@afterp89 - congrats have enjoyed and learned from your ride along the way
Background:
It seems unfathomable to me that this decision has been made and my son’s final decision is made. Over the years this has been my favorite post to read and I have gained so much insight and knowledge from reading about other people’s journeys.
In retrospect I will say that we totally overdid it in our applications and auditions. I was so nervous about how competitive this process is that I wanted to make sure my son had plenty of options.
My son goes to a public high school in Indiana with strong performing arts department. He has been active in theatre at the school level since 3rd grade. He has been taking voice lessons and dance classes since that time. In his four years in high school he has taken classes in acting, musical theatre, directing, educational theatre and choreography.
He has been in upwards of 30+ shows between school, community and local professional theatre. If you ask my son, he would tell you he is an actor and singer who can fake it with dancing.
Starting his Junior year, we started doing some college visits. Before audition season he had visited Baldwin Wallace, Wright State, Coastal Carolina, UNSCA, Northern Kentucky University, Ball State, University of Kentucky.
Last summer in June he attended the International Thespian Festival in Lincoln Nebraska his school performed Newsies on the Mainstage at the Lied Center. In addition, he participated in college auditions there which resulted in an early offer from Rockford and a waiving of prescreen for Millikin.
All programs he applied to were for Musical Theatre except UNSCA which was for acting.
We scheduled some early auditions in October at SIU and Ohio University on Campus. In December he auditioned at NKU. January brought CCM audition. At Chicago Unified’s in February he auditioned at Coastal, TCU, Missouri State, Millikin, UAB, Viterbo, Webster, UNSCA and LIU post.
The weekend after Unified’s he was scheduled to audition at Baldwin Wallace. He decided on the way home from Chicago that he was cancelling. I think he was over auditioning at this point. He also decided to cancel Kent State for the same reason. After Unifieds the only audition left was IU which is close to home, so he completed that.
As hard as it was helping him plan all of these auditions, little did I know how hard the waiting for results would be. February and March were spent obsessively checking mail, email and waiting for phones to ring. On a couple of occasions, I even drove home on my lunch break to check mailbox!
After we received the majority of his decisions, we planned a few additional visits. Over Spring Break, he visited and attended classes at Webster, Lindenwood and Ball State. Then lots of thinking, reviewing curriculums and creating pro/con lists commenced!
He still is on the waiting list at a couple of places, but has decided if a yes came from either of those programs it still would not change his mind so here we are at our final decision!!
Programs Applied to: Millikin University, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Rockford, Webster, Lindenwood, NKU, IU, Ball State, Coastal Carolina, Florida Southern, UNSCA, Baldwin Wallace, UAB, LIU post, TCU, Western Michigan, Viterbo, Shenandoah, Missouri State, Ohio University, CCM, Kent State, Western Carolina
Prescreens: Millikin (waived due to audition at ITF), IU (passed), Coastal Carolina (passed), Shenandoah (rejected)
Accepted to: Millikin (redirect BA theatre), SIU-C, Rockford, Webster, Lindenwood, NKU, Ball State, Coastal Carolina, Florida Southern (from waitlist), UAB, LIU post, TCU (redirect BFA Acting), Viterbo (redirect BFA acting), Ohio University
Rejected from: UNSCA, Western Michigan, CCM
Wait-listed at: IU, Missouri State, Western Carolina, Florida Southern (then admitted)
Cancelled Auditions: Baldwin Wallace, Kent State
Coach: No national coach, though we did an intro session with Moo. Just decided it was not the best use of our budget. He had been taking hour long voice lessons for over a year to prepare his audition rep. He had monologue coaching with a local actor and he either filmed his own or had me or a friend film his prescreens.
Summer Programs: No official College programs. He has attended International Thespian Festival for last 3 years.
Decision Background: His top two schools came down to Webster and Ball State. I feel like he would be happy and thrive at either place, he would have received excellent training at either place. He had lovely experiences at both schools, and the faculty and students were so kind and welcoming.
For us the decision came down to a few things. Ball State is in state for us. Bottom line after scholarships, 1 year of Webster tuition would equal cost of 4 years at Ball State. Son also felt like he would enjoy more of a college campus environment/experience. Ease and proximity to home and the ability to see shows easily on campus was a huge plus for mom and dad.
Final Decision
Chirp Chirp! Ball State BFA Musical Theatre 2023! Go Cardinals!
Congratulations to your son!
1 Like
Congratulations to all who have made decisions!
Fabulous @Kristiern1 ! Wonderful program, I am sure he will be happy - and so great that it comes with so many attractive plusses for Mom and Dad. Congratulations to him and you all!
How exciting, @Kristiern1 ! Your son had a lot of great acceptances, and it certainly seems he’s found a school that’s a wonderful fit for him AND your family. My D is friends with a freshman MT who is very happy at Ball State, and I hope your son will be too. Congratulations!! 
@Kristiern1 - amazing- congrats!!
Congrats @Kristiern1 ! D has a friend who is a senior MT at Ball St. and she couldn’t be happier.
@Kristiern1 My D is graduating with a BFA MT in less than a month - please reach out if you or your son have any questions! #chirpchirp
@Kristiern1 .
Yay!!!I
I absolutely understand the nervousness about the competitiveness of this process and trying to ensure your son had options.
It must be so wonderful to have decided!
@Kristiern1 Congratulations to your son! Thanks for sharing the story
Congratulations @Kristiern1
Sorry, it’s a long one. We also went overboard, but I’m glad we did - she knew most important was gut feeling for the professors, the school, the area around campus and her future fellow students.
Programs Applied to:
Adelphi, AMDA, American, Arcadia, BW, Ball State, Belmont, Butler, Centenary, Coastal Carolina, Cornish, Emory & Henry, Hartt, Ithaca, Kent State, LIU Post, Michigan, Millikin, Missouri State, Montclair, Nebraska Wesleyan, Northwestern, ONU, Ohio U, Otterbein, Pace, Penn State, Point Park, Rider, Rowan, Rutgers, ShenCo, Syracuse, Texas State, Viterbo, Wagner, West Virginia, Western Connecticut, Western Michigan, UWSP, Wright State
Prescreens: Coastal (no), Ithaca (no), Michigan (redirect), Millikin (redirect), Otterbein (passed), Pace (passed), PSU (no), Rider (redirect), ShenCo (redirect), Syracuse (no), Texas State (no)
Accepted to: Artistically accepted to Adelphi, AMDA, American, Arcadia, Butler, Centenary (non-audition), Cornish, Emory & Henry (non-audition), Kent State, LIU Post, Nebraska Wesleyan, Rowan, and WVU
Academically accepted except for Northwestern and those she pursue after not passing prescreen/audition. Withdrew from Wagner prior to audition and UWSP prior to final decision
Rejected from: BW, Ball State, Belmont, Hartt, Michigan, Missouri State, Montclair, ONU, Ohio U, Otterbein, Pace, Point Park, Rider, Rutgers, ShenCo, Viterbo, Western Michigan, Wright State
Wait-listed at: Western Connecticut
Coach: Local voice coach Alyssa Cox
Summer Programs: AMDA MT, Adelphi Intro to MT
Background: Overseas military theaters show movies and have stages for presentations. They play pop music while you wait. At age 3, D went on stage and danced around to the music before the movie – and got a big ovation. She turned to the audience with a big grin and did a deep bow. She was up there every time we went for the next 2 years.
At 7 we went to see the local children’s theatre show and she said she wanted to try. Her first show she played Toto, stole a couple scenes and was hooked. She joined youth choir at church and started singing more. Two years before middle school, our county started a Performing Arts magnet program. She auditioned for vocal and dance (no acting in middle school) – and got accepted for both. She chose vocal and while the program wasn’t very well run and the days were really long (60-90 minute bus rides), she learned music theory and loved actually singing. She made all-county chorus and was now singing solos at church.
She followed up by auditioning for the high school PVA programs for vocal and acting. She passed both and switched to acting. Again there were some fits and starts with the administration, but the acting teacher they worked with every day was fantastic. One of the downsides was very little musical theatre – a couple dance workshops and 1-2 shows each year and freshmen weren’t cast. The rest was devised theatre and process work with a few plays.
It wasn’t until I found this community I realized she needed vocal coaching and more beyond just choir and we arranged for a local opera singer to work with her but couldn’t fit much dance into the schedule or the budget. She was supposed to go to England for 2 weeks for workshops with her cohort, but the county pulled the plug after the terror attacks in London. We scrambled to find a summer program accept applicants in June and found the AMDA class. The course was pretty good, but more importantly it confirmed for her the dedication needed and she was still passionate about pursuing MT – plus she was admitted into their Class of 2023 while just starting her junior year in high school. A big confidence boost.
Summer before senior year I thought I was ready… I knew she needed to apply early to some schools, get some fall auditions and get prescreens recorded. I had her start working on essays and a couple songs and monologues. Then the dominoes started falling. In June, her wonderful acting teacher left to take a job with the state Arts Council, her voice coach went to Europe to travel with her husband and audition for opera companies, her church choir director left and one of the high school dance teachers quit, leaving the other one to focus only on dance students and cancelling workshops for the acting students. Oh, and I lost my job and had some health issues…
After crunching the budget with my wife and showing her we could stretch my military retirement pay and her job, we decided I’d take my own “gap year" and focus on our D’s journey. I’d previously been a broadcaster and thought I could record prescreens – but she wasn’t as well prepared as she should be, didn’t have the right venues and audio quality wasn’t good. I think the results show – rejected by 7 of 9 prescreens.
She’d started to lose faith with rejections rolling in, but she went to MARCAS auditions hosted by Rowan. There were 30+ schools and she was “called back” to meet with 27!! She was offered admission on the spot by LIU Post and WVU said she just needed to send in a dance video. A handful of others also really pressed her to apply. She had something to build on headed into the holidays and Unifieds.
New York Unifieds wasn’t her favorite. She had 6 scheduled and did 3 walkins, but little things with each seemed off either with her performance or her connection with faculty. She ultimately ended up with an offer from one of the walkins and a waitlist from one of the scheduled auditions. Chicago was a little better and she found a rhythm, but still didn’t feel the right connection with some schools. 7 scheduled auditions and walkins for 4 others. She had a great connection with faculty from Nebraska Wesleyan.Very unique audition – brought my wife and I in with D to interview her and talk about the program. They offered to have us stay while she auditioned, but D definitely didn’t want that (lol). Ultimately ended up with 3 more offers.
The following weekend we drove to Otterbein (accompanist played way to slow and she went over time) and Baldwin Wallace (one of the last to audition and was exhausted) and then a tour and class at Ohio U. On the drive home, I asked if she wanted to cancel auditions for the following weekend. When she asked through tears if it was OK, I knew she was just about done. But, I didn’t cancel the last one, 2 weeks later at Kent State, because they had many of the features she found appealing at other schools (and good academic aid). We made another drive for their accepted students’ day and audition.
Down to 5 – WVU (cheapest/closest option, October visit), LIU Post, Nebraska Wesleyan and two she hadn’t heard from in Kent State and Wright State. We went the following week to LIU Post and met with a couple faculty, got campus and theatre facility tours. A week later she got her acceptance from Kent State. A week after that she flew out to Nebraska Wesleyan on her own for accepted students’ day, a theatre session, a show and overnight in a dorm and had a great time. She came back and said WVU and LIU Post were out. Then last week, 5 months after auditioning, she got a rejection from Wright State.
Final Decision: A real college campus, opportunity to perform as a freshman, industry connections and a great connection with the faculty and students – she’d found it with both Kent State and Nebraska Wesleyan. Being closer to home and slightly more affordable the choice ended up easier than she thought – she’s joining the KENT STATE GOLDEN FLASHES!
The very last school she auditioned for and which we almost cancelled… the journey isn’t over until it is ALL the way over. Now she starts the next chapter!
Post Script: hopefully my health is taking a turn for the better - started on my fifth different medication last week and it seems to be working…
@afterp89 sounds like we had similar journeys in this process. Congratulations to you and your daughter! A classmate of my sons is headed to Kent State for a Dance BFA. Best of Luck!
@afterp89
Congratulations!!!
Your daughter worked so hard and good job noticing she needed to have a break. I’m happy for your family and I wish you good health.
Congratulations @afterp89 !
@afterp89 - my heart quails at the number of schools of your d’s list but good for you taking her dreams to heart. So glad she ended up with two great fits and isn’t it funny how the school that she almost skipped was ultimately the best fit? Good for you, Dad - and congrats to your happy daughter. I hope your health continues to improve!
Congrats @afterp89 We applaud your journey, your self discoveries, and your destination.
@Kristiern1 Congratulations!!
@afterp89 Congratulations!
And hoping your health continues to improve!