perischack

Good for you, emsrlyons, for going right to the source! As well-intended as we all are, we can't answer for the schools!!

One word of advice, however. Your GPA is fine, and should be good enough to be able to get a UMich audition, but your ACT is weak, which may jeopardize things for you. I know you are planning to take the test again, and I heartily recommend you get yourself into a good review course or find a tutor pronto. All the audition prep courses in the world won't help you boost your ACT score...

Also, Michigan leans heavily on the essay portion of the application, as well as other factors (recommendations, resume, etc.). Make sure you nail these components to assure yourself of academic acceptance.

soozievt

I agree that you should always go to the source. Let's remember that you are not only applying to ONE college however. The rule of thumb is to take the most challenging curriculum that you can handle and not the min. requirements. This will ALWAYS help. It is possible to be admitted without that but you want to increase your odds. If the person told you how many credits they are looking for, that is indeed the "requirement" as all colleges state the min. requirements for admission. But you want to increase your odds. I have met individually (with my D who was an applicant at the time) with the admissions person at the Music School at UMich and she said that they are looking for strength of your curriculum. This is true of academically selective schools such as Michigan. When it is a competitive process, those who have more in the plus column increase their odds. Those who have less in that column have a chance to get in, surely, but the odds become slimmer. So, when you add in a low ACT score, that is one less thing in the strong pile that some other applicants will have (along with a more demanding HS curriculum). You can still get in, but the odds start to decrease.

I agree with perischack that no matter how hard you work on the audition prep, unless you do practice ACT scores on a regular basis and work to increase your score, the odds are going to be slim. As well, the essays and recs and resume all matter. It is not simply a matter of a GPA. The stronger each component is of your overall package, the better the odds at very competitive schools.

emsrlyons

I appreciate everyone's help but I'm glad I contacted the direct source. The admissions woman directly told me that I would not be penalized for not taking pre-calc. For an audition at UMich you must meet the minimum requirements, which I do and then some. The audition, she told me, is the key to your acceptance, not your academics. I'm well aware that I should try to increase my ACT, but 24 is actually the minimum requirement for UM. I'm going to take the SAT, too, so hopefully I'll score well on that. I also spoke to a current UMich MT student who tells me that there are a few people in her current MT course who actually got 24s on their ACTs as well as 3.4 gpas (lower than mine)! UMich doesn't actually accept their applicants of the Music, Theatre, and Dance School, just deems them academically worthy for an audition which I feel I should be able to meet.

Thanks for the info, perischack! I'm really confident about my essays and letters of recommendation and I have a really good resume. As for academics, I do have 3.5 years of math which IS above the minimum requirement and have taken quite a few honors and AP courses. More than that, I have plenty of extra-curriculars, activities, work and volunteer work so I'm overall feeling pretty good about getting an audition.

And regardless of the apparent "odds" that are being thrown at me, I feel like it never hurts to try. Just because I'm not a model student with a 33 ACT, that doesn't mean that I don't try hard in school or that musical theatre isn't my passion.

Thanks everyone for the contributions, but I've realized from this that I really can't let the opinions of online forum-goers bring me down. I've made my decisions based on what I feel is right for me; if a school can't give me a simple audition just because I'm not a standardized test-taking genius, then that's their loss.

soozievt

Em....rest assured that you indeed have a chance at U of Michigan and I encourage you to apply. When creating a college list, it is important to build a balanced list of "odds" and to assess your odds at each school. Even if your odds are lowered at a school, there is still a chance. We have been discussing things one could do it increase their chance. That does NOT mean you cannot get in without those things but simply it is a matter of odds.

You are right that you just have to meet the minimum requirements to be INVITED to audition. And you are correct again that the audition is the most significant piece. But it is not the ONLY piece of the admissions equation at Michigan (or at many schools for that matter). Being invited to audition is not equivalent at UMich to academic ACCEPTANCE (unlike how bifurcated schools such as Indiana or Elon work where the academic acceptance is separate from the BFA acceptance). The invite involves an academic screening. But an actual ACCEPTANCE involves careful scrutiny of ALL the pieces of one's application package. If one has a super duper audition and is in consideration, they surely go over every aspect of the academic part of the file and at that juncture, when there are more who have the artistic level of skill than they can admit, it will HELP if one's academic portfolio is as strong as can be....in other words, it is NOT a matter of making the min. test score or the min. high school courses required. These are considered the minimum. You must examine the profile of admitted students to any university.....the mid SAT and ACT range, GPA range, level of rigor of HS curriculum, class rank or distribution and so on. UMich is a selective school and doesn't admit by number where anyone over the min. is in the "admit" pile....at all. Don't go by the minimum requirements but go by the academic profile published for that university. Surely there are those who are admitted that fall into the lower 25%tile of admitted students to that school. Those who do fall into that category are admitted at a lower RATE, however, of admissions than those who either fall squarely into that university's mid range academic profile or above it. This means you DO have a chance. But it also means that to increase your odds of acceptance, anything you can do in terms of rigor of courses, or test scores and so on, the better. That was the message being given to you and NOT that you can't get in without doing those things. The school gave you the MINIMUM you would have to reach to simply be invited to audition. That doesn't mean that anyone with the min. will be accepted. Some are accepted (like ones you heard about) but LESS are admitted in that range than those who are in the range of accepted students in that college's freshmen profile.

Since you asked what you should do, some are suggesting things you could do to increase your odds but nobody is at all suggesting that you should not apply or that you can't get in!! Go for it. And remember, at UMich, the invite to audition is not an academic acceptance. Your entire file will be scrutinized further (beyond the min. to get the audition) should you be in contention artistically with your audition. And surely nobody ever thought you don't try hard in school or that musical theater is not your passion! I am sure that's true.

emsrlyons

Thank you for the advice, but as I said, I am trying my hardest in both academic progress and the audition portion and hopefully all the colleges I am applying to will recognize that. As I said, I'm very confident that I meet more than the minimum requirement and am working hard to improve my test scores.

emsrlyons

Also I get what you're saying about rigorous courses and I believe that my courseload this year is still pretty rigorous without precalc. Thinking practically, I am applying to about 10 schools and am very busy outside of school, so this independent study is going to help me tremendously. It's very hard for me to rehearse at home without my sisters complaining about me singing or acting and or my dad yelling at me about the piano haha. So this will definitely be more beneficial in refining my auditions in all of my college choices

soozievt

Sounds like you have a well thought out plan! Good luck with the whole process!

emsrlyons

Thanks and thanks for the advice and everything too!