<p>You are on a noble quest, awrawr, but the most selective colleges (like the ones that top your D’s list) do not tend to offer EA. Stanford has single choice EA, but that would not work as your D has an ED choice, and it’s not on the east coast. Yale used to offer the same, but switched back to ED I believe. In any case, that was single choice too. (meaning it was not binding, like ED, but it limited the student to just that one application). From the standpoint of the most recognized leading U’s ranked by academic standards, you have to go down a bit in the rankings to find a school who offers straight EA. However, you’ll find Case Western, U Miami, and Tulane all offer BA Theatre in EA. They all offer significant merit aid to top students, as well, so that might make them look even better.</p>
<p>If you read this forum a bit, you may discover that the schools recognized for the most stellar theatre programs (and really, many of these are known mostly for their BFAs) are fairly obscure by CC standards. Aside from NYU, Carnegie Mellon, USC, Northwestern, BU, Fordham, and U Michigan (and perhaps one or two more I’m forgetting), the top acting programs often reside in schools like SUNY Purchase, CCM, Otterbein, U Minnesota, Northern Illinois, and many more (apologies to those I’ve left out–I don’t have a student doing an acting BFA so I’m blanking). The point is, if your D is serious about getting a good BA at a very top top academically prestigious school, EA is going to be a problem. For RD, no problem at all. So she may want to look for a couple of great safeties (with merit opportunities) in EA and proceed onto the RD round. Since most BAs do not involve auditions, you can see by looking at your HS’s Naviance what her prospects for admission will be to those other programs.</p>
<p>Best of luck.</p>
<p>P.S. I believe U Michigan does offer EA (used to have rolling, but no more). Their BA is non-audition, too.</p>