Final Decisions Background, Class of 2020

College Majors Musical Theater Majors
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When programs take only up to 20% of auditioners, as is true, I believe, of the programs talked about on CC, I personally think they’re all reaches, really, though we also put D’s list into reach and match categories, which ended up feeling a bit arbitrary to us. @vvnstar explained well how placement into these categories can be individual. You can also think of admissions statistically, which is how D’s coaches approached it with her (since they thought she fit what all the schools on her list might want): There are “higher reaches” (say, the ones up to 5% odds, like the trinity and some others) and “normal or lower reaches” with 6-12% odds (like UArts, which has 8-10% odds). That leaves “matches” being schools with around 13-20% odds! That’s crazy! In what other college admittance world would those be good odds and match schools? Yet, we try to categorize the schools the best we can in an effort to try to ensure the auditioner has at least one admittance besides the non-audition, academic safety school.

One small gripe I have about this categorization is the occasional tendency for people to glorify the highest match acceptances and maybe not be as excited for other’s or one’s own acceptances into the so-called matches or even the “low reaches.” I wish everyone would keep in mind that the odds were fiercely stacked up against admittance to ANY of these schools, and that a lot more than just talent goes into selection into them all.

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We had nothing but a good experience with the Montclair audition and my daughter’s acceptance came a few weeks later. Based on what I’ve read here though, it does sound like they are having growing pains, and that the admissions office (which is very separate from the theatre programs) has issues. Someone told me this year that when they called the school and spoke with Clay, he was upset to hear that they had not been notified of their audition outcome.

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As a college counselor, I don’t agree with some of the posts or advice some have received in terms of categorizing BFA in MT programs into “Reach, Match, Safety” odds (or whatever equivalent terms are used). When pretty much ALL BFA in MT program accept fewer than 15% of applicants (many even lower rates than that), they ALL must be considered “reach odds.” Most programs accept in the single digits percentage of applicants. I categorize every school on a student’s list as Reach/Match/Safety in term of their ACADEMIC odds (which should be considered in this process…I feel some don’t consider it…and many schools even have a bifurcated admissions process where you must be admitted academically separately from the artistic review). The artistic odds at all BFA in MT programs are very chancy odds, thus “reach” odds. However, generally speaking (and definitely nothing close to exact), there is a range of MT programs whereby some are considered the toughest admits and highly competitive and some a bit less competitive even though they accept under 10% of applicants. And there are also the BA in MT programs by audition. So, an applicant’s college list needs to be balanced in terms of Reach/Match/Safety on the academic odds piece. Then, an applicant should have a range of selectivity (and this is not measured so much in acceptance rates) in terms of the very rough range of BFA in MT programs (and BA by audition programs) out there. Safeties are not only schools with NO audition, but must also be an academic safety. Some may wish to consider a financial safety too.

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I completely agree, @soozievt ,which explains my frustration with categorizing these schools into artistic reach/match, even high reach/low reach/match. It’s maddening. But, people often like to categorize, so there it is…

Also, I agree with financial reaches/matches/safeties, not just list prices, but, more importantly, history and likelihood of significant aid. We created D’s list with that in mind, also.

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@martin247998 thank you so much for posting the very thoughtful posts about your and your son’s experience.

I have an unrelated question. My daughter will be attending college in Chicago this coming fall. We are not from Chicago and my daughter will be looking for a place to take classes in Chicago. If you could message me and send me some suggestions. I would highly appreciate it.

Thanks again everyone.

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I’m afraid we’ve hijacked this thread talking about reach, fit and safety schools. This is the Final Decision thread. I will just say I do think it is helpful for applicants to understand that even though acceptance odds are small at all MT programs, it is still good to understand which programs suit you best and which you have the best chance of getting in. That’s what those categories are intended to do, flawed as it may be.
And now let’s return to the business of celebrating final decisions! Congrats to everyone on exciting new adventures ahead!

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I’ve been following CC for over a year now and by the fall I was checking it almost daily. Once we rolled into prescreens and auditions I became rather obsessed with it and found myself checking it several times a day. I celebrated the victories and agonized over everyones sorrow and disappointments. It was a crazy, difficult and overwhelming year! I’m not the most organized person and the level of detail really stressed me out. All in all she ended up with some great choices and I went MIA from CC for about the last month. I just really needed a break and a chance to step back as a family and to let her decide where she thought she should go, without comparing it to everyone else’s decisions. We just returned from spring break and I’ve been catching up on where everyone ended up and I’m so happy that so many have landed in schools that really excite them for their future!

We started out with a huge list- of maybe 23 schools and my daughter quickly whittled that down to a more reasonable number. She had her reasons, but I worried that she might be cutting out the perfect school. All in all she was much more laid back about the process than I was. I stressed over every detail and looking back, perhaps I worried too much… or maybe that’s why it went so smoothly for her! ; )

Background: She is my third kid to pursue a career in the performing arts. (Yikes- this means at anytime they could all be moving back home with us!) She has been working professionally since she was young. (Not my idea,-my passion is horses and it was my hope that she would become an equestrian, but she had different plans.) She attends a Performing Arts High School and has been taking voice lessons since she was little and dancing several times a week. She done Bway, tours, film and TV but her favorite role to date was playing Vanessa in her High School production of ITHs.

We did use MTCA and worked with Dave Clemmons as well and continued with her private voice teacher.

She applied to 16 schools - 12 for MT and 3 for Acting. Once acceptances started coming in she decided to skip her auditions for Purchase and MSM so she auditioned for 14 schools altogether.

Baldwin Wallace- NYC- in December
Carnegie Mellon-on campus
CCM- NYC Unifieds
Hart-Video
Ithaca- on campus

Juilliard-Acting- on campus
Manhattan School of Music
Miami University-NYC Unifieds
Michigan-on campus
Otterbein NYC Unifieds
Pace-on campus
Penn State- on campus
Point Park-NYC Unifieds
Purchase- Acting
Rider-on campus
Rutgers- Acting- made the callback weekend

Prescreens: Passed all: Penn, Ithaca, Otterbein, Pace and Michigan

REJECTIONS:
CMU - She enjoyed this auditions and felt it went very well!
Juilliard- Loved the program- would consider trying as an MFA.
Miami- Showed her such love in the room, ending with a “we truly hope to see you in the fall…”
Michigan - EXPENSIVE audition! Her flight was cancelled and it cost a fortune to rebook it. Ouch!
Point Park-

WAITLISTED:
Penn-then rejected This was her big heart break- she really connected with Penn and saw herself there.
Ithaca- never heard back…
Rutgers- then rejected after a really fun 2 night call back weekend.

ACCEPTANCES:
Baldwin Wallace-
CCM
Hart
Pace
Otterbein
Rider

She had a tough time deciding.

Otterbein offered her a VERY generous scholarship and she heard such good things about the program, and she was honored to be selected.

Baldwin Wallace was one of her top choices and it was a hard one to let go…we love the program and Victoria… as well as the amazing alumni that have been coming out of there. They also really seem to know how to market their kids!

She loved so much about Pace as well, and they were also very generous. In the end it came to the fact that she’s been going to school in Manhattan for the past 6 years and will be probably be working there for much of her adult life so she wanted to experience some place else with a more traditional type campus.

Once she visited CCM her mind was made up. It ticked all her boxes. She loved the program, the staff and the campus. She has worked with some of their alumni before and they all speak so highly of the program, and she has friends there now and she’s so impressed with their growth. From what she observed this is the school that could mold her into the performer she wants to become. We couldn’t be happier with her choice!

Special note; My daughter is Asian, adopted from China. I’m sharing this because while being an Asian performer isn’t always an easy route, I do think it helped her stand out in the college audition process. Special thanks also to Lin- Manuel! Hamilton seems to be really opening doors for ethnic actors, and the schools seems to be catching on a bit that they need to start training these actors to fill these roles!

Best of luck to the MT Class of 2020! I look forward to seeing you all perform in the future!

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Congratulatins @Autmlvs615

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Congratulations @Autmlvs615! Such nice choices!!!

I have one D who is studying equine science and one who is in tech theater, and the theater kid is so much less expensive.

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Congrats @Autmlvs615 Love hearing about kids who find their fit school !! I think it is so wonderful of you to share bc I think your D’s background and rejections though painful for you are a great learning lesson for others on here. Your D has been on b’way and been working and attending a performing arts school and still received rejections. It goes to show that you never know what schools are looking for and extended resume does not necessarily mean an easy in.I think its easy for people to set unrealistic hopes bc their kid starred in hs or locally. And those who dont have an extensive resume have just as much chance because everyone has a gift to offer one school or another and will also find their fit. Thanks again for being open and huge congrats!

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Congrats to your daughter, @Autmlvs615, I’m sure she will thrive at CCM!!

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Congrats!

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@Ducky312 I know that in a traditional college setting the concept of reach, match and safety is based on the academic rigor of the school. It also includes such things as whether you are after a sought after athlete or have some other type of desirable extracurricular activity. In MT, I’m not entirely sure what constitutes it as a there are so man variables in the industry and with what a particular program needs or is looking for. For instance, at Baldwin Wallace, Vickie (the program head) told us that she takes extra care not to select more than a few of each character type so that everyone has an opportunity to be in shows. In that instance, is you are a belter and she has enough belters, you would be declined. The question is, how could anyone determine that ahead of time unless a program head makes a statement about what they are looking for a year prior to auditions. I think a lot of it could be based on how desirable the school is or some data on how many people from the school are working in the industry. In other words, how many people are auditioning/applying. It is interesting that some students fail to get into what would be called a safety or match school yet get into a reach school.

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@martin247998 - if you want to check out “type” there are a couple back door methods. One would be to search for class photos of various programs. (fairly easy to find via social media etc) to see if they can determine “type” a school has/looks for. You can also look up freshman showcase videos (for schools that do them- not all do) if you want to get a snippet of what kids there look/sound like. Imperfect AT BEST, but one way of gathering info. (and I am an obsessive info gather-er)

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@Reckless No kidding, horses are expensive and a labor of love. To be honest I just wanted my kids to have something that they were as passionate for, and they have that with their music and performing.

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@stmama my daughter is a junior at Pace majoring in Commercial Dance. She is very happy there…departments are run differently though so I probably couldn’t answer specific MT questions but if you have more general ones please pick my brain.

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Congrats everyone! S is very relieved to be done with all of this and so am I!

I’m sorry to say I will be making this brief!

S is extremely proud to have accepted the offer from Wright State University, BFA MT Program!

He was waffling between two offers: NYU Tisch and Wright, but when it came down to it, Wright was Right! Not only did he feel WSU really wanted him, their offer was extremely generous, and he had heard many fantastic things about the program. His day there (the days after audition) meeting with the MT Head and sitting in on classes really helped as well!
Additionally, his audition coach assured him that the NY connections were there, and WSU had a VERY strong reputation. (His audition coach is a director and adjunct professor at Penn State and who is very familiar with ALL the BFA MT Programs.)

Background: S has been acting and singing since a young age. Living in LA has afforded him work in TV, film and oin stage. There’s one commercial he did that you all would have seen back about 6 years ago…Also, he recently was a member of the choir asked to sing at Nancy Reagan’s funeral, if you watched, you saw him! I was very proud to say the least!

Anyway he has been very fortunate in that living in the Los Angeles area he could perform often.

After completing 9th grade he slowed down on tv and film auditioning due to his attending a performing arts high school. With 3 theatre classes (6 shows per year) and 2 choirs per year, there was a lot of late tech nights and performances, which helped him tremendously but cut down on outside work other than regional and community theatre. Just in high school alone he has been in 16 full straight full length plays and/or musicals at school!

He has had acting coaches since about 8 and vocal coaches since about 10. Dance classes only started in high school, where he has taken jazz and tap and he took on private ballet the past year. Although not a classically trained dancer, like many of your children he has had years of learning choreography from being in musicals! He regrets not taking dance in previous years.

He felt at the auditions the dance portions were the toughest for him. Not to say he didn’t absolutely LOVE them!

Advice; Hire a good coach. One that is one on one. If you are a boy, take dance as soon as possible. Take ballet! Girls, too! :slight_smile:

He’s ready to go to college. He just closed his Spring Musical “The Addams Family” that he assistant directed, co-costumed and played Gomez Addams. He’s breathing a sigh of relief (as we are) and looking forward to the BFA MT program at Wright State!

I want to thank you all for all of your good info, support and just helping me cope. It’s been a journey!

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Anyone else want to type their story but too darned busy catching up on all the stuff we didn’t do during auditions and waiting for results (where I got zero done) – :? In all seriousness, I will post my d’s story and final decision hopefully this weekend. but I wanted to say I love reading everyone’s journey and congrats to all who have shared!!! :))

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Congrats @Dankadon ! Daughter has a good friend going there for MT and couple to ONU- we hope to get that direction to see a show and finally meet you guys!

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Congratulations @Dankadon