@16or32bars , LOVE how you relied on your faith to see you through! Chants Up! ??
@16or32bars So happy to have your D be a part of the BFA Acting program at CCU! It’s amazing how things work out!
@16or32bars Congrats to you and your daughter. What an beautiful story!
@AlexaMT She is so excited. To get there after that journey makes it that much stronger. Ready to see her take the next steps.
Congratulations @16or32bars! Great story and I love how you kept examining your options and creatively and wisely reached for the perfect outcome!
@16or32bars Congrats and welcome to the family! Chants Up!!
Wow, this feels good.
I started on CC a couple of years ago when my other D, one year older than the MT D, was applying to art programs. It was extremely helpful and gave me a small glimpse into the world of applications plus extras.
By the time I started researching for the younger D, the spring of her junior year, I felt a bit behind. CC has provided us a wealth of information and I’m grateful for the forums, but when I first started reading the MT threads, I could feel my blood pressure escalate with each login. I hadn’t realized I was behind! Looking back, I shouldn’t have compared our situation with anyone else’s. That’s my biggest takeaway and advice for the next class. You’re going to be OK. Even if your D or S hasn’t taken voice/dance/acting lessons since they could walk and talk, you’ll make it work. And even if they had, it may not be smooth sailing. There are no guarantees and there are too many moving parts to this process to assume anything, but take the advice that works for you and don’t feel pressured to take ALL the advice.
Applied to:
BoCo
Catholic
Hartt
James Madison
LIU Post (after NYC walk-in)
Marymount Manhattan
Montclair
Ohio (after NYC walk-in)
Pace
Point Park
Roosevelt
Sacred Heart (non-audition safety, added after OnStage Blog put it in their Top Ten most underrated theater programs in the Northeast)
Shenandoah
Texas State
UArts
U Michigan
Prescreens:
BoCo (rejected)
U Michigan (rejected)
Shenandoah (rejected)
Texas State (rejected)
Pace (accepted, phew)
Accepted to:
Catholic
James Madison (redirect to BA theatre)
LIU Post
Marymount Manhattan
Ohio (redirect to BFA acting)
Sacred Heart
UArts (redirect BFA acting)
Rejected from:
all the rest
Wait-listed at:
Ohio BFA MT
Coach: MTCA. The pressure of choosing the right songs and monologues gave me agita and my D loved working with them. She also had a local voice teacher for about 2 years prior to auditions.
Summer Programs: Hartt Summer MT Intensive and local children’s theater groups.
My D most certainly did NOT get her talent from me genetically but it was definitely nurtured. She and her sister were taken to every puppet show, children’s band, high school musical and local production we could get them to. She did attempt lacrosse and soccer (where she was the designated daisy-picker) and dabbled in piano, guitar and dance lessons, but it wasn’t until 8th grade when our high school needed some younger extras for Seussical that she found her calling (as Vlad Vladikoff) and there was no turning back. To be fair, she had always taken part in every chorus and band opportunity in school from the beginning and our public school district has a very well-supported and rigorous music/performing arts department. She attended Hartt’s summer program after her freshman year to test the waters and just loved her time there. I think that rejection stung the most. She had a great audition on-campus and had always felt comfortable there.
While I may not be the talented one, I am the organized one. The second biggest pearl of wisdom I have is to try to schedule some auditions as early as you can. There are a lot of schools that will let you book auditions without a complete application. Although it is different for everyone, I felt that my D did her best auditions when she was on-campus focused on that school. She did UArts, Catholic, Hartt and Marymount Manhattan before the holiday break (3 of 4 were acceptances). This was a huge help for the ego, especially as the prescreen rejections came rolling in.
Then came NYC Unifieds. I tried to book non-prescreen schools at the beginnings or ends of each day to leave room for any prescreen acceptances that would allow her to audition there (for those of you keeping score, that was all for naught). We also chose schools that were farthest away to minimize travel costs. While the energy and camaraderie are great at unifieds, I think it also makes it hard to focus your energies on each school: who needs what songs/monologues/equipment? who are the key players/curriculum/facts to be brought up in an interview?
Once decisions came in, we visited the MT possibilities. UArts was released early on because of the redirect to acting since she had an MT acceptance in her pocket. But it is really a lovely school and I was sad to see it go off the list.
We visited LIU Post but my D just could not see herself there. This left Catholic and Marymount Manhattan. Both Accepted Students’ Days went great and my D loved them both. Prof. Lilley at Catholic did a sample class with a current student that was just amazing. But the draw of studying MT in NYC was too hard to deny.
Final Decision: Marymount Manhattan. Go Griffins!
Side note: When my D first discovered her passion, I met with her choir director to ask if she thought she had a chance in this field and she said yes and to look into Marymount. My D was still a freshman at this point but she’s had a brochure of MMC on her bedroom wall ever since. I think it was good karma.
Yay for Karma! Congratulations to you and your D @NYart15 !
Congratulations @NYart15!!
congrats @NYart15
Been a long couple of years.
Applied to: BoCo, Otterbein, Emerson, Penn State, LIU (walk in), Berklee.
Passed all prescreens
Admitted to all artistically with exception of Penn State
Was given scholarships to all accepted schools. Dream school was BoCo and even with $38000/yr with all the added expenses and room and board still not a viable option. In hind sight should have only allowed applications to schools financially in reach but honestly I don’t think he would have accepted those offers either.
Final Decision: No college. No gap year either as he was accepted to his dream schools and decided not to attend.
Now to figure out the next steps.
Oh @rbg2019 - how very kind and brave of you to post. What a huge pie in the face after all the work you put in. If you look at the thread entitled “Where did the Tony nominees go to college?” you will see that many of the most successful performers of this year’s crop went to non-BFA schools or didn’t go to school at all. I hope you and your son find the right “next steps”.
@rbg2019 Your S is talented and driven and I’m sure he will succeed and get to live his dream. College is not necessary in this field and not a prerequisite for success. You will figure it out!
@rbg2019 There are ways to find out before you apply if you can afford it. If you need help before, PM me.
@Notmath1 Thank you but not really the point. We knew what we could afford but like most we hope for a miracle in the form of scholarships that get the price into a manageable range. When we started this process we considered some loans but as time went on decided that was not a good option taking a gap year off the table. If it was just a degree he was after, there is a university right down the road that he won a scholarship to a couple years ago he could go to nearly for free. But as we know there are many factors that go into making these decisions and I don’t think any of them are made lightly.
Congrats @NYart15 !
@rbg2019 I can’t imagine what you are going through, but I really hope it works out
Hey all I have a long one. Kind of a journal. I was not going to even post but a CC friend here thought people could benefit from our journey so here goes.
Programs Applied to:
Florida State, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Pace (MT and Commercial Dance), Emerson, Rider, Hofstra, Penn State, NYU Tisch, Elon, Boston U (BFA Acting), Cincinnati CCM, Michigan
Prescreens: passed all
Accepted to: Florida State, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Emerson, Rider, Hofstra (non-audition)
Wait-listed at: Pace (alternate), Penn State
Audition Coaches:
Voice - Brett Kristofferson (https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Brett-Kristofferson/)
Acting (monologue) - Jessica Bashline (https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/music/vocal/faculty/bashline)
Summer Programs: French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts
Some very detailed Background stories so far. I’ll try my best to match! Lol (with links!)
EARLY YEARS – It all started with voice. At an early age a letter from his school music teacher came home saying she thought our son was talented and he seemed to really enjoy singing and if we wanted to pursue options outside of school she would help. We ignored the first couple letters but the teacher kept pressing and finally called us. So thankful that she did. As a result he did some State chorus thing and while it was an honor to be selected, we didn’t think much of it and it still felt like it was just basically a school thing.
S continued to show interest in singing and also wanted to get into performing. It came at us pretty fast and furious. At the age of 8 he landed a role of a fairy in an opera rendition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at McCarter Theatre in Princeton.
(https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/arts/music/22britten.html)
He really enjoyed it so we looked for some community theatre options and 9 months later S got his first lead role as Oliver Twist in the Franklin Theatre Works production of Oliver!
(https://www.franklintheatreworks.org/id31.htm)
Shortly following S landed the part of Tiny Tim in Ebenezer at Surflight Theatre where he performed 19 shows throughout the month of December. That’s a lot for an 8 year old!
(https://www.broadwayworld.com/new-jersey/article/A-Musical-Christmas-Carol-EBENEZER-Opens-1220-At-Surflight-Theatre-20091110)
A year later he returned to the main stage at McCarter Theatre as a Cratchit. It was Peter this time since a growth spurt made him too big to be considered for Tim. He did 26 shows as Peter. (Fun fact: one of his co-actors is a PSU MT freshman)
(http://www.playbill.com/article/mccarter-christmas-carol-with-graeme-malcolm-justin-blanchard-bill-buell-opens-dec-10-com-174290)
DANCE – S soon found his love for dance and that replaced acting for the next several years but he kept up with voice lessons and by being in the Vocal Troupe for his studio. They mostly sang at holiday parades, malls, retirement homes, etc and also had regular open mic nights. He started competing in dance competitions in 2013 at the age of 12. He’s competed ever since and won Starpower male senior soloist National Title this past year. He also danced all 4 years for his High School dance team and advanced to Finals at UDA Nationals every year.
BACK TO THE STAGE – As an 8th grader, he returned to the acting stage as the lead, Jimmy, of his school production of Thoroughly Modern Millie and he also played Drew Boley in his Studio’s production of Rock of Ages (Fun fact: two of S’s co-actors in this musical are in MT programs. One at Michigan and one at Pace)
FRENCH WOODS – The very next day after performing in Rock of Ages, we dropped S off for his very first summer at French Woods. S said that Rock of Ages was a lot of hard work so he probably wouldn’t audition for a show at French Woods or if he did, an ensemble role would be more than fine. We were told that cell coverage was terrible and they didn’t want the kids on phones anyway so don’t expect to hear from your kid unless it’s an emergency. Well about 2 or 3 days later we get a phone call from S and we, of course, thought there was something wrong. Instead, he was cast as Bill in Billy Elliot and they needed to know if he could stay at camp an extra week and a half since it was a carry-over show and the performance was after he was supposed to come home from camp. We certainly let him stay.
That was the first of many summers at French Woods and he was afforded the opportunity to play some amazing roles. (Jack Singer in Honeymoon in Vegas, Gabey in On the Town, Leading Player in Pippin, Narrator in Blood Brothers, Guido in Nine, Mark in A Chorus Line) While Billy is where it began with FWF and probably the most honored of the roles, the most ‘interesting’ of all experiences was probably Gabey in On the Town. You see, S was never cast in On the Town. He was originally cast as one of the 4 male leads in Saturday Night Fever. Confused yet? Well, the original Gabey had to leave camp 5 days before curtain. They asked S if he would take his place. I think it was 3 days of rehearsal plus one dress rehearsal he had to learn all lines, songs, and choreo before the first show. Not sure if he can even tell you how he pulled it off but he literally saved the show. Pretty sure you can’t do On the Town without a Gabey.
(CONT)
APPLICATIONS AND PRESCREENS – Fast forward to college applications. S was often asked what he wanted to go to school for and the answer changed a bit over time but it often had to do something with the body and movement stemming from his love of dance. It was always a very practical answer. Kinesiology was one of them. The answer was never Musical Theatre. Most people were shocked that he wasn’t pursuing MT and by the 100th time he was questioned why he wasn’t going to ‘give it a shot’ or was told he ‘can really make it’ he began think if he should stop being practical because it was the smart thing to do and go after his dream for fear of regretting it later if he didn’t. So we sat down at the kitchen table and had a family meeting where we assured S that if this is what he wanted to do then we support him 100% and we’d help him in any way we could. This was at the end of August of beginning of September. We now had no time to waste. There were no fall auditions for us. The tail end of 2018 was spent picking songs and monologues, practicing and recording pre-screens and trips into the City to meet with coaches. I think his prescreens were recorded with an iphone during his coaching sessions. His wildcard he did on his own in our backyard and edited on his laptop with special guest stars by our two dogs. He filled out and submitted all his own applications and his mom and I didn’t so much as review a single essay prior to submission. I mention this because it was a stark contrast from his older brother who I was literally pulling my hair out trying to get him to get his apps in.
AUDITIONS – After all pre-screens were passed, and an acceptance from his non-audition safety school, it came time for the in-person auditions. The very first one wasn’t until 1/11 @ Michigan. I traveled with him to Ann Arbor and it was a first for both of us. He saw some familiar faces and made some new friends that he would see on and off throughout the audition journey. (Michigan fun fact: he literally ran into a co-actor from Billy Elliot in the hallway. He had no idea she was a freshman attending there). S felt good about the audition despite realizing that he and the boy right after him both had one of the same songs. Awkward. 
Next up was NY Unifieds where he did 5 auditions in 4 days (no walk-ins). This trip was mom’s job to chaperone. There he knocked out BoCo, Pace, Penn State, Emerson, and CCM. He got a lot of pressure from his studio to send in video auditions or switch to Chicago Unifieds because his studio recital was the same weekend. We, of course, we held firm on keeping the auditions and glad we did because his recital was ultimately cancelled due to a declared state of emergency (remember the terrible weather?). Thought he bombed CCM but felt good about the others. Especially Penn State where he was chased down the hall be Natalie Weiss who basically assaulted him with a “How dare you be a triple threat?!?!” lol. He saw some familiar faces again and started to get to know the other kids better especially the boys. Jan wrapped up with another trip back into the City for BU and Pace Commercial Dance audition and a video submission for Tisch. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t get to Tisch in person as it’s one of the closer schools for sure. We closed out Jan and started off Feb with a trip to UDA Nationals for his HS dance team. It was also now entering Studio competition season. How is this kid getting any homework done?!?!
There were basically 2 big weekends in Feb. One for Rider. Mom was tasked with this again. The other was for Elon and FSU. Rider was an easy trip. S knew a lot of the people there. The director knew of him already and even said he had seen some of S’s work because of current Rider MT students that were in shows with him. It ended with a verbal “I knew I was going to be giving you an offer” that was followed up with an unofficial email stating “you’ll hear from us soon”. I took 10 days from the audition but the portal eventually changed with his acceptance. One MT acceptance down. Mission accomplished, S would be going to college for BFA in MT. This took the pressure off a bit for the Elon/FSU trip.
The Elon/FSU trip that followed was rough. I was tasked with this trip. We needed to be at Elon all day on a Friday and at FSU bright and early on Sat morning. We met up with one of S’s FWF friends Thur night in Elon who was a current MT student (was in On the Town with him). We went to a show in their Black Box theater (it was pretty racy content) and got a quick tour of the Arts building where the auditions were being held. S also ran into another FWF friend that was there for acting. The next day brought the audition, and personal campus tour from a freshman he used to dance with at his old studio. Highlight of the day was a song sung by 3 male seniors in the program. S’s watched it probably 100 times over on youtube since. Overall, S felt pretty good about the audition and we hopped in the rental car and bolted. In order to get to Tallahassee for Saturday, we had to drive from Elon to Charlotte and grab the last flight to Tallahassee. We got to our hotel after 1am with an early wakeup looming. The dance call for FSU was first. S liked that as it usually gave him confidence for the rest of the day since he is a strong dancer. After the 2 hour dance call, S came around the corner and a few current students assisting with the dance portion came running after him. They were all excited saying how S killed the dance audition. This gave him a lot of confidence going into the singing/monologue portion. Did I mention the jackets? All the FSU MT kids had these super cool jackets. They wore them very proudly on campus. Alas, all auditions were finally done. We were beat. Now the trek home which included two different airlines and a connection in Atlanta. Tallahassee is a nice place to but it is a PITA to get to.
THE WAITING –Even though FSU was the last audition, it was one of the first we heard from. Audition on 2/23. Acceptance phone call on 2/27. Knowing they take so few students, we had no expectations. It was great to have things start off on a positive note. We saw the CCM no’s rolling in but we still hadn’t heard. No news was good news was what people kept saying. Finally a No from CCM eventually came which wasn’t a shock given S feelings about the audition. Then the PSU waitlist on 3/2. It wasn’t a no, but it wasn’t a yes either. 3/7 Pace calls starting going out. We heard nothing. Once we got to Mid-march the decisions started rolling in. Alternate for Pace. Again, not a no but not a yes. A Yes from Emerson on 3/14. Don’t remember when it exactly came but it was a No from Mich that didn’t really sting at all given the yesses so far. I watched the turmoil on CC over the waiting and/or no’s but we weren’t having quite the same experience or at least I didn’t see it in my son. The FSU acceptance letter finally came but it took about 2 weeks. It was a relief to finally get it. Then the Elon no came. That one stung. It was the first time I saw a glimpse of disappointment in my son. It was getting deep into March with FSU at the top while being hopeful for WL @ PSU and Pace and still yet to hear from BoCo and Tisch. S got a call from the Director from BoCo. They talked for 45 min and the call culminated with her sharing that he’d be getting an offer. Yay! Another awesome yes. Portal eventually updated on the same day as everyone else with the expected yes. Tisch was a no and we weren’t surprised given the video submission.
(CONT 2)
THE FINAL 4 – FSU, BoCo, Pace, Penn State. Where S was going to school seemed to dominate dinner conversation almost nightly. The indecision was tough to deal with. Finally one night I was like “You want to know how this will play out? I’ll tell you.” They both stopped and looked at me. Not wanting to influence S’s decision I followed with a suggestion for the 3 of us to write down how we thought things would turn out. We’d seal our predictions in envelopes and open them together after the decision was made. We all agreed and S ran upstairs to write his prediction letter. Before we even got up from the dinner table S was back downstairs with a multi-page letter already sealed in the envelope. “You’re done?” I asked. Yes, he confirmed. I then said “You’re decision is made.” He looked at me confused. I added “Where you really want to go is the prediction in your letter” He looked like I was trying to trick him or something so ultimately I let it slide and we all wrote our letters and filed them away for later.
S squeezed in a visit with mom to PSU in mid-April to show continued interest only to find out 3 more committed the very next day. They had their 14 with one more boy yet to decide. He knew PSU was probably now out of the running. He really enjoyed the visit so this one stung even more than the Elon no. Spring Break week meant a first visit to BoCo and a trip back to FSU since we really didn’t get to see much of the campus on audition day. Travel to Boston on Monday with mom. Dinner with FWF friends. Great day of shadowing on Tuesday and even got to participate in the acting class and a level 6 jazz class. He really loved the visit. Drive home late Tuesday night. I flew with him to Jax on Wed and a drive to Tallahassee. We got in early enough to walk around campus for a bit and then met half the freshman MT class for dinner (that means 2. lol). 2 Juniors joined us later. It was a fun evening and we really enjoyed the time and the current students were very helpful and accommodating. The next day was a long day of shadowing. There was another boy there shadowing too that S was at his very first Mich audition (the one singing the same song) and also saw at NY Unifieds. S wrapped up his shadow day after 6p that evening. The drive back to Jax was a little quiet. Visits were done and still no A-Ha moment. The boy he was shadowing with said he was committing to FSU. My wife never visited FSU, only BoCo. I never visited BoCo, only FSU. S was the only one to visit both places. The decision was solely his to make. Also, Pace email saying they won’t be going to alternate or waitlist came through that night. So then there were really just two. FSU or BoCo.
DECISION – Boston Conservatory! S made a very thoughtful pros and cons list for each program. The decision was made completely on his own. We are very proud and happy for him to be attending BoCo for the next 4 years. Oh, and the prediction letters? I was the only person to predict BoCo as his choice. 
An one of his audition songs was ‘And They’re Off’ from A New Brain which seems fitting on this Kentucky Derby race day.