Just checked the UMichigan wolverine access portal. Decisions for BFA-Acting are out. My D did not receive an offer. Very painful for me only because she is going to be super disappointed.
I am only writing about this on the MT page because I have started to make connections in the patterns of admits and rejects that I thought I would share because I think it may be helpful to future applicants and maybe current applicants too.
My D is considered a true “triple threat.” She decided Junior Year to focus on acting (for good reasons and I get those but she definitely walked away from the body of her artistic work and accomplishments and trajectory (almost all MT, dance, voice) to that point). Although I agree that her acting skills are the best of the three (voice, dance, acting), I really DO see her in MT long-term, not “just” acting.
So, here is the pattern: Cross-over BFA programs (those who have BFA-Acting and MT, who permit students to cross over and take MT classes and audition for MT, all “yes”; straight acting programs, all No. Michigan was, I thought, kind of a litmus test because my D asked in the audition if she could take MT voice and dance too, and the answer was “No” – she could study voice with a grad student in the school of music, but there was not a cross-over possibility at Michigan. I know that Michigan encourages students who are interested in both MT and Acting to audition for BOTH programs so that they can decide where to place the student. She decided not to do that. I remember thinking that was a mistake, for Michigan (not the other schools, although if she had not cancelled her NYU audition, I thought the same would be true for them too).
My other observations, at this point are perhaps noteworthy. My D knew from inside feedback from her friend (who is a first generation college student of immigrant parents) that if an applicant does not visit the school ahead of time and sit in on classes and talk to professors, their chances are not good all else (talent, grades, ability to pay if you are a White girl who is not “unique” in some other way) being equal.
Finally, although I am not going to go into this with my D, my hunch is that, all else being equal, gpa and test scores are a tie breaker at Michigan, and her/our decision not to pay the extra $2500 for Huntington to raise her scores another 2-3 points, may have made a difference. We won’t know this of course. She could have blown the audition (although she thought she did really well).
In fact, I know a BFA-graphic design kid who was admitted by STAMPS and really sought after, but the UNIVERSITY put a hold on his application after checking his 3rd Quarter grades and made admission CONDITIONAL on him getting the “only C” he ever had (that quarter in Math) to a B. He got it, of course, and the letter from a teacher recommending him, but his BFA at Michigan was literally conditional upon ONE MATH GRADE in the 3rd quarter. I’ve heard that about Brown too (rescinding 5 offers to the BA in Theater based on second semester grades – despite all the performance conflicts that make getting good grades so much harder for these kids!)
But I do believe they end up where they belong and this just wasn’t the right place for her. I knew it was very competitive and tried to prepare her for a no.