@kirbee16 Congrats! My daughter also committed to Ithaca! Looking forward to getting to know you over the next four years. There is an Ithaca College Parents FB page and one for Theatre BFA parents, too.
@Divamamacita Thank you! I look forward to getting to know you too! And thanks for the FB info. I’m on it.
@klrbee16 Congratulations!
Keep them coming!! I love the happy endings. I hope all our kids work with each other in 2023 and beyond without ever realizing that the parents shared in their journeys four years before
Congrats @klrbee16 and S!
And…here goes. 
Schools applied to: Webster, U of Az, Pace, LIU Post, Rider, Viterbo, Marymount Manhattan, Otterbein, Columbia College Chicago, Hartt, Oklahoma City - Walkins - Cornish, Ohio U
Prescreens passed - All (thank goodness). Pace was number one. A HUGE confidence booster.
Academically accepted: All
Artistically accepted: Post, Rider (redirect to BA Theatre-Acting), Columbia, OCU (BFA Acting), Cornish, Ohio U
Waitlist - Otterbein
Long story short - my D was always “performing”. So we put her in a theatre program in 3rd grade instead of sports. She thrived so we continued. She took her first tap class in 7th grade and never stopped. Tapping in the grocery store, tapping in school, tapping anywhere. She started with her community theatre family in 5th grade and finished her last show with them in March. She started at a performing arts charter school in 8th grade and said “Finally, I can break out in song at lunch and no one will look at me funny”.
Private lessons/coaching - as needed for auditions or as could fit in our schedule.
The college search…We planned her schools on what was hopefully a mix of reach and fit schools (though any school that requires an audition is a “reach” school.) Knowing how competitive this is, we honestly just hoped for one acceptance. Then when she got one, we hoped for two so the power would be in her hands. Then she ended up with more, which was such a wonderful problem to have.
We went to NY and LA Unifieds. NY had multiple schools, an onsite (Pace) and a couple walk-ins (Cornish and Ohio). We did a campus visit to Post and she walked away with an acceptance (another HUGE confidence boost). Cornish was her favorite audition - she loved the adjudicators and got a great vibe. She wasn’t nervous for any of her auditions, which was great and we had a great time. Ohio was a walk-in and an end of the weekend audition and she thought it went well.
Acceptances from NY Unifieds were: Cornish, Post, Ohio.
On to LA Unifieds. She was SICK SICK SICK the week before Unifieds. I actually called one school asking what the options were if she couldn’t sing. She ended up sticking it out and did fabulous that weekend.
Acceptances from LA Unifieds were: Viterbo and Rider.
On campus audition was OCU and she was accepted for Acting. Not what she wanted so they went to the back of the pile. Rejections started coming in so that was a bummer…Pace, Hartt, Webster, AZ…oh well.
She narrowed her finals to: Viterbo, Ohio, Post and Cornish. My husband took her for a week over spring break to Viterbo and Ohio, and I took her last week to Cornish. Both of us were so pleased with how dialed in she was in the process. I’ll admit the audition/application process was a team effort. But selecting the school is all her.
She has friends going to Viterbo, but just didn’t see herself in Wisconsin. She really liked Ohio and that moved to the top of the pack. After visiting Cornish this week, she was torn between the two. Honestly - her 4 choices were soooooo diverse! She sent a last email to Alan Patrick Kenny at Ohio with very specific questions about what she needed in a school/program (I was so impressed) and he responded. She forwarded his response to me, called me and said “I think this is it”. So…my D is now a Bobcat and part of the inaugural MT Class of 2023 at Ohio University!!
Congrats @CaliMTdreams It’s Been said before but I’ll jump on the bandwagon… A lot of talented kids headed to the programs in Ohio this year
So exciting @CaliMTdreams! Congrats!
@CaliMTdreams congrats! My son will be heading to Ohio MT as well. One of the moms started a group for the parents if you would like to join us send me a message. So excited for our kids to launch thus new program!!
Wonderful story @CaliMTdreams - it sounds like your D had all the right application moves, good for her! Congratulations!!!
@CaliMTdreams CONGRATS!
@CaliMTdreams congrats to you and your D! Can’t wait to hear more about this program as it evolves, and I know your family will be great ambassadors.
Thank you @CanadianMTgirl . Your comments about Viterbo were so helpful. My D really loved the school. Also, thank you for your comments in the Ohio thread about your confidence in their program. I passed all the comments on to my D before her trip to visit the campuses. You’ve been a greatbresour
@CaliMTdreams Congrats to you and your D!
Ok, here goes…
My daughter applied to a lot of schools–some for MT and some general liberal arts schools (more on that in a minute)
Schools applied to:
Florida Schools: Florida Atlantic, Florida Southern, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, Florida State, University of West Florida, Rollins, New College of Florida, University of Miami
California Schools: UC Irvine, UCLA, Chapman, USC
UK and European Schools: Guildford School of Acting at University of Surrey, University of Chichester, University of Winchester, Institute of the Arts Barcelona
Places around the US: American, Molloy/CAP21, Ithaca, Elon, Emerson, Sarah Lawrence, University of Utah, Tulane, Wesleyan
Schools she didn’t finish: Illinois Wesleyan, SCAD (but still got accepted?!)
Prescreens passed - UCF, FSU, Miami, UCLA, UWF, Utah, Molloy/CAP 21 (from FL theater conference), FAU (from FL theater conference). Florida Southern (from FL theater conference), American
Academically accepted: All that had a separate admission, except Wesleyan and Tulane.
Coach: None. We discussed it and decided against it.
Summer Programs: West End Stage School in London
My daughter has always enjoyed performing, but we never realized she was talented until she did a summer production camp of “Annie, Jr” when she was 9. We had talked to her ahead of time about how hard it would be to get a part. She came home and said, “I’m the understudy for Annie.” Given this was a huge production, we were surprised. She loved being Tessie in that production and went on to play Annie in two more productions! Although she loved performing, she was also a club soccer player and competitive synchronized swimmer, so she did not have a lot of time to commit to musical theatre. She had taken ballet from 3-6 years and HATED it. Our many attempts to get her back in dance failed. In 7th grade, she decided that she wanted to focus more on musical theatre, so she quit swimming and did 13 shows (community, youth, and school) in one year. However, she was also very behind–especially in dance. She started voice lessons in 8th grade, and we convinced her to try to at least do tap, which she took once a week. She had always been a good student, and she managed to get straight As in the middle school IB program even while doing theatre all over central Florida.
She decided she want to do the International Baccalaureate (IB) program in high school, and none of us realized just how much work this would be. In 9th grade, she often had 5-7 hours of homework a night. She only ended up doing one show outside of school that year. Further, her high school only offered drama and chorus, with no musical theatre. She took both as her electives, but was sad that there was not a school musical at all her freshman year. That year, we visited the local PA high school, but decided against it because she would have to give up the IB program and it was a long drive. At this point, none of us thought she would necessarily pursue this for college. Things got better later freshman year when she found a dance studio that featured circus arts and aerial as well as traditional tap, MT dance, jazz, and ballet. She began taking 8-12 hours a week of dance while still doing IB and voice lessons. After about a year, she started to actually love dance. Now, it is hard to drag her away from her studio.
So, during all of high school, she mainly trained, being in a summer stock show each year, and in the three MT shows her school did later. We knew many local kids who were homeschooled so they could do more shows, but that was not for us. During junior year, we had lots of discussions about college and she decided she wanted to try to pursue musical theatre as a major. Given that she had not done a lot “on the open market” in a few years, we did not know how she would fare for college auditions. Together, we created a list of schools based on several criteria–1) It had to be very strong academically (this ruled out MT schools with low academic requirements or with no theory work), 2) It had to be in a place where she wanted to live, and 3) it had to be (somewhat) affordable.
We have taken her to CA nearly every year of her life and she also has been to Europe many times. We live in Florida, and she loves the beach. This meant that her list was very heavy on FL, CA, and schools abroad. Because the UK schools were on a completely different timeline, we chose not to count those as part of her number.
In the Fall, she attended Florida Theatre Conference where they held auditions for a number of schools. She was contacted by 25 of them and ended up applying to several. We were late on getting prescreens done and did not submit them until November or December. Over Winter Break, we went to Utah and CA so she could visit several campuses. In January, she auditioned for Surrey, Molloy/CAP 21 and Utah, at NY Unifieds. She also did walk-ins for IAB and Point Park (but did not end up applying there). Luckily most of the schools where she passed prescreens were within driving distance. Three weeks after unifieds, she heard she was on the reserve list for the Guildford School of Acting at Surrey (and still is). This was her top choice, and at least, it was not a No. We were sad when she did not get admitted to MT at FSU because it was instate and a great program. However, she felt better when she was admitted to West Florida, Florida Southern, Molloy/CAP21, Utah, Winchester, American (video audition), Sarah Lawrence, Rollins, New College, and Chichester. A few weeks later, she got a No from UCLA (after a good audition) followed the next day by a YES from UC Irvine. That school had always been a dark horse for us because it constantly is ranked in the top 25 for MT, yet it does not audition for the BFA program until the end of freshman year or later. We were not sure what to think about that and whether it would be too risky. This was followed by a yes from UCF–the local favorite.
First, we narrowed it down to Sarah Lawrence, Molloy/CAP21, UCF, and UC Irvine. Irvine was still a bit of a mystery, so we decided to fly out for a visit with both Irvine and Utah. Both schools had a lot to offer, and she was treated well by each. Irvine’s program was extremely impressive, and we both loved that it was highly academic with strong performance training. The faculty spent a great deal of time with us, answering every question we had and inviting us to a rehearsal (which was amazing). All of the students seemed so happy, and the faculty assured us she could continue voice and dance along with acting, regardless of whether she ended up in the BFA itself. They also pointed out that many of their BA drama alum also have gone on to amazing performance careers on Broadway, cruise ships etc. It did not hurt that typical April weather in Southern California was 70° and sunny, and the school is located halfway between Disneyland and the beach. After this visit, she had to decide very quickly because several schools wanted to know by 4/15 (I know they should not require that, but we also wanted this done so decided not to fight it). She had liked Molloy/CAP 21, and Rebecca was so nice. However, she was concerned about traveling from Long Island to Manhattan several times a week. She also is not as enamored with NYC as much as many of her friends. She loved UCF but decided she wanted to go out of state (or out of country).
Final Decision: UC Irvine! She will be an Anteater.
congrats @katzenbogen its cool that every kid find the path that works for them
Wow @katzenbogen - what a journey! You will need to stick with the CC boards and share information on the UCI program - it has always been kind of a black box. We’re in Southern Cal and I tried hard to get my D to look at it but she wanted NYC. 
Congratulations to you and your amazing D!
Congrats @katzenbogen! That’s a program we don’t hear a ton about on this forum, but with some great working alums–I hope you’ll stick around the boards and let us know more about what this program has to offer to future CC kids and families!
Congrats @katzenbogen
Congratulations @ketzenbogen.