@MTVTmom. Congratulations!
Congratulations @MTVTmom !
I love your story m. Congrats @MTVTmom !!
Congratulations @MTVTmom! Great story and result!
Okay, here we go. It will be long, but I really like the detailed ones and found them so helpful over the last two years, so I hope you’ll bear with me (or skip to the end!).
First, HUGE thank you to all those who have been posting here starting this year, but especially to those who have been on here posting for years and keep coming back to help others. You are all amazing!
The numbers and overview:
Prescreen submissions (8): BoCo, CMU, Emerson, Illinois Wesleyan, Indiana, Ithaca, Syracuse, Temple. Passed all but CMU and Ithaca. Originally wait listed to audition at Indiana, then redirected to BA.
Auditions (26 in person(!)).
At Moonifieds (12): Ball State, BW, JMU, Otterbein, Pace, Penn State, Point Park, Rider, TX State, Viterbo, Wright State, U of AZ. Didn’t complete applications to 2 of the schools after Moonifieds.
At Chicago Unifieds (11 plus one walk in): BoCo, CCM, Emerson, Hartt, NYU Tisch, Otterbein (call back), Syracuse, Temple, U of No. Colorado, U of Utah, UWSP. Royal Conservatoire of of Scotland (walk in).
On campus: (2): Michigan (en route to Unifieds) and IWU (after Unifieds).
Video auditions (5): Millikin, Muhlenberg (for scholarship only), U of Buffalo, Urdang Academy, London, Wagner. She was accepted or got scholarship money from 4 of these. Don’t discount the option of video auditions!
LAC schools with strong BA Theater Programs: Muhlenberg, Sarah Lawrence, UVM.
She was initially debating between BFA and BA programs as both academics and intense training were important. Similarly, other than “No California or Florida” she was at first open to any location and program size, along with campus or conservatory. I couldn’t pin her down more and I guess she was done being warm!
Coach: Moo. Fantastic help with monologue and song selection and the opportunity to do Moonifieds and do that many auditions in one place early was invaluable. She and Mark are wonderful people and so organized!
Intensives: Destination Broadway (at age 13); BoCo MTDI (at age 16); Cleveland Audition Intensive (last year). Jump (4 years, but not competition).
Miles Traveled: Over 32,000! More details below.
Artistic Acceptances: BoCo, JMU, Millikin, NYU Tisch, U of No. Colorado, Temple, Urdang, Wagner, Viterbo
Wait lists: Utah, UWSP (alternate)
LAC acceptances: All, with generous scholarships. and an additional talent scholarship at Mulenberg…sigh!
D’s Background:
Dance since age 3 (ballet, pointe, contemporary, musical theater, tap). Beginning in high school she has danced four or five days a week. She also has been a teaching assistant for 2 years for jazz, tap and musical theater dance for younger kids, and has been dance captain for 4 shows.
Private Voice since age 9, auditioned choir 3 years
Auditioned performing arts troupe: ages 10-15
Acting: performing in over 25 shows. But acting training-1 year only.
She goes to an all girls’ Catholic school and has an unweighted 4.0 GPA. She tests well, but not jaw-droppingly so.
The story: D started doing shows at age 7 and due to a series of circumstances surrounding shows chosen, being the right age and size for the part, and the fact that she grew up with me doing shows, coupled with an unusually strong child’s voice (from others with Bway and other valid credentials (not just her proud mama!), she did a series of leading and minor leading roles from age 7-12. These were the “usual suspects” of child roles: Baby Louise, Marta, Annie, Alice, and supporting roles in “Hollywood Arms” and “Goodbye Girl.” Starting at age 13, she began being cast in adult ensemble roles and never stopped doing shows, although the leading child roles, were of course no longer there. She continued doing featured and leading roles (and working backstage as a dresser or A.D. when not in a show).Best of all we did a number of shows together! She was always happy in any role on or off stage and one of her very favorite roles was as “Milky White” in Into the Woods. Last year we both won local theater awards, she for “Katherine” in “Newsies.” She also won a local Broadway World people’s choice award for the same role. I will miss doing shows with her and going to shows with her more than I can say!
continued below…
Continued part 2:
More background that comes into play with our huge list of schools, our travels, and her final thought process and decisions: We are from Hawai’i. Nothing is close by. Five hours by plane is as close as we get! Because of this, we wanted to “maximize” our auditions at Moonifieds and Chicago Unifieds.
She loved the Moonified experience and she and I both made so many new friends. I know people debate coaches and the opportunity to have separate auditions, and I don’t want to weigh in on that debate except to say that for us, it was vital for the insight and opportunities, but most of all for the friendships we both made. The same was true for Chicago Unifieds. We traveled with 4 other Hawai’i families there. The kids have known each other since, as we say in Hawai’i, “small kid time,” and we all had a blast. These were likely the only 5 kids at Unifieds reveling in the post-polar vortex weather! We did a deep-dish pizza taste off, the kids saw “Hamilton,” the adults went to Second City, we did the required posing at The Bean, loved the Art Institute, and most importantly made even more amazing friendships!
Skipping back a bit in time, by Christmas she had 3 acceptances (Millikin, Urdang, and Viterbo), and we could exhale a bit and look forward to our Chicago trip. For us, the opportunity to do early auditions and video auditions was wonderful for the practice and opportunity for some early good outcomes.
Accepted school visits (I love this detail in other posts, so again, skip ahead if you wish!) were next. In 8 days we flew and drove via LA to: Colorado, Wisconsin, Virginia and Philly. Again, we had an amazing time and met the most wonderful people. Here are our thoughts:
U of No. Colorado: Great school with a very nice campus in Greeley and the best tamales we’ve ever had! The MT students were friendly, talented and obviously close. The two classes we observed: acting and tap were very impressive and the students obviously talented and smart. She loved her audition with them and we loved the people teaching and attending. This is also a WUE school for us and gave very generous aid (sigh again!).
Viterbo: Another lovely, small school in a lovely town with a gorgeous school theater! She had a private voice lesson, we sat in on an acting and a performance class and were again very impressed. She especially loved the voice teacher and the acting teacher who was working with them on dialects. D also loved her audition with them at Moonifieds and was surprised with the acceptance as it was her first audition and very early in the morning. She thought she didn’t do well at all!
JMU: As helpful and wonderfully transparent as @KatMT is on here, she’s even more lovely and gracious and helpful in person! She set up a 2-day visit for my D that included watching classes, a sleep over in the dorms, a dance performance, meals and a campus tour. These people at JMU are legitimately the nicest people on the planet and the school is gorgeous! Everyone is so friendly and helpful. The MT kids were all super close and incredibly talented and the MT living community dorms are stunning. In fact the whole campus is stunning. Anyone who gets to go to JMU is extraordinarily lucky! Don’t overlook this gem!
Temple: One of the amazing JMU students had a friend at Temple and set up a mini-tour there for us even though we could only be there on a Saturday. We got a great backstage, dorm and cafeteria tour, and our student guide and new friend was amazing and gave us a great flavor for the program. This too was one of her favorite auditions at Unifieds and she came out saying, " they kept laughing so, I guess that’s good?" The department head there too was very helpful and even texted with her to arrange a time to talk. She also really liked the city of Philly and was starting to think that she might want to be in a city.
My D and the whole family had also visited Wagner the summer before her Junior year and enjoyed the lovely campus and proximity to NYC. The admissions director also travels to Hawai’i, knew D’s high school counselor by name, and made a point to chat more with D when he was there last year. They also gave her a very generous scholarship and lovely feedback.
BoCo: As mentioned above she was there the summer before her Junior year at the MTDI program and loved everything about it and the city of Boston. She adores Michelle Chasse and loved dancing there. She came out of her BoCo dance call at Unifieds saying that it was the most fun dance audition and demonstrating MIchelle’s choreo. She also loved the old brownstone dorms and made more life-long friends there, one of whom will be staring at BoCo this fall
We didn’t visit NYU again as we had gone to NY to get our BWay fix a number of times and had done a self tour of the area and buildings. Plus, you can’t sit in on classes, and of course, we don’t yet know her studio.
Finally, it came down to choosing among JMU, BoCo and NYU. And was stumped for over two weeks. She loved the amazing people and campus at JMU, along with the academics, but ultimately decided that she did want a BFA program and, after much reflection, a city school. That left BoCo with their amazing dance, many old and new friends made, and gorgeous Boston and NYU. And here’s how she ultimately chose. She felt very safe and secure at both JMU and BoCo and knew she could be happy at either, but she wanted a different kind of challenge and a mix of two types of diversity. The first type of diversity related to growing up in Hawai’i. My D is white, but only a handful of her friends are. She loves our melting pot. The second type is diversity of experience. She has a mix of friends who do and don’t do theater and keeping this mix is important to her. She loves theater kids, but loves her “muggle” friends too. Ultimately, she decided that she couldn’t give up challenging academics and the vast array of educational options. She loves MT most of all, but also loves her AP Spanish classes, teaching kids and a variety of academic challenges. Finally, she also felt that the area in which she needed the most work is acting.
And, her favorite color is purple.
Yes, she picked NYU! She doesn’t yet know her studio and trusts in the process to put her where she belongs. Thanks to more amazing parents here on CC and on FB she knows she can supplement voice and dance as needed and has two former directors who travel to Hawai’i to direct in NYC living and teaching.
The hardest part for her will be leaving her 'ohana (family) here in Hawai’i. A friend of hers who is in Washington state for school said the hardest part was trying not to call everyone “Aunty” and “Uncle” as the children here all do of each other’s parents. But, she has some friends at NYU and in NYC already, and has already made more on social media. She’s ready for the adventure and the challenge. Now I just need to let her fly and I need to find new theater buddies in my 'ohana.
And, exhale. Best of luck to all of you and your astoundingly-talented keiki (children)!
congrats @mammameuh, what a fabulous adventure you and your daughter have had. I love her courage to challenge herself, that will take her far (and already has)!!
@mammameuh – I already congratulated your daughter personally, and want to pass that along to you too! In the end she was really deciding between apples, oranges, and pears, and I am so happy to hear that she is landing at a school that will give her a little bit of all she is looking for in terms of city, training, and academics! Wishing you and her all the best! … and even though she will not be a JMU Duke, at NYU she still gets to “bleed purple” 
Thank you so much, @sladdymtmom!
@KatMT I can’t really thank you enough for your kindness and warmth! JMU and you will always hold a special place in our hearts. Please come and visit us in Hawai’i. We’d love to show you around and host you!
@mammameuh, congrats on your decision. What an amazing story - sounds like you had a wonderful experiences and that your daughter made a perfect choice for her!
Wow - loved reading that story @mammameuh - and welcome from a fellow NYU-Tisch parent! I am sure your D will grow and flourish at Tisch and as a fellow warm weather dwelling mama I can tell you she will be READY to come home for that nice long January term! 
They love the city… but they love to leave it for a bit too. So happy she had so many wonderful choices and I can’t wait to hear about her studio assignment.
Congrats to your D, @mammameuh ! Hope she loves NYU/Tisch as much as my daughter did!
Thank you @artandtechmom and I KNOW your D will love JMU!
Thank you @CaMom13! I really appreciate your encouraging words and all your help on these boards! Will post an update when we know the studio
Thank you @soozievt and thank you for all your insight on these boards!
@mammameuh Congratulations to finding the perfect melting pot! I loved reading your entire adventure and I’m sure it will be helpful to others!!
@mammameuh - CONGRATS!!! Be sure to reach out if you have any Tisch questions - esp as studios come out!! My D trained at New Studio during her summer program, and at Adler, RADA and Stonestreet
@mammameuh – I have not visited my family that live on your part of the island, and I will definately let you know if I do!
@lithpool Thank you so much, and I hope it is helpful, I’ve gotten so much help here!