My D didn’t send any thank you notes… she felt that that was sucking up which is definitely not her! MTCA neither encouraged nor discouraged the practice they said it was completely up to the individual
There’s no sucking up when it comes to writing thank you’s after the fact to teachers who took time to write those kind words on your behalf.
@preppedparent I believe there is some confusion here between those discussing thank you notes for auditors at auditions and those who wrote recommendation letters. The discussion was originally about sending follow up notes after auditions - that is the discussion to which @marg928 is referring. Of course it is appropriate to write thank yous to the wonderful people who take time to send recommendation letters. I don’t think anyone would consider that sucking up. : )
I say let your kids do what they want. If they want to send a thank you note after a college audition let them- will it make a difference? Probably not, but if it makes your kid feel like it might whats the harm?
A few posts back people were mentioning “commercial look.” I’ve seen it before and was just wondering what exactly IS the commercial look? Is it blonde hair and blue eyes? tall? I have a vague idea but don’t really know what makes someone “commercial” or not.
@preppytheatre my D is waiting to hear on Missouri. Found out about it late and actually really like what I see.
@MTAlabamaMom Westenberg is so nice and has been extremely helpful. I’m so sad I didn’t do research on the school sooner. I stumbled upon it by accident. I recognized him from into the woods (as we were immersed in that show - D’s HS musical) and I started reading about it. Love the program - faculty and Tent theatre. Got a late app in. Keeping our fingers crossed!
I graduated from Mo State, many moons ago. My D and visited last summer and saw a show at the Tent Theatre. It was a great show… and she is now very interested in the school. Which is great as an alum she gets in-state tuition. I am happy to answer any questions… I have quite a few friends with kids there right now.
@MThopeful99 - my definition of the “commercial” look is that it is a politically correct way of saying fit and attractive…
Thanks for the back up @sopranomtmom :)>-
I honestly don’t know the official definition. I think of a “commercial” look as attractive in a generally appealing way that may be on the cover of a magazine. I’m not sure I would use “fit and attractive,” because, for example, my D is fit and I consider her attractive, but she does not have magazine cover looks. She has more of a unique look that is not the general pretty face that graces a magazine cover. She is not the ingenue or model look. She doesn’t have a commercial look, but more of a unique look, but is also very fit.
I think “commercial look” is whatever is considered trendy, attractive, and “in” at the current moment like the Twiggy Phase in modeling…but what do I know that is just what I think of when I think commercial look.
My D does have the so-called “Commercial look”…however she is only 5 feet tall so I fear that may limit her. She just did a print job for the cover of a Scholastic book and has done a Fuji Instax camera commercial. For those types of things height isn’t a factor but for film I’m afraid it may be. There are few very short actresses who have had great success (Reese Witherspoon and Kristen Chenoweth come to mind) but they seem to be the exceptions. That being said…hopefully I’m wrong!
I tend to disagree that schools are looking for a so-called “commercial” look. I think they are looking for diversity in a group in order to build a class that can fit the many different roles out there. We visited many schools, including some of the most competitive, and in my opinion, their existing students represented a wide variety of looks, shapes and sizes.
There’s a video on YouTube of CMU’s current class and boy are they all good looking! My D developed a little crush on one of the boys just from that video and he ended up being at her audition LOL.
I got two of my academic recommenders starbucks gift cards and my theatre teacher the Something Rotten soundtrack because she is a Shakespeare fan. I would recommend thank you notes to the people who wrote you recommendations! It is such a thoughtful way to give back. Plus it doesn’t make me feel as bad when I hassle them to print more recommendations for scholarships!
Looks like CMU started calling MT’s today! Best of luck!
Long time lurker here-first time poster. We are in the same boat as many of you, with no BFA acceptances yet, and it has been devastating. My husband and I have been full time professional musicians for the last 20 years, and would not encourage our D to pursue MT unless she were truly spectacular. We know how hard it is to perform for a living, and were hoping that she would be turned off by our profession and go for something more practical, like a doctor 
She, like many others, has an impressive list of credits, training, etc. Today has been the hardest, as four confirmed MT calls to Carnegie went out. I’m trying to remain positive for her, but in reality go into my bedroom and cry over a glass of wine. She has decided that if she doesn’t get into a BFA, she will try again next year, which means that we get to go thru all of this again. Yippeee (extreme sarcasm here). I wish that we had researched more BA programs before diving into all of this, but I’m really trying to avoid the “shoulda, woulda coulda”. Only three left for us to hear from-but I have a sinking feeling at this point. I just needed to vent to someone besides my husband. I really find inspiration in all of your posts, and find comfort in the fact that we are not alone in this.
@evitasmom I’m sending you a virtual hug. Hang in there.
@evitasmom same - big hugs!!