@Squirk having her have an open mind is key. And getting her to see schools to get a feel early on is great. You can start to build a list of what’s important. My D really wanted to be in NYC too and was admitted to TIsch (and that had been her dream from way back) but ultimately chose another program in the city because she felt it was actually a better fit for her.
And not to beat a dead horse, falling in love with a particular school is really setting yourself up for disappointment because statistically, no one gets in to any of these places…but somehow they all do, just maybe not the place you fall in love with. My D was fortunate as she had some great choices (4 BFA MTs, 2 BFA acting and 2 BFA WLs). But if she would have only applied to the “top 10” she easily could have been shut out. And having great choices made the sting of rejections go away quickly.
Not meant as a brag in any way, but just to show you how random things appear, D was one of 75 (out of 1200-1500) kids to pass both the MT and Acting prescreen at CCM. Yet she didn’t pass the prescreen at several schools (all great) like Coastal Carolina. Same prescreen thanks to the common prescreen system. Makes you scratch your head. BTW she thought she knocked the CCM live auditions for both out of the park…and was rejected by both.
Law of large numbers was her friend. I think she applied to 23 schools and with about a 50% prescreen pass (which made up about 75% of the schools). So that means for 3/4 of her schools, she was only allowed to audition for half which I think was 9 and then direct audition with 5 and a couple of walk ins. Halfway through we even discussed getting shut out and taking a gap yr vs. just going to college at a BA program. Luckily for her, it worked out in the second half and those tears of joy flowed.
Law of Large numbers…