hi there!! i’m a current junior, class of 2026, and i’m planning on getting a bfa in musical theatre!! im trying to be as prepared as i can be as early as i can be because i know the whole application + audition process will be overwhelming and stressful for me. i’m just curious how people narrow down their college lists like at all without overthinking and second-guessing themself. i have a fairly large list (around 20 schools) and i wanna narrow it down because i sure i cant do that many auditions and all that. but since this whole process is based not only on academics but on auditions, im always second-guessing what programs i should cut or keep because what if im rejected from every school but that certain one? im just wondering if anyone here has any advice on this sorta thing? it also feels impossible and overwhelming to calculate reach, safety, match and acceptance rates, certain courses etc etc. thank you so much!
I think safety, target, and reach from an academic POV is actually quite easy - and you know, you don’t need all. In fact, many kids apply to one school - and that’s all you need. I believe that the safety is THE most important school on your list.
But in your case, you’re adding Musical Theatre and that changes a lot - or at least requires not just an academic acceptance but also the performance. No doubt others will chime in on that. Perhaps in the case of MT, your safety is a a non audition school. For example, Muhlenberg doesn’t require auditions although they are needed for a merit scholarship that is talent based. If you like Muhlenberg far more than other schools on your list and you are safe academically, that might allow you to cut some schools.
You make an interesting observation because right now, many students have got what they wanted - multiple acceptances - and yet now, they can’t figure out where to attend. So that’s the flipside of such success - having to choose.
If you feel your list is too long, you can cut it down by things that are most important to you - whether budget (if your family doesn’t want to spend $90,000 a year and you have no need, there’s no reason to apply to a school that doesn’t give merit), weather (if you don’t like the cold, don’t apply to schools in Mass or Montana), size, environment (if you hate urban, don’t apply to BU), and other things.
But again, the musical theatre complicates all this - and others will guide you.
The other thing one can do is - if you find a rolling admission school, you can get an early acceptance - and now focus on only the most important applications - and then do the remainder if you have time. But again, admission timing and MT admission timing likely work on two different clocks. Others will no doubt weigh in.
I just wanted to point out - there are ways to cut down your list - at least from a pure academic POV. Theater may change that luxury - but others can weigh in there. In some cases, more may be better.
Best of luck..
I think BFA creates a different application process. We saw this with one son who wanted film. Top programs are highly selective. Even programs outside the top 20 are highly selective. There were very few true safeties.
It was difficult to limit apps. It seems like you have to cast a wider net. I wouldn’t worry about applying to too many schools. If you don’t get an interview or audition the decision is made for you. If you get multiple auditions then get choosy. That’s a good problem to have with a BFA.
My advice would be to take a breather. Enjoy the moment. Then make your list. Find one or two safeties. Apply to those first. Then cross off ones that aren’t affordable. After that rank them by fit. What type of school, location, etc. do you prefer.
One other idea is to pick a school on your list, maybe not your top school, and work through the application. Get some practice before you apply to your top schools. Good luck.
It may be helpful for you to read through this year’s musical theater admission thread: Musical Theater college admission 2025
Or at least get this moved to the musical theater major area where folks actually knowledgable in this area can give you guidance!
The thread is tagged so should appear in that forum
Students seeking a BFA do often have longer lists because admission results can be unpredictable.
The first way to start building your list (besides schools that offer a BFA) is to understand one’s budget. Will you be seeking financial aid? If so, run the net price calculators (along with your parents) at all the schools on your list. With that said, many NPCs don’t include merit awards.
Muhlenberg doesn’t offer a BFA.
OP are you interested in non-BFA programs? If so, posters can make some suggestions.
Look at the other MT threads that were linked above to get a start.
In the big picture, it’s important to keep track of audition dates and application deadlines…so get that spreadsheet going. Cast a wide net. There are many schools where MT admission is highly competitive, even if the overall acceptance rate of the college is high.
Yes, it does. The audition will be your key ingredient here. Your audition will be compared to others doing the audition at your schools. There is no way to chance you for audition based programs as there is no way to predict the strength of those who will be auditioning when you are.
Do you have an acting coach or a director who might be able to help you? Folks who know your acting style and such? Reach out to them.
This is good advice. Also, if it is affordable to OP and the family, they might consult an independent college counselor that specializes in MT. Look on NACAC, HECA, and IECA websites for a directory of these people.
As everyone is saying, a lot of the “normal” advice about finalizing an application list does not really apply well to a person looking for a BFA.
Like you need to make sure you are applying to enough programs that would be both comfortably affordable and also very likely to see you as academically well-qualified. The “normal” advice is you may need no more than two of these, or even just one if it is basically an auto-admit situation. But once you layer on the BFA part of things, now maybe you need a lot more than two to make sure you are not at risk of having no suitable college offer.
Of course once you figure out what you consider enough, if you have more than that, you can cut the ones that are less exciting to you. Which really can be for any reasons you like. I think some kids get really caught up in trying to figure out what they “should” prioritize. But beyond basic academic fit and affordability, I really feel like there is no such thing, it is all a matter of subjective personal preference.
Which doesn’t mean you cannot reflect on what you want to prioritize. Indeed, things like visiting can help you not only learn about colleges, but also really learn about yourself, what things actually resonate more with you, what does not actually so much matter to you, or not. This is kinda daunting but also very rewarding in the end–a great college search process is as much or more about self-discovery as it is about the colleges.
But again, first things first–make sure you have enough comfortably affordable colleges very likely to see you as academically well-qualified, given you are adding the BFA layer to your process.
Edit: Sorry, I meant to add a practical suggestion. I think a lot of kids benefit from using some sort of tracking spreadsheet, which would include basic facts, application requirements and deadlines, and any sort of evaluative entries you might find useful. And that can be a document which evolves as you go through that process of discovery. Like, say, originally you might not have an entry for Greek life, but maybe you discover that is something you want to consider (as either a pro or con). So, you add it to the spreadsheet. That sort of thing.
But I think just getting organized can start help you think about your real priorities, and identify colleges that you should look into more, and others you can maybe start pushing aside.
I just need to add…at some colleges, the audition is the key ingredient. The academics need to be in the ballpark, but there seems to be some leeway for a very strong audition by a student. This is something to ask when your student starts to contact colleges. Some are very clear about this…and others are not quite so clear…on their websites.
Would you be willing to post your list of 20 here? If so, those with knowledge can chime in with some thoughts that might help you see trends you aren’t seeing, or might not have the knowledge to see yourself.
If not, I’d suggest identifying 3-5 factors that are most important to you in a school and narrowing the list to those options with wiggle room for maybe 1 one 2 outside that box. Sometimes what you think you want at the beginning changes over the course of the process.
Applying to 20 schools is really not that uncommon for those who want to attend an audition-based BFA program, especially if you are female identifying. You’ll likely have to submit videos prescreens for a lot of programs and most kids do not pass every prescreen and move on to the audition phase.
Yes, sometimes this almost sounds to me like how recruited athletes are treated. As in if the official in charge of admissions for the BFA tells general admissions they really want someone, general admissions will usually give them that person as long as they meet certain academic requirements, which may be somewhat more relaxed than for non-BFA (and otherwise unhooked) applicants.
But just like with recruited athletes, you need to make sure that is how it works and that this person is doing that for you before relying on this notion.
My experience in musical theater is rather limited. One daughter was planning to major in music but then changed her mind and went into something quite different. She did however have a friend (from their a capella quartet in high school) who did major in musical theater (he was really good). I also have a niece who majored in dance.
In terms of how many schools to apply to, there is indeed a tradeoff between having to do too many auditions and filling out too many applications, versus not knowing where you will get in since it is hard to predict admissions results.
When one daughter was thinking of majoring in music I had a general belief that getting accepted to university was going to be easier compared to making a living in music after graduating from university. As such I did not worry much about university admissions. I figured that if she was weeded out sooner (failure to get accepted) that might be better than getting weeded out later (failure to find suitable work after graduation), since getting weeded out earlier would make it easier for her to find a different path.
Avoiding debt is important in this case. One way for you to reduce your list of schools is to think about which schools you are likely to be able to afford without taking on debt. You will need to know your budget. Distance is anther issue. Traveling across the country for an audition will take more effort and cost more compared to driving into a nearby city or town for an audition. You also might want to think about what sort of environment you want for four years. Would you rather be in a big city or small town? How do you handle cold weather?
I do not think that there are any safeties in musical theater, or in music, or in dance. I think that you need to look for a good fit, do your best, watch your budget, and see how it comes out.
I would say a lot of people audition for around 20 schools, because there is no guarantee that all 20 schools are going to let you through to prescreens. A lot of the prescreen stage have similar requirements so you don’t have to record much. If you do get to the audition stage and cant to audition for all of them then that’s where I’d start to narrow. I narrowed down by audition date availability and location of the school (for example I didn’t end up auditioning for BW because I don’t like Ohio.) but it’ll vary from person to person.
If I was to give advice it’d be PICK MORE SAFETIES!!! I exclusively auditioned for programs people considered “top 20 programs” and that was a big mistake lol. I just off the waitlist for MMC and definitely will be attending there. I adore the program and its location and couldn’t be happier. But I could have saved a lot of heartache if I diversified my list and added some non-audition programs, some BA’s or even just applying to more schools. I wish I auditioned for Haart, Fordham, Shenandoah or even Oberlin.
I also wished I picked my pieces early and stuck to them, I wish I’d focused wayyyyy more on dance training during the summer. Take my regrets and heed them lol. This process is hard as hell. But I came out a better artist at the end of it. Apply to as many internal and external scholarships, MT is a hard business you don’t need debt to come with it as well.
What “safeties” are there for BFA in musical theater programs that require an audition??
Honestly, none that I know of T-T. Safeties for this major would have to non audition programs or BA’s. Like Pace has around 30 - 35 and even 40 in a lax year in its program and Carnegie has like 12. But Pace is NOT a safety, it’s definitely a reach. Another option is to search for lesser known programs that’ll have way less competition. Some examples are mentioned in the 2025 MT Admissions Thread linked earlier.
I don’t know that I would advise cutting your list down by more than 5 or more schools. When I applied to BFA programs about 15 years ago, I auditioned for about 14 programs. I still wound up with only one acceptance. Cutting your list down too far as a potential BFA MT major leaves you very vulnerable to getting shut out of going to college for the year (unless you add a non-audition safety, which as many folks have mentioned, is often a BA program).
Are you planning on doing Unifieds or another audition conference? When I was a high school senior, I was able to knock out 3-4 auditions a day at Unifieds (so between 6-12 auditions total in a weekend). Granted, this was before every school had a required dance call (although this may be different in the age of prescreens that screen your dance? Prescreens were brand new when I was auditioning) that can eat up many hours of time, and this does put a lot of pressure on you to be well (physically and mentally) for one whirlwind audition weekend, but it is possible to knock out a large amount of auditions in a single trip (because I know the cost of travel was a concern for my family at the time).
S21 is graduating from UNCSA this year. We used a college consulting group to help with auditions and applications. They recommend about 20 schools, it is very important though to have a balanced list. Several non audition based schools, several less selective schools and then many highly selective schools. We had no experience with BFA programs so the consulting group was very helpful in finding a balanced list. BFA admissions is even more variable than regular college admissions, institutional priorities and creating a balanced class is a big aspect.
Unless money is no objection, it’s also preferable to hopefully end up with a few choices. Aside from getting no acceptances, my next biggest fear in this process was my kid ending up only with acceptance(s) that were not affordable. This is especially tricky if your family falls into the category of too much income to get need-based financial aid but not wealthy enough to afford full-pay. Some of the Net Price Calculators are better than others at predicting cost.