soozievt

Babar, that is a good question about the high number auditioning at Tisch and I don't have the answer. I do know they have a lot of audition dates on campus in Feb. and a lot in Nov. for ED and then of course in other cities. You asked if there are many who just apply to NYU and not the others. I don't have that answer and just little samples but I know quite a number of kids that are friends of my D who applied primarily to BA schools like Yale, Brown, or Northwestern and only applied to one or two BFAs, often NYU/Tisch and maybe UMich. They wanted a certain level of academic selective colleges and were not necessarily seeking a BFA but considered Tisch's BFA but not others. Of course, I am talking probably of ten kids i know and not hundreds but this concept is one that may happen with NYU but not say, BOCO. The kids I know who only had Tisch as their only BFA would not have considered a school such as BOCO (or others talked about here) and preferred a BA at a selective academic school but had the qualifications to get into a BFA. Several even got into Tisch but chose schools like Yale, Brown or Northwestern over it.

alwaysamom

I don't know the definitive answer either but I think the large number is the result of a few things, and a couple of the reasons we were given years ago when my D auditioned. First, although NYU does not participate in the Unifieds, their regional auditions often coincide with those dates in each city. They also visit other cities across the country and hold auditions. In addition to that, when kids are in NYC for Unifieds, they often add an audition at NYU because it's easy to do. So the availability and ease of auditioning is probably one factor. Susan's example of her D's friends who include NYU as one of a few BFA programs at which they apply is pretty common. My D, and many of her friends, also had similar lists. The fact that Tisch has eight studios, which basically is equivalent to eight actual BFA programs, of varying types, probably attracts a lot of applicants, simply because of the size and numbers accepted.

In addition, many h/s kids who are interested in theatre choose to apply to NYU because it is a very attractive possibility to them to be in the city for college, and also because it has a very good reputation. Lastly, I think that you would probably find NYU on the lists of most kids who are applying/auditioning for theatre or MT. This probably wouldn't be the case with most other programs discussed here. There seems to be more tailoring to specific issues with further apps, e.g., size, location, cost, etc.

I've never seen a breakdown of where auditionees are from, and I don't know if any school actually keeps track of that stat. When my D auditioned, in her audition block, there were 8 kids. They were all from different states, with the exception of two from California, and none were local kids. Well, one was from Connecticut, but not from the city itself. I know that in her studio there were kids from all over so it's hard to really pin down exact trends. I do remember that we were told that 2500 auditioned the year that she did, so it's down in number this year.

soozievt

That's a good analysis, AlwaysAMom and I observe similar things. You're right that one factor could be that NYU auditions in many cities around the country and then also since many go to NYC Unifieds, they tack on an NYU audition to that trip. Add that to a month's worth of audition dates in Feb. on campus and a month's worth of audition dates on campus in Nov. for ED. Also, many of the other BFA programs do not offer ED and so the ED process alone may draw numbers.

I also agree that there are a lot of kids in the country who put NYU on their list. In my line of work, I can tell you that almost every kid (with a couple of exceptions) has NYU on their list that they first draw up. I have actually felt that NYU was NOT right for a few kids or that they absolutely had no chance there and it sometimes comes off the list but there are a lot of diehard students with "I want NYU!"...a LOT. Add to the fact that a lot want Tisch itself, that NYU as a university is extremely popular right now for all applicants (outside of BFA programs). There are a LOT of students I come across who also have "I want a NYC school!" I don't see this kind of trend with any other school. I don't have any other school that seems to appear on almost every kid's initial wish list. For instance, CCM, CMU or UMich do not appear on each kid's initial list presented to me and almost always, NYU does. So, there are a lot of kids out there who seem to want this school more than I see with almost any other MT program for whatever reason. Same with those seeking acting.

There are some kids, like my own daughter, who at an early age, heard of Tisch and no other schools (was not exactly looking into colleges at that age!) and has wanted to go there. Of course when the time came to look into colleges, she looked widely at others but already Tisch was planted in her brain from a young age having heard of it and having known older kids who went there.

I also agree that schools with the big or long term reputation tend to get more applicants. This is true for all of college admissions and not just for MT schools. Lots of kids who have no chance of getting into Harvard seem to apply anyway.

With NYU, I agree that the applicants come from around the country whereas for certain schools, they are more well known or draw kids more regionally while still drawing some nationally too. For instance, my D has theater pals from many states along the Eastern seaboard and not a single one applied to OCU and these kids all went onto well known MT programs. So, certain schools draw a LOT from the national pool and some schools draw some from a national pool but then a large number from a regional pool.

Also, on my original point, there are kids out there who are excellent academic students and ALSO artistically talented and that kind of student OFTEN (not always) wants a school that is selective and challenging academically, as well as has a great BFA program and there are not a LOT of BFA programs in very selective (academically) universities. So, there are some kids I know who apply to mostly highly selective BA schools and then the couple of BFA schools that also meet their needs academically such as NYU or UMich. Some of these students are not willing to attend a very fine BFA program if not in a challenging and academically selective university. I come across a large number of students in this category.

I also agree that with Tisch.....in essence, there are 8 different BFA programs at the one university and so you have kids attracted to a variety of programs there and not just one or two and that would increase the number of applicants.

LizMT

Question... If schools have a set high yield (say they accept 100 to get a class of 20), why do they even have a waitlist? Is that something to be concerned about?

soozievt

Liz....schools accept a certain amount of students to yield a certain number of slots based on predictions using data from the past few years and trends of how many accept their offer of admission. But it is not an exact science. So, they build in extras to get their yield but they almost always have a wait list just in case, even though they may never have to use it. Also, I can't think of too many programs that accept five times the number of slots like your example. Also, a common trend at the more renown programs is that their yield is fairly high. This is true for top MT Progams but also for schools like Harvard. But schools do establish a figure of how many to accept to get their yield based on years past. So, they have a pretty good idea. But they'd be foolish to have no wait list just in case. Often, a wait list is never utilized at all. If you look at the featured threads on the main CC discussion page, there is one right now that is active where people are posting which wait lists seem to be active this year. EVERY school maintains a wait list but many will never use them but people want to know which schools seem to be having to go to their wait lists THIS year. For instance, Duke is actively using their wait list this year but supposedly Stanford is not. Just an example.

dramama

Waitlists are a reality because more than ever, today's college applicants (in general—not just MT or Acting) are applying to longer lists of schools. Just handling the administrative portion of admissions has become incredibly taxing to colleges.

(A friend of my daughter's who was determined to get into an Ivy applied to 17 schools. He joked that his app fees were a Christmas gift from his parents. He did get into one or two Ivys, plus U Chicago and Rice, so it paid off with some great choices. He's going to Dartmouth.)

jacksdad

I would like to encourage those with data from schools not mentioned yet to chime in. I would love to see schools like OCU, Miami, PPU, Webster, Millikin, Roosevelt, Pace and Emerson-as well as any other MT or acting BFA numbers that you might have. Just a quick statistical analysis-Of the schools already posted, the highest acceptance rates were at Steinhardt for VP/MT at 18% and Tisch with 15% when including all studios(CAP 21 for MT was a more restrictive 6%). The BA program at JMU had a 20% acceptance rate and Hartt was the highest MT only BFA at 15%. The stingiest schools in making offers were CMU, Otterbein, NCSA and Penn State with less than 3.6% acceptances. All of the other schools mentioned were between 5-7% acceptance rates.