<p>Hello! Please just tell your daughter to follow her dreams! Do what makes her happy! I love that this site is full of parents that wholeheartedly support their children. There are too few parents like that. I can tell that you feel that way about your daughter as well, just make sure she knows. Programs like Juilliard don’t have standard students that they accept. They take all kinds of students of all ages. If she wants to be in a program like that, she should audition! If it doesn’t work out, she can always audition again later.
I took 2 years off after I graduated and moved to Atlanta, and it was the perfect decision for me. So that could be great for her, too, but it’s definitely a personal decision. The benefits of taking time off for me have been working as an extra and a production assistant on film sets, which most of the time you have to be eighteen to do.
She is young, but just from reading your posts, she sounds like a mature 17 year old. I’m sure that she will adjust fine to college life. Atlanta has some fantastic schools, but if she wants a really good MT program, she’ll have to move away. I’m sure that this is sad for you and your husband as parents, but she’s reached a point in her life where she has to make decisions based on her own needs.</p>