Question which may seem completely dumb…when doing your general school applications, is everything normally done online? Like the letters of recommendation, etc? essays, etc. ? I know the common app is used for some schools but I was wondering about all the supplemental things, like headshots and resumes…I know each school is different but wanted to get a general feel for the application process…I am getting a bit confused…lol
For academic admissions to all of the schools that d applied to, all of d’s required materials were done online for all submissions. Essays were all entered directly into text boxes on the web-based application forms, transcripts were submitted via Naviance (via the school counselor), letters of recommendation all went through Naviance or were submitted via email request sent directly from the college to the recommending teacher, and test scores are sent directly from the test company to the school (however, we had to send scores twice to two schools who claimed the scores were never received). Other than writing essays, the academic admission process was very straightforward and pretty painless. I think every school had a tracking system where you could log on and see how things were going.
The theatre department application process was an entirely different story. For all of my d’s schools, a separate application was required for each theatre department; there was no overlap with the academic application for any school. Some mailing was required to the theatre departments and even personal exchange: some schools required the auditioner to bring things like transcripts, letters of recommendation, and certainly headshots and resumes to the audition. However, most theatre applications were done mostly, or in a few cases, entirely online via getacceptd or DecisionDesk: she uploaded the required video(s), resume, headshot, transcript (where required), etc. via one of those websites. I think a couple of schools required items be sent via email. Some/most schools required you to bring copies of your headshot and resume to the audition even though you had already submitted them online or via email (it is always a good idea to bring extra copies of headshots and resumes to each audition).
As I recall, Montclair was the most convoluted theatre application where we she to send a package of several items via snail mail to the theatre department and also bring some things to the audition. I don’t think any two theatre applications and the materials required were the same, it was a pain. Note that some theatre departments require another essay or “personal artistic statement” in addition to whatever was required for the academic application process.
Wright State does general admissions online, but the MT/Acting program still requires everything - separate transcript, headshot, resume, audition/scholarship application - via snail mail. An optional prescreen can be submitted via Accept’d. It has been this way for at least the past few years. Who knows about next year.
Both Montclair & Western Carolina required that some things be snail mailed.
And Ball State wanted the sheet music sent beforehand - but to be honest, I totally forgot to do that and it didn’t really matter. No one seemed to care that it wasn’t done. (I wouldn’t recommend that though.)
Also, I think the Common App is way over rated - most schools that D applied to didn’t use it.
And when it comes to LORs, I had D’s two artistic recommendations in PDFs. There were quite a few schools that requested they be uploaded. So instead of getting those people involved with every app, we uploaded it ourselves. In a “traditional” college app, I wouldn’t recommend this - but most schools just wanted it uploaded with the headshot and resume.
So for letters of recommendation and maybe artistic essays for the theatre depts , my D may be able to just re-use the same ones for different schools it seems…? But it seems for the essays required for academic acceptance that each school will have a different prompt perhaps, eliminating the ability to re use an essay again?
A lot of schools have similar themes in their essays - an experience that changed your life, stuff like that - so you can probably “tweak” an essay a bit and use it at more than one school, though probably not EVERY school.
@theaterwork - our D found that even though the academic essay prompts varied from school to school, she could often tweak her favorite essay to work for that prompt. So she would cut and paste, add a few sentences and delete others to make it work. Sometimes that wasn’t possible but it was a nice time saver when it worked.
Thanks for the info! I’m so clueless about all things college. Just trying to do the research now. I have looked up some of the colleges websites instructions for applying but until you go in and do it you don’t really know how it works. I did notice that montclairs instructions seemed more involved then others as I think that’s a school my D is applying to.
Also… I suppose the best strategy is, once we get our list of schools set, to then make a detailed list school by school of everything they require on the academic side and then the artistic side with deadlines noted on a calendar , if applicable. This is going to be a full time job it seems if my D applies to 10 schools! Luckily I think only 1 or 2 are prescreen schools but still, yikes
Yes, it is like a full-time job, just in essays alone even though some can be tweaked for other schools! Although D is a good writer, she was definitely relieved to be done with the essays. It was the one area where I had to nag a bit a couple times. There were so many! Start before the beginning of senior year (mid to late summer) if D can.
And, yes, your D can use the same academic and artistic LORs for all schools. D used 2 of each in whatever combination schools and programs required. (The required number and type do vary by program).
Like others have said, my d re-used essay materials across all of her applications. After she completed her first two applications, she had about 6 paragraphs that could be cut-and-pasted with minor edits and reused for all of the ensuing essay prompts. For her schools, all the prompts were all pretty similar. In some cases, she had to write one or two new paragraphs, but she was always able to reuse the bulk of the material. She was academically accepted to all schools.
My d used the same two letters of recommendation/recommenders for all applications, academic and artistic (she had an artistic recommendation from one of her high school theatre teachers and one academic teacher recommendation).
It takes a spreadsheet to get through all the artistic applications, although d did them one after the other in series, so little work was done “in parallel.” I think that this made things simpler, but she did have to prioritize them by date before she started so that she didn’t miss any early deadlines for audition sign-ups.
Some very kind parents here shared their spreadsheets with me - but in the end I resorted to pen and paper.
I used a notebook and every school got it’s own couple of pages. While I’m very computer savvy, handwriting notes really worked for me. Especially when I’d need specific questions answered it for contact or even parking information.
^same
I have a notebook that holds everything about my daughter’s auditions. It’d be the first thing I’d save if we had a fire. 
@EmsDad, et al., - how did your D have her teachers address their letters of rec if she did not have them personalize each one (or am I misunderstanding?)? We are running into that - although her former theatre director has been incredibly willing and responsive to my D’s requests for several different letters customized to different schools, her choir director is not keeping up with the requests, even though we’ve offered to customize ourselves, have her sign, and pdf them (she’s crazy busy)… If it’s acceptable to just have one addressed To Whom it May Concern w/o addressing it to the specific school, we should probably consider that. Sorry if this is a dumb/obvious question…we just don’t want to get off on the wrong foot with any of her apps.
@WTXMom - I think that the letters of rec to theatre departments that d had to hand-carry were addressed in a generic manner chosen by the recommenders, but they may have at least put the college name in the salutations since d gave them envelopes with the school name on them: “Artistic Letter of Recommendation for Jane Doe for Some State University”
I can’t remember the exact generic phrases used, but I think it was something like, “Dear Theatre Department Audition Panel.” Her recommenders do this all the time since they are from a PA HS so they used whatever is typical (they generally were sealed with a signature across the seal on the envelope so the only one that I saw was a last minute pdf sent to d via email as we were getting on a plane to one audition). I have no idea if they did any personalization in response to requests that came directly to them via email from the colleges (most or all colleges sent requests for recommendations directly to the teachers via email for academic applications).
My understanding is that the audition is something like 90 percent of the game at the large majority of programs (and if there anything else heavily weighted, it will be your academic record). While you don’t want any obvious misspellings on the resume, the headshot should be a good photo, etc., the audition is pretty much what is going to govern acceptance (given that you meet the minimum academic requirements for the school).
Thanks for that. I think what has been strange to me is that so many of the applications we’ve looked at on Acceptd have a space to upload the LORs when conventional wisdom is that the LOR should be sealed in the manner you mentioned or emailed directly from the recommender. I think of all of this, the LORs have given me the most heartburn bc it feels like such an imposition to ask for more than a couple (even when the content is basically the same).
@WIXMom - I forgot about the getaccepted uploads; various parts of the process are fading to a dim blur now that I am getting over my College Theatre Application Process PTSD. As I recall, d just uploaded generic pdf’s that she received from the teachers for getacceptd.
I think that as with the majority of the MT college process, LORs don’t follow the same rules as a traditional app.
When a LOR is used traditionally, you’re seeking admission to the university. MT LORs are typically for admission to the program - and the the rules are more flexible.
The majority of my Ds LORs were generic and referenced that she was seeking a BFA in Musical Theatre. And honestly, the schools all know that you’re most likely auditioning at other schools - I don’t think it’s ever counted against a student for not having a personalized letter of rec.
The only exception to the generic LOR would be if the person that is doing the recommendation has a very close personal relationship with a school you are applying to. This was the case for a few of ours (my kid’s teacher had been on faculty at some of the schools, and another teacher/fellow performer was a graduate and frequent guest artist and teacher of masterclasses at another school). Those recommenders chose to send a separate LOR to the chairmen that they knew. All other schools got the generic letterrs.
All of my D’s letters of rec were submitted via common app or by supplying names & email through online app or getacceptd. We didn’t have to upload any personally or deal with any paper/envelopes.