@photomom5 … Actually, Ball State was VERY vocal about this - they told the kids not to ever be pressured to accept an offer before 5/1. That some schools may allude to them having to accept or be declined, but that they could not require an acceptance before 5/1.
I know there are a couple of admins of MT schools that post here … perhaps they could chime in?
My S ran into a similar issue with an early acceptance school and a school where he came off the wait list. One of the schools had my cell phone number as the contact ## so I was answering the calls (and feeling really pressured; I cannot imagine what how my 18-year old self would have felt!). I understand the schools want to wrap up the process (and snap up their wait-listed students) but as the parent, I insisted he wait until he had heard from all of his schools and could compare all the financial packages. He was able to line them up and compare them on all fronts before saying “done.”
This comes up every year. As noted in previous posts, you have until May 1 to accept an offer of admission to any school complying with NACAC guidelines. However, a theatre department can, technically, give your slot in a specific program to another person after an arbitrary deadline if they desire. They are not rescinding your offer of admission to the school, just “redirecting” you to another program or major. They can claim that certain majors “fill up.” Not very nice, but possible. This is not in the spirit of the NACAC rules, but is technically not forbidden, as I understand the guidelines.
Some of the recommended courses of action from past years here on CC:
In one of d’s offers of admission to a certain school, the wording appeared on the first read to require an answer long before May 1. However, if you read the wording very carefully, it did not actually say she had to accept before May 1. But it was a very cleverly worded “call to action.” A subsequent letter implied that if you did not accept soon then you could be placed on a waitlist for admission. Once again, very cleverly worded to only imply the possibility.
Yes, for those who have received offers, the ball is in your court as it should be. No one should make a decision without all of the information, and it just isn’t that time yet. That is unless you know, and you know when you know. (Yogi Berra, anyone?)
Nothing wrong with some of these MT progams in getting out their early offers, but I also understand why others wait - and it’s largely for the same reasons in that they need the time to decide. As an example, those students auditioning for BoCo recieved a well written letter from the department head thanking them for their audition, and then explaining their process. They wait for a reason, wanting to give the last audition the same consideration as the first. Anyone can respect and admire that.
@limbo2019 - the crunch time is tough, particularlly if you haven’t had an opportunity to visit the school. Just not enough time nor money for most of us. My only solace is that these are good problems to have.
My S mentioned that Amy Rogers from Pace did not attend the Chicago unifieds as she was out on maternity leave. Does anyone know if she will be returning to Pace? I saw on another post that letters will be mailed out later this month but I’m wondering if Amy will still make calls like she did in previous years.
This issue is one reason that I am a fan of visiting schools before applications/auditions- you have at least a sense of the university and/or program. My D did not come off the wait list at one of her schools until April 21st… In the end we only visited 2 (of 6 choices when you add BA and BFA) programs after acceptance- she didn’t feel like she needed to see every school again. Obviously that is personal choice, but D felt with research and visits we had already done that she was ready to make a decision.
@photomom5 - I’m with you. No see; no commit…it was that simple for us. But there are some who commit sight-unseen because of the ridiculous cost of schlepping to all of these schools, plus Unifieds in most cases. I can’t blame them. Even one visit to each school can be costly…and how much info can you really absorb on one visit, particularly when you know the schools are putting their best foot forward?
I don’t think the visits are about absorbing information so much as they are about seeing first-hand the environment and the people that you’ll be spending four years working with in classes and productions. Information can be gleaned on the college website or here on CC, but the way a school looks and feels is a lot more intangible than curriculum and data, and you can only get a sense of your future classmates if you meet them in person.
Even with financial aid, college is a big investment, and it can be a costly mistake to end up in a school that doesn’t fit. Maybe I’m overly sensitized to this as a high-school teacher who sees a steady stream of kids who get to college in the fall and realize that they had NO IDEA what they were getting into, and they hate it. (Alas, this happens routinely even at our fairly small independent school with great college counseling.) They end up back in our school office asking for help with transferring. The only thing more expensive than going through the college search once is…going through it twice.
I would never, ever advise anyone to attend a college sight-unseen, and I think those visits are like the old joke about voting in Chicago: do it early and often. As many people on this forum discover every spring, after you wait for all your results (admissions and financial aid offers), scheduling trips is difficult and super expensive because you’re doing it at the last possible minute–talk about stress!
No mail for us today. Apparently our trash can was too close to the mailbox. . . We called and they said they would “just bring it with tomorrow’s mail”. I don’t think they understand that this is March!!
Echoing Times3…(post 2447)
I am a strong advocate for the importance of campus visits, and ideally in junior year or fall of senior year before applying (to help create the college list) or else on audition days. I feel that waiting to visit AFTER decisions come in, which can be until April 1, doesn’t leave enough time until commitments to enroll are due (May 1) to make many campus visits, and be able to mull these over adequately, not to mention the difficulty in getting good travel/lodging rates at the last minute. I understand visits cost money and that is a big challenge, but in the end, it is very small amount in relation to tuition/room/board for 4 years. An option may be to consolidate auditions with campus visits and kill two birds with one stone.
I prefer to use April for re-visits of final top choices (if still undecided) that are comprehensive visits that include overnight in dorms, class visits, meeting with faculty and students and so on. Sometimes there are accepted student event days at that time too.
Personal experience: D1 visited all her schools in junior year and revisited two in fall of senior year. After acceptances came in late March, we returned to her 3 favorites for accepted student event days and that visit sealed her final decision. The visits were quite instrumental in her college selection process and decision making. For D2, I had planned to do the visits in junior year as well. But a big kink was put into that plan because in the middle of 10th grade, she decided she wanted to graduate at the end of junior year, which meant that fall of junior year would be her application season. And in spring of 10th grade, I was still dealing with the revisits and college decision making of D1. So, in spring of 10th grade, D2 visited one MT school. In fall of junior year, she got to visit 3 more. She applied to 8 schools, and so in her case, only had seen 4 of the 8 prior to applying, unlike her sister who had gotten to see all 8 of her schools prior to applying. D2 did all 8 auditions on campus and that way got to see the 4 schools she had never seen and revisit the four she had already seen. By the time her acceptances came in, she knew where she wanted to go and so we didn’t have to revisit in order for her to make a decision. And I’m quite thankful it turned out that way because the week after her final audition, she was severely injured in a crash and was confined to a hospital bed for three weeks and we would not have been able to do the visits. Her first day out of bed, we traveled to the accepted student event day to her first choice where she had already decided to enroll, and she attended in a wheelchair. Had we waited until April to visit her schools, we would not have been able to do campus visits.
Oh @MTmamabear, that’s cruel!
Yours was a unique situation.
But for our family and most friends these days, there are about 12 schools on average and not enough funds (or time) to do campus visits to each school prior to acceptances. Most nowadays get 2-3 acceptances, and some of them come before February, so there is plenty of time to make the visits. In addition, the colleges have websites with sophisticated virtual tours and audio podcasts with the heads of the departments and videos. Not the same as in person, but very helpful.
And I totally agree with @Times3 , do not attend any college you have not visited! Visit every school to which you have been accepted before making your final decision.
Received a large envelope in the mail today from Elon, I opened it with much excitement and anticipation only to read about a scholarship offer to go with my academic acceptance. Still good news, but not the news I was hoping for. Such a tease!
For those just starting to think about college: no matter the potential major, I would recommend exposing your children to different types of college campuses early and often. Drive through campuses on the way to vacation, to volleyball tournaments or whatever you happen to be doing. Visit large campuses, small campuses, urban campuses, suburban campuses, rural campuses, etc… This will give you a general idea of what type of campus they might like. Don’t go out of your way, just go by ones convenient to wherever you happen to be.
Then, when you are ready to start crafting a list of schools you want to audition for, you may be able to narrow down your list just based on the type of school you hope to attend. For example, our D decided not to audition for any urban campus/big city schools after having seen a number of them over the last several years. She realized she wanted a traditional college experience with sororities, ball games, etc… So off her list came NYU, Pace, CCPA, Point Park, Emerson, Boston Conservatory and others. For someone else, they may realize they don’t want to be anywhere but NYC so they can narrow their list that way. But having seen a lot of different types of campuses helped figure out what she really wanted in a college environment.
It’s not a perfect science of course, but I think the more exposure they get to different types of schools the easier it is to make that decision when the time comes.
For those making decisions this year: After receiving acceptances, we did go back and make official visits to a few schools prior to making a final decision. If at all possible, I highly recommend you do that to make sure your vision of the school matches the reality. I know a few campuses were overwhelmingly large to D when seeing them in session with all the students there. Even ones she had driven through before. They look different in the summer than in the Fall with full enrollment milling about.
It’s stressful and expensive to visit all of these schools for sure. But better now than to decide its the wrong place later.
Good luck to all! You’re almost to the finish line!!
For Ball State, if D hasn’t heard a yay or nay yet, do we have any speculation as to what that means? I have heard some notifications had gone out.
It’s a lot harder from the Pacific NW to do visits to multiple BFA schools, given how many are midwest/south/northeast.
@Jrdirectortommy yes Amy Rogers is back at Pace and very much involved with the selection process. I have heard that she is going to make calls at the end of this week or the beginning of next. Let’s hope that this is true and we all hear soon 
I remember a discussion among parents a while ago about the fact that many of us attended colleges sight unseen. Before the internet, we didn’t have anything more than a college’s student handbook and reputation on which to base a decision. As someone without a dime I would not have been able to visit even if that was the norm just as I’m sure there are plenty of applicants now for whom visits are not possible. These days, that sort of applicant is less disadvantaged because Facebook, Unigo, College websites, CC, and many other resources can provide a great deal of information on which to make an informed decision. There are many different ways to skin a cat and enrolling in a school you have not visited is sometimes your best option.
CrashCourseMom, I do agree that it is more difficult and costly for West Coast families applying to and visiting MT programs given that so few of them are on the West Coast and are quite far away. Beyond the money, more time is needed to make such trips, which you might not do just for an overnight.
Anyone get a snail mail yes from Rider ? I keep checking portal but still says " under review" .Help!